Gophers defensive end Jah Joyner, back to showing his disruptive self, lines up to face UCLA

PASADENA, CALIF. – Jah Joyner led the Gophers with 7½ sacks in 2023, showing the productivity many expected from the athletic, 6-5, 265-pound defensive end. So, when Joyner had only a half-sack through this season’s first five games, there was reason to be concerned.

Over the past two weeks, though, Joyner has turned up the pressure, and the Gophers defense is reaping the dividends. He had eight tackles, one sack, one quarterback hurry and one pass breakup in Minnesota’s 27-24 loss at Michigan on Sept. 28. Last week in the 24-17 upset of No. 11 USC, he had one sack, added a quarterback hurry that led to an interception thrown by USC quarterback Miller Moss, and drew a key intentional grounding penalty with his pressure.

Joyner was so active against the Trojans that their offensive tackles resorted to holding the fifth-year junior. Coach P.J. Fleck considers that just part of what a pass rusher must face.

“You hope to get those calls when he is getting held,” Fleck said Monday. “You want to make sure that you’re playing as hard as you can, because that’s when holding calls come out. … If nobody’s really playing hard over there, the hold doesn’t look like a hold. He plays so hard that a lot of them look like holds. And they are holds because it’s hard to stop them with just one person.”

Joyner’s hit on Moss disrupted a pass that Gophers linebacker Devon Williams intercepted early in the fourth quarter. Minnesota cashed that in for the touchdown that tied the score 17-17. Joyner’s pressure on Moss on the first play of USC’s next possession led to an intentional grounding penalty on the QB. The Trojans went three-and-out, punted and saw the Gophers drive 75 yards for the winning touchdown.

Entering Saturday night’s game at UCLA, Joyner had 20 tackles, 2½ sacks, six quarterback hurries, four pass breakups and one forced fumble.

“We’ve got to be able to defeat and overcome either the call or maybe the call that wasn’t there,” Fleck said. “You’ve got to overcome that, and you’ve got to find a way. And I thought multiple times Jah overcame that.”

The Gophers were without two defensive starters for Saturday night’s game at UCLA. Linebacker Maverick Baranowski, who started the season’s first five games. missed his second consecutive game because of a shoulder injury. Safety Kerry Brown, who’s started two games, did not play because of an undisclosed injury suffered last week against USC.

Devon Williams started in place of Baranowski last week and was in line to do so against UCLA. True freshman Koi Perich stepped in for Brown last week and forced a fumble that the Gophers recovered and sealed the victory with an end zone interception with 9 seconds left in the fourth quarter.

Reserve tight end Pierce Walsh was the only other Gophers player listed as out on the Big Ten’s availability report. No Minnesota players were listed as questionable.

Saturday’s game was the fourth meeting between the Gophers and UCLA, and Minnesota held a 2-1 lead. The Gophers beat the Bruins 21-3 in the Rose Bowl following the 1961 season. The teams played a two-game nonconference series in 1977 and ‘78, with the Minnesota winning 27-13 at Memorial Stadium and UCLA prevailing 17-3 at the Los Angeles Coliseum the following year.

Richard Larson, a quarterback for the Gophers for three seasons and an assistant coach for the Gophers for seven seasons, died Friday at age 88.

Larson, who went to Minneapolis Roosevelt High School, was a three-year letterman for the Gophers from 1955 to ‘57, before joining the staff of coach Murray Warmath as a backfield coach in 1958. He was on Warmath’s staff until 1964.