Minnesota vs. Iowa: Stopping the run will be key

If the Minnesota Golden Gophers want to keep Floyd of Rosedale for the third straight year, they know they'll have to do a better job of stopping the Iowa Hawkeyes running game. The Gophers were able to withstand Marcus Coker's 252 yard, two touchdown performance last year, but defensive coordinator Tracy Claeys knows they can't see a repeat and hope for another win.

Greg Weisman has only started two games for the Hawkeyes, but already has 330 yards and six touchdowns over that span. Also, at 6'2", 225 lbs, Weisman is about the same size is many of the Gophers' linebackers. Because of that, the most important part of stopping the run is not letting Weisman hit the second level with a full head of steam, according to Claeys.

"He can come down hill all he wants, but without any blocking he won’t get many yards," Claeys said. "They do a great job up front. They really do. They get a body on a body. He hardly ever gets hit before he gets to the line of scrimmage. By the time you get that much momentum going forward, it’s an issue. So we got to get some penetration. We got to make him go sideline to sideline."