Syracuse is the only team in the country to not allow an opposing player to rush for 100 yards.

The SU defense will be put to the test to keep that feat alive when it faces Minnesota running back David Cobb in the Texas Bowl on Dec. 27.

Cobb has rushed for 1,111 yards, good for 29th in the country. He leads the team in total yards and is the main workhorse in a run-heavy attack. Defensive-minded Syracuse head coach Scott Shafer said in a press conference Friday that stopping Cobb and the Golden Gophers’ run game will be critical.

“I think they’ve got a doggone good running back in David Cobb,” Shafer said.

Cobb’s hurt opposing defenses all season. Against San Jose State he racked up 125 yards on the ground and scored two touchdowns. He torched Indiana for 236 all-purpose yards in a 42-39 win. The next week, he burned Penn State for 139 yards.

His production is consistent, and he’s racked up the 20th most rushing attempts in the nation while leading the Gophers to their winningest season since 2003-04.

“He can run the football,” Shafer said, “and he runs it well because they block well up front.”

Shafer called Minnesota a “sound, tough team.” Last time the two teams meet in 2012, and Minnesota won 17-10, the Gophers didn’t turn the ball over at all. They methodically outlasted SU, building up a 17-3 lead before holding on for the win.

Since then, Shafer said, Jerry Kill’s team has continued to become more consistent. Minnesota plays a “good, tough brand of football,” a style not far from the one Shafer dubs “hard-nosed” and encourages his team to live by.

“They’re going to be a team that doesn’t shoot themselves in the foot,” Shafer said.

Minnesota has rushed for more than 2,400 yards as a team while holding its opponents to fewer than 1,850. The Gophers were one of just 35 teams in the NCAA to rush for more than 200 per game and ran the ball 70 percent of the time.

Syracuse, meanwhile, ran 57 percent of the time and finished a hair below the 200 mark as a team. While SU’s passing game was inconsistent all season, its run game was anything but.

Jerome Smith put together an 840-yard, 11-touchdown season, while Prince-Tyson Gulley chipped in 440 on the ground and George Morris II and Devante McFarlane proved reliable third and fourth-string options.

The key for Syracuse will be to counteract Minnesota’s run game with its own.

“For us,” Shafer said, “we need to do a good job trying to run the ball on them.”

Published on December 13, 2013 at 7:06 pm

Contact Trevor: tbhass@syr.edu | @TrevorHass