Update: Star wide receiver Eric Decker is out of the game after re-aggravating his ankle in the second quarter. He’s on the sideline without pads. Interestingly, the Gophers just mounted their best drive of the game, driving to the five before being forced to kick a field goal. It’s 19-3 now. Halftime thoughts: Halftime adjustments are a part of football. Heck, they’re almost always necessary. But Minnesota is going to need more than adjustments to crawl back into this game. Overhaul is more like it. The Gophers are down 16-0; they’ve gained one first down and only 46 yards on offense; they don’t look like a 7-2 football team; they hardly look 2-7. Talking about what Minnesota needs to improve on is relatively pointless; it needs to improve on everything. That’s all there is to say. The highlight of the half was a forced fumble by Tramaine Brock that was recovered by Lee Campbell. The offense dutifully went three and out after the turnover, punted, and Michigan drove down and kicked a field goal. Stay tuned to see what the second half brings.

Pregame: 

Here we are on Gold-Out day at the Metrodome.  The majority of seats are stocked with nice gold pom-pons, which is good because, at the moment, the Gophers contigency doesn’t look as Gold as one might hope.  When I saw all the pom-pons, first thing I thought of was, imagine being the company that gets the order for 45,000 of those things.  It’s nice to see Minnesota’s student section in gold, and the (insert color here)-outs are becoming more and more common in college football.  That said, after seeing Penn State’s White-Out earlier in the season (which was stadium-wide), all other efforts seem futile.  Enough about the Gold, though.  Here are a few notes on the Minnesota-Michigan matchup today.

-The Gophers have never beat the Wolverines at the Metrodome, and Michigan has been in possession of the Little Brown Jug, the rivalry’s trophy.  For 28 of the past 30 years.  With the Wolverines in a transition period under new head coach Rich Rodriguez (a transition Minnesota players and fans can relate to), today seems as good as any to get that elusive win in the Dome.

-Michigan redshirt freshman quarterback Steven Threet is doubtful today, still feeling the effects of a concussion he suffered last week against Purdue.  Minnesota wide receiver Eric Decker, who suffered an ankle sprain last week, should play but I wouldn’t be surprised if his time was limited at least somewhat.

-The Gophers need to establish a better running attack today.  Period.  Nothing more to say.

We’ve got history against Minnesota, injuries to key players on both teams and the Gophers in desparate need of a run game.  Should be a fun one.  I’ll check back at halftime with an update and my thoughts.