Drake Lindsey didn’t play like a redshirt freshman quarterback when he led Minnesota on the game-winning drive against Rutgers last weekend.
His 324 passing yards and three touchdowns through the air earned him Big Ten freshman of the week honors, but coach P.J. Fleck knows the Golden Gophers (3-1, 1-0) will have to play at a much higher level when they visit No. 1 Ohio State (4-0, 1-0) on Saturday night in a conference game in Columbus, Ohio.
It doesn’t help that Fleck’s young signal-caller will not only face one of the best defenses in the nation, but also an intimidating atmosphere at Ohio Stadium.
“That place is 107,000 fans, and it’s deafening, and that’s for a noon kickoff, or an 11 a.m. (Central), let alone all of them doing what they do, tailgating all day and being ready for the night game that the fans have asked for,” Fleck said. “So we know we’re walking into a really hostile environment.”
The Buckeyes are coming off a 24-6 win at Washington in which the two field goals by the Huskies actually raised (slightly) Ohio State’s points allowed to an average of 5.5 — still good enough to lead the nation. The Huskies had been averaging 55.5 points.
Opponents have scored just two touchdowns against Ohio State: Texas in the opener and Ohio in the third game.
The Buckeyes defense is led by the law-office-sounding tandem of Caden and Kayden. Caden Curry totaled 11 tackles with five tackles for loss — tying the Ohio State record for a game — and three sacks at Washington. Kayden McDonald made seven tackles with three TFLs and two sacks.
“Caden is somebody who has played a lot of football here, special teams-wise and has made a lot of plays. Now he’s a key contributor,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day said.
The Golden Gophers might be without running back Darius Taylor, who has missed the past two games because of an injury. He is 54 yards shy of becoming the 18th player in program history to run for 2,000 yards.
Fleck on Monday was evasive on Taylor’s status, who has been listed as “doubtful” for previous games.
“I’m sure there’ll be another report this week,” the coach said. “Whatever adjective you want to describe him this week, feel free. But two hours before kickoff, we’ll know. There’s one Darius Taylor, and when Darius Taylor goes down, I think that does impact your offense.”
While the Ohio State defense has been superb, the offense with first-year starter Julian Sayin is still evolving. Day and offensive coordinator Brian Hartline took a conservative approach for Sayin in his first road last weekend but expect more aggression in front of the home fans.
Sayin threw for 208 yards and two TDs against the Huskies, but his longest completion was just 19 yards to Jeremiah Smith with 1:52 left in the game.
Day still likes the way his team is progressing.
“You’re seeing maturity,” he said. “There’s no way to see it other than that. … To play the way that we’ve played up to this point shows maturity, and that was a big emphasis point for us this summer.”
