Gophers football will play in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl against Virginia Tech to finish their 2024 season and springboard the team into next year.
The 2024 campaign only gets sweeter as Minnesota capped its regular season with a border battle win over Wisconsin and now will play for a mayo bath. As is tradition at Duke’s Mayo Bowl, the winning head coach will be doused in Duke’s mayonnaise after the game.
Gophers head coach P.J. Fleck said traditions like the mayo bath are what college football is all about, and if his team wins the game he will participate in the mayo bathing.
“It’s tremendous if we’re lucky enough and fortunate enough to win the football game — absolutely, make it double,” Fleck said.
West Virginia defeated North Carolina, 30-10, in the 2023 Duke’s Mayo Bowl and Mountaineers head coach Neal Brown participated in the festivities.
In the new college football era with the transfer portal opening and players weighing their professional football futures, few stars stick around for bowl games.
That narrative changed this season for the Gophers.
Minnesota’s sixth-year offensive lineman Quinn Carroll said before defeating Wisconsin that he will play in Minnesota’s bowl game this season.
“I want to set a standard, and that’s kind of been my goal ever since I came here was to be the leader to be the standard all the time,” Carroll said. “I don’t want it to become a standard that we don’t play in a bowl game if we have NFL aspirations.”
Carroll is not the only leader of the Gophers who will be staying until 2025 for Duke’s Mayo Bowl. Joining him is sixth-year quarterback Max Brosmer.
“It’s number one, a really cool experience, especially for someone coming from the FCS or a smaller division having the ability to play in a bowl game,” Brosmer said.
For both players, it is the next step in their prospective football careers.
Brosmer and Carroll accepted invitations to the Hula Bowl, a college football all-star game for college players seeking the opportunity to play at the next level. Gophers defensive lineman Danny Striggow will join his fellow seniors at the Hula Bowl.
If Brosmer was selected in the 2025 NFL Draft, he would become the first Gophers quarterback picked since Craig Curry in 1972.
Not only are a few Gophers players looking ahead to their futures, but Fleck is attacking the bowl game similarly. Fleck said a bowl game is a celebration and reward for the players and their work in the 2024 season, but also a chance for him to start figuring out next season’s roster.
“That’s why it’s so critical, it is early spring ball, it is already a jump forward to 2025,” Fleck said.
The Gophers will look to develop players with this extra month before the Jan. 3 game and find pieces to fill in the roster for 2025. Fleck said the team will add 10-15 players through the transfer portal.
The Gophers secured a member of their coaching staff for two more years in defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman. Hetherman’s defense finished the season ranked seventh in the nation in total defense and intercepted 16 passes, which was also top 10 in the country.
Fleck said Hetherman loves the players and staff, which was evident in the process of keeping him with the Gophers.
“We’ve only known him in the organization for the last 10-11 months, but I think he’s made a huge impact on and off the field to our players and staff,” Fleck said.
The Gophers will face a defense similar to theirs with great ball skills — the Hokies had 14 interceptions of their own this season.
The bowl game will be the first time the Gophers will face the Hokies and Minnesota’s first appearance in Duke’s Mayo Bowl.
