U assistant Cosgrove's son has leukemia

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MINNEAPOLIS -- The son of University of Minnesota defensive coordinator Kevin Cosgrove has been diagnosed with leukemia.

Nineteen-year-old Connor Cosgrove is a walk-on wide receiver on the football team and will begin chemotherapy treatments immediately. He was an all-state high school player from Madison Edgewood High School and spent last year at St. Cloud State. He transferred to the U to be closer to his father.

Kevin Cosgrove was a long-time assistant coach at the University of Wisconsin and part of all their Big Ten championship teams of 1993, 1998 and 1999. He was also an assistant at the University of Illinois in the 1980s and on the staff of the Fighting Illini's Big Ten championship team of 1983 where he coached current U grid head coach Tim Brewster. Before coming to Minnesota he was an assistant at Nebraska.

Kevin Cosgrove missed Tuesday's but returned to coach the defense at yesterday's practice. The defensive coordinator plans to call the defensive plays in Saturday's game against USC.

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Gopher receiver MarQuies Gray is also the team's No. 2 quarterback. He's been serving the double duty role since late last season and says he likes it. He is coming off of a bittersweet game last weekend against South Dakota. It was his career best day, grabbing nine passes for 91 yards, but the performance came in a stunning 41-38 loss to the Coyotes. Gray hopes for better results this weekend when No. 16 Southern California visits TCF Stadium on Saturday. Gray says last week proves that anything can happen on the field and for those people who don't give the Gophers a chance to win this weekend, they just need to look back at all the people who didn't give South Dakota a chance. Kickoff on Saturday is 2:30 p.m.

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Gopher legend Bobby Bell and sportscaster Dan Patrick will conduct a "Chalk Talk" interview at TCF Bank Stadium prior to this Saturday's Minnesota-USC football game. It is part of an interactive touring series sponsored by "Sports Illustrated" and Nissan. Patrick and Bell will sign autographs starting at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, followed by the interview at 11:30 a.m. The location of the event is between Gates D and E at TCF Stadium. Bell was a Hall of Fame defensive end at Minnesota and was a member of the 1960 National Championship team that will be honored at halftime of this weekend's game.

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Golden Gopher basketball coach Tubby Smith has a big recruiting weekend as two prospects are visiting the U of M campus on official visits. Shooting guard Josh Oglesby of Cedar Rapids, Iowa and point guard Nadir Tharpe of Worcester, Massachusetts will attend the football game and tour the campus, among other activities this weekend. They are each considering Minnesota as a college choice, but have not made their final decisions.

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