U coach mostly wants to win at mind game

WEST LAFAYETTE, IND. - A couple of players have concussions, their starting cornerback has a cast on his broken arm, and quarterback MarQueis Gray's injured toe may keep him out of uniform again Saturday. But the Gophers' 1-4 start has done a lot more damage, coach Jerry Kill fears, than can't be treated with ice packs and crutches.

"Right now, we've got a team that's mentally beaten down," the Gophers coach said. "We've got to find a way to get them back."

This is as good a place as any. Purdue is 2-2 and trying to rebound from a confidence-shattering drubbing by Notre Dame last week, a loss almost as hopeless as the Gophers' 58-0 no-show in Michigan. The balky Gophers offense could get a break from Purdue's generous defense -- whose 551-yards-allowed disaster against the Irish was almost as overwhelming as Minnesota's 580-yard effort -- and the home team is dealing with some injury issues of its own.

"As an opposing coach, I hope [last week's rout] affects them a little bit. It certainly affected us," Kill said. "It's really, really important for us to get off to a good start. You need to make some thing happen to feel good sometimes. "

But while Kill would love to feel good about his first Big Ten victory, he's looking for more modest achievements from his rattled bunch.

"I just would like to see us get better mentally, more than anything," Kill said. "I don't want us to have a bunch of penalties, and dropped punts, and bad kicks. That stuff's embarrassing."

Understandable, too. The Gophers are using more freshmen than any Big Ten team, particularly along the lines, where they are frequently physically overmatched. "We're going through the growing pains," Kill said, "and it's tough."

"We've got to make sure, with the young offensive linemen we have, that we get the ball out. We don't want to hold the ball," Kill said after Shortell was sacked three times in Michigan. At times, the Gophers last week used four freshmen on the offensive line, and "they're sitting in there trying to pass-protect -- that's a tall order," Kill said.

So is asking Shortell to read Big Ten defenses and make plays down the field, just five months after his high school graduation.

"We're asking way too much" of Shortell, Kill said, blaming himself for the freshman's up-and-down, 24-for-50 performance so far. "We've got to give him a chance to have some success. We've got to be better in the short game, let him do the things he can do. ... Offensively, we're starting to develop a little bit of timing, a little bit of crispness."

Any progress will be stillborn if the Gophers can't maintain a mental edge, though. It's not easy, and senior tackle Brandon Kirksey said some of his teammates had trouble playing in the face of Michigan's onslaught last Saturday.