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.

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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.

2026 Gophers Position Previews: Quarterbacks

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. Today's post covers quarterback, a position the Gophers have reason to believe is settled for a long time.

Likely Starter

Playcaller Greg Harbaugh Jr. did not go easy on his redshirt freshman quarterback. From the outset, Drake Lindsey ran the full Minnesota offense. In three of his first four starts, Lindsey attempted 32 or more passes.

The fourth, a shootout win over Rutgers, was a banner day.

Lindsey threw for 324 yards, the most by a Minnesota quarterback since 2019. He was precise and composed, cutting up the defense in a game where his team needed every one of those yards. It was a class performance, the kind that said with minimal qualification that the Gophers had found their guy.

There were another nine games to play, however, and those were not as superlative. His pedestrian (or worse) outings outnumbered the great ones. He ran in the winning touchdown in overtime versus Michigan State, offering a signature moment in a game where he still averaged just 5.1 yards per pass attempt. He finished the year with 6.1 yards per attempt, ranking 129th out of 145 FBS players who threw 150 or more passes.

Yet Lindsey enters this fall with some hype — hype I'm not really sure is misplaced, at least on a long-term scale. What are fair, measured expectations for his second season?

2026 Gophers Position Previews: Running Backs

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. Today, we move to the running back position.

Likely Starter

In a career that's been stop-start because of injuries, Darius Taylor's 2025 was maybe the most frustrating. It took five quarters for Taylor to miss time, pulling up with a hamstring problem on what should have been a touchdown against Northwestern State. He returned a month later, averaging just 2.0 yards per carry against Ohio State and Purdue. Though he bounced back with a big performance against Nebraska, he evidently wasn't right and took just one carry at Iowa the following week. He missed another game, returning after the bye versus Oregon.

This time, the rest helped. Taylor looked much fresher over the last four games of the season, totaling 427 all-purpose yards and averaging an additional half-yard more per carry than in the other six games he played. He had more burst, recording a run of 23 or more yards each week. That included this 47-yard touchdown on the icy surface against Wisconsin:

Last year should have been Taylor's last in college. When his body cooperates, Taylor is one of the best, most versatile tailbacks in the sport. Even if he doesn't possess truly blazing speed, he has such a complete set of tools that all he needs is better luck. If he stays healthy, he can finally receive the accolades that have eluded him and make it to the NFL.

2026 Gophers Position Previews: Receivers and Tight Ends

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. As always, the first installment of this series covers the Gophers' pass-catchers.

Likely Starters

Where else to start but where things left off?

That's Jalen Smith, then a redshirt freshman from Mankato, making his second fantastic touchdown catch to defeat New Mexico in overtime of Minnesota's bowl game. Smith led the Gophers with 15.0 yards per reception over the course of the season, becoming a legit deep threat thanks to his speed and ball-tracking ability. He also gained the 4th-most receiving yards ever by a Minnesota freshman.

Excluding Maxx Williams, who only played two seasons before leaving for the NFL, every past player in the above table ranks in the program's top 10 in career yards. Such a strong start tends to be the first chapter in a successful tenure in maroon and gold.

Digesting Norwich City's Newfound Unbridled Optimism

This photo is very much not from the 2025-26 season. I hope you will forgive
me for not having current pictures of a stadium that is an ocean away from me.

A year ago, I was worried about my favorite soccer team. Norwich City have met plenty of turbulence and management errors and hard truths of capitalism over the years, but things never looked as uncertain to this fan of only a dozen years as at the end of the 2024-25 season.

Whatever sporting director Ben Knapper was doing, it wasn't working. Under head coach Johannes Hoff Thorup, the Canaries' defense became one of the most porous in the Championship. A young team battered by injuries never showed signs of coming together. After making the playoffs the year before, Norwich finished in the bottom half of the league table.

