Game’s ‘business as usual’ for Tech

Meineke

he believes his team has dealt with the changes and is ready to move forward.

“It’s really just business as usual for us,” Thomsen said. “The great thing about this team, the staple of this team, has been leadership all year, and we define leadership as guys who come out every single day focused and do it. If you can do that, you can lead as a freshman, sophomore, senior; it doesn’t matter. And that’s really the way they’ve approached it.”

Minnesota coach Jerry Kill doesn’t expect any drop off for the Red Raiders with Tuberville’s departure.

“I don’t think a whole lot is going to change with them,” Kill said. “Their system, offensively all the way back to coach Leach, has stayed the same, pretty much ... they’ve got good football players, a good system, and I know they’ll be prepared to play.”

Texas Tech returns to a bowl game after seeing an 18-year bowl streak snapped with last season’s disappointing 5-7 finish. This is their fourth straight bowl game in Texas and their eighth since 2000. They’ve won their last two bowl games.

The Gophers are in a bowl for the first time since 2009 and looking for their first bowl win since 2004. They won six games this season, which is the same number of games they won in the previous two seasons combined.

“We’re in the building blocks of a program right now,” Kill said. “There’s no question that getting a bowl victory gives you great momentum going into the offseason. We won our last game of the year last year, and I feel like it took some momentum into the offseason. I think getting a bowl win would be certainly special for this group of kids.”