This is the Max Brosmer Minnesota fans hoped for
The Minnesota Golden Gophers got off to their traditional slow start against an inferior FCS opponent on Saturday, but more than made up for it the rest of the game dominating the Rhode Island Rams 48-0. It wasn’t the usual run the opponent into dust philosophy that we are so used to seeing from PJ Fleck lead teams as Minnesota aired the ball out and Max Brosmer gave Minnesota fans a teaser as to what the Gopher offense can hopefully be this season.
Minnesota won the toss, deferred, and kicked off to start the game. The Minnesota defense got a three and out and then in what was guaranteed to make the special teams haters happy, Quentin Redding promptly lost yardage on his first punt return of the game. Minnesota’s offense showed some progress early in the drive based off a nice run by Darius Taylor with an added facemask penalty and a nice 20-yard connection to Cristian Driver by Max Brosmer. But the OL faltered and the Gopher run game was shut down and the drive would stall out. PJ Fleck is all about his failure is growth mentality so he wasted no time putting Dragon Kesich out there to try a 53-yard field goal with some swirling winds, and the kicker rewarded him by drilling one right down the middle that would have been good from 63. The Gophers would take an early 3-0 lead.
Minnesota got the ball back after they forced a punt, and then the trouble on the Minnesota OL came back. The right side got blown up on a running play, Antoine Ersery got called for a blatant holding penalty after a Rhode island DL cleanly beat him, and then Brosmer was nearly sacked as the entire line got blown up. Not great. After another stop the Gophers began driving again but the OL continued to struggle. Minnesota finally tried a deep throw but Brosmer’s pass hit Lemeke Brockington directly in the center of his #0 jersey and fell to the ground. The first quarter would end with the Gophers up 3-0.
With the running game struggling, Minnesota continued to let Brosmer throw to try and find a rhythm as the second quarter began. On 3rd and 9 he found Jamison Geers for 11 yards and a first down. The he found Daniel Jackson for 13 and Taylor out of the backfield for 11 on two of the next three plays. Next came a pass to Nick Kallerup for five, and then Elijah Spencer for 18 which he added a nifty move to get down to the four yard line. Two Taylor carries later and he was in the end zone and Minnesota led 10-0 with 11:05 left in the first half. All in all on that drive Brosmer was 7-9 for 78 yards with six different Gophers with a completion.
Rhode Island drove to midfield due to some poor Minnesota tacking and then on third and long from midfield threw deep down the right side. It appeared to be a nice catch for the Rams’ Shawn Harris, Jr, but Justin Walley knocked the ball out as they were both headed to the ground along with Gopher safety Aiden Gousby. The ball bounced between their bodies and fell into Gousby’s lap for an interception as the Minnesota 15 yard line.
The Brosmer quick passing attack appeared again as he found Brockington and Geers for nice gains, and Taylor added a 17 yard run off the left side as well. Incremental gains on runs for Brosmer, Taylor and Marcus Major kept the drive alive as it neared the Rams’ Red Zone. Minnesota’s short passing game out of the backfield continued to fair better than the traditional run game as Taylor and Major picked up nice gains via the air. The Gopher run game would finish it off as it would take four carries to get in the end zone from the Rhode island 11, but Major would score his first TD as a Gopher on a two-yard plow up the middle to make it 17-0 Gophers with 1:16 left in the half. Minnesota would go 85 yards in 14 plays and chew up 7:57 of the second quarter, but got the 7 points they needed.
Minnesota would get one more shot as on the Rams first play after the TD, Deven Eastern came around the edge and stripped the ball from the Rams QB Devin Farrell and Jack Henderson recovered on the Rhode Island 19. But instead of going forward, the Gophers went backwards. A pair of sacks of Brosmer coupled around a Driver drop in the end zone set up Kesich to try and break his career long field goal record, but his 55 yard attempt went wide right and the Gophers took a 17-0 lead into the locker room.
