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Bracket Yard
44 days from the start of college football season, #44 on the CFB Top 50 countdown are the 2025 Minnesota Golden Gophers.
It still seems like just yesterday that PJ Fleck was rowing the boat over at Western Michigan, and now he’s in his ninth season already in Minnesota. The results haven’t been bad for Minnesota’s well-dressed coach; perhaps not as eye-popping as maybe they were expecting, but generally speaking, things have been good for the Golden Gophers. Fleck has a winning record in his first eight seasons and is 6-0 in bowl games with Minnesota. In 2019, they finished in the postseason top 10.
While things haven’t gotten quite that amazing since, the 2024 campaign resulted in a respectable eight-win season. The defense had a lot to do with that, so what will they do for an encore?
2025 Minnesota Golden Gophers Basic Facts
Head Coach: PJ Fleck (9th season)
2025 Conference: Big Ten
2024 Record: 8-5 (5-4)
Final Resolution of Last Season: Won Duke’s Mayo Bowl
2024 Scoring Offensive Rank: T-79th (26.2)
2024 Scoring Defensive Rank: 9th (16.9)
Minnesota Key Additions and Subtractions
IN – Drew Biber, tight end. Transferred from Purdue.
IN – Bradley Martino, wide receiver. Four-star recruit from Florida.
IN – Kahlee Tafai, tackle. Transferred from Washington.
OUT – Aireontae Ersery, tackle. Drafted by Houston in 2nd round of 2025 Draft.
OUT – Justin Walley, cornerback. Drafted by Indianapolis in 3rd round of 2025 Draft.
OUT – Phillip Daniels, tackle. Transferred to Ohio State.
Best Game on the Schedule in 2025
November 29 vs. Wisconsin. We discussed the Badgers recently, and given what we think we know about their upcoming season, this game might be of vital importance to both teams. Wouldn’t the Golden Gophers just love to knock Wisconsin out of bowl season with a loss here? Aside from that, this is one of the most storied rivalries in college football; these teams have met over 130 times, and they are tied going into the 2025 game.
2025 Minnesota Golden Gophers: Outlook
Minnesota is going to be hoping for something along the lines of offense this year. With a top-ten defense in 2024, it was probably fine enough, but the difference between being good and great likely lies in their offensive capacity in 2025. Minnesota lost one of their better defenders to the Draft earlier this year, Justin Walley.
Darius Taylor returns at running back off of what was just shy of a 1,000-yard season. He will literally need to shoulder the load. As for the quarterback situation, some think it could be redshirt freshman Drake Lindsey, while others are thinking sophomore Dylan Wittke has it. Both are young, but exciting? Perhaps.
It would be inaccurate to suggest that Fleck is on the hot seat in Minnesota. He has won, including postseason success, but the Gophers under him have been good, maybe not great. Are there people out there in Gopherland expecting greatness? If so, you’d probably want to see them get to nine or ten wins this season. To that end, you would have to ask if there is there such thing as getting bored with seven to nine-win seasons? That might be where Minnesota is heading again.
References
247Sports. (n.d.-c). Minnesota 2025 Football commits. https://247sports.com/college/minnesota/season/2025-football/Commits/
2025 Minnesota Golden Gophers football depth Chart | Ourlads.com. (n.d.). https://www.ourlads.com/ncaa-football-depth-charts/depth-chart/minnesota/91188
CFbStats.com – 2024 National team leaders. (n.d.-c). https://cfbstats.com/2024/leader/national/team/offense/split01/category09/sort01.html
CFbStats.com – 2024 National team leaders. (n.d.-d). https://cfbstats.com/2024/leader/national/team/defense/split01/category09/sort01.html
Wikipedia contributors. (2025c, June 21). 2025 Minnesota Golden Gophers football team. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Minnesota_Golden_Gophers_football_team
