Minnesota: Tracy sets Gophers mark with 2 punt return TDs.
Minnesota · IllinoisJavon Tracy set Minnesota's single-game record with two punt return touchdowns in the season-opening win against Eastern Illinois. The fifth-year wide receiver, an Indianapolis native who is in his second season at Minnesota after transferring from Miami (Ohio) , then caught a 48-yard kick early in the third quarter near the right sideline.
He made two stutter-step moves to evade would-be tacklers before veering left and racing down the field to give the Gophers a 42-7 lead. Starting safety Kerry Brown delivered a key block at the 36-yard line to clear the path.
Tracy fielded four of the nine punts by Cade Cox and totaled 167 return yards in assuming the role held last season by safety Koi Perich , who transferred to Oregon . Tracy didn't find out until last week that he would start as the primary punt returner, a decision by the coaching staff that proved prescient.
Gophers coach P.J. Fleck's hire of new special teams coordinator Daniel Da Prato also looked sharp on this night. "It's one game and it's two returns, but it's the way the players play for him.
KEY POINTS
- Tracy sets Gophers mark with 2 punt return TDs.
- Tracy had the first punt return touchdown for the Gophers in eight years when he fielded a 55-yard kick near the right sideline late in the first quarter and sprinted along a wall of blockers untouched into the end zone.
- "It was easy for me," Tracy said after Minnesota's 59-7 win .
- Da Prato, who is in his 23rd season as a coach and will turn 45 next month, received a game ball from Fleck as a representative of all the new assistants on staff.