2025 Gophers Position Previews: Quarterbacks

On the other side of this interminable heat, humidity, and rain is a precious thing in Minnesota: fall. To get you ready for it, Ski-U-Blog is again previewing this year's Gopher football team, one position group at a time. We now move to the biggest, most crucial unknown of the preseason: what Minnesota will have at quarterback.

Likely Starter

In the transfer era, it feels like a lot of teams don't make long-term plans at quarterback anymore. One only has to look at Minnesota's schedule for examples: Buffalo, Cal, Iowa, Northwestern, and Wisconsin all brought in experienced upperclassmen who are at least good bets to start under center, if not guarantees. Only a couple of those players — Iowa's Mark Gronowski and Northwestern's Preston Stone — look like genuine improvements over what their new schools usually have at the position.

The Gophers, of course, used a stopgap starter last year in Max Brosmer, but that was only because Athan Kaliakmanis didn't live up to expectations in 2023 before transferring to Rutgers. While P.J. Fleck and offensive playcaller Greg Harbaugh Jr. loved what Brosmer provided, and while Fleck aggressively turns over other positions every offseason, the program handles quarterback the old-fashioned way. They want to develop long-term starters internally.

Enter Drake Lindsey. By all accounts, Lindsey spent 2024 glued to Brosmer's hip and is still in touch with his former teammate. He carried on Brosmer's annual tradition of holding out-of-state workouts with his receivers and fellow quarterbacks. Fleck and other players have been effusive about his personality. Lindsey has surely learned some things from Brosmer (and new Vikings starter J.J. McCarthy) that in time will help the redshirt freshman be a better quarterback and leader.

The question is: What does that mean right now? Lindsey has taken six college dropbacks, and five were in garbage time against an FCS team. Here is his one throw against Virginia Tech:

And here is his first touchdown pass:

Both are the kind of throws we expect any semi-competent college quarterback to make. Such a small sample gives us little added idea of what Lindsey brings.

We can at least review the information we had before Lindsey arrived last year. His highlights as a high school senior include a good few 40- and 50-air-yard touchdown passes, showing an arm that is at least good enough for this level, if probably not superlative. He can underthrow his man slightly or put too much air under the ball, something Big Ten defensive backs can punish. You can see in his state championship game performance that Lindsey wants to stay in the pocket, which at his size is smart — he is not a runner. Though in places you can see him anticipate openings before they open, the velocity on his throws kept plays on time more often than next-level processing.

Watching Lindsey as a prospect, one can see an eventually adequate Division I starter. However, it is impossible to make a definitive statement about how Lindsey will play in 2025. If he is an instant hit, the Gophers could be looking at a nine-win season or better. If he is not close to ready, that does not have to mean Lindsey is not the answer long-term, but it could put Minnesota's bowl eligibility in jeopardy.

Harbaugh will likely not ask too much of him out of the gates. The Gophers' skill positions should function like Lindsey's training wheels. He has a group of experienced receivers to rely on, plus a pair of tailbacks who can take pressure of his shoulders. An easy early-season schedule gives the offense the chance to ramp up before conference play. While this situation is not the perfect one for a new starter, it should be enough for Lindsey to get by in his first year.

Key Backups

In December, the Gophers added Georgia Tech transfer Zach Pyron to their roster. In April, Pyron left the program for South Alabama. Knowing the business of college football, it would not surprise me if the Minnesota staff led Pyron to believe he had a better shot of starting over Lindsey than he did. If anything, adding Pyron instead of a proven starter indicated an intent to give Lindsey the starting job. Pryon made a few small appearances for Tech but lost the starting competition last fall to Haynes King. In Mobile, at least, he will get more playing time than he ever would have had in Atlanta or Minneapolis.

Taking Pyron's place as the designated veteran backup, then, is Emmett Morehead. Morehead spent last year at Old Dominion but didn't see a snap after a knee injury. His first school was Boston College, where he actually started the Eagles' last four games of 2022. Morehead's most productive game was his first, where he posted a very average 7.3 yards per attempt and dropped four touchdowns on Duke.

Granted, three of the four touchdowns came while trailing by multiple scores, and BC lost. But for a first-time starter, it was not terrible.

The next week, Morehead actually helmed a game-winning touchdown drive at NC State. This had mostly to do with the Wolfpack's ineptitude; in the second half, they scored only three points and turned the ball over three times just to give the Eagles a chance. Then there was this absurd coverage mistake on BC's final drive:

Morehead decided to try this throw on on 2nd down.