With the fan base's polarization over Thorup increasingly shifting to total hostility, Knapper moved on with a couple meaningless games to go. Everything Thorup has said since his dismissal indicates he expected much more rope, giving the appearance that the club's key figures could not even agree on what their immediate goals were. It was hard to see a long-term vision. It was easier than ever to imagine Norwich drifting into perennial mid-table status, ceding their dominance of the East Anglian Derby to Ipswich Town, and having to sell their promising players just to keep the books balanced.

It only took six months for my fears to reach new heights — but only after things initially started to look up. As expected, star winger Borja Sainz left for Porto, but striker Josh Sargent and midfielder Marcelino Núñez, arguably more important players than Sainz, stayed through the summer. Knapper hired a new head coach, Liam Manning, who always downplayed his childhood days as a Carrow Road season ticket holder but brought a respectable résumé. Intriguing signings like defender Harry Darling, midfield destroyer Mirko Topić, winger Papa Amadou Diallo, and young striker Jovon Makama gave reason to believe Knapper was addressing key problems in defense and depth.

Another Blogger Has Ideas on the NBA Regular Season Schedule

You cannot really call me an NBA fan anymore. I tune in for Timberwolves playoff games out of solidarity for my friends and my adopted home, and every couple years, I take up someone's offer of a spare ticket. However, my interest has waned considerably since I obsessed over the Mavericks and talked myself into the likes of Shane Larkin, Nerlens Noel, and Dennis Smith Jr. being the guys who would halt the team's post-championship slide into mediocrity.

I do like the slower pace, imperfection, and vastly superior atmospheres of college basketball more, but I have never been one of those people who think the NBA isn't real basketball. Most of my faded interest is because my favorite athlete of all-time retired and my team just could not stop associating with men accused of harassing and assaulting women. The rest of it is that I just do not want to spend as much time as I did when I was a teenager watching literally every sport. The Mavericks betrayed me — and have spent every moment since making sure I never come back — but the NBA as a whole is more like an old friend I drifted away from but still want to check in on every once in a while.

That also makes me kind of a catty jerk who can't mind his own business. Like everyone who doesn't routinely watch the NBA anymore, I have strong opinions on the NBA. Continuation fouls are way too generous! (They were when I watched, too.) Being able to challenge fouls is stupid on its face, even speaking as someone who generally supports video review in sports! The ninth- and tenth-place teams in each conference have no business playing postseason games! The NBA Cup is silly! Nike has made a mess of the league's uniforms! A league that makes such absurd amounts of money does not need to give floor space, jersey space, and so much of the screen to ads!

This post is not about any of that, though. (For every criticism I list above, I have even more for the sports I do watch closely — on and off, I've been drafting a baseball manifesto for years.) I want to offer my opinion on something most people seemingly agree on, whether they play in or coach in or just follow the league: The regular season needs to be shorter.

How much shorter? Honestly, not much. The 82-game season has lasted for so long because it worked. Getting to watch your team for an extended season, with familiar rhythms, chances to see everyone else in the league, and narratives whose arcs are much longer than the playoffs, is kind of the whole point. For most of the league, a 41-game season ticket package is a great deal for someone who loves attending basketball games.

The problem is that playing basketball is harder. Not only is the player pool dramatically more athletic across the board than even 15 years ago; players are also asked to play more basketball.

The Films I Watched in 2025

Against all odds, 2025 was another year where I watched movies. Once again, I kept track of each one and compiled them into tiers for the satisfaction of my brain; and once again, I have written brief thoughts on each of them for hopefully the gratification of you, dear reader. Like last year, I hit exactly 60 films, which is my annual goal.

Click to enlarge.

You can see how I tiered all 60 of these films in the above table, but I invite you to read further. On we go.

Just Trash

Wag the Dog, dir. Barry Levinson (1997)

The more movies I see that David Mamet wrote, the more convinced I am that Glengarry Glen Ross' scintillating script was an aberration. Wag the Dog is smug and pointless, a film in which every event on the news is framed as a psyop. Mamet reveals himself to be a moron every time he talks about politics, driven by pettiness and reactionary, conspiratorial thinking, so it should not be a surprise that he wrote a film about politics that, beyond some barely funny cracks at jingoism, is more or less nihilist.

