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The Battle for the Broken Chair is back! The most awesome trophy of the Huskers Big Ten era is up for grabs this Saturday.
Nebraska heads to Minnesota for the first of two consecutive November road games. Saturday's game is a key contest for the bowl hopes of both Nebraska and Minnesota, who both enter the game with a 4-5 record with three games to play. The Huskers and Gophers both need a pair of victories in the final three weeks to secure a postseason berth.
Nebraska's path to a bowl game got a little more difficult following a 31-24 overtime loss to Northwestern on Saturday in Lincoln. The Huskers took a touchdown lead into the final quarter, but the Wildcats rallied to force their third straight overtime and prevailed in the extra session.
Minnesota enters the game with a 4-5 record and a 1-5 mark in Big Ten Conference play, following a 33-10 loss at Michigan on Saturday. The Gophers opened the year with a 3-0 non-conference record, before finding the going tougher in conference play and posting a 1-5 record in Big Ten action. Minnesota is led by first-year head coach P.J. Fleck, who guided Western Michigan to an unbeaten regular season in 2016. The Gophers have a strong defense, ranking fifth in the Big Ten, including second in the conference in pass defense.
Date/Time: November 11, 2017 at 11:00 a.m. CST
Location: TCF Bank Stadium, Minneapolis, MN Capacity: 50,805
Surface: Field Turf
Opposition Blog: Check out The Daily Gopher for everything Golden Gopher.
Series Record: Minnesota holds a 31-24-2 edge in the all time series.
TV: The game will be televised on FS1 with Brian Custer, Play-by-Play and Ben Leber, Analyst. The game can be streamed on FoxSportsGo with a login from your TV service provider.
Radio: Huskers sports radio network. The audio can also be streamed live for free at huskers.com The crew will be: Greg Sharpe, Matt Davison, and Ben McLaughlin. It will also be simulcast on Sirius: 81 and XM: 81.
More streaming options: The official Huskers app is available on iTunes. The app is free but accessing live audio costs $4.99 (per season). The app is available for Android users for free but the live content requires an in-app purchase. I often use the TuneIn app for game audio.
Weather: At kickoff, the temperature will be 37 degrees and mostly sunny with southerly winds at 10 mph.
Odds: Minnesota is favored by 2.5 points.
Trivia
Nebraska redshirt freshman and Minnesota native JD Spielman has 1,154 all-purpose yards this season. Spielman is 105 yards from the Nebraska freshman all-purpose yardage record of 1,259 yards by Ahman Green in 1995.
Nebraska senior linebacker Chris Weber has three consecutive games with double-figure tackles, including a team-high 11 against Northwestern. Weber leads the Huskers with 77 tackles on the season.
Saturday's game will mark the 58th all-time meeting between Nebraska and Minnesota. The Huskers have played Minnesota more than any other Big Ten opponent. NU and Minnesota met for 19 straight seasons (1934-1952).