The Gophers took the opening kickoff of the third quarter and showed us a new wrinkle we hadn’t seen yet—a hurry up offense. Minnesota tried to get the Rams back on their heels and it worked as the Gophers got across midfield in just two minutes of gameplay. Then the Gophers slowed it down again to RUTM and needed a fourth and one QB sneak by Brosmer to keep the drive alive. (Take notes Greg Harbaugh…). Minnesota went back to the passing game and after a nice pass to Spencer and a pair of Max scrambles for positive yards, The Gophers would get back in the end zone. Minnesota lined up on first and goal from the six with trips left sent Driver in motion across the field and Brosmer hit him wide open at the three and he walked in for his first collegiate touchdown. 24-0 Minnesota with 7:57 left in the 3rd quarter.
After another Rhode island punt, the Gophers again marched down the field. Brosmer went 4-5 for 67 yards and capped it off with a 29-yard TD pass to Brockington down the right sideline. 31-0 Gophers with just over a minute left in the third quarter. Minnesota would take that lead to the 4th.
The first play of the fourth quarter got ALL the Gopher fans excited. On third and long the Rhode Island QB scrambled and threw on the run. The ball was tipped by Cody Lindenberg and was intercepted by Koi Perich, the pride of Esko. His first collegiate interception set up the Gophers in Rhode Island territory.
PJ Fleck had decided that the starters had been in enough and Drake Lindsay, the true freshman from Arkansas came in to play QB. He moved the Gophers deeper into Rams territory before the drive stalled and Kesich would make a 47-yard field goal to make it 34-0 with 11:04 to play.
Minnesota added their next touchdown 34 seconds later when on third and long Rhode Island backup QB Hunter Helms throw a pass directly to Jack Henderson who took it 25 yards for a pick-6. The Kesich extra point made it 41-0 with 10:32 to play.
The Gophers second unit got into the action with 1:56 left. It was a hopeful preview of the 2025 season as Drake Lindsay threw the first TD pass of his collegiate career to Georgia transfer Tyler Williams—his first catch as a Gopher to make it 48-0.
The story of the game was the Gophers passing attack. Brosmer finished 24-30 for 271 yards and two touchdowns. Of this six incompletions at least three were drops by Brosmer’s receivers, though only one was actually statistically called a drop. Spencer led the way for Minnesota’s wide outs with four catches on four targets for 55 yards. Darius Taylor showed how he can be a multi-faceted threat this season as he ran for just 64 yards on 14 carries, but also added four catches for 48 yards.
Minnesota’s defense was elite against an overmatched opponent allowing just 135 total yards for the Rams and just six first downs in the game. Minnesota controlled the time of possession leading 40:32-19:28 and never let the Rams across midfield. It was exactly what you would love to see this team do against inferior competetion.
Hopefully we see a repeat next week against Nevada before the real fun begins with Iowa here on the 21st.
Quick Notes:
- After Redding’s first punt return he did not see the field the rest of the game— though it appeared he may have been held out with a potential injury. Daniel Jackson returned punts after throwing on a #39 jersey to not get a double number violation with Dev Williams who is on the coverage team—well at least in the first half. In The second half he just had his standard #9 after the Gophers must have decided it was easier to just take Williams off the punt unit.
- The Koi Perich era is officially here. He recorded his first collegiate interception on the first play of the 4th quarter and then had the best punt return of the day later in the quarter going 28 yards to get the ball to near midfield.
- True freshman QB Drake Lindsay saw his first collegiate action playing the entire fourth quarter. He finished 3-4 for 35 yards and with his touchdown pass to Williams.
- 12 different Gophers caught a pass in the game.
- The shutout was Minnesota’s first since they defeated Rutgers 31-0 on October 29th, 2022
- Goldy got a workout. The 48-0 final score resulted in a game total of 218 total pushups for our favorite mascot. Way to work those rodent pecs.