Minnesota Offensive Fireability Rankings

If you told Minnesota fans in August that the team would be 5-4 heading into the last quarter of the regular season, I think most would take it. This did not look like a contending team entering the year, especially with a difficult schedule. To sit basically at .500 probably meant the Gophers were meeting expectations.

The Gophers have taken a strange route to 5-4, however. The defense has imploded three times, belying real problems, but showed they can truly devour opposing offenses who lack multiple means of attack. Even a few decent offenses have struggled: Iowa, who has scored 95 points in their last three wins, could only muster 10 in Minneapolis. While far from a finished product, the Minnesota defense has improved and is more often a strength than it is a weakness.

The Minnesota offense, meanwhile, has continued the descent it has been on since 2019, finding new depths. By both yards per play and SP+ (an opponent-adjusted rating system), this is the worst Minnesota offense of the last two decades.

Click to enlarge. SP+ rankings from ESPN, Bill Connelly's current spreadsheet,
and the archived pages of the late Football Outsiders.

When things go this poorly, someone has to go. Today, we figure out who that is.

Not everyone on staff is part of this discussion, mind. In addition to the five main offensive position coaches, the Gophers have six assistant coaches and three analysts. While some will remember Matt Limegrover, Mike Shula, and Brandon Bostick from one place or another, most of you reading this will not know the assistants and analysts' names, and none of us on the outside have any idea just what their responsibilities are. (Does "game management" coach Brian Sheehan bear comparable fault to the head coach for game management problems? I do not think so.) We will stick, then, to the six people the average informed fan does know.

T-6. Running backs coach Mohamed Ibrahim

T-6. Wide receivers coach Isaac Fruechte

Hot seat rating: 2.0 — Not enough data

Minnesota's newest offensive coaches have little to do with the unit's struggles.

While Darius Taylor has had the most disappointing year of his career, the main cause — which will loom over this entire post — is not remotely Taylor's fault. Meanwhile, Elon transfer T.J. Thomas and onetime longshot prospect Xavier Ford have made impressive contributions. There was genuine reason to be skeptical of Fleck hiring Mohamed Ibrahim, a recent alumnus with just one year of coaching experience. So far, we cannot say whether it is working or not.

Similarly, it is hard to rule on the job that Isaac Fruechte has done. The Gophers only target three of their wideouts. (Seriously — just three.) That has been their standard for the last decade. Noah Jennings has been better than expected but not exactly shone. Jalen Smith has not broken out so much as maintained his level of play from 2025. Javon Tracy is the team's most dynamic playmaker but does not always have the space to work because of other problems. If I could make any mark against Fruechte, it is that no underclassman has genuinely forced his way into the picture. Then again, Hayden Moore might have done so if not for an early injury.

Checking on the 2026 Gophers after Six Games

It is easy to call Minnesota's 41-13 loss at Purdue a classic case of falling victim to a "trap game." I do not generally entertain armchair psychology, but even granting the premise, I still disagree: Even after two successive emotional wins over big-name (and, at the time, dubiously ranked) teams, Minnesota had a bye immediately after their trip to West Lafayette. How could the Gophers look past a team when there was no bigger test on the other side? Would Purdue's win over Illinois not have kept them on their toes?

The problem was not that the program does "a good job at handling adversity and not as well as handling success" — it is that these Gophers are rather middling.

Entering the game, Bill Connelly's SP+ had Minnesota (53rd) ranked 28 spots ahead of Purdue (81st), with a 66-percent chance to win. While the Gophers were deserving favorites, they remained a flawed team whose schedule to date looked worse with each week. Teams like that are fully capable of dropping a game to  opponents with even bigger flaws.

I will not pretend, however, that I was not surprised by the magnitude of the defeat. In the Big Ten, only Rutgers has a worse defense than Purdue. One could foresee the Boilermakers having a shot in a shootout, but for the Gophers to score just 13 points rather than keeping pace underscores just how low the floor is on this offense.

Their most consistent problem is the offensive line. There were already questions about this group before losing the starting center, Ashton Beers, three games into the season. Without preferred backup Brett Carroll, who suffered an injury in the preseason, Greg Johnson has stepped back into the middle and been as superb a blocker as he was at guard. Beers' absence has still had severe knock-on effects.

Take offensive coordinator Greg Harbaugh Jr.'s attempts to introduce more gap scheme. It was easy to imagine how this might open up the rushing attack.

With Johnson at guard, Minnesota could pull their most athletic lineman into open space on counter to the right. The slower Tony Nelson and the young D.J. Shipp, the playside guard and tackle, would have down blocks, which are easier than trying to reach across a defender's face on outside zone. Even if running counter the other way would be tougher, having one run play that gets Darius Taylor and T.J. Thomas into space on the edge would be an improvement.

Harbaugh has also shown how pullers can complement the passing attack. Watch how these Michigan linebackers hesitated instead of darting towards this bubble screen because Nelson's movement told them something was happening on the back side of the play:

But to actually run counter, you need the right personnel. With Johnson at center, the slower Jaden Ball took over at left guard. The Gophers ran counter right seven times at Washington and gained 11 yards. Ball just was not equipped for the job.

