Last Monday, Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald sat down with the Chicago media and offered his assessment of Jerry Kill's Gophers.

"I start every game in my prep with a special teams evaluation — that's where I judge the character of our opponents," Fitzgerald said. "And with Minnesota, that's what jumps off the tape at you. … They're very well-coached, they're fast, they're physical."

The casual fan might tune out when Fitzgerald, Kill, Urban Meyer and other coaches prattle on about the importance of special teams. Then they'll see a game like Saturday's, when the Gophers used that underrated phase to secure a 24-17 victory over Northwestern.

Kill had said the game would come down to turnovers and field position. Well, the turnover battle was even, at 1-1. Northwestern had 28 first downs compared with 14 for the Gophers.

But Gophers junior Peter Mortell averaged 44.8 yards per punt, compared with 33.3 yards for Northwestern's Chris Gradone.

Gophers freshman Ryan Santoso was getting under his kickoffs, booting them higher into the air than normal. But with Dominic Schultz, Daletavious McGhee and others making big, open-field tackles, those kicks still were effective. Northwestern started five drives inside its own 20-yard line, compared with only one for the Gophers.

Jalen Myrick’s 100-yard kickoff return was executed to perfection, the highlight of a strong showing by Gophers special teams.

And when the Wildcats marched 97 yards to tie the score 17-17 with 7:32 remaining, the Gophers reached back for something special. Their kickoff return unit executed the perfect blocking scheme, opening a massive hole for Jalen Myrick, whose blinding 100-yard runback sent TCF Bank Stadium into delirium.

That changed everything. An exhausted Gophers defense quickly bounced back from the 97-yard drive, forcing Northwestern to go three-and-out on its next possession, and then the Wildcats ran out of time.

Northwestern was coming off victories against Penn State and Wisconsin, so this win was a statement for the Gophers. They are 2-0 in Big Ten play for the first time since 2004. After playing Purdue and Illinois, they could easily be 4-0 in the conference for the first time since 1967.

The Gophers (5-1 overall) haven't been in the Top 25 since 2008, when they were 7-1 and ranked No. 20 under Tim Brewster before losing a 24-17 heartbreaker to Northwestern. They finished that season on a five-game losing streak, and Brewster never really recovered.

Now, the Gophers are closing in on a Top 25 spot again. They received enough votes Sunday to climb to No. 28 in the coaches' poll and No. 29 in the AP Poll.

Kill knows there's a ton of improving left to do, especially looking ahead to this November slate: Iowa, Ohio State, at Nebraska, at Wisconsin.

"Like I told our kids, we've played six games, and we're about halfway up the mountain," Kill said. "And that mountain gets a whole lot steeper, so we've got a whole lot more work to do."

The Gophers are 22-22 in Kill's four seasons. He went 3-9 his first year at Minnesota, but 2011 was filled with valuable lessons, including the 28-13 loss at Northwestern.

The Gophers outgained the Wildcats that day in Evanston, Ill., but Northwestern averaged 58.3 yards per punt, compared with 24.0 for Minnesota. Venric Mark set up two Wildcats touchdowns with kickoff returns of 44 and 42 yards.

Kill laid into his players after that game, saying they had better understand that special teams were a critical phase of the game. When he was coaching at Northern Illinois, he'd taken his staff to study the things Fitzgerald was teaching Northwestern about special teams.

Last week, Fitzgerald expanded on his special teams philosophy, saying, "It's less to do with scheme and more about attitude, will, want-to and consistency."

The ninth-year Northwestern coach continued: "To date, I thought Wisconsin was the best that we had played, and after watching and breaking down Minnesota, I think it's a little bit above the Badgers."

Fitzgerald was talking about special teams, but knowing how he feels about that phase of the game and character, it said a lot. And this was before Myrick took that kickoff to the house.

Joe Christensen • joe.christensen@startribune.com