Syracuse (6-6, 4-4 Atlantic Coast) faces Minnesota (8-4, 4-4 Big 10) in the Texas Bowl at 6 p.m. in Reliant Stadium on Friday night. The Daily Orange spoke with Jack Satzinger, a Minnesota football beat writer from the Minnesota Daily, about the game.

The Daily Orange: What can you tell us about the Minnesota offense? What kind of stuff do they like to run?

Jack Satzinger: Definitely it’s run-heavy. David Cobb’s the catalyst for the running game and the offense as a whole taking off this season. They like to run a lot of jets, particularly with Donovahn Jones, who’s a true freshman wide receiver. He actually was recruited as a quarterback, and can kind of be used in the wildcat or the read option, because he’s really athletic. He’s been playing a lot in the slot, and he’s now moved out wide after Derrick Engel, who is the team’s leading receiver, tore his ACL about a month ago. They’ll likely put out Drew Wolitarsky and Jones at wide receiver. They’re both true freshman. I’m guessing you’ll see a much-improved passing attack since they’ve had a full month to practice.

The D.O.: What about the quarterback situation?

J.S.: It’s definitely mostly (Philip) Nelson. (Mitch) Leidner got a lot of playing time earlier on in the year because Nelson had a lingering hamstring issue. Now it seems like the strategy with the coaching staff is they like to run the read option a lot, and they want bigger quarterbacks that can take a beating a little bit. Minnesota’s head coach used to be at Northern Illinois and he recruited Jordan Lynch, and that was kind of the blueprint for what he’s trying to do at Minnesota. Basically they have two quarterbacks. Nelson’s the starter, but he wants another guy with the same skill set, because if you’re running a lot you’re obviously going to get hurt a lot, too. Nelson will play 90 percent of the snaps, if not all of them.

The D.O.: Do you think Minnesota’s disappointed in the draw and the fact that it’s playing Syracuse? Do you think the team wanted a more challenging opponent?

J.S.: I would definitely say that they were hoping for better. I think that they probably thought that they deserved a little more. Brock Vereen – who’s a senior statesman on the team and the younger brother of Patriots’ running back Shane Vereen – said about an hour after they found out they were going to the Texas Bowl that they were really looking to blow Syracuse out so that they can show the committee that they were wrong and that this team is a team to be reckoned with going forward. They weren’t particularly outspoken about it, but Vereen definitely touched on that a bit.

The D.O.: With that in mind, how do you think they’ve kept the mindset of preparing for it like they would any other game?

J.S.: They’ve pretty much embraced the role of underdog the whole year. Last year they had the word underdog painted on their compression shirts that they wore under their jerseys. They’ll always say that they want to be the underdog and surprise teams a little bit. I would guess they’re focusing on Syracuse like they’re Michigan State, and that they’re just going up against another really talented team. I don’t think that the focus is really a problem.

The D.O.: It’s their best year since 2003. How do you think that’s happened?

J.S.: I think they’ve really learned how to play within themselves. They don’t make mistakes and rarely turn the ball over. They hardly ever have any penalties. They just play a simple, tough-nosed brand of football, where, obviously their defense is very tough; it’s incredibly deep as well. They had a lot of injuries early on in the year, particularly in the secondary, but they haven’t really missed a beat there. On offense the passing attack hasn’t really been very prolific, but when you have an offensive line where you didn’t graduate anyone the previous year they’re not going to make mistakes. It’s going to be much easier to establish a running game as well.

Published on December 26, 2013 at 11:36 pm

Contact Trevor: tbhass@syr.edu | @TrevorHass