The Original Game » he 2019 European Games in his other role as head o

MINNEAPOLIS -- With a new position coach, a couple of junior-college transfers in the starting lineup and another as a key backup, Minnesotas offensive line has undergone a significant change in identity. Custom Joe Crede Jersey .The primary focus, buoyed by an intense offseason of work in the weight room, for the Gophers in 2016 was to present more of a punishing group of blockers to help restore the power in the running game. Road graders was the way coach Tracy Claeys colorfully described the style of players desired up front.Their performance in the opener was a promising start. Quarterback Mitch Leidner wasnt sacked in the game, and the Gophers rushed for touchdowns on all four trips inside the 20-yard line.There were Oregon State players falling over the place, Leidner said, so it was good to see the o-line knocking people on the ground.Senior right tackle Jonah Pirsig led the way with the pancake blocks. He was even singled out by the coaches during the film review of the 30-23 victory.Its always fun to be shown for doing good things. Its never fun to be shown doing bad things, Pirsig said. So I think some of the other guys kind of saw that, and they want to be that guy too. So hopefully theyll have a clip from all five of us on the offensive line this coming week.Theres more motivation, too, in the form of a cup-shaped trophy new offensive line coach Bart Miller has initiated for the player collecting the most knockdowns. At the end of the season, hell get his name on it.Its sitting down in our meeting room right now, Pirsig said. It kind of keeps guys hungry.After an overall uneven performance against Oregon State, Minnesota will have eight days between games before hosting Indiana State on Saturday.We have to come out right away and step on the gas. Facing an FCS opponent, we have to prepare the same way we would for a Big Ten school. I think in the past some of those teams havent been taken as seriously as they should, Pirsig said. We have to treat it just the way we would Ohio State or Michigan, so that we dont end up like some of the teams that got upset in week one. Its going to feel good regardless, but its going to feel a lot better if we beat them by 60.Here are some key angles to know about the game:THE VISITORSIndiana State, best known for the basketball program that produced NBA star and Hall of Fame forward Larry Bird from the 1979 NCAA runner-up team, made the FCS playoffs in 2014 out of the super-competitive Missouri Valley Conference. The Sycamores, who finished 5-6 last year, beat Butler 41-25 in their season opener.ONE LEVEL UPIndiana State beat an FBS opponent as recently as 2014, rival Ball State, but the all-time record against teams currently in the Big Ten is 0-15. That includes losses at Minnesota in 1989 and 1993.ONE LEVEL DOWNThe last loss by the Gophers an FCS team was in 2011 to North Dakota State, but the opportunities for humiliation at home have dwindled with the decision by conference athletic directors to stop scheduling FCS foes to boost the leagues overall strength of schedule and bids for spots in the College Football Playoff. Minnesota previously put South Dakota State on the books for the 2019 season opener, but thats the only such game left.ROOKIE STARSFour true freshmen played for the Gophers last week. Defensive end Taiyon Devers had two sacks and two forced fumbles. Wide receiver Tyler Johnson, who went to Minneapolis North High School just five miles west of the university, caught three passes for 31 yards and provided a key block on Leidners first rushing score.Hes already made a ton of growth from our first throwing session in the summer, Leidner said. I would have never been able to guess that he would be able to play this year.INJURY REPORTWide receiver Rashad Still (shoulder) will miss the next month, but wide receiver Eric Carter (ankle), running back Shannon Brooks (foot) and tight end Brandon Lingen (shoulder) could all return on Saturday after sitting out the opener. Custom White Sox Jersey China . -- The Bishops Gaiters are showing they belong among the countrys top varsity football teams. Custom Michael Jordan Jersey . Its 1987 and a Brazilian playmaker, known as Mirandinha, is being paraded around St James Park to the passionate Newcastle fans. http://www.customwhitesoxjersey.com/cust...large-221p.html . But now that hes in the NHL, the Calgary Flames centre showed big improvement in that department by scoring the winner in the eighth round of a 5-4 shootout victory over the Winnipeg Jets on Monday. MOSCOW -- The International Olympic Committee is weighing up whether to ban Russia from next months games in Rio de Janeiro after revelations of a massive doping cover-up, but relations between the two were once much sunnier.When IOC president Thomas Bach was elected in 2013, he was called almost immediately by Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose country was then gearing up to host the Winter Olympics in Sochi. Bach, a former fencer from Germany, took the call as his IOC colleagues waited to continue the proceedings.What the two men spoke about isnt known, though they had more in common than a shared interest in the Sochi Olympics, which have since been overshadowed by allegations that Russian officials colluded to sabotage the drug testing laboratory at the games.Putin is a keen athlete, with judo and ice hockey his favorite sports, while Bach has longstanding sports and personal links to Russia.Those links will be tested after World Anti-Doping Agency investigator Richard McLaren alleged top Russian officials including Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko, a close Putin ally, had personally intervened to cover up hundreds of failed drug tests.The IOCs executive board meets Sunday and is expected to provide final confirmation for a ban on the Russian track and field team. The board said earlier this week it will explore the legal options for banning all Russians from the games, across all sports, following what Bach called a shocking and unprecedented attack on the integrity of sports and on the Olympic Games.At an IOC event three days before the opening of the Sochi Olympics, with Putin in attendance, Bach thanked the Russian president in person for his great commitment to the games and for the way he set the pace in this great endeavor.Bach also addressed the subject of doping, praising what he said were tough IOC rules. The fight for the clean athletes, this should be our motto, Bach said. Fighting for the clean athletes means we have to protect them from doping, any kind of manipulation and related corruption.Bach has been a regular visitor to Russia in his three years as head of the IOC, both before and after the Sochi Olympics. Putin has also shown himself willing to travel to improve contacts wwith the IOC, giving a well received speech in 2007 in Guatemala -- delivered in English, which is rare for Putin -- ahead of the vote which gave Sochi the 2014 Olympics. Custom Bo Jackson Jersey. Since he won Olympic gold in 1976, Bachs chosen sport of fencing has been transformed, most recently by Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, a Putin ally who has pumped large sums of his own money into the sport over eight years as president of the International Fencing Federation.That money has increased the profile of one of the more niche sports on the Olympic program, making for a bigger media presence and glitzier competitions.Bach also has business connections in Russia. After becoming president of the IOC, he kept his other role as chairman of the supervisory board of Weinig, a Germany company which produces woodworking machinery. Weinig, which did not respond to requests for comment, has a strong presence in Russia, with a headquarters near Moscow and offices across the country.Besides Bach, several other influential IOC members have long been sympathetic to Russia.Putin was presented with world swimmings highest honor last year by federation head Julio Maglione, who has yet to comment on McLarens allegations that Russian officials sabotaged the testing program at its world championships last year. Ice hockey federation president Rene Fasel is a friend of Mutko and regular visitor to Moscow.Patrick Hickey, an Irish member of the IOCs executive board, has been trying to persuade the Russian government to host the 2019 European Games in his other role as head of the European Olympic Committees.The European Games have run into trouble after a much-criticized debut edition in Azerbaijan last year and the decision of the Netherlands to pull out of hosting the next games in 2019. Tuesdays IOC statement on the McLaren report said the IOC would no longer organize or give patronage to the European Games if held in Russia.Other IOC board members, however, harbor less sympathy for Russia. WADA, which wants Russias entire team banned from Rio, also has its president Craig Reedie on the IOC board. ' ' '