I’m dead inside
The Minnesota Golden Gophers (2-2) lost to the Iowa Hawkeyes (3-1).
What else is new?
The Elite
The sellout crowd. Gopher fans showed up. Unfortunately, the team did not.
The second quarter. We’ll always have the second quarter.
The Meh
The Ugly
The entire second half. Rumor has it the Gophers are still in the locker room, waiting to take the field after halftime. Because the team we saw in the second half bore little to no resemblance to the team we saw in the first half. Outscored 24-0. Outgained by 148 yards of total offense. Max Brosmer was 5-of-11 for 44 passing yards and one interception. But where the game was won by Iowa (and lost by Minnesota) was in the trenches. The Hawkeyes’ offensive line was more physical in the second half, putting the pressure on a defense that saw catastrophic breakdowns in their run fits. Defensively, defensive coordinator Phil Parker cranked up the heat on Brosmer, attacking a Minnesota offensive line that was on their heels for most of the second half.
The run defense. The recipe for shutting down Iowa’s offense was simple: Tackle Kaleb Johnson. Guess what? The Minnesota defense did not tackle Kaleb Johnson. He rushed for 206 yards and three touchdowns, averaging 9.8 yards per carry. You read that right: 9.8 yards per carry. Quarterback Cade McNamara was essentially a non-factor, finishing 11-of-19 for 62 passing yards. Johnson was the entire Iowa offense, and the Gophers could do nothing to stop him.
P.J. Fleck drops to 1-7 against Iowa. The Big Ten West is dead and buried, taking with it the Gophers’ best chance of reaching the Big Ten Championship. If you’re not going to compete for a conference championship at Minnesota, then you better at least beat your border rivals. Eight years into his tenure, Fleck has sub-.500 records against both Iowa (1-7) and Wisconsin (3-4). That’s unacceptable, especially his abysmal record against the Hawkeyes.
Apathy. You won’t see another sellout crowd at Huntington Bank Stadium this season. This team had two opportunities to get fans excited about this season of Gopher football, first with the season opener against a Power 4 opponent and second with the conference opener against a hated rival. They fumbled both opportunities and are now staring down the barrel of a 2-4 start to the season with back-to-back matchups against Top 25 opponents. Casual fans are going to tune out and even the die hards might start mowing the lawn on Saturdays.
Fleck isn’t going anywhere any time soon. His current buyout is $22 million and that number only drops to $18 million in 2025. So can he turn things around? I’m extremely skeptical.