2011 Gopher Football Preview
WELL-DONE By Cynthia Scott Nothing tests unity like adversity, and the Gophers had plenty of that in their tumultuous 2010 season. But adversity can strengthen a team if it has players with character and skill leading the way. Whatever the Gophers’ other challenges in 2011, they are deep in team leadership. Meet three players whose steady presence makes a difference on and off the field.
“Football isn’t won on the field, it’s won off the field—in how you practice and think, the choices you make, and how you relate to other players,” Bennett says. The lesson meshes perfectly with the charismatic senior’s personality. A careful listener whose wide smile borders on impish, Bennett is devoted to his teammates and determined to finish his Gopher career on a winning note. “You have to work things out together on the field and off. You have to gain each other’s trust. Listening to each other’s stories is huge. When you get to know people, it makes you want to do your best for them,” he says. Bennett, who graduated in May with a degree in sociology, started his Big Ten career as one of the top young running backs in the conference. A seasonending knee injury the second game of 2008, his sophomore year, set back his on-the-field development. But it also contributed significantly to shaping him into the mature leader he is. “After I tore my ACL my sophomore year, I learned how little the individual matters. I just want to be the best senior role model I can be. The team is what matters,” he says. He spent the summer working out
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and mentoring his young teammates. “You hear about guys being so homesick they don’t even want to go to class, and I can help by talking to them. It helps to talk.” This year Bennett is sure to be the same workhorse on the field that he’s been since returning from his injury in 2009. With a career total of 1,506 yards and 14 rushing touchdowns, he is the Gophers most experienced back and has also contributed as a receiver and kick returner. Still feeling the momentum from the Gophers’ upset wins over Illinois and Iowa in the final games of last season, Bennett is confident that the team’s off-the-field preparation will pay off. After all, he knows that’s where games are won. M i k e R a l l i s i s t i r e d o f l o s i n g .
Disappointed in himself for not living up to his own expectations last year, he decided during the off-season that it was time, he says, “to put up or shut up.” “I’m putting a lot of pressure on myself to live up to my expectations this year. I refuse, on every snap, to lose,” he says. The junior linebacker expects the same iron resolve of his teammates, and he takes it upon himself to demonstrate putting that ethic into action. “I really try first and foremost to lead by example.
Left to right: MarQueis Gray, Duane Bennett, and Mike Rallis
I do every little extra thing I can do, and I think the big thing this year is getting other people to come along with me. If you’re the only guy working hard, it’s kind of pointless. Every single guy matters.” Last year’s anemic rushing defense finished 11th in the conference, and the scoring defense finished ninth. The defense’s nine total sacks ranked last in the nation. Rallis, who started in six games after spending most of the 2009 season rehabbing a broken leg, led the team in interceptions with three. He is confident that a more experienced,
Photograph BY DAN MARSHALL
D u a n e B e n n e t t ( B . A . ’ 1 1 ) p ra c t i cally wears on his shirtsleeve a lesson he learned from Coach Jerry Kill.