Column: Minnesota earns back-to-back Big Ten victories

Anyone older than say, 80, might remember how good Minnesota football used to be.

The Gophers have a long, storied football history — just not in this millennium.

Did you know Minnesota won the very first Associated Press national title in 1936? Minnesota also claimed consecutive AP titles in 1940-41 and another in 1960.

Minnesota claims seven overall national titles, though we haven’t heard much from the Gophers since they defeated UCLA, 21-3, in the 1962 Rose Bowl …

… Until now.

One week after wrenching away the Little Brown Jug with a win at Michigan last week, Minnesota followed with a 24-17 home victory over Northwestern.

Minnesota (5-1) is 2-0 in the Big Ten for the first time since 2004.

A lot of Gophers squads might have had a letdown after last week’s big win over Michigan … but not these gutsy Gophers.

“The biggest thing is to be levelheaded and to not get too high or too low,” said running back David Cobb. “We celebrated the [Michigan] win, which we should have. And we prepared well this week, and we will celebrate this one and prepare for next week.”

How about giving Minnesota more than two points in the AP poll this week?

Minnesota’s only loss was at No. 9 Texas Christian, which would have bolted into the top five if not for a stunning 61-58 loss at Baylor aided by a horrible official’s call.

Minnesota should be favored in its next two Big Ten games against Purdue and Illinois.

OK … it’s still early in the Twin Cities.

In 2004, Minnesota started 5-0 but then lost five of its last six regular-season games.

The Gophers did bounce back by defeating Alabama in the Music City Bowl.

Gator quarterback reunion

We all know Florida was short on quarterbacks this week. Backup Treon Harris did not play against Louisiana State one day after he was reinstated by the team after an investigation for alleged sexual assault.

Backup Skyler Mornhinweg got his lip busted up in an altercation with a teammate.

Florida started Jeff Driskel, who was benched last week at Tennessee in favor of Harris, who led the Gators to a 10-9 win.

Meanwhile, in Raleigh, N.C., two transfer quarterbacks from Florida squared off in an Atlantic Coast Conference game.

Former Gator Tyler Murphy, now at Boston College, got the best of former Gator Jacoby Brissett, now at North Carolina State.

Murphy rushed for 132 yards and scored two touchdowns in the Eagles’ 30-14 win. Murphy also completed 12 of 19 passes for 101 yards.

North Carolina State’s Brissett completed 14 of 30 passes for 174 yards, with a touchdown and an intercepted pass.

Todd who?

We might be overselling the importance of our nation’s greatest players.

Florida State played the entire Clemson game without suspended quarterback Jameis Winston — and still won the game in overtime.

Georgia played at Missouri on Saturday without suspended tailback Todd Gurley.

Big deal: Georgia plugged freshman Nick Chubb in Gurley’s place and crushed Missouri, 34-0.

Chubb rushed for 143 yards in 38 carries.

“Everybody said that Georgia was dead without Todd,” Chubb said. “But we proved that we’re still in it.”

Chubb looks like a younger version of Gurley, who may sit out several games as a result of the investigation.

It’s not every day that a team goes into Missouri and comes out with a win.

Well, Indiana did it on Sept. 20, but … it was still an impressive win for a 5-1 Georgia team trying to win a wide-open race in the Southeastern Conference East.

It was Georgia’s first shutout win on the road over a ranked opponent in school history.

In Heisman we trust?

It was an “honest” mistake, by the Heisman Trophy “Trust,” over the word “integrity.”

You can’t “make this up.”

The governing body of college football’s biggest individual award admitted it erroneously omitted the word “integrity” from its Heisman Trust Mission Statement in a recent redesign of the website.

That’s sort of like inadvertently omitting “We the people” from your website version of the preamble to the U.S. Constitution.

“The Trust created a new website on Oct. 1, 2014, which required extensive input of information and materials by staff,” Heisman Trust President William J. Dockery explained to SI.com. “During the website creations process ‘integrity’ was erroneously omitted from the Trust mission statement by staff without Trust authorization. This omission has been corrected.”

The timing couldn’t have been more priceless in a week during which reigning Heisman winner Winston faces a disciplinary hearing at Florida State in the aftermath of a sexual assault complaint last year. No charges were filed.

Georgia tailback Gurley, one of this year’s Heisman favorites, has been suspended indefinitely as the school investigates allegations whether he accepted money for signing memorabilia.

You could argue, in essence, the word “integrity” has been omitted from the Heisman mission statement for several years.