When the Gophers football team faces Purdue on Saturday in West Lafayette, Ind., it will be doing so without at least one starting safety and likely both.
Coach P.J. Fleck on Monday said that senior safety Duke McGhee will remain suspended for the game against the Boilermakers because of a violation of team rules but that McGhee has returned to the team.
The other starting safety, Antoine Winfield Jr., is questionable because of a left hamstring injury suffered Saturday in the Gophers' 31-24 loss to Maryland. "We'll see,'' Fleck answered when asked about Winfield's playing status.
Winfield originally injured the hamstring during training camp and missed practice time.
The loss of Winfield, the Gophers' top playmaker in the secondary, stood out against Maryland and elusive wide receiver DJ Moore.
"Your whole game plan is designed around No. 11 [Winfield] covering No. 1 [Moore], and No. 1 has a big game and our guy's out in the first quarter,'' Fleck said. "That's football.''
Things won't get any easier for the Gophers (3-1, 0-1 Big Ten) against Purdue (2-2, 0-1), which has become an offensive threat under new coach Jeff Brohm.
"When you look at every football play that's known to man, he probably runs it within a course of game, whether it's flea-flicker, whether it's reverse, whether it's trickery, whether it's screens, inside zone, power, counter, option,'' Fleck said. "He does so much, and it's so hard to defend because there are a lot of people who are involved in it. It's like playing option football, because you have to be so disciplined on your responsibility that if you lose track of your responsibility and they know that, they'll kill you.''