The Gophers continued to insist Wednesday that Mitch Leidner will be back from his knee injury for Saturday's game at TCU.
"Mitch is going to play," Coach Jerry Kill said after watching Leidner practice for the second straight day. "He's a tough kid. ... He practiced, and he practiced hard [Wednesday]. He ran around good."
Kill added: "I'm pleasantly surprised after the shot he took [against Middle Tennessee State]."
The Gophers kept Leidner from meeting with the media this week, as they do with other players coming back from injury. It was interesting, though, that they kept reporters waiting in the hallway outside their locker room Wednesday, instead of conducting interviews on the practice field, as usual.
"We didn't limit anything [in practice with Leidner]," Kill said. "We were smart and didn't get a bunch of bodies around him or anything of that nature. He went every rep we needed to except for the live stuff, when we went against the defense, but we hold him out of that sometimes anyway."
Backup quarterback Chris Streveler also sounded convinced.
"I'm pretty confident he's going to be playing," Streveler said. "He's been doing well in practice, but you never know, so I'm going to be ready to go no matter what happens."
