MEGAN DAVIS:  Hello Gopher fans. It’s Megan Davis. 

REGAN GUIRGUIS: And Regan Guirguis. 

DAVIS: With the Minnesota Daily, and you’re listening to the Gold Standard, a podcast dedicated to the University of Minnesota sports. 

GUIRGUIS: Let’s talk about Gophers football. That’s always a good place to start. You know, they just played Cal on Saturday and lost. 

DAVIS: Lost, okay going into it, we knew Cal was going to be a good opponent. 

GUIRGUIS: Yeah, for sure. 

DAVIS: This is gonna be their hardest game yet. I can’t say that this is the outcome that I was looking for. 

GUIRGUIS: Darius Taylor was out for the entire game due to an injury playing against Northwestern State. I don’t think he’ll be out for this season. I think they probably would’ve already announced that. I do think that like, the reason why they kind of sat him out for that game was to just give him time to be able to rest you know. They have a bye week now, which is good. 

DAVIS: Yeah. 

GUIRGUIS: I think that’s really good for the team, especially after a loss against Cal, which again, everyone kind of knew it was gonna be a tougher opponent, especially compared to like the past two teams that they just played Buffalo and Northwestern State. But I definitely do think that it was a game they were still expecting to probably win. 

DAVIS: I’ll also say that the Bears, they have a freshman quarterback whose name I will try not to butcher, Sagapolutele, but I did an interview with the head editor for their sports desk at the Daily Californian, Berkeley’s student newspaper. 

And she was talking about just kind of how much of a game changer that he’s been for the team and how much of an influence he has been even as a freshman. And he’s kind of showing a little bit of a star quality that, you know, Berkeley hasn’t seen in a while. 

I was reading some of their old stuff and his previous game wasn’t as strong, and I think he came back very strong against the Gophers. And I think Drake Lindsey just couldn’t match. 

GUIRGUIS: Having that bye week now is really good for the Gophers.

I think that it gives them a chance to kind of rest up, get ready to play their first Big Ten conference opponent, which is Rutgers on the twenty-seventh. Then right after Rutgers, they have a pretty tough away game, which is against Ohio State. 

DAVIS: And I don’t think Ohio State is going to be dropping in the rankings anytime soon. 

GUIRUGIS: No, no. I think they’ve shown that they were just as good as they were last year. And so it’ll be interesting to know kind of what the team’s mindset is going into such a hard away game like Ohio State. 

I actually wanted to talk a little bit about soccer, talking about Big Ten conference games. The Gopher soccer team just had their first Big Ten conference game against Nebraska on the eleventh. And it ended in a tie. 

DAVIS: The Nebraska soccer team has been pretty dominant. 

GUIRGUIS: Pretty dominant yeah. 

DAVIS: Pretty dominant. So I think obviously the Gophers are looking for a win, you’re looking for a win in everything. But a tie is acceptable. It shows that, you know, the Gophers can compete with the best of the best. 

GUIRGUIS: Yeah, I think a tie is actually, honestly, a really good way to go into your conference season. I wrote a story on them not too long ago. I talked to a couple of their players and, you know, they talked a lot about making sure that the team has just like confidence in their playing style and going into the season making sure that the team is willing to work as hard as they can to get those big wins.

DAVIS: I think, yeah, the Big Ten is going to be incredibly powerful in terms of soccer. Lots of great teams out there, lots of really strong competition for the Gophers. And I feel like that’s a similar situation with volleyball. The Gophers just finished out their Diet Coke Classic here at home, here at the University of Minnesota, I know that you’ll have a story coming out. 

GUIRGUIS: I will, yeah. 

DAVIS: About that very soon. 

GUIRGUIS: They’re on an eight game win streak, which is pretty awesome. 

DAVIS: Pretty awesome. And they’ll start facing some more ranked opponents in the future. But just to not slip up once during the, during a multi-day tournament, you know, I’m sure they’re pretty worn out, pretty tired after all of this volleyball, but very impressive.

There’ll be a while before they hit their actual Big Ten games, but they do have some other opponents that will be ranked like, I think they play Marquette.

GUIRGUIS: They play Marquette on the twenty-first. And then their first conference game is on the twenty-fifth against Michigan State. I talked a little bit to Stella Swenson who is the setter for the team. And she told me that, you know, it’s hard having a tournament, a multi-day tournament’s really difficult on the body, right? 

You, especially when you play good teams, teams that really put up a fight there starts to be some fatigue. So I think to see the result that the Gophers saw winning all the games, two of which they won 3-0. So they won in three sets. 

They played four sets against South Dakota State, lost one of them. But again, still resulting in the win. That’s pretty impressive. And I think it shows a lot about the dedication and stamina of the team. And I hope that we continue to kind of see that as their season progresses. 

DAVIS: Yeah, I think that’s very true. I, so far so good in all of the Gopher sports. I was watching the Chiefs Eagles game last night and I saw an ad for the NBA and I was like, oh my gosh, basketball season is right around the corner. 

GUIRGUIS: Right around the corner. 

DAVIS: I totally forgot like how short their off season is. So pretty soon we’ll get to see both the Gophers men and women’s basketball team back in action. Super exciting. We’re gonna have so many sports going on at once. And then ice hockey’s coming back. 

GUIRGUIS: Yeah, I mean, I think just keep your eye out for some of the home games that are going on. Soccer, like I said, they’re playing Rutgers at home on the eighteenth, which is a Thursday this week. The Gopher’s volleyball team doesn’t play at home again until the twenty-fifth against Michigan State, which is their first conference game.

DAVIS: Lovely. 

GUIRGUIS: So that is all exciting. Keep your eyes out for more Gopher sports. 

DAVIS: This episode is by Megan Davis. 

GUIRGUIS: And Regan Guirguis. 

DAVIS: And produced by Ceci Heinen. As always, we appreciate you listening in and feel free to send a message to our email inbox at [email protected] with any questions, comments, or concerns.

I’m Megan Davis. 

GUIRGUIS: And I’m Regan Guirguis.

DAVIS: And this has been the Gold Standard.