Gophers elect to wait to travel for Citrus Bowl

By the time the Gophers get to Orlando for the Citrus Bowl, their opponent already will have a three-day head start in the Florida sun.

With both teams gearing toward the New Year's Day showdown, Missouri will be leaving Monday. The Gophers are leaving Christmas morning.

The Gophers contemplated going earlier, too. But after talking to other team's coaches about their bowl experiences and discussing the options with several players, coach Jerry Kill chose another seven-night stay.

"I've done my homework, talked to a lot of people who've been in that situation," Kill said. "Some people want to go down there the whole time, and some people do what they're doing. Some of them have been successful, and some of them haven't been successful."

Every team gets 15 practices before a bowl game. Even though Missouri is traveling Monday, Gary Pinkel's team isn't scheduled to practice in Florida until Thursday. The Gophers will practice at Orlando's Freedom High School beginning Dec. 26.

Kill said Wednesday and Thursday's practices were both intense. Friday was lighter, and the plan is to have a hard scrimmage Sunday before clearing the players to go home. Those headed out of state — including the 10 Florida natives — have the option to meet the team in Orlando.

The Gophers spent Christmas week in Houston the past two years, getting ready for bowl games that fell earlier on the calendar.

Kill said if the bowl game were this weekend, wide receiver Drew Wolitarsky would be ready to play after missing the previous four games because of a high ankle sprain.

"The first couple days [back at practice] … he was tired and not cutting good and so forth," Kill said. "[Thursday], he participated in one-on-ones and snapped off a few routes. And I think it's a confidence thing. You haven't been on that thing with a fracture in your ankle and had a high ankle sprain."

While the Gophers look forward to getting one of their top receivers back, Missouri announced that its second-leading receiver, Jimmie Hunt, would have shoulder surgery and miss the bowl game. Hunt had 40 catches for 698 yards and seven touchdowns this year.

The Gophers have three senior safeties getting ready to play their final college game in Cedric Thompson, Derrick Wells and Grayson Levine. So they made a key addition this week, when they officially signed Charlie Rogers, a safety from Iowa Western Community College.

Rogers, a 6-1, 210-pound Iowa City native who began college career at Iowa State, was named a junior college All-America this year. He's enrolling at Minnesota next month and will be at spring practice, competing for a starting spot along with returning safeties Antonio Johnson, Damarius Travis and Daletavious McGhee.

"I flew out to Kansas and watched him play earlier this year, and his communication skills are tremendous, getting people lined up and all that. So I think no question he'll make us better."