Gophers vs. No. 4 Penn State stirs vivid memories from Minnesota’s 2019 home triumph

On an overcast Saturday on Nov. 9, 2019, nearly 52,000 raucous fans packed what then was known as TCF Bank Stadium to watch a matchup of undefeated teams. Penn State was 8-0 and No. 4 in the College Football Playoff rankings. The Gophers, also 8-0, were ranked 17th.

What transpired from 11:08 a.m. to 2:21 p.m. became the signature victory of the coach P.J. Fleck era of Gophers football. Final score: Minnesota 31, Penn State 26. The fans stormed the field, Fleck crowd-surfed on his players in the locker room and College Football Nation took notice of the upstart team that could.

“The atmosphere there, it was phenomenal,” said quarterback Tanner Morgan, who was a redshirt sophomore that season. “It was a minute before kickoff, and I looked around. Everybody in the crowd is waving towels, and I was like, ‘This is what I dreamed of playing at Minnesota looks like.’”

Five years and two weeks later, the Gophers take on No. 4 Penn State at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Huntington Bank Stadium. The teams aren’t undefeated this time, but the game still carries plenty of weight. The Nittany Lions (9-1, 6-1 Big Ten) are in the thick of the chase to make the 12-team playoff field. The Gophers (6-4, 4-3) are trying to improve their bowl positioning.

This is Penn State’s first visit to Minnesota since the Gophers and their fans reveled in that 2019 triumph that highlighted an 11-2 season. Losses to Iowa and Wisconsin would prevent the Big Ten West co-champion Gophers from playing in the conference championship game, but they recovered to beat Auburn in the Outback Bowl and finish No. 10 in the major polls — their highest final ranking since being No. 10 in 1962.

The Gophers still are trying to return to those lofty heights. They were 9-4 in both 2021 and 2022, finishing one win away from reaching the Big Ten title game both years. Fleck has used the 2019 game against Penn State as an example for his players this week, but he’s not fixated on the past.

“Well, it happened. You can take that it happened,” Fleck said of what he extracts from that game, adding that it has nothing to do with the 2024 season. “… But what you can do is pull from really, really big games of what playmakers have done. And what’s always critical is we need our playmakers to play their best. Penn State’s going to need their playmakers to be their best. That’s what happens in November football.”

With the benefit of hindsight, that 2019 Gophers team was stocked with playmakers. Wide receivers Rashod Bateman and Tyler Johnson combined to catch 146 passes for 2,537 yards and 24 touchdowns that season. They became the first receiver duo from one school be named first-team All-Big Ten.

Morgan passed for school records of 3,253 yards and 30 TDs. Safety Antoine Winfield Jr., who had two interceptions against Penn State, was a unanimous first-team All-America selection. Center John Michael Schmitz and running back Mohamed Ibrahim would be future All-Americans. From that roster, 24 players went on to play in the NFL.

“When see your own playmakers over the years, making plays in huge games … you want to be able to show them that,” Fleck said of his team.

To get to that huge game, the Gophers first had to survive some early scares against South Dakota State, Fresno State and Georgia Southern.

“We should have lost, truthfully, every single one of those games,” Morgan said. “We came together and realized we had to get better.”

That they did, winning their next four games by a combined 168-41. A bye week gave them extra time to prepare for Penn State, and they used it well.

On the game’s third play from scrimmage, Winfield ignited the crowd by intercepting a pass by Penn State’s Sean Clifford at the Minnesota 5-yard line. Five plays later, Morgan hit Bateman down the sideline for a 66-yard TD, bringing a roar. After Penn State tied the score 7-7, Chris Autman-Bell took a pass from Morgan on a missile screen and raced 21 yards for a TD and 14-7 lead. The Gophers made it 21-10 on Johnson’s one-handed catch for a 38-yard score.

Later, with 2:39 remaining and the Gophers leading 31-26, Penn State took over with one last chance to win. The Nittany Lions reached the Minnesota 10 but were pushed back to the 25 on an offensive pass interference penalty. On third down, Clifford passed to the end zone, and safety Jordan Howden dived to make the game-clinching interception with 1:01 left. Two kneel-downs by Morgan in Victory formation, and the upset was reality. The long-frustrated fans rushed the field.

“It was madness and chaos,” said Morgan, who runs QBMotion Midwest, a quarterback development service. “It was sweet for a little bit, but I knew I had to get out of there.”

Danny Striggow, then an Orono High School senior and now a Gophers senior defensive end, had a front-row view of the bedlam as a recruit. “We were told, no, do not rush the field,” he said, adding, “It’s pretty cool to be able to experience that feeling that they had from afar. It’s also pretty cool because you look back at what they did in order to win that game.”

Morgan looks back on how Fleck prepared that team to embrace the pressure of the moment, even giving players pieces of coal on which they wrote what pressure has taught them. On game day, the bucket of coal was replaced by a large acrylic diamond.

“Coach did a great job of talking about pressure the whole week and how pressure is earned, and it’s a privilege,” Morgan said. “It’s a privilege to have pressure in your life because it means you’re doing something significant.”