A nihilist message is not necessarily a bad thing, but you still have to do something with it. One of my favorite comedies, Burn After Reading, mocks humanity's self-importance in the face of our lives' ultimate insignificance and absurdity. Wag the Dog's message is that The Powers That Be use The Media to lie to you, but its skepticism is so shallow and goofy — again, without being funny — that it becomes useless. When the United States government has illegally interfered with and waged wars on actual countries, hiding behind patriotic slogans and lying to its citizens, that government fabricating a brief military campaign to hide a scandal just does not serve as the prescient farce Mamet believes it to be.

Did Not Enjoy

The Lost Weekend, dir. Billy Wilder (1945)

A film as empathetic toward alcoholics as The Lost Weekend must have been revelatory in 1945. Eighty years later, it comes off more like a noble but imperfect first step. The simplicity of its portrayal of addiction, from the causes to the symptoms to recovery, did not work for me. Though far from a failure, the film just was not my thing.

Previewing New Mexico

Overview

Record: 9-3 (6-2, 4th in Mountain West)

"Second-order" Record: 7.6-4.4

SP+ Overall Rank: 65th

New Mexico has been one of 2025's most pleasant surprises. A year ago, the school prudently hired Bronco Mendenhall, a veteran coach with ample experience out west, only for him to take over conference mate Utah State after one 5-7 season. Players left. UNM entered the year ranking 117th in returning production, which seemed to foreshadow a difficult first season for Jason Eck.

Instead, Eck and his 43 incoming transfers (seven of whom came from his prior stop, Idaho) won the program's most regular season games since 1997, which was Dennis Franchione's last year in charge. The Lobos finished 4th in a four-way tie atop the Mountain West and now get to play a Big Ten team in a bowl game just 80 minutes by air from Albuquerque.

Eck signed a contract extension at the end of November, which will not keep him at UNM for long but resets the buyout other schools would owe them if he left next year. I am a longtime Eck believer. He seems like the perfect candidate to take over at his alma mater, Wisconsin, at the end of 2026, which adds some intrigue to this game. The 2017 Cotton Bowl, where P.J. Fleck coached Western Michigan for the last time against Wisconsin before taking the Minnesota job, provides an imperfect parallel.

More immediately, the Lobos are a solid team that will provide the Gophers a real game. SP+, FPI, and CFB Graphs have this matchup as a practical toss-up. Minnesota being in the sport's second-best conference and New Mexico being in likely the third-worst does not remotely make the result a given.

Offense

Jason Eck and offensive coordinator Luke Schleusner have put together an offense that is not spectacular but respectable, ranking in the middle of FBS and the Mountain West in most statistical categories. There are more efficient teams, there are more explosive teams, and there are teams with more playmakers, but what New Mexico does works enough.

The Lobos operate at a basically even run-pass split, and getting in an early hole at Michigan forced them to go pass-first. However, in their trip to UCLA, they adopted a strictly ball-control mentality and rolled. Of UNM's 63 plays, 46 were runs, gaining 298 yards. The Lobos also let almost 35 seconds run off the clock per play. Minnesota is a better team than UCLA — especially the version of the Bruins we saw in September — but we can probably bet on a similar approach in Phoenix. At a talent disadvantage, the Lobos will want to limit possessions and stick to the ground.

The Lobos' run game relies largely on zone concepts — inside, outside, split — but has plenty of diversity, with power, counter, and trap all in the playbook. A favorite design is a rarity in 2025, the G-lead or G-scheme run, where the playside guard pulls ahead with the help of a blocking back:

The above play is out of a quasi-Wildcat package featuring backup quarterback James Laubstein. First-stringer Jack Layne sometimes leaves the field for several downs at a time to give Laubstein some work, which means he does drop back a fair bit: Laubstein has thrown 14 passes this year. However, the overwhelming majority of his snaps are designed runs. He has exactly 1 more rushing yard than Layne (310 versus 309) on six fewer carries (43 to 49). Both quarterbacks take the ball on draw and read option.

