The Minnesota Golden Gophers are wrapping up their 2021 spring camp and are ready to host fans back at TCF Bank Stadium. Minnesota is allowing 10,000 fans to attend, but if you haven’t bought your tickets yet, forget about going. They sold out in two hours. It’s safe to say Minnesota fans are ready for some football.
Minnesota: Spring Game, May 1st
P.J. Fleck is entering his fifth year with the program, which sees the Golden Gophers coming off a 3-4 pandemic shortened 2020 season. Last year the team had many holes to fill from a 2019 roster that achieved an 11-2 record, capping the campaign off with a 2020 Outback Bowl win over Auburn. Spring begins the process of returning the program back to their 2019 form.
Winning The Line Of Scrimmage
It is often said that football is won or lost at the line of scrimmage. If that saying holds true, Minnesota may be able to put together a campaign that looks more like the 2019 version of the Gophers than the 2020 version.
Starting on the defensive side of the ball, Minnesota sees the return of five lineman who saw playing time last year, led by edge rusher Boye Mafe who had 4.5 sacks in 2020. These five players will be joined by transfers Nyles Pinckney from Clemson and Val Martin from NC State.
The depth and experience on the line heading into the 2021 season should help a defense that finished 72nd in the nation in total defense, giving up an average of 415.9 yards per game. Of particular focus will be improving the rush defense, which gave up an average of 207.1 yards per game for a ranking of 102nd in the country.
Having seven experienced players on the line in 2021 should start the improvement Minnesota is looking for on defense.
Not to be outdone however is the offensive line which sees all the starters from 2020 return. Even beyond the starters, Minnesota has players with experience either returning to or coming to the Gophers’ program, like Curtis Dunlap Jr who was an All-Big Ten Honorable Mention in 2019.
With continuity, or at least serviceable depth returning to the offensive line, expect the Gophers to seek improvement to an offense that finished 69th in total offense with 391 yards per game, and 71st in scoring offense with an average of 27.1 points per game.
The line should continue to open up holes for star running back Mohamed Ibrahim, and provide time for quarterback Tanner Morgan as he attempts to establish chemistry with his receivers on the outside.
New Primary Target On The Outside
Speaking of the outside, Minnesota will have some work to do in identifying who will be catching those passes from Morgan.
Obviously the Gophers are having to replace a first round talent in Rashod Bateman, who led the team last year in receptions (36), yards (472), and touchdowns (2) even though he played in just five of the seven games.
Replacing a talent such as Bateman will be difficult, but Minnesota will have some options to play around with in attempting to identify who’ll contribute in 2021.
Chris Autman-Bell returns and most likely enters camp as the main player to possibly take over Bateman’s role. Autman-Bell was second on the team with receptions and yards with 22 and 430 respectively. Beyond him it would appear that an open competition, that will most likely continue into fall, will commence.
It will be interesting to see if any players from the 2021 recruiting class emerge for playing time, however the new face that most likely will see the field would be transfer receiver Dylan Wright from Texas A&M. The former 4-star recruit will have ample opportunity to snag a starting role for the Gophers by the time the season starts if he performs well in the off-season programs.
Secondary Questions
Once more we are going to address the defense, but this time looking at a secondary that hopefully will improve from 2020. If they don’t improve, Minnesota fans might be in for a long year.
Both starting safeties for the Gophers return in Tyler Nubin and Jordan Howden, however both need to improve greatly from last year’s effort as PFF.com had each player rated below a 53 for total defense.
At corner, Minnesota will look to replace Benjamin St.-Juste as one of the starters from a year ago, but senior Coney Durr is returning to the program which will help a young group that needs time to develop.
Senior Justus Harris also is returning, and while he could become one of the starters on the outside he performed well in the slot and the coaches might keep him there. In this age of football, the slot corner might as well be seen as a starting position anyway, and not every player who performs well in the slot can translate that success to the outside.
It will be up to Fleck and his staff to determine if indeed that would be the best course of option, and to use camp to identify another player to start along the outside with Durr.