Why can’t the football Golden Gophers duplicate the success of Indiana the last two seasons?
University of Minnesota athletic director Mark Coyle hears that question from Gopher fans. Minnesota hasn’t won a national championship since 1960. The last Big Ten title was a co-championship in 1967. The Gophers have never been to the College Football Playoff.
Indiana had close to the worst reputation in major college before coach Curt Cignetti arrived following the 2023 season. After head turning success at James Madison and other lower-level programs, Cignetti told the world upon arrival in Bloomington: ”It’s pretty simple. I win. Google me.”
And then he did.
The 2024 Hoosiers shockingly went 11-2 overall, 8-1 in Big Ten games. The “Miracle Man” delivered even more in 2025, coaching the Hoosiers to a perfect 16-0 record that included Big Ten and national championships.
“I give them a lot of credit,” Coyle told Sports Headliners. “It’s the most unique thing that I’ve seen in college athletics.”
Cignetti has a gift for watching tape and evaluating players, and he’s a tireless worker who sets the highest standards for execution and performance. He brought a boat load of older players to Bloomington via the transfer portal, mostly three-star recruits in high school, and went out and beat the blue bloods of college football with their four- and five-star rosters.
Now the transformation is complete. Elite players want to wear the IU uniform. Name, Image and Likeness money is pouring in to pay players. The stadium is sold out. “Coach Cig” has a new contract that averages $13.2 million per year through 2033. And, oh yes, Indiana is among the favorites to win the next College Football Playoff and the national championship.
Coyle is proud of his program under head coach P.J. Fleck who starts his 10th season at Minnesota in late August with a home game against Eastern Illinois. “I could not be more pleased with the progress we’re making with our football program, and we continue to expect to build it and compete at a high level,” Coyle said earlier this month.
What about the Indiana comparison? “It can be done here (Indiana like success),” Coyle said.
Fleck’s best season was in 2019 when the Gophers finished 11-2, including an Outback Bowl win over SEC bully Auburn. That team was ranked by the Associated Press at No. 10 in the country. It was the program’s highest ranking since 1962.
COVID hit the college football world in 2020, and programs lost momentum like Minnesota and Michigan who finished with 3-4 and 2-4 records respectively. Since then, Fleck has won eight games or more four times including bowl victories.
Throw out the records of Big Ten schools from the West Coast who didn’t join the conference until 2024, and Minnesota has the fifth best overall winning percentage (61.54) in the league dating back to the 2021 season.
Fleck is 24-21 in conference games during that period of 2021-2025. League games are challenging as shown by the mediocre results of Minnesota coaches over the years including national title coach Murray Warmath who in 18 seasons was 65-57-4, per AI.
Only four teams qualified for the playoffs in 2019. Now 12 can and the 2019 Gophers almost assuredly would have received an invite if that number of slots were available back then.
Why can’t the Gophers get back to the 2019 level? “I promise you it’s something he (Fleck) and I talk about every day,” Coyle said. “And we want to do everything we can, given the opportunity, to have those special seasons because it’s a different world.”
Coyle said that 2019 team won some close games that were part of the success. Tight outcomes on the scoreboard can be caused by the bounce of the ball, the absence of injured players, or an official’s judgment. Those are factors that can make a difference between an 8-4 regular season and 10-2.
The “different world” Coyle mentioned is how unexpected and high-level success can translate into selling out Huntington Bank Stadium. How season ticket sales can increase the following year. How ancillary income like merchandise sales and concessions can improve. How donations to the University, including for athletics, can explode. And how NIL giving can help prompt even more success on the field.
Prognostications about the 2026 Gopher season is more of the recent past: A similar success standard of around 7-5 or 8-4 overall and .500 play in the Big Ten. Another bowl game but not a CFP invite.
Coyle, of course, favors talk of expanding the number of teams in the playoffs to 24. That could mean an 8-4 or 9-3 Minnesota would be playoff bound. And Coyle loves the idea of Novembers that have the Gophers in the hunt for a postseason invite. “Once you get to the CFP, anything can happen,” he said.
Fleck has said participating in the CFP is now the program’s goal. Coyle believes the Gophers can break through and part of what gives him optimism is how others regard Minnesota football as a “tough out.”
“What I mean by a tough out is that people don’t want to play us. I can tell you when I talk to football coaches in the Big Ten and I talk to ADs in the Big Ten, people do not want to play Minnesota. I think we’re very close. We are a tough out for people.
“People don’t win games. People lose games, I really believe that. P.J. talks about that, I talk about that. And again, I think we’re incredibly close to having success that our fans want.
“But again, it’s kind of amazing to me because when I got here 10 years ago, people said if you just win in football, we’re all in. We’re winning (with) the fifth best winning record in the Big Ten. … We’re having success. We need to continue to build that success.”
Fleck’s Minnesota record of 66-44 (including seven bowl wins) puts him fourth in program history in overall victories. He’s also fourth at Minnesota in Big Ten wins (39) and fifth in games coached (110). His overall win percentage of .600 is third best among Minnesota coaches with more than 40 games.
Great coaches build great programs…and down the line it goes. I put PJ in the good category. And he’s been good for Gopher football. But please, stop it with the “what if’s” unless Coyle is willing to to fire a good fit and successful coach to try and become the next Indiana. Which he’s not. Why should he? He’s got a winning program, he’s rolling in the dough, fans are content (except versus Iowa), and finding the next Cignetti is like finding magic in a bottle. Go Gophers!
Generally agree with this. PJ Fleck is who he is at this point. Unless some major donor comes along and the U is able to buy more elite players, Fleck will continue to operate commensurate with his recruiting rankings for the most part. He’s a good fit for the U, some would argue great, while some would say the bar should be higher. Either way he’s as good of a hire as the school has had in many many decades. His kids stay out of major trouble, and several get drafted. As for Indiana, it’s an unrealistic comparison as we know here, but Indiana showed what TRUE success is and can be for even the bad programs. The sky can be the limit now. And their coach was winning there in year one before Mark Cuban came along and helped him out. In Year 9 Fleck won yet another bowl, beat Wisconsin (hallelujah), and was undefeated in his home building. But let’s face some hard facts: he went 0-5 on the road, was embarrassingly outscored 125-19 vs. Ohio State/Iowa/Oregon (those are conference peers), and still shows incredibly flawed game day coaching decisions that leaves people screaming for the gates about every other week. This gets Fleck a contraction extension and raise here, every year. He “is who he is,” and that’s why he’s one of us – but Indiana came along to probably give a proper reality check at how success really should be judged on this level. And it’s certainly not New Mexico or Bowling Green bowl triumphs and (still) being under .500 in the conference.
Indiana spends $38 million in NIL.
Minnesota spends $24 million in NIL.
Indiana both has more and uses it better, it would seem.