Identifying Potential Transfer Priorities for the Gophers (2025-26)

A month from today, the college football transfer window officially opens. The players Minnesota adds from other programs at that point are as important as the high school and junior college signings they make this Wednesday. Under P.J. Fleck, several key players came to Minneapolis as a second (or third stop): Benjamin St-Juste, Nyles Pinckney, Matthew Trickett, Max Brosmer, John Nestor, and many more.

A year ago today, I gave my predictions of what positions the Gophers would try to improve or fill with transfers. I was mostly right, though with qualifications: The coaching staff, seeing Drake Lindsey in practice every day, was willing to start him as a redshirt freshman rather than finding another rental starter. The team added two starting offensive linemen, not just one. They brought in two defensive tackles, but both were a little undersized, and only Rushawn Lawrence got to play after Mo Omonode's injury. Two cornerbacks came in (both with multiple years of eligibility), but only one safety going out meant that seeking backup at the back was not necessary. They also loaded up on specialists, brought in a tight end, and signed one of the top tailbacks on the market instead of just depth.

Notable is how some of the positions of need recur each year for the Gophers. For example: Three years ago, they needed a cornerback; two years ago, they needed a cornerback; a year ago, they needed a cornerback; and headed into next year, they at least might need a cornerback after it proved perhaps the Gophers' biggest flaw.

As generally consistent as Fleck's program has been, and granting that in some places it is relatively fine to plug in a new guy every year or two, Minnesota has had roster construction difficulties in recent years. It has become harder this decade for a "developmental program," to use a Fleckism, to balance the need for immediate results with actual development. Even if you find the right transfers to succeed at the former aim, shortcomings in the latter will catch up to you at some point. We saw how this affected the 2025 season.

Regardless of the bigger picture: Current needs are current needs, and the Gophers have some. Here are nine such needs they might try to address.

In this post, players are referred to by their class (freshman, sophomore, etc.) entering the 2026 season. This practice may be slightly confusing, but since this covers the 2026 roster, it is better than the alternative.

Running Back

Potential need: depth

The Gophers like to carry at least eight running backs. Assuming Darius Taylor leaves for the NFL, they are currently set to enter next preseason with seven. They should have total belief in A.J. Turner (if healty) and Fame Ijeboi but will be looking for a third-down back who can pass protect and be a threat out of the backfield. Cam Davis had that role this season, and Bryce Williams did for many years before him. Maybe Grant Washington, Xavier Ford, or one of the current commits can fill it now. Even if one of them can, Minnesota will add another tailback or two just to fill out the roster.

Wide Receiver

Potential need: depth

Like with other positions on the roster, Minnesota's need at receiver is dependent on how much they have to replace. If the only losses are Le'Meke Brockington, Logan Loya, and Quentin Redding, the Gophers might be fine letting their young players — and it is a young group — step into bigger roles. A team could do far worse than a starting three of Malachi Coleman, Jalen Smith, and Javon Tracy. Kenric Lanier earned a role with his blocking this season and will get more snaps. If Cristian Driver and Bradley Martino are available after missing this season, that can just about round out the rotation.

As always, though, targets are hard to come by, and those who will not play much in 2026 could look for new schools. If that happens, or if the staff wants a receiver who can do a specific job in the offense, we can expect at least one new face.

Spitballing (Hopefully Unnecessary) Minnesota Head Coach Candidates

Every athletic director in the country has a list. If they love their coach, if they hate their coach, if their feelings are somewhere in between, if their coach faces a scandal, if their coach is approaching retirement age, if the coach has health problems, or if the coach just does not like this job much anymore, the athletic director always needs to have possible replacements in mind. If an AD does not have a list, they are not doing their job. Right now, Minnesota's Mark Coyle has a list.

