The tendency for fans after a disappointing defeat is to assign blame, and some Gophers football supporters looked at quarterback Mitch Leidner's 12-for-30 performance (40 percent) in the 28-24 loss to Illinois on Oct. 25 as a key factor in the surprising result. Before that, Leidner had completed 60 percent of his passes in Big Ten play, helping the Gophers to a 3-0 league start. With Minnesota on a bye week, the Star Tribune's Michael Rand caught up with Leidner, who said the Gophers — who are still in contention in the Big Ten West — are already well into the process of preparing for Iowa next week and putting last week behind them.

Q After a game like last week, where do you start to try to put the pieces back together again, and what has it been like back at practice?

A I think just the day after. We watched film, and tried to get better from it. We got right back onto the field and started preparing for the next game. We can't keep looking back on the old [games]. We just have to keep moving on.

Q When you have a game like that, do you have someone you talk to about it with later to bounce things off of, or do you just want to forget about it as soon as possible?

A I have my teammates, and we all talk about that. We're together after the game. We use each other to help pick each other up because we're all competitive. None of us want to lose, so we keep using each other to bounce back.

Q Did you get a sense all that even though it was one game, some fans felt like the sky was falling?

A Nah, I don't really pay attention to any of that stuff. I don't really know what's being said. I just try to keep things within the team because we're all great friends here. We're a family. That's what we have to do.

Q Would you rather have a bye week this week to regroup or do you feel like, "Hey, I wish we could just get back out there?"

A Yeah, it would be nice to just get back on the field and go right back at them.

Q Speaking of which, Iowa is the next opponent and obviously has to be your focus. What do you know about them at this point and what have you worked on for that game at this point?

A We've actually started watching quite a bit of film on them and started preparing all week during this bye week, so that's an advantage we're going to have. We're getting guys healthy, and it's going to be fun to get back out there.

Q Are there things specifically that you've pinpointed from the Illinois game that you've been working on?

A Just continuing to make plays downfield, hitting the big plays when we get the opportunity. That's the biggest thing.

Q When you look at the first half of your Big Ten season, you're still 3-1. How would you evaluate those first four games?

A We did some things well, but we can't be looking back all the time. We have to be looking forward, keep executing and keep getting better at practice every day to get where we want to be at the end of the season.