The sophomore slump in the world of college sports may be even tougher to overcome than at the pro level. As a true freshman, chances are you come into a squad playing with house money. As a result, you play fast and loose and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. If it does work out though, that's where the immense pressure to replicate that success transfers over to next year. There are now certain expectations that weren't there before. And more often than not, you fail to live up to them. That could be the exact experience of Minnesota QB Drake Lindsey.
Drake Lindsey was always seen as a project, but he was also a project that won a lot of games. He led the Golden Gophers to eight wins in his freshman season, the most by a freshman QB
in franchise history. The way he did it was with a quiet confidence to the way he played. He wasn't flashy, just efficient. While he only had just above 2,300 passing yards, he rarely turned the ball over and he allowed the offense to work for him.
Now though, in a new year with somewhat of a new look squad, Lindsey does not look the same. In fact, almost every single statistic has decreased: from completion percentage to TD-to-INT ratio. Whether it is a function of a disjointed offense or an actual sophomore slump is hard to say, but the narrative surrounding Lindsey is much more negative now than at the start of his career. The interesting thing was that he was actually solid to start the year. In his first four games, he had 950 passing yards, 7 touchdowns, and 2 interceptions. However, against tougher opposition, he has floundered, only completing 55.5 percent of his passes over the past five games.
Against the Nittany Lions, who knows what Drake Lindsey will even look like? His high variance in form could be something that works to his advantage though. Sometimes, all a struggling quarterback needs is a struggling team to face. While the Nittany Lions have looked solid out of the bye, they still have more questions than answers to them. Maybe Drake Lindsey could help them figure out which is which.
This article originally appeared on Nittany Lions Wire: Drake Lindsey looks to break out of his sophomore slump against Penn State
