2024 Gophers Position Previews: Linebackers

September's coming soon, so it is once again time to start thinking about football. Ski-U-Blog will analyze every position group on the Gophers' roster: starters, depth, and potential future contributors. This post concerns a linebacker corps coming off a rocky year but possessing ample potential.

Likely Starters

Middle linebacker was a disaster zone for Minnesota in 2023. The starter was injured until almost Halloween. The most seasoned backup missed the whole year. Two more veterans transferred out (and had fairly productive seasons at their new schools).

This left the job to Maverick Baranowski. Barnowski frequently almost did the right thing. It's a common story for a young player: He lets the other team bait him, he overruns a gap, he gets his hand up but can't bat down the pass, he gets pushed back by a more experienced blocker, he misses tackles, and so on. While Baranowski cut down on those errors throughout the year and made some thunderous tackles — at least until an injury shut him down in November — the truth is that he was just not ready.

I believe in Baranowski's talent and that his 2024 can at least be fine. He would not be the first Gopher linebacker that was unprepared for his first real action but turned into a legitimate player.

Precedent exists in the form of Cody Lindenberg, who only got to play in four games but is set to return for a full season. He was mostly himself but maybe a little rusty. His pursuit angles were lacking trying to track down Wisconsin's Tanner Mordecai, he and he sometimes contributed to the team-wide issue of not hitting the right depth in his zone.

When 100-percent, though, Lindenberg is a high-level, prototypical Minnesota middle linebacker. That comes with pass coverage tradeoffs, as he will jump too hard on play-action and may struggle to run with some tight ends, but he should be an ace against the run. And Lindenberg's smarts are a serious benefit, whether he is sniffing out a screen or senses a chance to make a play on the ball.

All-conference honors are the expectation for Lindenberg's redshirt senior season.

Video from practice shows Baranowski practicing with the first team and Devon Williams with the second. Both will play extensively at Will, perhaps in equal amounts, with one of the two kicking over to Sam when Minnesota uses three linebackers.

Like Baranowski, Williams had a spotty first season as a regular. Williams is a far superior coverage linebacker but still had his share of errors. He does not have as many glaring missed tackles but has a difficult time getting rid of blockers, whether they are linemen or tight ends. He is an asset on the blitz but only finished the season with 1.0 sack.

Such faults, however, are growing pains. Williams is now a redshirt junior and likely an improved player. He will probably continue to feature heavily and seems like a better foil to Lindenberg than Baranowski, who is a comparably old-school, run-and-hit linebacker. Especially against teams like USC and Wisconsin, who will want to throw the ball, Williams should see more snaps.

Key Backups

Tyler Stolsky was also thrown into the fire last year, and the results were predictably poor. Stolsky showed in moments that he is a capable, forceful tackler, but Michigan, Purdue, and Ohio State exposed his lack of speed and still-developing feel for coverage and pursuit angles. There may well be a player in Stolsky, but he will stay a reserve player for the time being.

Potential Rotation Options

Having missed all of 2023, Derik LeCaptain is on his last season of eligibility. When healthy, the stout LeCaptain has been a "Quad-Teamer"— one of the Gophers serving all kickoff and punt units — and even played tailback and fullback, but barely shown his face on defense. He will play Mike if ever needed, but Baranowski and Stolsky are in line ahead of him.

Joey Gerlach is an undersized outside linebacker who played a lot of special teams last season before appearing as the Sam in the bowl game. The Gophers need him to be the kind of player who can drop back to cover tight ends and running backs better than their other linebackers, but can blitz or step up against the run better than a safety. In the first respect, Gerlach seems capable. In the second, he needs work.

Notables Unlikely to Contribute

Poor Matt Kingsbury was thrown into the fire against Purdue last November and had no chance. He lasted one half before Stolsky relieved him. Now a redshirt freshman, he should have time to develop and take special teams reps instead of facing Big Ten offenses making picking on him the gameplan. If Kingsbury does have a spot on the kickoff team, it will be alongside Eli Mau. The redshirt junior from Chanhassen is a doubt to ever see the regular 11 but did block an Eastern Michigan punt last season.

Minnesota brought in Detroit Lakes' Ethan Carrier as a walk-on defensive back last fall, and now his brother Mason Carrier joins the team. Carrier was a prolific multi-sport athlete whose talent is obvious from his highlights: eye-catching closing speed, violent tackling, power through contact, even hurdles over defenders while at running back. He might only see blowouts in 2024 but should figure into the rotation a couple years down the line.