2026 Gophers Season Preview

Goldy welcomes you to the 2026 season.

Normally, this post would be longer, and so would this introduction. In the past, I've gone long on cognitive dissonance, conference and Playoff expansion, sport as tradition and myth, and generally big themes about What College Football Means.

Today, I am not going to do that. For different reasons, I took longer than normal to start my 2026 season preview series. One of them is that I just had other things going on, but another is that my enthusiasm for college football in the offseason has changed.

More than ever, following the sport is not about the sport itself. I hold fairly neutral views on many (not all) of the individual reasons for that, but I nevertheless find it increasingly exhausting to keep up with college football in the middle of the summer. This affects my readiness to write thousands of words about college football when preseason camps start up across the country.

This time around, I needed football to be closer to tangible before I even wanted to think about it. I started so late that I was not sure I could actually complete this preview series. I withheld publishing the first post until I had enough of the others done that I believed that I could. It was deeply satisfying to finish this week, both because of the effort required to do so and because I finally feel mentally and emotionally ready for my favorite pastime.

This introduction is instead an explanation for my tardiness (see above), as well as a description of what follows. The main difference from past posts of this kind is that I will not be going in-depth on each of Minnesota's opponents. This took up considerable time in years past, time that I did not have this preseason.

Past readers, if any are here, will recognize the rest: I ask 10 big questions facing the 2026 Golden Gophers, divided between offense, defense, and special teams. I give my predicted depth chart, which is always mostly right but also always wrong in a handful of ways that will annoy me later. If you have not read any of my previews of each position group, below, you will find links to them all. I also predict the team's regular season record and bowl destination.

Then I shut up, and it's time for real, live football.

* * * * * *

Offense

Position previews: receivers and tight ends ・ running backs ・ quarterbacks ・ offensive line

Predicted depth chart:

Click to enlarge any image in this post.

How good is Drake Lindsey right now?

It was the lead question in last year's preview, and there cannot be any other first question this year. Not when Drake Lindsey had the highs he did as a redshirt freshman, not when he is getting buzz as a dark horse for Round 1 of the 2027 NFL Draft, not when so much of this offense depends on his development. Lindsey is the key to unlocking another level to this offense, both this season and however many subsequent seasons he plays in a Minnesota uniform. With more consistency, he could justify much of the hype surrounding him and give Minnesota a dangerous passing game again. If he does not raise the bar from an uneven showing in 2025, that may keep the Gophers from reaching a bowl.

2026 Gophers Position Previews: Secondary

Summer days are getting shorter. Football is coming. To make you the fan at your tailgate most informed on the top, middle, and bottom of Minnesota's depth chart, Ski-U-Blog is previewing each position group on the roster. This preseason, the U of M secondary faces both major changes and familiar questions.

Likely Starters

The biggest story in the Minnesota secondary will be who isn't there. As much as bitter fans will want to play the "we didn't need him anyway" card, and however much saving money on one player may have benefitted other areas of the roster, the bottom line is that the Gophers will miss Koi Perich.

Beyond his symbolic importance as the Esko kid who stayed home to be a star, Perich was the best, most dynamic player on the team. The same hubris that got him in trouble, overrunning the ball and adding more responsibilities than he was likely ready to handle, is what made him such a thrill. His key plays won multiple games, including last year's weird and messy game versus Purdue. In a year where the defense took a step back, Perich cleaned up loads of other players' mistakes, flying in from the secondary to stop opposing gains from becoming hemorrhages. The fact that another school will get to reap the rewards of his game-changing talent, and that he will be announced as an Oregon product at the NFL Draft instead of a Minnesota one, will hurt.

There were, however, places on the roster where Perich's departure would hurt more. The defense is well-stocked at safety, a signature strength of the Gophers under P.J. Fleck.

The most obvious example is Kerry Brown, a star in his own right.

Granted, Brown's tackling was not as superlative in his previous season, which was a problem across the board for Minnesota's safeties. He was still around the ball plenty and finished with 48.0 tackles (40 solo). And where Perich's flashy moments fell off, Brown supplied his own, making 10.0 havoc plays. He is the team's best defensive back, and he owns one of the highest ceilings on the whole roster. If he can combine the plays he made on the ball in 2025 with the brilliant tackling of 2024, he will be one of the best safeties in the country.

2026 Gophers Position Previews: Linebackers

Summer days are getting shorter. Football is coming. To make you the fan at your tailgate most informed on the top, middle, and bottom of Minnesota's depth chart, Ski-U-Blog is previewing each position group on the roster. It's now time to discuss the linebacker corps.

Likely Starters

Maverick Baranowski came into his own last season. He made quicker decisions than in past years, combining his aggression with experience to set new personal statistical bests. Playing all 13 games (and playing them all at Mike) for the first time, he almost doubled his career tackle total in a single season, recording a team-leading 77.5 tackles (52 solo), including 9.0 for loss.

