Game Face On: Unpacking the Minnesota Golden Gophers—The Highs and Lows for PJ Fleck and His Team!

The Trojans are looking for their first Big Ten conference road victory facing Minnesota Saturday night in Huntington Bank Stadium. To get to know USC’s foe, we chat with Ryan Burns who covers the Golden Gophers for GopherIllustrated.

Each week during the college football season, USCFootball.com asks an expert about USC’s upcoming opponent. This week, as the Trojans head to Huntington Bank Stadium to take on the Minnesota Golden Gophers, we spoke with Ryan Burns from GopherIllustrated to discuss the matchup.

With a record of 3-2, Minnesota has beaten two weaker teams but has struggled against three Power Five opponents. They had chances to win against North Carolina and Michigan, and took an early lead against Iowa before falling apart in the second half. What’s the current mindset of the program, and how significant would a victory over USC be on Saturday?

Right now, it’s all about how Minnesota can overcome its own mistakes for a full 60 minutes. They’ve shown they can play well in periods of each game, but also have significant breakdowns. The most frustrating aspect for PJ Fleck and his staff is that these issues have been largely self-inflicted. Fixing the offense involves addressing a pass-catching group that leads the Big Ten in dropped passes and an offensive line that has already committed 15 penalties in five games. Defensively, they’ve struggled to get off the field, and special teams have faced major difficulties in the kicking game.

Minnesota has not yet played their best football for a full 60 minutes, but if they manage to do so on Saturday night, they could keep pace with USC until the final moments. A victory would snap the Gophers’ six-game losing streak in the Big Ten and also break their seven-game losing streak against Power Five teams.

USC has begun both of its Big Ten games slowly and had to come from behind in the second half. The Golden Gophers tend to have a quarter where they fade before regrouping and trying to get back into the game. What has head coach PJ Fleck said regarding these lapses and the importance of playing consistently from the start to finish?

I’m happy you brought that up, as I asked the head coach that question during his weekly press conference on Monday. What can Minnesota do to avoid self-sabotage?

“Ryan, that’s an excellent question. If I had the perfect answer, I would have already addressed the issues that led to our early struggles. Those are the mistakes that can really hurt us quickly. Now, our entire game plan is affected…we’re complicating things for ourselves, and many of our challenges are self-inflicted. We’re not keeping our eyes in the right places and failing to drive through tackles. We’re tackling to the player instead of through them, which highlights our need to improve on the fundamentals. That responsibility falls on me as the football coach to ensure we execute better.”

In short, Minnesota is still figuring out how to prevent these issues from escalating.

They have a lot of experienced players, particularly in the front line. It ultimately boils down to execution and avoiding mental errors during critical moments, which they have struggled with.