Gophers football travels to Madison, Wisconsin Friday morning to play in the FBS’ most-played rivalry game for Paul Bunyan’s Axe against Wisconsin for the 134th time.
Minnesota will look to snap Wisconsin’s 22-year bowl streak, the third-longest in the nation. When the Gophers lost at home to Wisconsin in 2023, it was the first time they lost to the Badgers in two years.
The last time the Gophers met the Badgers at Camp Randall, the maroon and gold won thanks to a 44-yard touchdown reception from Le’Meke Brockington late in the fourth quarter.
Gophers head coach P.J. Fleck said the past does not affect the game this week, whether it be Wisconsin’s recent struggles or the bowl streak the Badgers are looking to extend.
“The records get thrown out the window, what you did in the past gets thrown out the window, you get to learn from everything and go apply it,” Fleck said.
Fleck applied his motto of “one-game championship season” to how the Gophers are approaching this final regular season test.
Minnesota brought a full bag of tricks into the Penn State game on Saturday, but exhausting the playbook against the No. 4 team in the country was not enough.
The Gophers scored a touchdown on a double reverse pass to Jameson Geers and attempted a pass to left tackle Aireontae Ersery inside the red zone, which Penn State snuffed out.
Gophers offensive coordinator Greg Harbaugh Jr. said the game plan going into Saturday’s loss had 63 kills and alerts, which allowed quarterback Max Brosmer to change the play at the line.
“There were about five to seven play calls that were triple plays in the huddle that he had three different options to get to,” Harbaugh said. “But then going into this week you have one less day, so as a coach you can’t put that much on the guys.”
Harbaugh said the 63 checks at the line of scrimmage were by far the most he added to a game plan. He said it was not even as close as the first game of the year versus North Carolina, which only featured between 30 and 35.
Harbaugh said Brosmer handled the extra workload off the field well. The Gophers quarterback was impactful throughout the offense.
“I haven’t seen a relationship between a quarterback and each position group the way that we have had this year,” Harbaugh said. “That’s leadership and that’s a testament to Max.”
The Gophers offense will look to rekindle the flame found in the first half against Penn State. After scoring 17 first-half points, Minnesota only managed two field goals in the final 30 minutes of the game.
The defense kept Minnesota in the loss, but a back-breaking drive to end the game featured three fourth-down conversions.
Gophers defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman said the biggest play of the game came on third-and-nine on the final drive. Penn State quarterback Drew Allar scrambled for eight yards on third-and-nine, and a play later the Nittany Lions converted a fake punt for 32 yards.
Prepping for Wisconsin as the next test, Hetherman said even with the offensive coordinator change for the Badgers their identity remains similar.
“The run game is very similar, the pass game I did feel like maybe there was a little bit more RPOs (Run-pass options),” Hetherman said. “Quarterback did a really nice job getting the ball out, distributing it.”
RPOs are play calls designed to stress defense including elements of the rush and pass game. The Gophers struggled with RPOs against Rutgers where the offensive coordinator for the Scarlet Knights, Kirk Ciarrocca, utilized the concept successfully throughout the first half.
Hetherman said the Scarlet Knights attacked the Gophers with the RPO and the defense will have an answer built in for those plays for the Wisconsin game.
Two sixth-year leaders of the Gophers offense will not be playing in their final game against Wisconsin. Minnesota received good news Monday morning from sixth-year players Quinn Carroll and Brosmer who decided to play in Minnesota’s bowl game, which will be decided on Dec. 8.
