Hartman: Purdue won't be pushover for Gophers

The Gophers football team under Glen Mason was on a real roll in 2000 after beating highly ranked Penn State and Ohio State in successive weeks.

They were rated No. 22 in the country, and everybody was expecting the team to win its remaining games against Indiana, Northwestern, Wisconsin and Iowa. But the heavily favored Gophers not only lost to the Hoosiers 51-43, but they lost four of their last five games, including a 38-30 loss to North Carolina State in the Micronpc.com Bowl.

One of the Gophers' two losses before they upset Penn State and Ohio State was 38-24 to Purdue, the opponent here Saturday.

Purdue didn't start out too well and has a 3-4 record. But the Boilermakers have come a long way in their past two starts, beating Illinois 38-27 and losing last week to No. 8-ranked Michigan State 45-31, a game they could have won. Purdue trailed by one touchdown and had the ball with three minutes remaining against the best defense in the Big Ten.

The Boilermakers are the only Big Ten team to score 31 or more points against Michigan State since Dec. 3, 2011.

Yes, the Gophers are a two-touchdown favorite, but I believe this will be a close game. One of my reasons is that Purdue's defensive coordinator is Greg Hudson, who worked under Mason and has proved to be one great football coach.

Asked if things were getting better with the young Purdue team, Hudson said: "They really are. We're getting better on both sides of the ball, and our kicking game has been really good for us. Yeah, we had a chance in the fourth quarter [against Michigan State]. We took Iowa and them to the wire, now we have to find out how to finish those things. We're doing it a little bit the old-fashioned way. It's a tedious process, but we're getting better."

"I'm happy for them," he said. "I love the university. I like that they have gone back to the sort of way we did it, running the football, playing tough, hard-nosed defense, that's the perfect [recipe] for winning football games at Minnesota. There's no secret in Dinkytown that you need to run the ball and stop the run to win there. That's what they're doing. They don't beat themselves, and Coach Kill and his staff have done a great job."

The Gophers defense will get a test because the Boilermakers will try to score 31 points or more for the third time in four games. Purdue has had success against the Gophers, winning two of the past three meetings.

Twins President Dave St. Peter said there is no timetable for naming a manager to succeed Ron Gardenhire. "We really have not attached a timetable to it," St. Peter said. "Obviously it has been well reported there are a number of internal candidates, and we intend to vet a variety of external candidates as well. That process is underway.

"It wouldn't surprise me if some of the candidates are potentially still with playoff teams. You know this could certainly take several weeks. It would be surprising to me if we didn't have someone by the winter meetings in early December. It could go quickly, but at this point, we're not as focused on the timetable as making sure we get the right person to lead us back into contention and get us back on track."

St. Peter verified media reports that Paul Molitor is a candidate.

Teams are strongly discouraged from announcing personnel moves during the World Series, so the Twins probably will wait until after the World Series to name a manager.

"That is a written rule," St. Peter said. "… Every club gets a reminder of that rule every October. Basically what it does is it protects the World Series. You really cannot make any announcements during the World Series. If you want to make an announcement during the playoffs, it requires the approval of the commissioner. Therefore you tend to see a variety of different announcements come right before the World Series or right after."

• Las Vegas sports book Bovada recently released its NBA MVP odds, and former Timberwolves star Kevin Love, now with Cleveland, is listed at 35-1 odds. Wolves rookie Andrew Wiggins is listed at 100-1 but is second behind Bucks forward Jabari Parker in Rookie of the Year odds at 15-4.

• Gophers senior David Cobb recently has been added to the Maxwell Award watch list. The award goes to the best running back in college football. Cobb has run for 819 yards this season, averaging 5.3 yards per carry. … ESPN analyst Mel Kiper Jr. released a list of the top 10 draft targets at each position for next year, and Gophers junior Eric Murray was listed fourth overall at cornerback. Vikings officials aren't allowed to talk about future draft choices according to NFL rules, but Viking reps attend every Gophers home game and will have plenty of opportunities to size up Murray as a possible 2015 draft choice. … The Gophers are unbeaten in Big Ten play, but still the students fill only about half of the seats reserved for the students but are sold at game time.

• Josh Willingham was on his last legs with the Twins, a free agent at the end of the season. Then the Royals had an opening, made a trade for the outfielder and now he is in the World Series with a good chance of the Royals signing him for next season. … Former Twins catcher A.J. Pierzynski — whom the Twins tried to sign in the offseason before he signed with the Red Sox — later caught on with the Cardinals. With Yadier Molina out because of a strained left oblique, Pierzynski caught for St. Louis in Games 3 and 4 of the NLCS against the Giants.