Gophers football coach Jerry Kill says he expects freshman Max Shortell to be the starting quarterback for Saturday's game against the Purdue Boilermakers. Junior MarQueis Gray is still recovering from a toe injury, and won't get the start unless he's completely healthy.

MarQueis Gray is only four games into his first full year as the starting quarterback of the Gophers, but inconsistent play has many wishing Minnesota would go with the true freshman Max Shortell as the starter.

With MarQueis Gray sidelined for up to a month with a high ankle sprain the Gophers are hoping sophomore Max Shortell can do more of what he did Saturday against Western Michigan -- lead the team into the endzone, and into victory lane.

Gophers coach Jerry Kill says he wouldn’t pull a red shirt off a freshman quarterback if he wasn’t going to play. That means Philip Nelson is your likely starter Saturday against Purdue. Kill also said Max Shortell was capable of playing against Wisconsin, but was comfortable with playing Nelson instead.

Jerry Kill is "cautiously optimistic" that MarQueis Gray will play Saturday when the Gophers host Northwestern for a homecoming game at TCF Bank Stadium. However, Fox Sports North reports it's highly likely that Max Shortell gets a third straight start.

University of Minnesota quarterback MarQueis Gray missed Wednesday's practice with a toe injury and he is questionable for Saturday's Big Ten opener at Michigan. If Gray isn't able to play, true freshman Max Shortell will start in his place.

MarQueis Gray was originally supposed to miss 2-4 weeks with a high ankle sprain, but there's a chance that he'll be ready to backup Max Shortell this Saturday when the Gophers host Syracuse.