It was a strong year for Baranowski, who enters his final year seeking his first all-conference selection.

To get there, he must still polish flaws in his game. While he is athletic and knows his responsibilities, he will never be a fantastic defender in pass coverage so much as a competent one. The linebacker corps as a whole can over-pursue runs and create cutback lanes, and that includes Baranowski. For all the blitzing the Gophers do, he only made 3.0 sacks. Baranowski is the Gophers' best linebacker and one of their most trustworthy defenders, but he has a little more room to grow.

2026 Gophers Position Previews: Defensive Line

Summer days are getting shorter. Football is coming. To make you the fan at your tailgate most informed on the top, middle, and bottom of Minnesota's depth chart, Ski-U-Blog is previewing each position group on the roster. Our discussion of the defense begins with the 24 (!) members of the Gopher defensive line.

The Many Edge Rushers

After leading the Big Ten in regular season sacks last year, Minnesota could well lead the nation in sacks this season. There might not be a deeper collection of proven edge rushers in America, and four or five of them might see the field at once on 3rd downs.

It starts with hulking 5-technique Anthony Smith, one of the biggest personalities and biggest playmakers in the conference. After ranking 3rd nationally with 12.5 sacks, Smith could have gone to the pros. Instead, he returns to chase the program records for sacks (Karon Riley's 29.0) and tackles for loss (Willie VanDeSteeg's 43.5). Both are within reach for a player of his caliber.

Smith may be a 3-4 end at the next level, as his 285-pound frame actually can actually prevent him from chasing down quarterbacks. When Jah Joyner was still in the program, he played a good amount of tackle, and due to massive uncertainty on the interior, Smith may slide inside more than ever before. Wherever he is on a given play, his size and sheer power make him an invaluable every-down defender for the Gophers.

2026 Gophers Position Previews: Special Teams

Summer days are getting shorter. Football is coming. To make you the fan at your tailgate most informed on the top, middle, and bottom of Minnesota's depth chart, Ski-U-Blog is previewing each position group on the roster. We move now to a much-changed special teams unit.

Likely Starters

The departure of Koi Perich leaves a hole in the defensive backfield but also one in Minnesota's return game. Sure, Perich muffed the ball, including to disastrous effect at Cal last season, but he was one of the country's most explosive return men. There is not a player on this roster likely to match him in that regard.

There is, though, one player who has recorded return yards as a Golden Gopher, someone who will have an important part in the offense this season. That's right — it's Pierce Walsh!

Alas, returning kicks and punts will not be among Walsh's jobs. Probably.

The most obvious candidate to take over kick returns is T.J. Thomas. In two years at Elon, Thomas never scored a special teams touchdown — and only once made it past midfield — but was a highly efficient, occasionally dangerous return man.

Click to enlarge.

More than two-thirds of Thomas' kick returns made it to at least the 25-yard line. It is hard to find a benchmark for comparison, but around 8 years ago, national kick return success rates were roughly 45 percent. Perich and Cam Davis, the two Gophers who returned kicks by design last year, gained the 25-yard line just one-third of the time. (One return that made it to the 30 was pulled back for holding, but it does not dramatically change the numbers to count it as a success or as a failure.)

If incoming special teams coordinator Daniel Da Prato can create lanes for his new returner, Thomas promises to provide much more consistent field position than his high-upside predecessor. And every once in a while, he'll use his vision, agility, and quickness to start the offense a bit farther downfield.

2026 Gophers Position Previews: Offensive Line

Summer days are getting shorter. Football is coming. To make you the fan at your tailgate most informed on the top, middle, and bottom of Minnesota's depth chart, Ski-U-Blog is previewing each position group on the roster. Here is the author's favorite post to write each year, a preview of the offensive line.

Likely Starters

After a couple of seasons of unremarkable rushing attacks, offensive line coach Brian Callahan faces some pressure entering the 2026 season. Matt Simon's departure makes Callahan the only position coach remaining from P.J. Fleck's first year at Minnesota. (Ironically, one of the two new offensive line assistants is Matt Limegrover, a longtime Jerry Kill acolyte.) Callahan has been as ever-present a figure as anyone in the program, but he needs a once-effective front five to click again.

At the center of it all — well, adjacent to the center — is Greg Johnson. Johnson came to the U of M with great expectations, and it took a long time for him to catch up with them. By the midpoint of his true freshman season, he was a forgivably imperfect regular. He then had a rather underwhelming sophomore season playing every game at center. He moved back to left guard last year, with experiments at each tackle spot as Callahan tried to fix a unit that wasn't working. His Minnesota career has not lacked for talking points.

Johnson enters his senior season with more expectations: Phil Steele named Johnson a first-team preseason All-American, and Dane Brugler has him as the No. 2 interior lineman in this NFL Draft class. When he gets extended playing time at a single position, it is easy to see why. Johnson has become the people-mover the Gophers need, chugging his feet and outworking defensive tackles to open lanes.

In addition to his power, Johnson's athleticism makes him a solid puller and lead blocker on screens. He is one of the biggest keys to getting Darius Taylor into the open field.