This week will be the first real test for the undefeated Minnesota team, who at 5-0 will host the Nebraska Cornhuskers.
The Gophers have beaten the bottom dwellers of the Big Ten, in Illinois and Purdue, whereas Nebraska is not a top tier team quite yet but they are tough and showed resilience last week as they beat Northwestern after a bad loss to Ohio State the previous week.
Both of these teams prefer to run the ball. Minnesota is led by senior running back Rodney Smith, who had a career day last week against Illinois, where he had 211 yards on 24 carries and 1 touchdown.
Nebraska on the other hand has their quarterback, Adrian Martinez, as their leading rusher with 341 yards and 3 touchdowns on the year.
Martinez had a lot of hype surrounding him coming into this year. The week 1 loss to Colorado put a wet blanket over his Heisman campaign. His duel threat capability strikes fear in opposing defensive coordinators, but his tendency to make costly mistakes is the only thing that is holding him back from taking his game to the next level.
Minnesota signal caller Tanner Morgan, is only a sophomore but has really played well this year. He has an impressive 13 to 3 TD to INT ratio, while completing over 70% of his passes.
His accuracy and big arm has led to a lot of big plays for the Gopher’s offense. Most of them going towards sophomore Rashod Bateman, who is averaging 23 yards per catch, with over 500 total yards and 4 touchdowns this year he has developed into a real weapon.
Last year Nebraska won 53-28 as 4.5 point favorites, this year the undefeated Minnesota Gophers come in as 7.5 point home favorites. Nebraska is 1-5 against the spread this year and Minnesota is 2-2-1 thus far.
The over under this week comes in at 49.5, with both schools averaging over 31 points per game there is a good chance this game becomes high scoring, but with the way these two run the ball, the battle against the clock may be too much to hit the over.
Our Pick – Nebraska +7.5