Weekend Lowdown with Jon Marthaler: What to watch this weekend

Saturdays, Jon Marthaler tells us what to watch to get us through the weekend. Other times, you can find him here. Jon?

Game of the Week: Gophers at Indiana, 2:30pm (BTN)

So many people spoke of Minnesota's win last week over Nebraska as a "signature" win, as if all the Gophers needed was a single point of inflection to set them on a never-ending upward course. But here's the thing: I sat through the Glen Mason era, and I know different.

Mason's teams had a number of quote-unquote "signature" wins. Penn State in 1999, Michigan in 2005, Ohio State in 2000 (somehow always on the road) -- all felt like the dawn of a new age for Gopher football.

Then, the next week, the Gophers would lose to Purdue, or Indiana, or Northwestern, or really any team in the Big Ten, and it'd be back to the same old thing. Any Gopher fan can rattle off the epic collapses of the Mason years just as fast as the signature wins -- Michigan in 2003, Wisconsin in 2005, Northwestern in 2000, Texas Tech in 2006, Purdue in 2001, and on and on.

Signature wins are fun, don't get me wrong, but what Gopher fans are really desperate for is for a team that not only beats Nebraska, but follows it up the next week with a win, and the next week with a win after that. Minnesota's quest to be that team and that program starts today in Bloomington, against an exciting but porous Indiana squad.

What else to watch this weekend

7pm tonight (ABC): #7 Miami at #3 Florida State: Somehow, the Seminoles are three-touchdown favorites, despite playing a fellow top-10 team. It speaks to the gulf that we all presume to exist between this year's Big Three of Alabama, Oregon, and FSU, and the rest of the country (sorry, Ohio State and Baylor, but people are judging you.) But, as I keep harping on in these weekend posts, the great thing about college football is that every week, teams have to go out and prove it - and tonight, FSU has to go out and prove it, against an in-state rival.

6:30am Sunday (NBC Sports): Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Sebastian Vettel has locked up a fourth straight driver's championship in Formula One, and has won six races in a row. He goes for a seventh in Abu Dhabi, under the lights at Yas Marina, one of the best tracks in F1. On the other hand, he qualified second, with his teammate Mark Webber in first; unless he drives into a wall, he's going to win. So watch if you liked cheering for the orcs in the Lord of the Rings movies, I guess.