You could feel the hearts of Gopher football fans everywhere collectively drop on Saturday when sophomore Gopher defensive back Antoine Winfield, Jr. was down on the field. After being helped off the field by the training staff, he would not return to the game after re-aggravating the hamstring injury that sidelined him during the preseason game, and is likely to miss this week’s road game against Purdue.
With the loss of Winfield, the Gophers were down to nine scholarship defensive backs (not counting the injured Zo Craighton and the suspended Duke McGhee), four of whom are true freshmen.