The Minnesota Golden Gophers (2-0) hit the road to close out their non-conference slate with a matchup against the California Golden Bears (2-0) at 9:30 p.m. CST on Saturday at California Memorial Stadium.
This Week’s Thoughts:
gopherguy05: We assume the Gophers will not have Darius Taylor, which will make this a bit tougher, but I feel confident in a three-headed attack of A.J. Turner, Cam Davis, and Fame Ijeboi to run the ball well enough to open up Drake Lindsey for some play-action looks. The Gophers’ defensive line
needs to contain the Cal quarterback, and if they can do that and keep tackling like they have been, they should come home sitting at 3-0.
GopherNation: I think that the offense really struggles in their first real test of the season. But the Gopher defense is more than capable of shutting down the Golden Bears. I see a low-scoring win where we give a ton of credit to the defense.
Blake Ruane: See my opponent preview.
GoAUpher: This one is tough for me. It’s a real non-con game against a real conference opponent, but I gotta admit that I’ve paid no attention to anything about Cal. Rather than inform myself before this prediction, I’ll do the only reasonable thing an old blogger can do: Wing it.
Cal recently announced a new section called The Black Bear. It’s supposed to be for people who used to cheer in The Black Hole, a Raiders “ultra” section back before they moved to Las Vegas. This is being billed as a melding of two fanbases, but one of those fanbases doesn’t have a team anymore. And I gotta say, the last thing I think of when I think of Cal is the people who dress like extras in a new Mad Max movie. Basically, the whole thing feels forced and weird to me, and I think that energy will negatively impact the Bears on the field against Minnesota. (Told you I was winging it).
Look for Cal to suffer several dissonance-related turnovers, leading to an easier-than-expected 10-point Gopher victory.
zipsofakron: I, too, cannot believe I am picking the Gophers on the road against a power conference opponent at a very strange kickoff time.
I think the defense will surprise Cal, putting them on their heels and giving quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele something to think about for the first time this season. Drake will continue to find his groove, and the team will be hyped up for a late-night West Coast shindig.
Ustreet: Cal is a legit opponent this year with a good quarterback. Being on the road is hard, but I’ve spent enough time around the Cal program to have seen that team trip over winnable games.
mowe0018: I am reversing my preseason prediction due to the evidence on defense. While the first two opponents were trash, the way in which the defense dominated gives me hope against a young albeit talented opposing quarterback.
WhiteSpeedReceiver: Cal is better than we expected in the preseason. That in no way means they are good or competent.
wildcat00: This one’s going to be a lot tougher than the last two games, but I think this team might have just enough juice to hold off a not-that-good Cal team for 60 minutes. I think.
