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Opponent Preview BNeubert@GoldandBlack.com BY BRIAN NEUBERT And you thought the Boiler- sota this weekend for a battle of teams still looking for their first Big Ten win. The visitors will be catching tion has been complicated. Purdue travels makers' quarterbacks situa- to Minne- the Gophers in transition. In the midst of a three-game losing streak after a 4-0 start, Coach Jerry Kill moved injury- plagued starting quarterback MarQueis Gray to wide receiver, presumably on a full-time basis; pulled freshman Philip Nelson out of redshirt; and threw the rookie right into the starting job. Minnesota has played three Philip Nelson got his redshirt pulled and made his first start at quarterback last weekend. different quarterbacks this sea- son, now turning to Nelson, who made his first career start in a loss at Wisconsin last weekend. "With a lot of true freshmen quarterbacks," cornerback Josh Johnson said, "we know coaches are going to try to make things easy on them and keep things as simple as possible. … They prob- ably won't give him too much, more than he can handle. "Maybe we can blitz him a lot and show him a lot of fronts to make him think more and confuse him." When Kill recruited Nelson, Minnesota BOILERMAKERS, GOPHERS EACH LOOKING FOR FIRST BIG TEN WIN Game 8: Minnesota Golden Gophers 3:30 p.m. ET • TCF Bank Stadium • TV: BTN he reportedly promised that he'd either redshirt or start. Turns out, he'd do a little bit of both, thanks to Gray and backup Max getting hurt. Nelson set foot on the Shortell field for the first time at Wis- consin, throwing for 149 yards, two touchdowns and two picks, and running for a team- best 67 yards in a 38-13 loss. "Our ceiver, a position he dabbled at earlier in his career before taking over as Minnesota's quarterback. Gray has struggled with in- on Feichter said, "somebody who can beat you running the ball or throwing the ball." Gray, meanwhile, played re- compare him a little bit to Robert Marve, coaches actually " safety Land- will likely build around in com- ing seasons, so they're moving in that direction now. Meanwhile, if Gray, a fast, ath- letic, 6-foot-5 Indianapolis native, is going to play in the NFL, it will be at a position other than QB. "If Gray was healthy enough " said Lucas Trickle, who covers Minnesota for GopherIl- lustrated.com. "His ankle and knee have been banged up the past few games so I think the coaching staff just felt like they needed to get their quarterback of the future some experience. "Philip Nelson actually to play quarterback I am guess- ing you would likely still see him there, played about as well as you could probably expect a true freshman quarterback to play at Camp Ran- dall Stadium against a veteran Wisconsin defense. He made a mistake or two, but that is to be expected. Is he ready? I think it's tough to say at this point. Most true freshmen aren't ready, but Nelson did enroll early so that definitely helped him learn the offense and get acclimated to college life. We should know more the next cou- ple weeks as he gets a few more starts under his belt. Though it remains en- " jury, but Kill also moved toward Nelson at quarterback with an eye on the future, both his team's and Gray's. Nelson is considered the quarterback the Gophers tirely possible that Gray could still see the occa- sional Wildcat snap at quarterback, Nelson is now the player Minnesota will ask to turn around a sputtering offense. The Ra'Shede Hageman has helped Minnesota's pass defense, its strength, with four sacks. Minnesota scored just 13 points in each of their three Big Ten losses. Minnesota lacks experienced skill-position Gophers have GOLDANDBLACK EXPRESS • VOLUME 23, EXPRESS 8 • 7