“They are a football team that beat us last year,” Dantonio said. “We did not play very well, so we’ve got a lot to play for, and our focus will be on Minnesota.”

The Spartans lost to the Golden Gophers, 42-34, on Halloween night last year in Minneapolis in a game where MSU was down 14 points less than two minutes after the opening kickoff. Then-junior quarterback Adam Weber did most of the damage for Minnesota, completing 19 of 31 passes for 416 yards and five touchdowns in what might be the best game of his career.

Dantonio said he, the coaching staff and his players have watched the film from last season’s game and are determined to not let Weber have another field day against them.

“I don’t know how many wheel routes they could throw or naked routes where the quarterback is on the move or wide, high routes; they have got them all,” Dantonio said. “We will see them all this week, over and over and over, and hopefully we won’t get hit with them.”

In 2009, two evenly matched teams came into the game with 4-4 records, both looking to swing their seasons in the right direction. But heading into Saturday’s matchup, the two teams couldn’t be headed in more opposite directions.

The Spartans will try to get back on the right track and continue their quest for a Big Ten Championship on Saturday following a bad loss to Iowa last week.

Meanwhile, Minnesota simply will try to salvage anything positive from a season in which the Golden Gophers have lost eight straight after a week-one victory.

“Losing this many games in a row is not fun, it is not easy, and it tests you as a person,” Minnesota interim head coach Jeff Horton said at his weekly press conference Tuesday. “I think the biggest thing, we need to respond.”

Horton took over as interim head coach for the Golden Gophers when Tim Brewster was fired as head coach following a loss to Purdue on Oct. 16.

Since Horton took the position, Minnesota has lost both of its games, and three players — defensive tackles Brandon Kirksey and Ra’Shede Hageman and cornerback Michael Carter — have been suspended. Additionally, the Golden Gophers are down to six healthy offensive linemen because of injuries.

Despite being without so many players, Dantonio said Minnesota still has the potential to be a dangerous team Saturday.

“They are a football team that, when you look at them on film, it doesn’t look like they should be 1-8, especially on the offensive side of the ball,” Dantonio said. “They are a team that will come in here ready to play.”

For the Spartans, Saturday might be the perfect opportunity to re-establish a running game that has disappeared since being dominant at the beginning of the season.

Minnesota is giving up 201.8 yards rushing per game this season, which ranks them last in the Big Ten and 107th nationally. MSU had been one of the best running teams in the country through the first six weeks of the season, but the Spartans rushed for 31 yards last week and haven’t had a good showing on the ground since they ran for 249 yards against Michigan on Oct. 9.

“I think this week can be a great week to get our identity back as an offense,” junior quarterback Kirk Cousins said. “I think we can start to establish the run and get back to what we do best.”

Dantonio also said he hopes to get the running game back to where it was early in the season. However, Dantonio said his main focus against Minnesota is to get back on the winning track.

“Our focus is to go 1-0 this week,” Dantonio said. “So that’s how we’ll come at it.”