No. 18 Minnesota takes on No. 12 Auburn in the Outback Bowl on January 1 in Tampa. The Gopher Report will have plenty in the future breaking down the Tigers, but for now, he's an early look at the matchup.

Vegas line: Auburn by 7.5
SP+: Auburn No. 10, Minnesota No. 18
Massey Composite: Auburn No. 12, Minnesota No. 20
TeamRankings: Auburn No. 9, Minnesota No. 21
SP+ prediction: Auburn by 4.3
Massey Composite prediction: Auburn by 10 with a 22% chance of Gopher victory
TeamRankings prediction: Auburn by 7.5 with a 22.5% chance of Gopher victory

W 27-21 vs. #11 Oregon
W 24-6 vs. Tulane
W 55-16 vs. Kent State
W 28-20 at #17 Texas A&M
W 56-23 vs. Mississippi State
L 24-13 at #10 Florida
W 51-10 at Arkansas
L 23-20 at #2 LSU
W 20-14 vs. Ole Miss
L 21=14 vs. #4 Georgia
W 52-0 vs. Samford
W 48-45 vs. #5 Alabama

Passing

Bo Nix: 200/351, 2466 yards, 15 TD, 6 INT

Rushing

JaTarvious Whitlow: 147 attempts, 739 yards (5.0 ypc), 9 TD
DJ Williams: 79 attempts, 387 yards (4.9 ypc), 2 TD
Kam Martin: 60 attempts, 332 yards (5.5 ypc), 2 TD
Bo Nix: 91 attempts, 301 yards (3.3 ypc), 7 TD
Shaun Shivers: 52 attempts, 277 yards (5.3 ypc), 3 TD
Joey Gatewood: 29 attempts, 148 yards (5.1 ypc), 3 TD
Anthony Schwartz: 11 attempts, 118 yard (10.7 ypc), 2 TD

Receiving

Seth Williams: 55 receptions, 801 yards, 8 TD
Anthony Schwartz: 35 receptions, 391 yards, 1 TD
Eli Stove: 36 receptions, 310 yards, 3 TD
Will Hastings: 17 receptions, 208 yards, 1 TD
Sal Cannella: 9 receptions, 151 yards, 1 TD

“We felt like the best chance (among the bowl games) was to go to the Outback Bowl, which the University of Minnesota has never been to. It’s just another never… so we’re very thankful for it. I’m very honored to represent the Big Ten, very honored to represent the Big Ten…”

“I will (watch Auburn) tonight. Already got them on our iPads. We’ll go out recruiting tonight for another week. Coordinators are in the office this week, studying them, putting together a gameplan and getting familiar with them as we start practicing. We won’t start practicing for Auburn until Saturday. That will be the first time there’s a little bit of Auburn that we apply to practice. But they’re very, very good. I had a chance to watch a few of their games, just from when we played versus when they played. Their three losses come to top ten teams. And when you look at what they did to Alabama at the end of the year to shake up the College Football Playoff, it doesn’t surprise you. It’s Gus Malzahn’s team – they’re physical, they’re fast, they’re big, they’re strong, typical top of the SEC type team.”

“We gave our players a little time off… We did that last week. We gave our players a week off, and now we’re back to work, had a great practice today. But really, just kind of get let the season digest, let (the players) take care of their academics, get the football pressure off of them. We had a big team meeting after (the Wisconsin) loss and really went through the whole thing of why it happened, and very similar to any team you lose: you don’t take care of the football, and you don’t make plays. We all could have done a better job… They had a tremendous practice today; they responded well.”

“Whatever happens in one year has nothing to do with the next year. I really believe that. I think (winning bowl games) makes you have a really good offseason. Everybody feels good. The last game you played, there’s good taste in your mouth because you won. But I think that’s it… It’s a completely new team next year, completely new character, completely new camaraderie, but we’ll talk about next year next year.”

“We didn’t really tell them (which bowl game) in any special way. Normally you like to have something planned, but we had practice when that was scheduled. In the middle of practice, called them up, told them where we were going. They hooped and hollered, and then we went back to work. But I think everyone understood. We had a team meeting before practice where we laid out a couple scenarios…”

“The nuts and bolts (against Auburn) will be the same, what you’ve (already) seen from our system. Obviously when you have a lot of time to prepare for one game, you can sit back and really put together a game plan, just like I’m sure they will. There are guys that really haven’t played that will get 2-3 weeks of practice that we can get in the rotation that will really help get them going… Again, for the young guys… these next two weeks are critical for them. These are extra practices, this a spring ball to get them ready for one game. So they can master the system; there’s not a lot of scout teams going on right now. We got four, five practices truly before we have a true a scout team. That’s what we’re going to use (practices) for: develop them, then apply it to the gameplan.”

“Not sure yet (if players won’t play in the bowl game to prepare for the NFL), haven’t even thought about it yet. We got guys rehabbing and getting better, but no decisions have necessarily been made on some of those guys. But I’m sure there are going to be some that end up playing that are hurt and maybe some that don’t end up playing.”

“Our brand is spreading at a rapid rate nationally, and I think that’s healthy… I mean you’re not going into living rooms these days and people not knowing what the University of Minnesota is, people not knowing what row the boat is. Everybody knows. When you’re walking down the street and, (someone says) ‘hey, row the boat!’ in the middle of Florida or Texas or Las Vegas or Ohio or Pennsylvania, and they’re yelling that out to you, and when you’re in high schools and coaches tell you how row the boat’s been applied to their life – that’s what this is all about. We’re going to continue to push that envelope.”

“(Fa’alele, Paulson, Wiley) were at practice today. They’ve got some things they got to get through. It’s too early for me to give you an update; January 1 is a long ways away. They’re hurt right now, so I don’t know the proper term, questionable, doubtful, probably. They’re hurt right now.”

“(Casey O’Brien) is doing tremendous. You can talk with him when he’s ready to follow up about it, but he’s doing really, really good; he has a great attitude about his entire situation, always has, always will. You know, he’s Casey. You can give him every attitude in the world in terms of his spirit or his will, but you know, he’s Casey. He’s what row the boat’s all about. He’s a champion, and he’s a champion in life.”