After his picking-plays-out-of-a-hat offense made things uncomfortable for the Gophers defense all day Saturday, Western Michigan coach Bill Cubit provided one more awkward moment for the Gophers as he left TCF Bank Stadium.
While the Gophers celebrated their 3-0 start, Cubit voiced the ticklish truth about the reason they walked away with a 28-23 victory over his Broncos.
"I thought [Max Shortell] came in and really provided a spark. He was probably the difference," Cubit said of Minnesota's second-string-on-paper quarterback.
When senior starter MarQueis Gray was carted off to the locker room before halftime with an ankle injury, "your whole game plan changes," Cubit said, gift-wrapping a Gopher-sized quarterback debate and dropping it in Jerry Kill's lap. "No offense to Gray, you have a guy who can throw it around a little bit more."
No wonder Kill said afterward of his friend, "I'm glad we won the game, and I'm glad he's getting on a plane."
Nothing distracts a football team and its fan base like a multiple-choice depth chart at the sport's most important position, which is why Kill and Shortell reacted to Max-or-MarQueis questions after the game as if they were being interrogated by enemy soldiers.
But if Kill spends the next week or two defusing as much as coaching, it was worth it, because Cubit was right. The offense seemed to be running out of gas late in the first half when Gray's left leg got twisted under him as he ran into a pile of defenders -- and Shortell was packing jet fuel. The sophomore completed a 32-yard pass down the right sideline to Derrick Engel on his very first snap, then flicked a 24-yarder to Isaac Fruechte a couple of plays later. And in an odd bit of symbolism, the cart carrying Gray to the locker room arrived at the right corner of the end zone at the same moment that Shortell fired a 9-yard pass to the left corner, a nifty bit of playmaking that put the Gophers ahead for good.
One could almost hear the sports talk-radio phone lines lighting up as they kicked the extra point.