U wants to clean the slate

Marlin Levison, Star Tribune S

Iowa running back Shonn Greeene (23) racked up some of his record setting yardage against the Minnesota defense.

The Gophers see the Insight Bowl as an opportunity to return to their early-season form.

By KENT YOUNGBLOOD, Star Tribune

Last update: December 30, 2008 - 10:47 AM

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INSIGHT BOWL GOPHERS VS. KANSAS

5 p.m. Wednesday • Sun Devil Stadium, Tempe, Ariz. • TV: NFL Network (830-AM)

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Gophers linebacker Lee Campbell believes it could have been worse -- he and his teammates might be waiting until next season to erase the sour ending of the regular season.

Minnesota ended the Big Ten schedule with a defense that was worn down and banged up. In a 55-0 loss to Iowa in the team's Metrodome finale -- the school's worst Big Ten loss -- just about everything that could go wrong did.

But Campbell, a bullish middle linebacker, sees a maroon and gold lining: Kansas. The Gophers ended the regular season on a four-game slide, but the Insight Bowl is an opportunity for them to forget their recent past.

"You just move on," said Campbell, who was slowed against Iowa because of a sprained ankle. He wasn't alone; starting linebacker Kyle Theret was hurt, too.

"When you have a game like this to play, a team like Kansas to get ready for, you get motivated, you get excited," Campbell said.

On New Year's Eve, Gophers fans will see some changes in the offense, which has received an infusion of old-school running. The defense, though, will have no major changes, looking only to return to the way it played when the Gophers started the season 7-1.

Over the first eight games the Gophers defense, fortified by a number of junior college transfers (linebacker Simoni Lawrence and defensive backs Traye Simmons and Tramaine Brock) was a bend-but-not-break unit. It gave up an average of 362.7 yards per game, but it controlled the run, got off the field on third down and forced 24 turnovers that resulted in 92 points.

In the final four games? Gophers opponents gained 409-plus yards per game, ran for nearly 200 yards a game and converted on third down 45 percent of the time.

Why? Part of it likely was the opposition. The Gophers finished the season with Wisconsin and Iowa, two of the Big Ten's most physical offenses. Against Iowa in particular, injuries to Campbell and Theret were a factor. Compounding the injuries was that as the Gophers offense stumbled down the stretch, the defense found itself on the field more and more.

Their tackling suffered, particularly against Northwestern, Michigan and Iowa. Minnesota lost to a Wildcats team playing with a backup quarterback, to a Michigan team that finished 3-9, and to Wisconsin in a heartbreaker before being steamrolled by the Hawkeyes.

Now the goal is to go back to the future. And to forget the past.

"We did that with last season, going 1-11 to where we are now, in a bowl,'' senior defensive end Willie VanDeSteeg said. "We'll do the same with Iowa."

When the Gophers began preparing for Kansas, defensive coordinator Ted Roof got his guys together and showed them two sets of stats: team defense from 2007 and '08. His point: Despite the difficult finish, the Gophers improved dramatically. The 2007 version was last in overall defense and near the bottom in nearly every other stat. The 2008 Gophers were top 50 nationally in scoring defense, 26th in both sacks and tackles for loss and tied for eighth in turnovers forced.

"If we come out in the bowl game and play the way we think we can, we can flush away that Iowa game," defensive tackle Eric Small said. "We studied that Iowa tape so hard, over and over. Everything we did wrong we can fix. We went back to practice and started to work on doing that."

It won't be easy. Kansas enters the game with the eighth-ranked passing attack in the nation, with two top-notch receivers. The Jayhawks don't run the ball as well as they did while winning the Orange Bowl last season, but quarterback Todd Reesing is elusive, quick and accurate, operating a spread offense that scored better than 32 points per game.

But when Campbell watches film of the Jayhawks, he sees something else: an opportunity.

"It's critical we win this game," he said. "Then we can use the momentum for the offseason and into next year."

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