MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota quarterback Asad Abdul-Khaliq — who collected 12 touchdowns and more than 1,000 yards passing through the first six games — limped on the sidelines Thursday night with a sprained right ankle.
The junior has been nursing the injury for several weeks but aggravated it in last week’s 31-10 win against Illinois.
Minnesota head coach Glen Mason said he could have used Abdul-Khaliq Thursday, but during his recovery backup Benji Kamrath has been taking all the reps in practice — and therefore deserved the start.
“Hopefully he’ll be 100 percent soon,” Mason said of Abdul-Khaliq. “Obviously, if he injured anything tonight it was his rear end, sitting on the bench.”
Before Thursday, Kamrath had racked up just 21 yards in the air in four brief appearances.
The backup signal-caller kept the ball on the ground most of the game Thursday, deferring to the running back duo of Terry Jackson II and Thomas Tapeh. But Kamrath did have the longest lob of the game, a 40-yard pass in the first quarter that accounted for nearly half of his total yardage.
The junior finished the game 6-of-9 for 101 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions.
“It was a warrior’s performance tonight,” Mason said. “Coming into that situation, I thought he played very well, leading our team.”
Given Kamrath’s strong game, Mason could not say which of his two quarterbacks will start next week at Michigan State.
“Ahh,” he said, “we’ve got a quarterback controversy.”
WHAT’S WRONG, WAZ?: Northwestern kicker David Wasielewski missed both of his field-goal attempts — either of which could have made the difference between overtime and a long ride home Thursday night.
In all fairness, the attempts were from 45 and 53 yards. But the latter fell far short, bouncing off the “E” in the Minnesota end zone.
Wasielewski raised his own bar last season when he had a perfect record on five field-goal attempts from 40-49 yards.
“It’d be nice if we knocked a couple through those white poles,” NU head coach Randy Walker said after the game. “It wasn’t raining, it wasn’t blowing. Let’s go.”
CLOCKWORK: Mason was happy to see his two running backs combine for 415 yards — and not just because he gets a kick out of impressive offensive numbers.
“Thank God we were running the ball,” he said, “because it eats up a lot of clock.”
On their final drive of the game — with NU suddenly trailing by three — the Gophers swallowed up 4:12 to run the clock out.
AMAZING MAYS: Minnesota wide receiver Jermaine Mays has made his name on special teams, where he blocked a punt and returned it for a touchdown last night for the second week in a row.
With the score tied at 21 late in the second quarter, Mays sucked a Brian Huffman punt into his stomach and ran it nine yards into the end zone. The Gophers took the 28-21 lead into the locker room and held onto it for the rest of the game.
“The only bad thing was he got a 15-yard penalty for shaking hands with the crowd,” said Mason, referring to the excessive celebration call that followed Mays’ touchdown.
The penalty forced kicker Dan Nystrom to effectively kick a field goal for the extra point.
“I think that’s a bad rule anyway,” Mason said.
INCHES TO GO: The last time NU won a Big Ten game was against Minnesota in Evanston last season, on Oct. 13. And the last Big Ten road victory came against Minnesota as well, two years ago. … Every contest the two teams have played since 1988 has been a close one, decided by 10 or fewer points. … The Wildcats scored more points in the fourth quarter, 21, than they did in last week’s loss to Ohio State.
