2012 Minnesota Golden Gophers football team

The 2012 Minnesota Golden Gophers football team represented the University of Minnesota in the 2012 NCAA Division I FBS football season. They were led by second-year head coach Jerry Kill and played their home games at TCF Bank Stadium. They were a member of the Legends Division of the Big Ten Conference. They finished the season 6–7, 2–6 in Big Ten play to finish in a tie for fifth place in the Legends Division. They were invited to the Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas where they were defeated by Texas Tech.

2012 Minnesota Golden Gophers football
Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas, L 31–34 vs. Texas Tech
Conference	Big Ten Conference
Division	Legends Division
Record	6–7 (2–6 Big Ten)
Head coach	Jerry Kill (2nd season)
Offensive coordinator	Matt Limegrover (2nd season)
Offensive scheme	Spread
Defensive coordinator	Tracy Claeys (2nd season)
Captain	Game captains
Home stadium	TCF Bank Stadium

2012 Big Ten Conference football standings

	Conf							Overall
Team		W		L					W		L
Legends Division
No. 25 Nebraska xy		7	–	1					10	–	4
No. 24 Michigan		6	–	2					8	–	5
No. 17 Northwestern		5	–	3					10	–	3
Michigan State		3	–	5					7	–	6
Iowa		2	–	6					4	–	8
Minnesota		2	–	6					6	–	7
Leaders Division
No. 3 Ohio State* x		8	–	0					12	–	0
Penn State*		6	–	2					8	–	4
Wisconsin y$		4	–	4					8	–	6
Purdue		3	–	5					6	–	7
Indiana		2	–	6					4	–	8
Illinois		0	–	8					2	–	10
Championship: Wisconsin 70, Nebraska 31
$ – BCS representative as conference champion x – Division champion/co-champions * Ohio State and Penn State ineligible for conference championship game and post-season bowl games due to NCAA sanctions. Rankings from AP Poll

Schedule

Date	Time	Opponent	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
August 30	10:00 pm	at UNLV*	Sam Boyd Stadium Whitney, Nevada	CBSSN	W 30–27 3OT	16,013
September 8	11:00 am	No. 12 (FCS) New Hampshire*	TCF Bank Stadium Minneapolis	BTN	W 44–7	47,022
September 15	11:00 am	Western Michigan*	TCF Bank Stadium Minneapolis	BTN	W 28–23	44,921
September 22	7:00 pm	Syracuse*	TCF Bank Stadium Minneapolis	BTN	W 17–10	50,805
September 29	11:00 am	at Iowa	Kinnick Stadium Iowa City, Iowa (Floyd of Rosedale)	ESPN2	L 13–31	70,585
October 13	11:00 am	Northwestern	TCF Bank Stadium Minneapolis	ESPN2	L 13–21	49,651
October 20	11:00 am	at Wisconsin	Camp Randall Stadium Madison, Wisconsin (Paul Bunyan's Axe)	ESPNU	L 13–38	80,587
October 27	2:30 pm	Purdue	TCF Bank Stadium Minneapolis	BTN	W 44–28	41,062
November 3	11:00 am	Michigan	TCF Bank Stadium Minneapolis (Little Brown Jug)	BTN	L 13–35	48,801
November 10	2:30 pm	at Illinois	Memorial Stadium Champaign, Illinois	BTN	W 17–3	46,912
November 17	2:30 pm	at No. 16 Nebraska	Memorial Stadium Lincoln, Nebraska	BTN	L 14–38	85,330
November 24	2:30 pm	Michigan State	TCF Bank Stadium Minneapolis	BTN	L 10–26	44,194
December 28	8:00 pm	vs. Texas Tech*	Reliant Stadium Houston (Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas)	ESPN	L 31–34	50,386
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from Coaches' Poll released prior to the game All times are in Central time

• Source: Schedule Archived March 26, 2013, at the Wayback Machine

Roster

The preliminary roster is based on the previous season's roster and eligibility, along with incoming recruits. All numbers are from www.gophersports.com.

