Quick hitters

Published: 2011-11-17

Adam Richard arichard@mndaily.com

•MarQueis Gray played against Wisconsin with a hurt back, an injury he sustained against Michigan State. Gray took full reps at practice this week.

“It feels a lot better, a lot better than last week,” Gray said. “It limited my reps [last week] and going into the game I wasn’t fully confident in myself because of the back injury. I plan on taking every rep this week and regain that confidence.”

Gray had his worst statistical performance of the year last week against Wisconsin. He threw for 51 yards and an interception only a week after his career-best performance against Michigan State, when he threw for 295 yards and three touchdowns.
•Northwestern is second-worst in the Big Ten in pass defense, allowing 235 yards per game through the air.
•Minnesota has been stymied in the running game the last two weeks.

“We’re getting back to fundamentals, kind of what we did leading up to that nice run [of good games],” offensive coordinator Matt Limegrover said.

Northwestern ranks ninth in the Big Ten in rushing defense, allowing 179 yards per game on the ground.
•Northwestern quarterback Dan Persa, a senior, has thrown for more than 1,700 yards in only seven games this season, including a 372-yard performance with four touchdowns last week against Rice.
•The Wildcats’ sophomore backup quarterback, Kain Colter, has been a multi-level threat on offense. He leads the team in rushing, is second in passing and is third in receiving with 15 touchdowns overall this season.
•Led by Persa and Colter, Northwestern is first in the Big Ten in passing offense.
•The Gophers’ pass rush has steadily improved. Minnesota sacked Russell Wilson twice last week despite an enormous Badgers offensive line.

That brought its total to 12 sacks on the year, four more than all of last year.
•Northwestern’s offense runs a lot of no-huddle. This system of offense often causes defenses to remain on the field for numerous series of downs without substitutions.
•The Gophers were unable to score an offensive touchdown last week. Their only two scores were on special teams.
•Duane Bennett gave the team a jolt last week when he returned a kickoff 96 yards for a touchdown. He is averaging 31 yards per return this season.

Bennett, a fifth year senior, now has a kickoff return, punt return, rushing, receiving and passing touchdown during his career at Minnesota.



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