Good morning from Huntington Bank Stadium, where the Gophers face Illinois (11 a.m., ESPN2) and will try to stretch their winning streak to five games and remain alone in first place in the Big Ten's West Division. Minnesota (6-2, 4-1 Big Ten) begins a four-game November stretch to end the regular season, and included are games against two of its pursuers in the West, Iowa (6-2, 3-2) on Nov. 13 and Wisconsin (5-3, 3-2) on Nov. 27. The Hawkeyes play Northwestern in Evanston at 6 p.m. today, and the Badgers visit Rutgers at 2:30 p.m.
Gophers face Illinois, seek to extend streak
Minnesota has won four games in a row and will try to maintain its one-game lead atop the Big Ten West standings.

Today's Gophers-Illinois game matches opponents that like to run the ball, with Minnesota's 47.5 carries per game leading the Big Ten and the Fighting Illini's 39.7 ranking sixth. The Gophers backfield keeps taking hits to personnel, with the latest loss being redshirt junior Bryce Williams, who suffered a season-ending injury to his lower left leg last week at Northwestern. That leaves the team's Nos. 5 and 6 backs entering the season, true freshman Mar'Keise Irving and redshirt freshman Ky Thomas, in the lead roles. They've embraced that status, with each rushing for more than 100 yards against both Maryland and Northwestern over the past two weeks.
Illinois (3-6, 2-4) has a pair of capable running backs in Chase Brown, who has surpassed 200 yards rushing in two games this season, and 240-pound freshman Josh McCrary, who has 478 yards on the season. Stopping that duo will be the task for the Gophers defense, which ranks second in the Big Ten and eighth nationally with 92.9 rushing yards allowed per game. Conversely, Illinois has struggled to stop the run, giving up 160.3 yards per game, which ranks 12th in the Big Ten.
The Gophers having used their passing game much during their four-game win streak, but they've had a weapon emerge in the form of wide receiver Mike Brown-Stephens, who's had 10 catches for 261 yards in that span. Tanner Morgan has several options as wideout targets with a healthy Chris Autman-Bell, Dylan Wright, Daniel Jackson and Brown-Stephens.
On the injury front, Dragan Kesich, who's handled the kickoff duties for the Gophers this season, is out because of an undisclosed injury. Matthew Trickett is in line to kick off. Defensive tackle Trill Carter (undisclosed) participated in pregame warmups and is expected to play after missing the Northwestern game.
Waconia’s Max McEnelly defeated Stillwater’s Ryder Rogotzke on Friday to settle the match, just as he beat him at state in 2023.