With how many FBS head coaching jobs are open, this is an important year to have a list. Auburn or Florida will not hire P.J. Fleck, but maybe a school that loses their coach to a bigger job is willing to beat what the U of M is paying him. Maybe Fleck thinks he has done all he can at Minnesota, and he uses a potentially wild hiring cycle as his chance to move laterally. Maybe he just tried lutefisk for the first time, and it convinced him to get out of town immediately. Coyle should not be thinking of firing Fleck, and he is certainly not, but he needs to be prepared to replace him anyway.

This post covers coaches Minnesota should consider in the short term, if they need to find someone immediately, as well as those they should monitor for the future. Some are obvious fits. Some could make more sense a year from now. Some need way more on their résumé to hire any time soon. But all have arguments to succeed Fleck, whether directly or years down the line.

(In case it does not go without saying: This is not reporting. I have no sources in the coaching industry. This is meant purely as prognostication.)

First Calls

Matt Campbell, Iowa State head coach

I do not expect Matt Campbell will ever be Minnesota's head coach. He has been picky about his next job for long enough that it is fair to guess that this program does not reach whatever standard (or salary demand) he has. Penn State, who should be trying to bring him to Happy Valley right now, is likely the level of job for which he would leave.

This is not the best year to sell a fan base on Campbell, of course, but Iowa State's underwhelming record is easy to explain with injuries. The secondary the Cyclones started the year with is not the one they are fielding right now, and that is killing them. Sometimes, a program in good shape has a rotten season. If they do not achieve bowl eligibility against TCU or Kansas, they will against a woeful Oklahoma State.

There is zero doubting Campbell's bona fides as a program builder. Whenever he is done in Ames, he will be the school's first head coach since Earle Bruce to have a winning record for his tenure. The reason ISU has realistic expectations to be near the top of the new Big 12, the reason they have even played in big enough games to hold against their head coach for losing them, and the reason they will be able to sell candidates on the job when it next opens is Matt Campbell. He raised the floor and the ceiling on one of the historically worst programs in college football. He is the dream coach for a school like Minnesota. If Campbell is still at Iowa State when the Gophers enter the market for a new head coach, Coyle has to at least gauge his interest.

Chris Klieman, Kansas State head coach

Since a weird opening to 2025, where they went 1-4 in one-score games, Kansas State's season is more or less back on track. While the Wildcats' likely 6-6 finish would be Chris Klieman's worst full season in Manhattan, it is a sign of program health to rebound from such a difficult start.

Iowa and Wisconsin likely have Klieman on their own lists, and it is easy to see why. Three years ago, Klieman won the Big 12, and he has gone 8-5 or better in five of his seven seasons. As Ron Prince (and even Bill Snyder) showed, fielding a consistent winner at K-State is not a given. Klieman won four FCS titles in five seasons at North Dakota State, and he worked for years at his alma mater, Northern Iowa. He is a proven head coach who knows this part of the country very well. Though in years past, Minnesota would not have been a better job Kansas State, Klieman might want to move to the Big Ten for its greater television revenue and number of bids to the Playoff.

Crafting My "Dream" Two-Night Pearl Jam Setlist

Aside from watching copious amounts of sports, one of my favorite hobbies is listening to music for people at least twice my age. I sometimes get quite passionate about this.

A band like Pearl Jam gives that passion a little extra juice, not just because of their studio output (which is at points inconsistent but overall quite strong) but perhaps even moreso for their live performances. I have seen Pearl Jam two times, and it feels like I have barely dipped my toe into the pool. They vary their setlists greatly from night to night, digging up deep cuts, spanning their whole catalog, and slipping two or three covers into almost every set. The live experience is essential to one's relationship with most artists they love, but Pearl Jam does take it to a higher level.

From the beginning, fans traded bootleg tapes to spread the gems they were lucky enough to hear in exchange for something they missed. In response, starting with their tour promoting Binaural, the band has released practically every concert they have played since 2000. Your favorite Pearl Jam recording is probably out there on YouTube or Spotify or as an eBay listing, waiting for you to find it.

