The Minnesota Gophers beat the Wiscansin Badgers 24-7 back on November 29th to finish the season 7-5 (5-4). A lot has happened since that final regular season game. Paul Bunyan's Axe has returned home, Wiscansin is not in a bowl game after finishing 5-7, National Signing Day happened, and the Transfer Portal has been open and very busy. It wasn't Flecks best high school class this year, but it was solid. Where Fleck has made up for it was in the transfer portal. We have a lot of key players leaving and we have done a wonderful job filling those holes so far. There is still a lot of time for players to transfer or flip decisions, so I will just say the Gophers are currently ranked around the top 10 in the nation for this year's transfer portal success. The 2025 season could be a huge year for the Minnesota Gophers.
Fast forward a month, the Gophers will be playing in the Duke's Mayo Bowl at the Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, NC against the 6-6 Virginia Tech Hokies. Over the past couple of seasons, the Gophers have had to play a couple bowl games in MLB stadiums. It will be nice to finally be playing on an actual football surface. The game will take place on ESPN at 6:30pm on Friday, January 3rd. This is the first ever meeting between Minnesota and Virginia Tech. The Hokies will be without 14 of their starters from this season, including another 5-6 role players that have gotten solid playing time. The Gophers haven't officially announced how many players will be opting out of this game, but my guess is only about 4-5 guys will sit out as they prepare for the NFL draft. I mention this because of the movement in the betting line. When the game was announced, the Gophers were 4.5-point favorites. With only one day until the game, the Gophers are now 8.5-point favorites. The Gophers are clearly the better team when both are at full strength, but with all of the opt outs this one has a chance to get out of hand early. Under PJ Fleck, the Gophers are 5-0 in bowl games. With the talent the Gophers will have in this game, I don't see how we don't improve to 6-0. The Gophers could have arguably been 10-2 on the season if it weren't for some weird calls and poor coaching decisions. We lost to Penn State 26-25, and they have since blown out both opponents in the College Football Playoff, so far. Virginia Tech is not on the same level as the Gophers. I predict this to finish as a 34-6 victory for the Gophers. Max Brosmer, Darius Taylor, and Koi Perich are going to have huge games. I wouldn't be surprised if we see Perich getting some plays at running back and wide receiver, along with his usual snaps at safety, kick return, and punt returner. My father, Jack, predicts a 17-point victory for the Gophers. He thinks we will win 31-14. This is probably a little more realistic considering PJ Fleck tends not to run up the score when leading big in these types of games. My buddy, Taylor, thinks the Gopher will win in a blowout, 30-9. Virginia Tech won't have a bunch of their starters and many of their coaches already departed the program.
Go, Gophers! Let's start the new year off with a win, improve to 8-5 on the season, and improve to 6-0 in bowl games under PJ Fleck! We got this!
Go MN team!
ROW!