And then the Wolfpack committed defensive pass interference on 4th-and-goal, which immediately preceded the winning score. Afforded enough lives, the Eagles came through. I give them, and Morehead, only partial credit.

The Notre Dame defense was a far less gracious host. The Irish sacked Morehead four times, stripped him of the ball once, picked up a loose backwards pass, and intercepted him thrice. He finished 9-for-22 with 117 yards in a 44-0 shutout.

Against Syracuse, he made a few good plays but spent most of the game handing off to his tailback. As the Eagles blew a 17-6 lead, Morehead gave the ball away on a strip-sack and turned the ball over on downs scrambling for the line to gain. A meaningless dink-and-dunk touchdown drive padded his stats a bit, and BC ended the year on a loss. Morehead actually started Week 1 in 2023 but was benched in the first quarter for Thomas Castellanos. Morehead spent the rest of his time in Chestnut Hill as the backup.

Watching the redshirt freshman version of Morehead is only partially informative. He was playing behind a duct-tape-and-glue offensive line, some of his longest passes by yardage were quick throws that Zay Flowers took the rest of the way, and it was three whole seasons ago. But it is the most meaningful football he has played, so it tells us something.

For one, it tells us that Morehead can throw a pretty deep ball. He will not do so consistently, but he can. The Eagles' staff gave him a pretty limited playbook; more than 65 percent of his career passes at BC were within 9 yards of the line of scrimmage or behind it, per Pro Football Focus. They still trusted him to at least occasionally throw down the sideline. Despite some mistakes and floated passes, Morehead showed that a fade is in his bag. This, for example, is a genuinely excellent throw:

What he does not have is speed. I will give him an incomplete grade on navigating the pocket, considering the aforementioned concerns about his blocking and how long ago it was. But he will not offer anything in the run game. Scrambling is an option when the middle of the field is wide open. Otherwise, if Morehead does not get the ball out quickly, he needs to throw the ball away or take the sack. Attempts to escape the rush will end poorly. So will most attempts to make plays out of structure.

On more routine plays, Morehead is inconsistent. Though his arm can be an asset, his placement is spotty, forcing his target to make a catch against his momentum or missing entirely. Even if he has cleaned up his bad habits a bit, Morehead probably lacks the accuracy and composure to manage a game like a backup ideally could. That said, other teams in the Big Ten are surely worse on the second string.

Minnesota's pursuit of other quarterbacks clearly signaled a lack of confidence in Dylan Wittke, now a redshirt sophomore. I wasn't enamored with Wittke's prospect tape last year and expect he will remain a backup as long as he is at the U of M. He has the skill set to work in the Wildcat package, but Darius Taylor took those snaps in 2024 and will probably continue to do so.

Notables Unlikely to Contribute

This program does not have a good history with composite 4-star quarterbacks. Clint Brewster transferred to Tennessee Tech after a season. Moses Alipate moved to tight end as a junior and never registered a stat. Marqueis Gray remains a fan favorite but also didn't stick at quarterback full-time. Kaliakmanis had the most success out of the group and never quite found his footing in a season-and-a-half of starts.

Despite this, whenever Minnesota does sign a 4-star quarterback, it will cause a stir. Should Lindsey struggle through his first year under center, Jackson Kollock's presence will be a talking point throughout next spring and summer. After all, a detachment of fans was intrigued enough about him to attend one of Kollock's high school games the night before the Gophers played UCLA.

Kollock's strengths are readily apparent watching his highlights. He has an archetypical build at 6-foot-4 and 225 pounds. He throws lasers, hitting targets in stride and lacing the ball into tight windows. His release is quick. He is not quick, but he is fast enough once he hits full stride to see a potential running threat. He wants to barge opponents for extra yardage and often can.

The issue with highlights, of course, is that they show the best of a prospect. While I can pick up on some of Kollock's issues — he drifts from the pocket needlessly, he doesn't protect himself on the move, his accuracy can be shaky after resetting his platform — it is much harder to explain his relatively quieter senior year without watching a full game. You cannot watch him online, and you will not see him in action this fall. For now, Kollock is closer to a message-board MacGuffin than a real college football player.

Stillwater's Max Shikenjanski has yet to appear in a game since arriving as a walk-on in 2023. He probably never will, but he may well be preferred before Kollock if catastrophe strikes the quarterback room. If it comes to that, however, I imagine either player would hand the ball off more than throw it.