The day after his twin sons were born -- a blessed event he announced via Twitter late Friday night -- MarQueis Gray is warming up on the turf of TCF Bank Stadium, hoping to lead the Gophers' offense to an upset of Wisconsin an hour from now.
If the Gophers pull it off, Gray figures to be partly responsible for the defense's success, too, coaches say.
"It helps, absolutely," to practice against Gray every day, defensive coordinator Tracy Claeys said, and particularly when the opposing quarterback is as mobile as Wisconsin's Russell Wilson. "They don't have as many designed runs for him, but when Q pulls the ball down and runs, it sure does. He extends plays better than anyone we've faced."
In addition to leading the Big Ten in passing, Wilson averages 31 rushing yards per game, which makes him doubly dangerous.
"Sometimes he ends up throwing it, but he can run," Claeys said. "So working against an athletic quarterback like MarQueis helps us a lot."
By the way, Wisconsin may be receiving a little extra motivation right now. If Penn State and Ohio State lose, as both are doing right now, the Badgers are back in control of their own title-game chances, because two-loss Wisconsin still has to play Penn State.
Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema and Minnesota coach Jerry Kill have been chatting on the field for the past 10 minutes or so. Wonder who is giving who some advice.
Gray helped Gophers defense prepare for Wilson
The Gopher quarterback's running ability is a good mirror of Wisconsin quarterback Russell Wilson's.
November 13, 2011 at 2:10AM
Fernando Mendoza lowered his pads into a defender, spun in a full circle, used his hand to keep his balance, then launched himself horizontally and reached the ball over the goal line — an Indiana touchdown and a ready-made poster pic for a title run straight from the movies.
