Unlikely Bowl Contenders Minnesota, Duke, Wake Forest Face Big Games Saturday

Sept 22, 2012; Minneapolis, MN, USA: Minnesota Golden Gophers head coach Jerry Kill waves his arms up and down to the crowd after beating the Syracuse Orange at TCF Bank Stadium. The Gophers won 17-10. Mandatory Credit: Jesse Johnson-US PRESSWIRE

Various Saturdays are given nicknames throughout the college football season. This week has yet to get an official moniker, though SaturdayBlitz.com would like to suggest something to do with gut check. Or bowls. Or bowls of gut checks. Marketing really isn’t my strong suit.

Anyway, this Saturday features several games with surprise bowl contenders at crossroads. Minnesota, Duke, Wake Forest, Arizona and Oregon State have greatly exceeded expectations and can take early successes to the next level.

Minnesota is 4-0, though the Golden Gophers’ list of victories isn’t likely to wow anyone but Minny fans who have seen the program lose games it shouldn’t in years past.

The Gophers head to Iowa City, where this year rival Iowa has already lost twice: last week to Central Michigan, and in Week 2 in another rivalry game vs. Iowa State. Minnesota brings with it a modest, yet powerfully symbolic win streak over the Hawkeyes. Each defeat of Iowa the last two seasons served to wash some of the bad taste out of Gopher fans’ mouths from the struggles of sub-par seasons.

Although early in the campaign, the roles are somewhat reversed. Minny is undefeated with bowl aspirations, and Iowa has lurched to an unimpressive 2-2 start, prompting some — many? — to vote no confidence in head coach Kirk Ferentz. Another loss to Minnesota would send the Hawkeyes into tail spin.

Conversely, a 5-0 start and second defeat of Iowa would propel the Jerry Kill era into a new attitude of hope and change not seen since the 2008 presidential election.

Making sense of the ACC beyond Florida State being the clear cut team to beat is no easy feat. To wit, Duke plays Wake Forest in Winston-Salem and the winner moves to 4-1. Now, no one is confusing the Demon Deacons nor the Blue Devils with bona fide top 25 teams — each suffered its sole defeat against its only ranked opponent in lopsided fashion. However, leaving September 4-1 for these two programs is a decidedly big deal — so much so, that two of its more recent and recognizable quarterback alumni took to Twitter for some playful trash talk:

Riley Skinner quarterbacked Wake’s Orange Bowl, and three bowl appearances. Thaddeus Lewis got Duke to about as respectable a level as the Blue Devils have reached in ages. Their teams’ successes are the foundation for Saturday’s meeting, and current quarterbacks Tanner Price and Sean Renfree seek to build off that.

Quietly, Renfree is emerging as the latest example of David Cutcliffe’s quarterback coaching acumen. He’s completing better than 70 percent of his pass attempts, is just shy of 1100 yards on the year and has thrown nine touchdowns.

Jim Grobe is one of the more unappreciated coaches in college football. Wake’s 2006 ACC title run and subsequent Orange Bowl appearance is the obvious crown jewel of his tenure, but the Demon Deacons have a knack for overachieving regularly. Grobe is a head coach who knows how to scrap and claw his team’s way to the postseason, having reached bowl games four of the last six seasons.

Duke has no such blueprint, rather winging it based on other teams’ experiences. Sure, David Cutcliffe coordinated with some mighty successful programs, but now he captains the ship. This trip to Winston-Salem is a potentially defining moment for both a Duke program lacking a bowl appearance in almost all of the last two decades, and for Cutcliffe as head coach.

Out west, Oregon State travels to Tucson and Arizona Stadium, where it has won every time it’s played there since 1997. The Beavers are in the top 25 with a pair of wins over ranked opponents, boasting a revamped passing defense and one of the nation’s premiere passers in Sean Mannion.

Mike Riley could always be counted on to overachieve, but the last two seasons has slid to an 8-16 mark and spent the holiday season at home. Pundits tabbed the Beavers for the Pac-12 North cellar this summer, perhaps not counting on the rush defense doing a complete 180 from a season ago, nor on Mannion continuing to air it out in such prolific fashion. The Beavers quickly went from a team pegged for the bottom, to one some have wondered if it could hang with three-time defending league champion and rival Oregon.

Early on, he’s among the conference’s best passers. Ahead of him is Arizona’s Matt Scott, who will be lined up on the opposing offensive side Saturday. Scott’s fifth year savvy has made Rich Rodriguez’s transition to head coach relatively smooth, the Wildcats starting 3-1 with a defeat of Oklahoma State.

UA’s rebuilding project is well ahead of schedule — the thought of a bowl game seemed unlikely with the Wildcats featuring untested players and a thin bench. However, knocking off its second ranked opponent of the season would make that unlikelihood suddenly very realistic.