Offensive lineman aren't known for being attention grabbers on the team, but Blaise Andries is not your typical lineman.
Andries not only puts time and effort into his blocking abilities, but his hair as well. He and his fellow front-five teammates have a trend with the locks going.
"I don't know about the whole team, but the o-line seems to have one," Andries said. "I haven't cut mine (hair) since last July. I've gotten it trimmed and I got highlights in it."
The Marshall, Minnesota native doesn't just have highlights under his helmet, but plenty on the field as well. In prep ball at Marshall High School, Andries was named All-District his junior season and first team All-State his senior season along with Marshall area co-player of the year.
A three-star recruit, he was ranked first overall in the state and 44th in the nation at his position by Rivals for the class of 2017. Andries committed to Minnesota on April 9th, 2016 choosing the Gophers over Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Florida and 18 others.
The standout, multi-sport high school athlete redshirted his freshman season in 2017 in Minneapolis. Following up in 2018, Andries started all 13 games on the offensive line at right guard and left tackle earning an All Big Ten honorable mention.
Last season is where the 6-foot-6 335-pound mauler's presence could really be felt. As a redshirt sophomore, Andries started all 13 games, blocking for an offense that gained over 5,600 total yards, and a school record 3,293 passing yards on his way to an All Big Ten Third team selection.
Thus far in 2020, Andries has been able to continue his stellar efforts keeping Tanner Morgan and Mohamed Ibrahim protected. The Gophers have gotten their offense going, scoring 85 total points in their past two games.
Part of that offensive success has been due to the high volume of outside zone carried by Minnesota running backs. Andries elaborated on the execution of running such play calls.
"We want to capture the line of scrimmage, because penetration will kill outside zone immediately," Andries said. "Then on the backside you really have to get to the second level...also on the backside you have to cut it off to make those lanes for the running back to cut up."
Capturing the line of scrimmage has been fairly easy the past two weeks for Minnesota, putting up 10 rushing touchdowns in that span. They will face an Iowa team this week that gave up just 59 yards on the ground to Michigan State a week ago.
The Floyd of Rosedale matchup will be renewed on Friday night. Iowa will look to push their win streak to six games in the series, but that's not getting Andries and his teammates too worried.
'It means a lot...we've talked about it since Illinois Saturday," Andries said. "At the end of Friday night somebody's going to walk away with that pig and we don't just want it to be us, we desire it, we obsess over it..we are going to do everything we can to get that pig and Coach Fleck has reciprocated that."
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