TEMPLE (+41.5) at MINNESOTA -- Minnesota was slapped around by California last week, yielding 531 yards in a 25-point defeat. So the Gophers will be an angry bunch, and they couldn't have scheduled a better opponent for this situation. Temple is in a massive rebuilding process under new coach Al Golden - so massive, in fact, that 29 of the players on the Owls' roster have made their college football debut this season. Sixteen true freshmen are receiving significant playing time, some of them are part of Temple's best recruiting class in some time, but the program will take a while to get over the sting of losing scholarships due to the poor academic performance of the institution. In last week's game, Temple gave up 671 yards to Louisville - 312 yards of that on the ground, even without the injured Michael Bush. And Brian Brohm was lifted in the third quarter. This team has a long way to go. and Minnesota rarely wastes an opportunity to beat up on an opponent - the Gophers can beat those in the upper reaches of the Big Ten, but they have trounced weaker teams like Tulsa (49-10 and 41-10), Florida Atlantic (46-7), Illinois (45-0), Toledo (63-21), Troy (48-7) and Indiana (55-7) in recent years, "chalking" up a 14-3 ATS record when laying double digits. While offensively, this team may be a little weaker than it has been lately, it still has plenty of veteran skill players to run up the score. And run up the score it will.
THE PLAY: MINNESOTA **
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