2012 Minnesota Golden Gophers football team roster
Players			Coaches
Offense Pos. # Name Class WR 1 Brandon Green  Sr QB 3 Dexter Foreman  Fr QB 5 MarQueis Gray Sr QB 7 Mitch Leidner Fr WR 8 Cameron Wilson  So QB 9 Philip Nelson Fr QB 11 Max Shortell So WR 12 Andre McDonald Fr WR 14 Isaac Fruechte So WR 15 Marcus Jones So WR 16 Jamel Harbison Fr WR 17 C. J. Cesario  So WR 18 Derrick Engel  Jr WR 19 Matt Kloss Sr RB 20 Donnell Kirkwood  So RB 21 James Gillum Jr RB 25 Devon Wright  So RB 27 David Cobb So TE 28 Moses Alipate  Jr FB 30 Mike Henry  Jr RB 31 Cole Banham  So RB 35 Rodrick Williams Fr TE 39 Gabe Mezzenga  So RB 44 JoJuan Harper Fr TE 47 Alex Bisch  So OL 52 Zac Epping  So G 53 Tommy Olson So OT 58 Ed Olson  Jr OC 62 Zach Mottla  Jr OL 63 Jon Christenson  Fr OL 64 Caleb Bak  So OL 65 Josh Campion  Fr OL 66 Luke McAvoy  Fr OL 68 Issac Hayes Fr OL 70 Sean Ferguson  So OL 71 Kyle McAvoy  Fr OL 73 Joe Bjorklund  Fr OL 74 Marek Lenkiewicz  So OL 75 Ernie Heifort  Fr OT 76 Jimmy Gjere  So OL 77 Foster Bush  Fr OT 78 Ben Lauer Fr OT 79 Jonah Pirsig Fr WR 80 Devin Crawford-Tufts So TE 81 John Rabe Sr TE 83 Drew Goodger So WR 84 Victor Keise  Jr WR 86 Malcolm Moulton Jr TE 87 Sahr Ngekia  Jr TE 88 Maxx Williams Fr WR 89 Logan Hutton  So TE 91 Kendall Gregory-McGhee  So	Defense Pos. # Name Class LB 1 Brendan Beal  Jr DB 2 Troy Stoudermire Sr DB 3 Martez Shabazz Jr LB 4 Keanon Cooper  Sr DB 6 Michael Carter Sr DB 7 Damarius Travis Fr LB 8 Spencer Reeves Sr DB 11 Antonio Johnson Fr DB 13 Derrick Wells So DB 16 Steven Montgomery  Fr LB 17 Nick Rallis Fr LB 18 Peter Westerhaus  Fr DB 19 Cedric Dicke Fr DB 21 Brock Vereen Jr DB 22 Jeremy Baltazar Jr DB 23 Grayson Levine So LB 24 James Manuel Jr LB 26 Mike Rallis  Sr DB 27 Cedric Thompson So DB 28 Kenny Watkins Jr DB 29 Briean Boddy So DB 31 Eric Murray Fr LB 32 Lamonte Edwards  So LB 34 Jephte Matilus  Fr LB 35 Dominic Schultz  Fr DB 40 Nathan Tow-Arnett  Sr DL 42 Gavin Bronson  Fr LB 43 Ryan Grant  Sr DB 45 Ben Holcomb Fr DL 46 Cameron Botticelli  So LB 47 Quinn Bauducco  Fr LB 48 Judd Paffrath  Jr DE 49 Matt Garin Jr LB 50 Jack Lynn Fr DT 52 Yoshoub Timms Fr DE 55 Thieren Cockran  Fr DL 56 Curran Delaney  Sr LB 57 Aaron Hill  Jr LB 59 Joey Balthazor  Jr DL 62 Eric Jacques  Jr DL 67 David Stommes  Jr DL 69 Tyler Hartmann Fr DL 90 Austin Hahn  Sr DE 91 Alex Keith Fr DT 92 Roland Johnson Jr DE 93 Ben Perry  So DL 94 Harold Legania  So DE 95 D.L. Wilhite  Sr DT 97 Scott Ekpe Fr DE 98 Michael Amaefula So DT 99 Ra'Shede Hageman  Jr	Special teams Pos. # Name Class K 36 Chris Hawthorne Jr P 37 Peter Mortell  Fr K 38 David Schwerman  Sr K 39 Jordan Wettstein Sr LS 40 Jared Hartman  Fr P 41 Dan Oreske  Jr LS 48 Jake Filkins Jr LS 96 Dave Ramlet  So	Head coach Jerry Kill Coordinators/assistant coaches Matt Limegrover (offensive coordinator) Tracy Claeys (defensive coordinator) Bill Miller (assistant head coach / linebackers) Brian Anderson (running backs) Jeff Phelps (defensive line) Pat Poore (wide receivers) Rob Reeves (h-backs / tight ends) Jay Sawvel (defensive backs / special teams) Jim Zebrowski (quarterbacks) Ryan Maiuri (graduate assistant) Legend (C) Team captain (S) Suspended (I) Ineligible Injured Redshirt Roster Last update: November 19, 2012

Game summaries

Syracuse

Syracuse at Minnesota

1 2 3 4 Total Syracuse 3 0 0 7 10 • Minnesota 7 0 7 3 17 Date: Saturday, September 22 Location: TCF Bank Stadium, Minneapolis, Minnesota Game start: 8:00 p.m. EST Television network: Big Ten Network Source: ESPN

Scoring summary 1 6:59 MINN Donnell Kirkwood 2 yard run (Jordan Wettstein kick) MINN 7-0 1 1:54 SYR Ross Krautman 33 yard field goal MINN 7-3 3 10:13 MINN Donnell Kirkwood 1 yard run (Jordan Wettstein kick) MINN 14-3 4 3:20 MINN Jordan Wettstein 43 yard field goal MINN 17-3 4 0:46 SYR Marcus Sales 14 yard pass from Ryan Nassib (Ross Krautman kick) MINN 17-10

Minnesota's best start since 2008