Sid Hartman: Loss to Northwestern a setback U didn't need

Like coach Tim Brewster said after the Gophers' 24-17 loss to Northwestern on Saturday, nobody expected his football team to be 7-2 this year, and there still should be smiles on the faces of the fans.

Yes, that is true. But a victory would have made the Gophers 8-1 and would have improved their national profile as well as their No. 20 ranking, among other things.

The difference in the game was a Northwestern junior backup quarterback named Mike Kafka, who -- in his first start since September 2006 and in his first Big Ten start ever -- rushed for 217 yards by himself, compared to 68 yards for the losers. The Gophers had no defense for Kafka, who also had two touchdown passes Saturday, one more than he had in his previous 13 college games combined.

There were about 15 possible recruits standing outside of the Gophers locker room at the Metrodome while Brewster spoke to the team after the game. The recruits were waiting to meet the current Gophers players.

A victory certainly would have painted a better picture. You've heard it a few times this fall how recruits or their families have said that the Gophers have become a more attractive option this year after going 1-11 last year. Winning helps recruiting.

There were representatives at the game from the Capital One Bowl and the Champs Sports Bowl, both in Orlando. While they said the Gophers' loss didn't hurt their chances of getting selected for one of those two bowls, it's obvious that the maroon and gold's chances of getting to one of the Big Ten's better bowl games -- the Capital One, Outback in Tampa or Alamo in San Antonio -- will hinge on how the Gophers do in their final three games.

Certainly, the odds would have been against them, but had the Gophers won their final four games, there was even a small chance they might have wound up in the Rose Bowl.

It's possible that the Gophers overlooked the Wildcats, who had lost two of their previous three games and had injuries to their top two offensive players, and because of that they weren't ready to play. The Gophers certainly will have to play better than they did Saturday and even better than they did last week at Purdue if they want to win their next three games for a 10-2 regular season.

Injuries didn't hurt Jerry Brown was a member of the Vikings coaching staff from 1988 to 1991 under Jerry Burns. He joined the Northwestern staff working for Gary Barnett in 1993 and now is in his 16th season at his alma mater, currently serving as assistant head coach and defensive backs coach for Pat Fitzgerald.

Brown said that the Wildcats might have benefited Saturday from not having No. 1 quarterback C.J. Bacher, who injured his leg last week at Indiana, because Bacher doesn't run as well as Kafka, whose rushing total was all but 3 yards' worth of Northwestern's 220 rushing yards as a team.

Brown indicated the game plan with Bacher would have been much different, and that because Kafka had so much success running -- including a 53-yard run that set up the Wildcats' second touchdown -- that he was used to carry the ball a great deal, adding that the Northwestern coaching staff has a lot of confidence in Kafka. The junior also completed 12 of 16 passes for 143 yards, although he also threw two interceptions to Gophers cornerback Traye Simmons, one of which was returned for a touchdown.

It will interesting to see how the Gophers bounce back against a pitiful Michigan team this week.

The best tickets for Saturday's Gophers game against Northwestern were $45. They are $50 for next week's game against Michigan and all tickets are $60 for the season finale against Iowa. There are still choice tickets left for Michigan and Iowa. Saturday's crowd was announced at 54,122, the Gophers' largest of the season.

The only two outstate football recruits making official visits to the Gophers on Saturday were wide receiver Hayo Carpenter from College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita, Calif., and defensive back Kerry Lewis from Lancaster, Texas.

Chuck Mencel, one of the great Gophers basketball players of all time, donated his 1955 Big Ten MVP trophy to the program last week.

Kyle Shanahan, son of Denver Broncos coach Mike Shanahan and a Minneapolis native, is in his first year as offensive coordinator of the Houston Texans. Kyle Shanahan, at 28 the youngest coordinator in the NFL, has worked his way up with the team. He was wide receivers coach in 2006 and quarterbacks coach in 2007, and he retains that title now. After playing college football for Duke and Texas, he was a graduate assistant at UCLA in 2003 and a quality control coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2004-05 before joining the Texans staff under coach Gary Kubiak, who formerly worked under Mike Shanahan in Denver. Last year, it was reported on a website that Brewster offered Kyle Shanahan the job of Gophers offensive coordinator, but Shanahan decided to remain in the NFL with Houston. ... Alex Gibbs, the father of former Gophers defensive coordinator David Gibbs, is his 24th season as a NFL coach and in his first year as assistant head coach/offense for the Texans. Alex Gibbs spent a total of 13 years coaching the Broncos offensive line, and Kubiak spent nine years in Denver as a backup quarterback and 11 more as offensive coordinator.