Category: NCAA

 

The University of Minnesota football program dates back to the 1882 season.

Through a span of 143 years the Golden Gophers claim seven national championships and 18 Big Ten titles.  The last national championship was in 1960 and the most recent before that was 1941.  Minnesota hasn’t won a conference title since 1967.

In the first half of the 20^th century college football was played in tight formations and grouping of players, focusing the action in the middle of the field, and showing minimal interest in passing or other forms of wide-open play.  With players crowded together on the field, physical strength was a valued asset.

In the program’s early decades, the Gophers took advantage of a mostly home-grown population of players who fit this type of football.  The state’s German and Scandinavian lads were strong and well-suited to the style of play that saw the Gophers claim six national championships in the first 50 years of the 20^th century.

Minnesota attracted quality coaches, too, including the legendary Bernie Bierman.  The “Grey Eagle” and Minnesota born Bierman, coached the Gophers to five national titles and seven conference crowns from 1932 through 1941.

After World War II college football began to change from more than a game of brute strength.  Speed and finesse became more valued, and teams looked more favorably on passing the ball. (The old mantra was: “Three things can happen with the pass and two are bad—interceptions and incompletions.”)

The Gophers of the 1960s found prosperity with a new edge in the college football world.  Minnesota became a national leader in providing opportunities for Black high school players to not only receive college scholarships, but also to excel on the field.

The pioneering movement came at a time when college programs in the south and elsewhere didn’t recruit Blacks.  Under coach Murray Warmath, Minnesota began regularly recruiting Black players in the late 1950s and through the next decade.

Warmath was a trail blazer in his open mindedness about Black players and nowhere was that more evident than at the quarterback position.  Almost unheard of to play a Black athlete at quarterback, Warmath used Sandy Stephens to help lead the offense of his 1960 national championship team. (When Stephens made first team All-American in 1961 he was the first Black to do so). Black quarterbacks, including Curtis Wilson, were starters for the 1967 Big Ten champs.

As the whole world of college football integrated in the 1970s and beyond, Gopher football slipped into mediocrity and worse.  It became eventful if Minnesota could fashion a winning record in Big Ten games.

The Gophers churned through coaches after Warmath’s last season in 1971, trying to replicate past glory.  From 1972 through 2017 when present head coach P.J. Fleck was hired, Minnesota had nine prior head coaches, including four in the new millennium.

Fleck, who enters Thursday night’s opener against Buffalo with a 58-39 record, has shown his chops.  He is the fifth longest tenured Gopher football coach, and his .598 winning percentage is third among those who led Minnesota in 45 games or more.

And if you’re looking for positives about Gopher football, there’s more good news.  The landscape of college football has changed again and developments favor programs like Minnesota who in the last 55 years have faced a significant gap in results between themselves and blue-blood programs like Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State and many others beyond the Big Ten.

Those heavyweights have consistently won games and championships with superior access to high school talent.  In addition to geographical proximity to quality players, such programs have the financial riches to hire sought after coaches and build state-of-the-art- facilities.  Their winning traditions and ability to groom players for the NFL have long attracted players, and more recently so too has their superior funding of Name, Image and Likeness compensation.

Now there is a breakthrough that doesn’t completely negate the helmet schools’ hold on college football, but it sure helps. The expansion of the college football playoffs to 12 teams last year (and perhaps a bigger field coming soon) and now the new revenue sharing to pay players in the Big Ten and other major conferences represent game changers for a lot of schools including Minnesota.

Make the playoffs and it significantly boosts perception of a program, and fuels fan interest and revenues for an athletic department.  Lowly Indiana made the “dance” last year and set off an unprecedented wave of Hoosier Hysteria.  Arizona State, a program that struggled for most of the new millennium, got to the playoffs, too.  Iowa State, which hasn’t won a conference title since 1912, missed out on the playoffs by one win.

The revenue sharing means a lot of players can make the same or similar money at a Minnesota or Iowa State as they can at Texas or Ohio State.  Rather than face the possibility of being second string early in their careers at a blue-blood, players will come to Minnesota where they can play earlier and earn similar compensation. (Major college football programs, including Minnesota, are believed to now allocate $13 to $16 million in revenue sharing with players.)

Expectations are changing at Minnesota for all concerned.  Fleck said as much last year commenting “as you go through this with 12 teams, that leaves the window open for a lot of teams to get in there from different conferences.”

Fleck spoke more about expectations rising this summer.  He says the Gophers are recruiting better talent and have a “legitimate chance” to make the playoffs every year now.  Voicing those words on KFAN Radio last week, Fleck added he wants to raise expectations for not only his players but fans, too.

Those players want to be champions and many of them stayed at Minnesota last season rather than transferring to another school.  The Gophers had one of the highest retention rates in the nation—a testimony to the culture Fleck and his staff have built at Minnesota regarding not only football but academics and life skills.

