Week two of the Big Ten saw the opening game for Minnesota, and the Gophers held off Michigan State 26-17 to move to 1-0.

 

Meanwhile, Wisconsin hammered Illinois 61-14 to move to 2-0. Iowa rebounded from a big loss to Wisconsin the week before to beat Purdue convincingly 64-0. And Indiana were also impressive winners, riding Jake Hidalgo’s four tries to beat Ohio State 50-22.

 

Minnesota Head Coach Rob Holder said he was somewhat concerned with how his Gophers would start as they had not been able to convert pressure into points in their preseason games. 

 

“We started the game with the same problem, but we started to make adjustments,” said Holder. “We needed to be more patient. Impatience was leading to poor decisions. As we got more patient and slowed down, our decision-making got better.

 

“We had a strong scrum and once we attacked off that we were able to get some points.”

 

Loosehead prop Zack Henslee was a standout for Minnesota, scoring two tries and setting up another. 

 

“Zack had a phenomenal game,” said Holder. 


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