The Gophers football program has made plans to deal with the cold, wet weather forecast for Saturday’s night game against Nebraska at TCF Bank Stadium.

But not everything.

“We ruled out the snow machine,” coach P.J. Fleck said.

But Minnesota had cranked the air conditioning up as far as it would go, about 55 degrees, in anticipation of the rain/snow and a low of 34 degrees expected for the 6:30 p.m. kickoff, according to the National Weather Service.

The U is having receivers dip their hands in ice buckets and are using frozen and wet footballs in practice. This is also in response to the Gophers dropping six passes in the misting rain that fell during their 40-17 victory over Illinois last Saturday.

“We have some other things we’re doing to make sure we’re doing everything we can to create that environment,” Fleck said.

Gophers quarterback Tanner Morgan also dipped his hands in ice water during practice.

“Getting your hands freezing in practice is going to make it that much easier in the game because you have hand warmers and stuff like that in the game,” Morgan said. “If you can make it has hard as possible on yourself, then let’s do it.”

The Gophers have tried to embrace the cold weather under Fleck, including the flurries and 21-degree temperature at kickoff for last November’s 41-10 victory over Purdue. That was the third-coldest game at TCF Bank Stadium.

“When you come up to Minneapolis and it’s our weather, you better be ready to play in it because we’re going to be,” senior defensive end Carter Coughlin said.

FLECK ON ICING KICKER

With less than two minutes left in the first half against Illinois, Fleck called a timeout to ice Illini kicker James McCourt before a 46-yard field goal.

“I’ve never called a timeout in the first half to ice a kicker,” Fleck explained his thinking. “That’s against my philosophy. … You know, I think I’m going to do it.”

The kick missed wide right, but the whistle had blown the play dead. After the time out, McCourt made the field goal to cut the U’s lead to 16-10. Fleck said he thought about calling another timeout to throw off McCourt, but let him kick it.

Illinois benefited from two touchdowns scored by its defense directly off Minnesota turnovers.

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“I told our defense they earned a shutout,” Fleck said. “I gave them a shutout. Three points is on me. The 14 points is on the offense.”

TIGHT ENDS BOOST

Rodney Smith and Shannon Brooks received a lot of the credit for the U’s 332-yard rushing performance against Illinois, but Fleck said, in addition to the offensive line, the tight ends deserve praise, too.

“Ko Kieft was the unsung hero … so was Jake Paulson,” Fleck said. “We’ve been missing that the last few games, I felt like they haven’t played up to the standard of what we needed them to be able to do to have success in the run game, but I thought they did.”

BRIEFLY

True freshman linebacker Donald Willis has one more game to play before the Gophers plan to redshirt him under the four-game rule. Another new linebacker, James Gordon, who made his debut against Illinois, is also expected to be limited to four games. This playing time is coming on special teams. … Three former Gophers have been named to the player pool for the XFL draft: running back David Cobb, receiver KJ Maye and safety Damarius Travis.