The difference in Northwestern’s 28-13 win over Minnesota came down to a simple punt.
Facing a fourth-and-nine from their own 29-yard line, the Golden Gophers sent out Dan Orseske to punt. The kick sailed a measly nine yards and the Wildcats turned the mistake into a 14-point lead.
“Their punter hit a 70-some-odd-yard punt and we hit a 15- or 10-yard punt, that’s a 60-yard play,” Minnesota coach Jerry Kill said. “When you lose that much yardage, that’s a pretty critical situation.”
The first punt Kill referred to was a 77-yard blast off the foot of sophomore Brandon Williams that was downed at the Minnesota four-yard line. That punt was followed by a Golden Gophers punt, as opposed to the seven points that followed Orseske’s punt.
Williams’ single punt came 19 yards shy of Minnesota’s four punts combined. The sophomore averaged a whopping 58.3 yards per punt on his three attempts, while the Golden Gophers’ two punters combined for an average of 24 yards.
“One of the biggest plays in football that people don’t realize is the punt,” Kill said.
NU’s dominance on special teams went far beyond punting the ball. In his two touches on kickoffs, Venric Mark averaged 44 yards per return. The sophomore speedster was one block away from scoring a touchdown on each return. The kicks set the Cats up with an average starting field position on the Golden Gophers’ 48-yard line.
“My coach talked to me about field position and being able to score,” Mark said. “That’s our job, coming out at the beginning of a game.”
Mark was tripped up once after junior running back Tyris Jones let his block slip. On the opening kickoff, Mark was pushed out of bounds by Kim Royston after the Minnesota safety came free from his block. Mark said he thought he was going to score on both returns, especially given the miscues by Minnesota’s kickoff coverage team. He said that on the second return, he saw the man that was supposed to bottle him up in the middle make a mistake and Mark took advantage, hitting the hole opened up for him on the outside.
The Cats also played well in the coverage aspects of special teams. Golden Gophers return man Malcolm Moulton recorded just 58 yards on his three kick returns. His longest was a 31-yard return to the Minnesota 44, which the Golden Gophers failed to capitalize on.
Coach Pat Fitzgerald said that NU was wary of the speed Minnesota possesses on the kickoff team before the game began. He said that the Cats didn’t perform well on special teams against Rice, but that he was happy with the improvement he saw against the Golden Gophers.
“Our kicking game had a huge challenge (Saturday),” Fitzgerald said. “To see how the players responded (Saturday) makes me really proud of the young men.”
Jordan Wettstein was a bright spot for the Minnesota special teams unit. The Golden Gophers kicker hit a 28-yard chip shot in the second quarter and added a 48-yard wind-aided field goal in the fourth that easily cleared the uprights.
Nonetheless, Kill was unhappy with his team’s performance on special teams. He said that he prides his teams on having great special teams play, and as a result, Saturday’s loss came as a particular disappointment.
After the game, Kill ran down the game statistics, noting how even they were, with one exception.
“We got beat in the kicking game, period,” Kill said. “If you’ve followed my career for a long time, we’ve always been good in the kicking game. It’s frustrating. It should be a nail biter in the end, but you go down to the kicking game and that’s the difference.”
