I know the last thing many of you want to read about is about MSU football. But we still have four games to get through. To help us take a first look at this weekend’s opponent, the Minnesota Golden Gophers,
I sat down with Gopher Nation from The Daily Gopher to ask a few questions. Here is what he had to say.
1. This is season 9 of Coach PJ Fleck after he took Western Michigan to new heights. Where is your confidence in him as Minnesota’s coach? Is he still the right guy to row the boat? Speaking of coaches, MSU’s defensive coordinator Joe Rossi used to hold that role at Minnesota just a couple of years ago. Tell us about the new coordinator, Danny Collins. How does he compare to Rossi and how is the defense performing in his system?
GN: Yes, I would say that Fleck is the right guy here. The Gophers currently have over 20 former players on NFL rosters, his overall win % is higher than any Minnesota coach since Bernie Bierman, who last coached in 1950. He’s 7-1 against Nebraska, won three of the last four over Wisconsin and is undefeated in bowl games. Other than the 2019 season, he has not taken the program to compete for any sort of a championship, but the floor for every Gopher season is significantly raised. At some point, he is going to need a breakout season, but this year is a perfect example of not feeling like this is a very good team, and they may end up with 8 or 9 wins after the bowl game.
Rossi had an up-and-down tenure at Minnesota. Fleck had to fire Robb Smith (now the Rutgers DC) in 2018 and Rossi immediately improved the defense. He was elite in 2019, 2020 was weird and then the Gopher defenses began to slowly slide toward mediocrity until MSU hired him after 2023. Last year, the Gopher defense was led by Corey Heatherman, who was great. But he left quickly for a bigger paycheck and the opportunity to compete for a national championship at Miami. Danny Collins took over, being promoted from within. He is young, but he’s been fine. He has made some very good in-game adjustments and the defense seems to be getting better.
2. Minnesota has suffered a couple blowouts in the last month, sandwiched around a pair of wins including one over then-ranked Nebraska. What is the real version of this year’s team?
GN: Are we playing on the road or are we at home? Because that seems to be the biggest differentiating factor for this year’s team. We lost at Cal, but it was easy to chalk that up to a very young QB in his first road game and making a trip to the West Coast is never easy. Then we lost at Ohio State, a game nobody believed would be competitive. And then we lost at Iowa…and that was ugly. Things went horribly wrong from the very beginning and Minnesota never recovered. Frankly, things have started poorly in all games (home or away), but they tend to recover at home.
3. Drake Lindsey is the guy under center. What are his strengths? His weaknesses? He won the starting job as a redshirt freshman this year over some older players. Did that surprise you at all? Does he seem to be getting better as the season goes on? If yes, what do you think his ceiling is?
GN: Nobody here is surprised that he won the job. The staff believes that he is special and this past offseason they did not pursue a starting-caliber quarterback because they trusted that Lindsey would be the guy. He has the arm talent to be an elite Big Ten quarterback, his decision-making is very good (when you factor in that he is a freshman) and he appears to have the respect of all of his older teammates. He has great command of the offense and he makes some beautiful throws. In both the Rutgers and Purdue games, the staff basically put the game on his shoulders in the second half. And he delivered.
4. Who are the skill position players on Minnesota that MSU needs to prepare for? What is the best way to shut those names down?
GN: Well, the remaining skill position players are all fine, but nobody stands out. The wide receivers are a solid group. They get good separation and have made some big plays. Le’Meke Brockington is the best of the bunch and he’s a freakish athlete. But redshirt freshman Jalen Smith and Javon Smith are dangerous as well. Darius Taylor is the team’s best running back, but he is injured, so you’ll see a lot of Fame Ijeboi (also a redshirt freshman).
5. Complete the sentence: Minnesota will beat MSU if ___________.
GN: Minnesota will beat Michigan State if they can stop the run. Considering MSU gives up over 30 points per game, I’m not concerned about the offense scoring points. At times they have struggled with angles and tackling, at other times they have done fine. If they can keep MSU at or below their rushing average, I’m rather confident in this being a home win for the Gophers.
6. Predict the final score.
GN: 34-17. I think that facing Minnesota at home after we just got our asses kicked at Iowa is bad timing for Michigan State. This isn’t a great Gopher team, but it is good (especially at home) and I haven’t seen anything from MSU this season to indicate they going to come to Minnesota and win.
TOC would like to thank Gopher Nation for their help with this article. Usually I say I hope the prediction is wrong, but I would be fooling myself with that comment.
