Gophers Christen New Stadium With Win

MINNEAPOLIS -- Minnesota head coach Tim Brewster preached it all week. He knew his team had to somehow maintain its focus, despite the festivities planned to celebrate the dawn of a new era for Gopher football. The opening game of TCF Bank Stadium Saturday night did come with much celebration. For some time, the Gophers were caught up in the moment.

Thanks in part to some ill-timed penalties, Air Force took a 10-3 lead in the third quarter. The Gophers finally turned it on after that, scoring 17 straight points en route to a 20-10 win.

Brewster acknowledged that the hype and atmosphere contributed to his team's sluggish on-field start to the game.

"I think that emotionally, it gets you too high for the game," Brewster said, "and coming into the game we had to calm ourselves down a bit, but I was so proud of this place and I want to say thank you. We wanted to give our fans a victory, they deserved one tonight."

50,805 fans jammed into TCF Bank Stadium on a near-perfect Saturday night. The effort they saw for the better part of three quarters was anything but perfect.

The Gophers lost fumbles. Quarterback Adam Weber threw erratically at times. They committed a lot of penalties, killing multiple drives with flags. They badly blew a coverage on Air Force's lone touchdown.

The game's turning point came in the third quarter, when Minnesota faced a third-and-25. Weber was able to find tight end Nick Tow-Arnett down the seam on a perfect play. Tow-Arnett got the first down with a yard or two to spare. The Gophers scored a touchdown early in the fourth quarter to tie the game, and they dominated from there.

When a team is defending the Air Force triple option offense well, you see a lot of plays made by linebackers. Saturday was no different, as Nate Triplett was all over the field for Minnesota. Not only did he set a career high with 17 tackles, but Triplett also scored the winning touchdown. He ran a fumble by Falcons quarterback Tim Jefferson 52 yards to give Minnesota the lead for good at 17-10.

"Defense was set up right off the bat," Triplett said. "We practiced on Tuesday and they (the coaches) said linebackers have to make plays. Coach (Brewster) came to up to me and said we need a big game out of you. I said 'Alright.' I watched a little extra film and did a little extra this and that. I just went out there and did what I was coached to do all week."

Minnesota (1-1) continues non-conference play with a home game against California Saturday, while Air Force (1-1) opens Mountain West Conference play at New Mexico.