The Gophers football team hopes to keep their four-game home winning streak alive against the Nebraska Cornhuskers Friday.

A close game against Purdue marked the Gophers’ fourth home game win and their longest home win streak since 2019, when they went 11-2. 

Going into Friday, the Gophers’ record is 4-2, with losses to Cal and No. 1 Ohio State. 

No. 25 Nebraska will be the Gophers’ second-ranked match-up this season. 

Even though Minnesota is coming off a win, Gophers head coach P.J. Fleck said they have room for improvement. 

Fleck said, though sometimes people evaluate things through a perfect perspective, he looks at things through a realistic lens. 

“What can we actually pinpoint, of why we played the way we played, and how can we get that better?” Fleck said. “We got better last week in a lot of areas, but there are a lot of areas we have to improve from Purdue to a ranked Nebraska team.” 

The Gophers have won five straight games against Nebraska since 2019. However, this is the first time since 2016 that Nebraska has been ranked. 

Fleck said he believes the Cornhuskers have found themselves. 

“Matt Rhule has got incredible depth, he is a wonderful football coach, and an incredible human being,” Fleck said. “They have got a very deep running back room, they have got three to four wideouts that can flat-out fly and make huge plays that change the game instantly.” 

Fleck added that the Cornhuskers’ sophomore quarterback Dylan Raiola is playing better than he ever has. 

The Gophers have had success with their quarterback, redshirt freshman Drake Lindsey. Lindsey is 113-188 passes for 1,284 yards, with nine touchdowns and only three interceptions. 

Lindsey’s offensive rating is 82.5, which is fourth in the Big Ten, according to Pro Football Focus. Lindsey was also named Big Ten Freshman of the Week after the Gophers’ win against Rutgers. 

Lindsey has his work cut out for him, as Nebraska currently boasts the No. 1 pass defense in college football. 

Lindsey said one of the things he thinks he does well is being comfortable on the field, trusting what he is seeing and making decisive decisions. 

He added that one thing he hopes to improve on is getting better in the run game. 

“What is also going to help the run game is me being able to get us in the right looks, and then O-line will get us going,” Lindsey said. “It is good to have [Darius Taylor] back as well.” 

Gophers running back Darius Taylor got hurt at the start of the season against Northwestern State, which led him to miss both the Cal and Rutgers games. Taylor’s first game back was against Ohio State, where the team lost 42-3. 

Taylor got back into the groove during the game against Purdue, where he had 32 rushing yards and 67 receiving yards. 

Since being back, Taylor said one of the biggest things the offense can focus on is their mindset. 

“Make sure that we hold ourselves to the standard every play, make sure that we play with the row the boat coaching and make sure that we respond to everything good and bad,” Taylor said. 

Taylor added that for the offense to click, everyone needs to do their job. 

The Gophers have had some close, one-score games this season. Taylor said one of the strengths of the team is the way they battle. 

“We have been in some close games, and I think we have done a great job with battling,” Taylor said.