Scoggins: Not a lot to get excited about over ‘new’ Gophers offense

The new offense with the new quarterback looked a lot like previous versions. Unimaginative, mistake-prone, lacking firepower.

Same old, same old Gophers.

Their best offensive play of the night came on a catch and fumble that delivered a fortuitous bounce. Other than that, not much.

Sure, the Gophers were missing their best player, running back Darius Taylor, in Thursday’s season opener, but all the flowery talk throughout fall camp about the arrival of a new quarterback landed with a thud in a 19-17 season-opening loss to North Carolina in a contest that will not be archived in the catalog of memorable college football games.

The Gophers delivered a dud start to finish.

Crushing penalties. Missed field goals. Sloppy tackling. No offensive rhythm. Strange game management and play calls.

North Carolina is not exactly a heavyweight, and not even the loss of Drake Maye to the NFL was enough to prevent the Tar Heels from leaving Huntington Bank Stadium with a victory that exposed many concerning issues with coach P.J. Fleck’s team.

The debut of graduate transfer quarterback Max Brosmer was underwhelming until a final desperation drive. Jittery early in the game, Brosmer looked calm and assertive when orchestrating the hurry-up offense.

Needing a field goal to win with less than two minutes on the clock, Brosmer had a chance to write a beautiful ending to his first game in a Gophers uniform.

He completed three consecutive passes to move the offense down the field. But a holding penalty on guard Tyler Cooper negated a 14-yard run that ultimately led to a missed 47-yard field goal by Dragan Kesich at the buzzer.

First games are usually an adventure, and the Gophers emptied their entire bag of sloppiness. They had two illegal formation penalties on punts, a dropped interception, two missed field goals, a penalty that negated a sack and fumble recovery and lost fumble by Brosmer that set up a North Carolina field goal in the fourth quarter.

The performance by their offense was uninspiring.

The Gophers managed only 244 total yards and two touchdowns against a defense that played so poorly last season that coach Mack Brown changed coordinators.

The Gophers were gifted their first touchdown after Justin Walley returned an interception 70 yards to the UNC 6.

The running game produced just 78 yards for the game. The offensive line allowed Brosmer to get sacked five times and made him look antsy as he dodged pressure repeatedly.

Brosmer has drawn rave reviews inside the Gophers program since he arrived in December. Fleck and his coaching staff have lauded Brosmer’s leadership, intelligence and ability to decipher and process what he sees on the field quickly.

Brosmer had a decorated career at New Hampshire, but the gap between FCS and Big Ten created intrigue about how he will handle the step up in competition and whether Fleck will allow the passing game more prominence in his offense.

The first impression did not inspire confidence in any facet of the operation.

Brosmer completed 13 of 21 passes for 166 yards. He had a few nice throws into tight windows, but he also misfired to open receivers at different times. The coaches didn’t ask him to do too much in a vanilla game plan.

Brosmer scored on a 1-yard plunge at the end of the first half to give the Gophers a 14-7 lead at the half. But he also coughed up a fumble at his own 22-yard line on a scramble in the fourth quarter that enabled North Carolina to regain the lead at 16-14.

One play late in the first quarter highlighted the lack of trust in the passing game. The Gophers faced a third-and-goal from the 10. The coaches called an outside run that gained 1 yard. It was vintage Fleck conservative play-calling.

Kesich’s 27-yard field goal clanked off the right upright for a miss.

That sequence summed up the night.