2008 Minnesota Golden Gophers football team
| 2008 Minnesota Golden Gophers football | |
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Insight Bowl, L 42–21 vs. Kansas
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| Conference | Big Ten Conference |
| 2008 record | 7–6 (3–5 Big Ten) |
| Head coach | Tim Brewster |
| Offensive coordinator | Mike Dunbar |
| Offensive scheme | Spread |
| Defensive coordinator | Ted Roof |
| Base defense | 4–3 |
| Home stadium |
Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome (Capacity: 64,172) |
| 2008 Big Ten football standings | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Conf | Overall | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Team | W | L | W | L | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| #8 Penn State $+ | 7 | – | 1 | 11 | – | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| #9 Ohio State %+ | 7 | – | 1 | 10 | – | 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| #24 Michigan State | 6 | – | 2 | 9 | – | 4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Northwestern | 5 | – | 3 | 9 | – | 4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| #20 Iowa | 5 | – | 3 | 9 | – | 4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wisconsin | 3 | – | 5 | 7 | – | 6 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Minnesota | 3 | – | 5 | 7 | – | 6 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Illinois | 3 | – | 5 | 5 | – | 7 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Purdue | 2 | – | 6 | 4 | – | 8 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Michigan | 2 | – | 6 | 3 | – | 9 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Indiana | 1 | – | 7 | 3 | – | 9 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 2008 Minnesota Golden Gophers football team was the second under head coach Tim Brewster. They began play on August 30, 2008 at home against Northern Illinois from the Mid-American Conference, and finished the regular season against Iowa, on November 22. It was the Golden Gophers' final season in the Metrodome, as they moved into TCF Bank Stadium in 2009. The Gophers accepted a bid to the Insight Bowl and played Kansas on December 31 at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona.
On February 21, 2008, it was announced that Ted Roof, the previous head coach of Duke, would replace Everett Withers as the Gophers new defensive coordinator. Withers had previously announced that he was taking the defensive coordinator job at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The Golden Gophers opened the 2008 season hosting a Saturday night game against Northern Illinois. After receiving the opening kickoff, Minnesota compiled a 16-play, 90-yard drive that chewed 8:50 off the clock and ended with an 8-yard TD pass from Adam Weber to Eric Decker. Northern Illinois responded early in the 2nd quarter with a 2-yard TD run from Justin Anderson, and a pair of field goals knotted the halftime score at 10–10. Two big plays by the Golden Gophers set the tone through the 3rd quarter — a 53-yard TD catch by Jack Simmons and 61-yard TD run by Duane Bennett that staked Minnesota to a 24–13 lead. The Huskies answered with two long TD bombs of 91 and 52 yards from Chandler Harnish to Nathan Palmer. As Minnesota began their final drive of the game on their own 26 yard line with 5:25 on the clock, they trailed NIU 27–24. Weber led a methodical drive down the field, completing all 5 of his pass attempts until the Gopher offense stalled in the red zone, bringing up 4th and 1 from the NIU 3. Rather than electing to kick the field goal and send the game into overtime, coach Brewster put the offense back out on the field, and they rewarded his aggressiveness. Bennett converted the 1st down on a short run, and the Gophers immediately ran the same play for a 1-yd TD. After putting the ensuing kickoff out of bounds and giving the Huskies the ball on their own 40, the Minnesota defense batted away a Hail Mary pass into the endzone as time expired to preserve the 31–27 victory.
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