I think a lot about "dream" setlists for my favorite artists, whether they are young or old or dead, and Pearl Jam provides the best fodder for such an exercise. They have plenty of songs that are dear to me and have established an adventurous enough ethos that just about any fan-authored setlist would get a warm reception from the audience.

With that in mind, I have concocted a pair of Pearl Jam setlists — 26 songs each, no repeats — meant to be played over the course of two nights. I made a few concessions to convention, dropped a few favorites that have apparent reasons to never be played again (sorry, "Falling Down" and Buddy Holly's "Everyday"), dropped a few others because they didn't fit anywhere, and made it a rule to include on each night at least one song from every album the band has released. With those requirements, I still aimed for the kind of shows I would want to see.

Night 1

Set 1

1. "Release" (Ten, 1991)

Let's get one thing out of the way: Ten is the best Pearl Jam album. It is also the Pearl Jam album that least interests me. Five of the band's seven most-played songs are from Ten, and another three have been played more than 200 times each. They have to check a few of these boxes every night, which removes a lot of intrigue and takes away space that could be given to something more novel. Ten is the most "Pearl Jam"-sounding release to people who don't listen to Pearl Jam, the album whose songs you are by far most likely to hear on the radio on any given day, the album that introduced me to the band because "Even Flow" was on Guitar Hero III and the CD was buried in my Pearl Jam-ambivalent parents' cabinet. I have not heard every song on Ten in concert yet and am extremely comfortable with that.

While there will not be many songs from Ten on these setlists, there will be some, and not just because there must be. "Release," my favorite song on the album, makes the cut. What makes it — and other sad, slow-building songs in Pearl Jam's repertoire — such an excellent opener is its blend of the anguished and anthemic. In concert, it is like a hymn, with the audience finding one voice to confess their pain to the skies.

2. "Animal" (Vs., 1993)

Initially, I had a quieter song here, but after opening with an exorcism, the crowd will not stand for an immediate descent. Spirits are high. We need something loud and visceral. Fortunately, Vs. contains the best songs in the "loud and visceral" category of Pearl Jam's discography. "Animal" will do just fine.

3. "Wreckage" (Dark Matter, 2024)

In Pearl Jam's fourth decade together, they face a difficult philosophical question: What do we want Pearl Jam to be? Other rock artists in their "legacy act" period have faced it before, especially after losing a member. On rare occasions, you get a hard left turn before the afterlife, like David Bowie's Blackstar, and some artists find ways to reinterpret their past selves and put out something surprisingly fresh, like Rush's Clockwork Angels. And many — particularly in metal — fail to evolve, putting out milquetoast, bloated albums that fit alongside their hits but do not quite connect the same way.

Dark Matter, produced by Millennial dad-rock enthusiast Andrew Watt, does not provide a tidy answer to that question. The album presents no challenges the listener, with a few stock rockers and some instances of overt homage to what Pearl Jam was at their peak. Take "Wreckage," a song whose jangly riff draws from "Daughter" and "Falling Down" and whose chorus is pure 90s power-pop chum.

Yet from the first moment I heard it, "Wreckage" became my favorite song off Dark Matter, and it is a major reason the album is the band's best since at least Backspacer. Am I a sucker? Does it matter? I genuinely am not sure. While Pearl Jam will be a far less interesting band if future albums are so tinged with nostalgia, I cannot deny the effect it had on their most recent release.

2025 Gophers Season Preview

As a culture, we ascribe monumental importance to the sports we watch. An excellent athlete is not just good at their sport, but a legend. Breaking a record is not just an achievement, but rewriting history. A widespread change in tactics is not just a new way to play a child's game, but a revolution. Making your sport's hall of fame is not receiving an honor, but an enshrinement, the moment an individual achieves immortality.

