It was a gloomy day in the Twin Cities and a lethargic crowd supported a Gopher team that moved to 2-1 as they head into Big Ten play. After a deflating loss to Mississippi State last week, the Gophers came out and did exactly what they were supposed to do, beating the Akron Zips 41-7. The Gophers were better in all three phases and secured their first shutout against an FBS opponent since beating Nevada 27-0 in 2024.
Akron lost their starting quarterback, Cibastian Broughton, to a knee injury in the first
quarter and the Zips offense struggled to pose any threat to the Gopher defense throughout all four quarters.
Minnesota took control early and never relinquished. Freshman Quayd Hendryx took the opening kickoff and returned it 42 yards, giving the offense a short field to start the game. Drake Lindsey then hit Noah Jennings for 30 yards on first down and four plays later, Lindsey hit Roman Voss for his first career touchdown.
Akron’s response to that opening touchdown was a four-play drive before Joey Gerlach forced a fumble that was recovered by TJ Bush Jr.
From that point on, it wasn’t as if Minnesota thoroughly dominated the game, but the outcome was never in doubt. Their next four possessions were a punt (following the fumble recovery), an interception, a field goal and then another punt. But the Gopher defense kept the Zips in check, forcing four punts and a fourth-down stop to keep Akron at zero.
The offense, on Lindsey’s arm, scored 10 more points in the second quarter. Jennings made a fantastic catch to score from six yards out. And Drzewiecki hit a 43-yard field goal to give Minnesota 20-0 lead at the half.
The third quarter was much of the same. Akron punted on all three of their possessions and Minnesota continued to move the ball through the air, with very little ground game.
Near the end of the third quarter, the Gopher offense had run 43 plays. 31 of those were pass attempts and just 12 rushing attempts, with three of those being Drake Lindsey. They had 12 rushing attempts for a total of 13 yards, after completely abandoning the run in the second half last week. The lack of being able to run the ball was beginning to become a huge concern.
Then, the strangest thing happened. Minnesota started running the ball and they ran it effectively. With 4:46 remaining in the third quarter, the Gopher offense started running the ball and they didn’t pass the rest of the game. It started on first down with a TJ Thomas rush for eight yards; the longest rush since the Eastern Illinois game. That was followed by five more rushing attempts that resulted in two first downs.
Thomas took the ball on the first play of the fourth quarter and ran for 20 yards. AJ Turner was given the ball on the following play and he ran for 17. Three plays later, all rushes, Turner ran into the end zone from the four, pushing the score to 34-0.
Akron had a quick three-and-out, and Minnesota took the ball on their own 29. Thomas took the drive’s initial handoff and went nearly untouched for a 71-yard touchdown. At that point, it was 12 consecutive rushing attempts for 142 yards. The team had 160 yards rushing combined in their first two games.
With the score 41-0, the second string came into the game. Akron managed to put together one scoring drive and the game ended 41-7.
The game was never in doubt, but Minnesota showing they could effectively run the ball was an encouraging end to an otherwise vanilla game.
Up next, Minnesota travels to Washington to open Big Ten play next week. It is a 10:00 PM kickoff, so get your rest on Friday.