Now with the college football playoffs, revenue sharing and a growing pot of maroon and gold for NIL, resources are in place to make Minnesota more competitive than in the past. It can be done.

Just ask the Hurryin’ Hoosiers, who parlayed a dynamic new coach and unprecedented IU NIL treasury into a startling first ever 10-win year (11-1 regular season record) and playoff berth.

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Golden Gophers head coach P.J. Fleck, once a college football wide receiver himself, has developed some standouts at the position including Corey Davis at Western Michigan, and Rashod Bateman, Tyler Johnson and Daniel Jackson at Minnesota.

Now the Gophers may have another star in the making.  Redshirt freshman Jalen Smith from Mankato West could be a breakout player this season after an initial year when he mostly practiced and watched from the sidelines.  He is also coached at Minnesota by veteran wide receivers coach Matt Simon.

Offensive coordinator Greg Harbaugh Jr. raves about the former three-star prospect who is listed on the roster at 6-1, 195 pounds. “The sky’s the limit,” he said of Smith who has top-end speed and is a fluid athlete who can gain separation in the open field.

Harbaugh praised Smith’s offseason work ethic and the results of making plays in practice.  He loves the young receiver’s “maturation process.”

While in high school Smith and quarterback Drake Lindsey got to know each other during recruiting.  That has grown into a relationship that should benefit the Gophers as Lindsey, an Arkansas native, moves in as the starting quarterback.

“I am looking forward to seeing him play,” Harbaugh said of Smith who projects to be part of a rebuilt receiver corps that Fleck likes. Fleck (head coach since 2017) added that this group of wide receivers “has a chance to be one of our best units we’ve ever had here.”

There are multiple wide receivers who could emerge as top performers including Smith and senior Le’Meke Brockington who Fleck praises for his skills and leadership.  “I talk to the NFL scouts all the time about Le’Meke. I mean, this guy is…close to a 12-foot broad jumper, (has) over a 40-inch vertical. He’s gonna run really fast. He’s a 700-pound squatter. He’s a great blocker, he can fly. So, it’s been fun to watch him lead that entire unit.”

Brockington started last season, but two other regulars are gone, Jackson and Elijah Spencer having used up their eligibility.  So, there’s a lot of competition among wide receivers in training camp as the Gophers prepare for their season opener August 28 against Buffalo.

Worth Noting

Lindsey will be starting his first game for the Gophers against Buffalo, one of the favorites to win the Mid-American Conference.  There will likely be adversity for Lindsey in that game, and certainly during the season, but Harbaugh said, “nothing really rattles him.”

No unit may have more to do with Minnesota’s success this season than the offensive line. It’s mostly a new group from 2024 that is in transition, but Harbaugh said the line has been “gelling” of late.

The running backs can help that line look effective.  The Gophers return Darius Taylor, an All-Big Ten prospect, and have added transfers A.J. Turner (Marshall) and Cam Davis (Washington). The speedy and elusive Turner averaged a nation’s best 8.3 yards per carry for runners with over 100 rushing attempts. Davis is an experienced player to say the least—now in his seventh year of college football.  Redshirt freshman Fame Ijeboi has impressed with his toughness.

Harbaugh said this is a versatile backfield group.  “I feel very comfortable with any of the four guys out there.  They can do a lot of different things, but they’re also different at the same time.”

With Danny Striggow departing at rush end because of eligibility expiring, multiple players could see time at the position. Defensive coordinator Danny Collins said redshirt sophomores Jaxon Howard and Karter Menz figure into plans, with Howard’s physicality apparent and Menz’s speed for pass rushing.

Collins is starting his first season as defensive coordinator but his relationship with Fleck goes back 13 years to when the two were at Western Michigan.  A go-getter, Collins was at first an unpaid staffer and worked at FedEx to earn money.

“Coach Fleck took me under his wing at a very young age.  He saw the vision that I had for myself and he wanted me to get that vision. …I mean I would run through the wall for coach Fleck.”

Preseason All-American safety Koi Perich will also play offense and perhaps return punts.  It seems likely Perich will be given some time off on defense.  Collins said he will adapt to the circumstances and that his safety roster is the deepest in the Big Ten, “if not in the country.”

Perich, a true sophomore, could be earning more money than anyone on the team now that players receive both revenue sharing from athletic departments and outside income form Name, Image and Likeness.   “He has such intentionality with his money, and he’s already thinking 10, 20, 30 years down the road,” Fleck said. “He’s already thinking about the sports facility he wants to open and then franchise. He’s just an elite thinker.”

Congratulations to longtime Gopher boosters Lee and Louise Sundet who will have their 74^th wedding anniversary next week.

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