We have made it to the second-to-last preview for Northwestern’s 2025 football opponents. Game number 11 sees the ‘Cats hosting the Minnesota Golden Gophers at Wrigley Field for their last home game of the season. Late November is the perfect time for a classic Big Ten West battle.
The Basics
Returning Production: 52% overall (43% offense, 61% defense); 78th in FBS
2024 Record: 8-5 (5-4 B1G)
Head Coach: P.J. Fleck (ninth season)
The Stats
2025 SP+ Overall: 40th
2025 SP+ Offense: 100th
2025 SP+ Defense: 14th
2025 SP+ Special
Teams: 64th
2024 Capsule
Minnesota’s 2024 season showed what this team can do when progress is made across the board. The Golden Gophers finished the regular season 7-5, but it could have been 10-2 or even 11-1. Only one of their losses was by more than a possession (vs Iowa), and three of the remaining four losses were by a field goal or less. Even the Iowa loss could have been a win for Minnesota, despite the probability of going 12-0 being very low. While many of the wins were close battles, the Gophers found ways to come through in the clutch. Their passing efficiency was up from the past few seasons, and their defense was forcing more 3rd-and-medium/long situations. The question headed into 2025 is if they will be similar to 2024, take a step back or get even better.
Offensive Overview
Max Brosmer took virtually every snap at quarterback for Minnesota in 2024. He’s out of eligibility though, so now it’s turned over to 2024 three-star, Drake Lindsey. Lindsey redshirted his first season in college and is now going to be thrown into fire in the Big Ten. There is a lot of unknowns with this new signal caller. He could be great, or he might suck. There’s no way to know yet.
Luckily for Lindsey, he has star running back Darius Taylor behind him. Taylor rushed for just under 1,000 yards in 2024 on 4.8 yards per carry. He did enter fall training camp with some lingering injury issues, but if he can stay healthy, the sky’s the limit as last season was a down year for the back. Minnesota also brought in transfer running backs Cam Davis from Washington and A.J. Turner from Marshall to supplement what Taylor brings to the team. Davis hasn’t had a full season as the bell-cow at Washington despite him passing the talent eye-test, while Turner averaged 8.3 yards-per-carry on 104 carries last season. If Taylor can’t get back to what he was as a freshman, Davis and Turner are perfect guys to have in the same room as him. At tight end, Jameson Geers is the name to know. He caught four touchdowns last season despite being known as more of a blocker. Geers is expected to continue his role as a short-yardage receiver with Purdue transfer Drew Biber likely slotting in as a blocker in 12 personnel.
When it comes to other receiving options on this team, the wide receiver room looks fairly different. Le’Meke Brockington has the potential to become a star for Minnesota if he’s used as the big-play threat he is. The most likely outcome for the Minnesota wide receiver room is that the three transfers are the three top targets: Nebraska’s Malachi Coleman, UCLA’s Logan Loya and Miami of Ohio’s Javon Tracy. Loya will likely take the slot receiver duty and has more talent than he has shown due to playing for a mediocre UCLA offense the past two seasons. Tracy has a low ceiling but a fairly high floor with two years of quality production to back it up with the Redhawks. Coleman is the biggest question mark. He stands at a towering 6-foot-5 and saw playing time as a true freshman with the Cornhuskers in 2023 mainly due to injuries ahead of him and then was crowded out of the room in 2024. The ceiling for Coleman is outstanding production, whereas the floor is riding the bench. The problem is that there’s no real way to know just yet. This Minnesota passing offense on paper has the potential to be great: A seemingly confident QB in Lindsey, a stable offensive play caller, talented receivers with plenty of production in past years and an offensive line that has been good in protection as of recently. The problem is that we just don’t know because of various unknowns.
For the offensive line, three multi-year starters with Aireontae Ersery being the biggest name all graduated with Ersery and Tyler Cooper going onto play in the NFL. Martes Lewis started in 2023 and then switched from right guard to tackle was demoted to backup and now has transferred to Northwestern. Overall, Minnesota’s offensive line was all over the place the last couple seasons and was a strange sight to behold. Greg Johnson returns for this offensive line after what was the 2024 season along with Ashton Beers and the Gophers’ highest rated redshirt freshman Nathan Roy. They also brought in three experienced transfers who will likely be part of the starting lineup in Kentucky’s Dylan Ray, UCF’s Marcellus Marshall and Washington’s Kahlee Tafai. The line does project to be a little more in place as compared to last season, and that could be a huge factor for Minnesota seeing offensive success.
Defensive Overview
If you thought the offense sounded good, just wait until you hear about this defense! Minnesota’s defensive line played well in 2024. The Gophers did lose a couple 5th year seniors who were big parts of the 2024 rotation in Jah Joyner and Danny Striggow, but they bring back everyone else who played a meaningful role last season: Deven Eastern, Jalen Logan-Redding, Lucas Finnessy, Anthony Smith and Jaxon Howard (got some meaningful play as a redshirt freshman). On top of the returning production here, they’ve added three transfers: Mo Omonode from Purdue and a pair of FCS guys in Illinois State’s Steven Curtis and First Team All-CAA lineman Rushawn Lawrence from Stony Brook. Minnesota has the eight experienced guys needed for it to have a quality year in the trenches, but no more than that as the guys behind haven’t seen the field at all. The conditions for this to be a success seem slim here, so a step back could be expected. The starters are fantastic though and this defensive line has the ability to be even better than in 2024.
For the linebackers, it was the trio of Cody Lindenberg, Maverick Baranowski and Devon Williams. These three played in nearly every single game together in 2024, which meant that the backups didn’t see much time at all. That compounded by the fact that the linebacker room was packed enough behind the top three. Lindenberg was drafted in the 7th round of the 2025 NFL Draft, but Baranowski and Williams return for the Gophers. Williams may not get the starting role though as he has to fight it out with Oklahoma State transfer Jeff Roberson. There is a world where Williams starts next to Roberson and Baranowski is the third guy, but it seems as if Baranowski has it locked down.
In the defensive backfield, the star of the show and arguably the best safety in the country behind Ohio State’s Caleb Downs is true sophomore Koi Perich. Perich will either remain at the safety spot he locked down last year or switch into the nickel to take that role. He may even play some snaps on the offensive side of the ball like Travis Hunter. Darius Green also returns after a 2024 campaign plagued with injuries along with Kerry Brown, Jai’Onte’ McMillan and Aidan Gousby. Za’Quan Bryan also comes back, but he was seen only in backup play in his redshirt freshman season. Rhyland Kelly on the other hand may see significant playing time as he returns on this defense. The defensive back group here also has two new faces in FCS transfer Jaylen Bowden from North Carolina Central and FBS transfer John Nestor from Iowa. Both players were second-stringers at their previous schools but could crack the rotation here. There is a hope that someone like Perich will emerge from the freshman group, but the secondary does have its questions outside of the 2024 Freshman All-American (did I mention he also returns kicks).