More than a century of grandiose sports coverage has set the standard that 22 men fighting over a ball is a titanic occasion. Countless books, films, and docuseries about any athlete, coach, team, or game you can think of have helped make this language as natural as any other part of discussing sports. Everything that happens is on the grandest, most superlative scale. You can draw a line from Grantland Rice and "the Four Horsemen" of Notre Dame to John Facenda's NFL Films voiceovers to ESPN's 30 for 30 series to a team using a timeout before their first snap being labeled "the most electric moment in college football history" on YouTube.

Romance is a major part of getting into sports. Someone has been playing under the name and colors of your team for likely a lifetime or two. Millions have been spectators just like you, learning the rules and the songs and whom you are supposed to love and hate until it becomes part of you. You convince yourself that what happens in your stadium is a life-and-death concern because at its best, it sure feels like life. We make real, long-lasting memories and social bonds while sitting on a metal bleacher.

Yet part of growing up is realizing how unimportant it all actually is. I mean this both as a matter of maturing — not turning a bad result into someone else's problem — and as what must occur to you when you just take a look around.

However and whenever you start paying attention, you always do so in media res. Sports are endless. Before you were born, your team was playing. They may play until well after you die. When you are not watching, a season happens the same way that it does when you are. The world goes on largely unaffected.

Each season, especially in college football, is so ephemeral. Even if you center your whole Saturday or even your whole weekend around a game, by Monday, you are back in reality. You have the same responsibilities and problems you did before the game. You can look forward to the next one, all the way through the national championship in January, but your life is still your life, and the game is just a game. There are no brightly colored heroes and villains, no grand narrative, no tidy resolution of a final score.

If you are suffering, football is a momentary escape, not a cure. If you are worried masked government agents are going to illegally snatch one of your family members off the street, or if you are about to lose food stamps so rich people can pay less in taxes, whoever wins the Axe game on Thanksgiving weekend doesn't actually matter. The real world is on fire, as the hazy skies over the Twin Cities this summer demonstrated literally. To avert your eyes even for a few hours can feel like an act of complacency. I cannot tell you with certainty that it is not. Football is just football.

Even when one tries to frame football as potentially important within its own context, the stakes can be small. Minnesota's record since Glen Mason's first season is 179-166-1, not dramatically better than .500. You can easily argue that the 2025 season might be a step on the way to something bigger, but a lot needs to go right for that to be true. This year, like all the others, will pass — not without its own highs and lows, but almost definitely without great consequence.

In many ways, the sport's off-the-field storylines have worn me down. I do not have it in me to read about how exactly the House settlement works, the short-lived presidential commission on college sports, continuing conference realignment, or each effort of dumb corporate synergy by the suits in charge. To different degrees, these things still matter to me. I want the athletes who create profit for their schools to be justly compensated instead of being subject to whatever anti-labor solution Ted Cruz will inevitably put forth in Congress. I want college sports to go back to a regional focus. I want Brett Yormark to never say another word in public. But life is hard. I cannot let each example of the sport's capitalist rot occupy my mind when there are bigger concerns.

Yet I let football occupy my mind constantly. Despite its messy and scummy business, and despite the fact I probably should spend my time in a way that more materially improves myself and the place I live, I still intensely engage with football because it's what I know how to do. We only get a dozen Saturdays every fall. Whether they deserve to be remembered as myth, or if it is all just a game, they help us maintain some vigor for life. I don't know what that is really worth, but it feels like it's more than nothing.

* * * * * *

From this point on, you will find a more straightforward preview of the Gophers' season. For each area of the team — offense, defense, special teams — I've linked the position previews I published over the last few weeks and offer a predicted depth chart. I also ask 10 big questions facing the 2025 Gophers, divided between the three units.

Offense

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

Predicted depth chart:

Click to enlarge any image in this post.

How ready is Drake Lindsey?

It's the most obvious question, but a necessary one. Drake Lindsey has thrown five passes as a college quarterback, and only one was versus an FBS defense. Everyone in the program praises Lindsey, but when that is the public approach of any team with a first-time starter, that praise is a mostly irrelevant data point. There is no telling what Lindsey will be.

