Nebraska Football Spring Opponent Review: Minnesota

With spring practices now wrapped up around the country, HuskerOnline.com will look at where each of Nebraska’s 12 opponents in 2021 currently stands coming out of spring ball and heading into the summer.

Today we preview the Minnesota Golden Gophers, who host the Huskers in Minneapolis on Oct. 16.

After a breakout 2019 season, Minnesota is trying to bounce back a disappointing 2020 campaign now in its fifth season under head coach PJ Fleck.

We caught up with Andy Greder of the St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press to get the latest on the Gophers coming out of spring ball.

Minnesota took the Big Ten by storm in 2019 by going 11-2, topping Auburn in the Outback Bowl, and finishing 10th in the final AP Top 25 poll.

Last season, however, was a much different story.

COVID-19 took its toll on the Golden Gophers, which, paired with some key underperformers, led to a disappointing 3-4 campaign in 2020.

The good news for Fleck’s squad heading into the spring was that it returned 20 of its 22 starters from a year ago, making UM arguably the most experienced roster in the Big Ten this season.

Starting quarterback Tanner Morgan is back, as is 2020 Big Ten Running Back of the Year Mohamed Ibrahim, and a combined 160 career starts on the offensive line.

In all, the Gophers returned six “super seniors” and added six transfers this offseason that most expect to make immediate impacts.

The two glaring holes to fill are wide receiver and cornerback. Minnesota lost record-setting wideout Rashod Bateman (27th overall pick to the Baltimore Ravens) and top corner Benjamin St-Juste (third round to Washington) to the NFL Draft.

But Fleck said this spring that his 2021 squad was the most experienced group he’d ever coached, and the Gophers have their sights set on a significant bounceback this fall.

A big key for Minnesota’s goal to return to its 2019 form will be getting better production out of Morgan.

Following his impressive debut as a redshirt sophomore, Morgan threw for less than 200 yards per game and had just seven touchdown passes to five interceptions.

His No. 1 target will likely be receiver Chris Autman-Bell, who finished second behind Bateman in receptions (22) and receiving yards (430) last season. After that, only three other wideouts – Daniel Jackson, Clay Geary, and Mike Brown-Stephens – have even caught a pass at Minnesota.

It will undoubtedly help to have Ibrahim and the entire starting offensive line plus more back this year.

Left tackle Blaise Andries, right tackle Sam Schlueter, right guard Conner Olson, left guard Axel Ruschmeyer, and center John Michael Schmitz return from 2020’s group. But UM also returns right guard Curtis Dunlap Jr. and right tackle Daniel Faalele, who started in 2019 but did not play last year.

There’s also plenty of experience on the roster on defense, but it will need to improve significantly. Minnesota went from ranking third in the Big Ten in total defense to 10th last season.

That’s why despite returning nearly its entire starting defense, Minnesota made some key additions on the transfer market. The Gophers added Nyles Pinckney (Clemson) and Val Martin (North Carolina State) to the defensive line, and Jack Gibbens (Abilene Christian) could make a starting push at linebacker.

Coney Durr should replace St-Juste as the new No. 1 cornerback, while true freshman Justin Walley could push for the No. 2 corner spot after an impressive spring as an early enrollee.

While 2020 was a challenging year for Minnesota, Ibrahim managed to place himself among the Big Ten’s best last season.

The 5-foot-10, 210-pound native of Baltimore, Md., led the conference in rushing attempts (201), yards (1,076), yards per game (153.7), touchdowns (15), scoring (90), points per game (12.9), and all-purpose yards per game (168.4).

He broke eight school records in the process, including the season mark for most rushing yards per game at 153.7. His streak of eight games with a rushing touchdown was also a program record.

Ibrahim was named the Big Ten Running Back of the Year, first-team all-conference, and third-team AP All-American for his efforts.

Minnesota’s pass rush was essentially non-existent last season, as it only managed eight sacks in seven games for the second-lowest total in the Big Ten.

To his credit, Boye Mafe accounted for 4.5 of those sacks despite only playing in six games.

The fifth-year junior returns as the Golden Gophers’ only proven pass-rushing threat, and if UM is going to improve its overall defensive play, it’s going to start with another big year from Mafe.

A three-star recruit out of D’Iberville, Miss., Walley had his pick of several SEC offers.

But the 5-foot-10, 175-pound cornerback went north to Minnesota and now has a chance to push for a starting job as a true freshman.

The 2020 Class 6A Mississippi Mr. Football winner, Walley had 55 tackles, two interceptions, and two blocked kicks as a senior to help D’Iberville go 10-1 record and win the Region 4-6A title.

He was an early enrollee this spring and immediately made his coaches and teammates take notice. Walley, who rushed for 1,000 yards as a high school running back, also got some reps on offense during spring ball.

Minnesota had its share of issues last season, but missed field goals in overtime directly led to two losses in games that could have flipped the script on 2020.

In all, three kickers attempted UM’s six total field goal attempts last year.

The Gophers also finished dead last punting average at 36.2 yards per attempt.

Minnesota hit the transfer portal and brought in kicker Matthew Trickett from Kent State and kicker/punter Daniel Sparks from Louisiana-Monroe to try and fix those areas.

Trickett was the Mid-American Conference Special Teams Player of the Year as a sophomore in 2019 after tying for the national lead with 29 made field goals. He won’t arrive until the summer, but most expect him to win the place-kicker job.

Sparks averaged 44.6 yards on 30 punts last season at ULM, the second-best average in the Sun Belt Conference. As a result, many consider him to be the frontrunner at punter.

Greder: “Last year they had 33 players out for that game in Lincoln, and PJ Fleck talked about that being one of his most memorable games with how they were able to overcome all of those absences to get a win on the road. I think that was just the second time since 1960 that they’d won in Lincoln.

“That was such an impressive win for them, and it seems like the Gophers have had Nebraska’s number a little bit here recently. The Gophers want to take the next step, and they kind of feel like they might ahead of Nebraska at this point and kind of hope that they’re still in the spot and can look ahead to the Wisconsins and Iowas of the world.”

Greder: “Some of the sportsbooks have put them at eight wins, and I think that’s pretty accurate. I think they’ve got a difficult start to the season with the season opener against Ohio State. That would be difficult for anyone in the Big Ten.

“Then they have a tough road game at Colorado, so that’s going to be a challenge. They have tough back-to-back games at Iowa and Indiana and obviously have Wisconsin as well as Northwestern.

“So I think eight (wins) is probably an accurate number of where I think they can be. Obviously, they’ll need better play at quarterback. Tanner Morgan wasn’t as good in ’20 as he was in ’19, and to win eight or nine games, he’s going to need to return to his form from 2019.”