Realistically, he will probably not be so good that the Gophers make the Playoff or so bad that they miss a bowl game. There remains a chasm between those two extremes. However prepared Lindsey is will determine much of how this fall goes.

2025 Gophers Position Previews: Special Teams

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. As in every preseason, we close this series with a look at the specialists.

Likely Starters

You didn't think we were done talking about Koi Perich, did you? Though he will need to take in some oxygen and fluids at some point, Perich's starting role at safety and forthcoming offensive contributions do not mean he is about to give up his job as Minnesota's primary returner.

Now, Perich does need to improve his judgement when fielding kickoffs. He plays brashly wherever he is on the field, and sometimes that has drawbacks. On his 16 kick returns in 2024, he only made it to the 25-yard line four times — not nearly often enough, especially when Perich's longest return was just for 32 yards. If he won't always make the right choice on taking back a kick, he at least needs to make a few of them really count.

Now, as a punt returner? Perich's dynamism here is not in doubt.

While he quieted down in the back half of the year, the threat of a big Perich punt return will always be there. If it comes at the right time, it could turn a game in the Gophers' favor.

2025 Gophers Position Previews: Secondary

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. The final area of the defense is the one that could be responsible for the most headlines this season, both good and bad: the secondary.

Likely Starters

I don't know what any of you expected from Koi Perich's debut season, but I guarantee it was not that. After a few weeks on special teams, Perich stepped into the starting lineup against USC and was instantly one of the best players in the Big Ten — and that's just considering his defensive performance. He was everywhere. Crashing the box to stop the run:

Tracking one of the best players in college football in man coverage:

Making huge interceptions:

He can do everything you want from a safety. And he expects to do everything: For every ball in his vicinity that he cannot catch, Perich reels in frustration that it was not a yard closer to him, or else it would have been his. As P.J. Fleck tells it, Perich is disappointed when he does not play every possible snap. He is a cocky player with high expectations for himself, and he regularly meets those expectations.

In his introduction to the college game, Perich became the first Minnesota true freshman since Darrell Thompson in 1986 to make the All-Big Ten first team. The Sporting News, one of the five consensus All-American selectors, named Perich to their second team. With his increased presence on offense and a full season of a starter's workload on defense, he should turn more heads as a sophomore and make a run at even higher honors.

2025 Gophers Position Previews: Linebackers

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. Next up: the linebackers.

Likely Starters

Revisiting the 2024 season, it is incredibly apparent how valuable Cody Lindenberg was to the Minnesota defense. However long it took for him to reach his ceiling, through injuries and on-the-field difficulties, Lindenberg's final form was fantastic. He fit the run correctly and quickly, he made plays in coverage, he was a sure tackler, and he led the defense. He was an ideal linebacker.

Lindenberg was Minnesota's only every-down linebacker last season. The Gophers alternated his partner every drive: Maverick Baranowski would play the Mike next to Lindenberg at Will on one drive, and Devon Williams would play the Will with Lindenberg at Mike on the next. Baranowski started when healthy, blitzed a little more, and was slightly less likely to come off on 3rd down, but the two almost evenly split snaps.

Neither was totally up to speed when they started together two years ago, but 2024 was a bit smoother. Playing in the middle and being more of a run-stopping linebacker, Baranowski was around the ball more and racked up the bigger stats: 43.0 tackles (21 solo), including 5.0 tackles for loss (1.0 sack), plus a couple pass breakups. You could see in small ways the benefits of another year in the program. Baranowski made smarter reads, and his tackling was more consistent.

He is still just a true junior who needs to clean up his game a bit. The stats above nearly match his stats from the prior year, which is not a perfect reflection of his progress but does illustrate how much more he can grow. He is a better tackler but can still get outmuscled by heavy running backs. He is a naturally aggressive player but sometimes seemed half a beat behind Lindenberg coming downhill. Baranowski's two predecessors at middle linebacker took time to put everything together, and it has been no different for him. Even if this might not be the season he becomes a true standout, he should keep improving.