The Gophers have played three-fourths of their regular season and find themselves in an odd position with nine games completed. They've yet to qualify for a bowl game.
With their sudden collapse in the fourth quarter against Illinois, when the Fighting Illini went 85 yards in three plays to score the winning touchdown with 50 seconds left, the Gophers fell to 5-4. They have only three more chances to secure a fifth bowl trip in coach P.J. Fleck's seven years at Minnesota.
They need a win either at Purdue on Saturday, at Ohio State on Nov. 18 or at home against Wisconsin on Nov. 25 to reach the six wins needed to attain bowl eligibility.
College football is entering the 10th week of its season. This is the longest the Gophers under Fleck will have played without getting a sixth win since the 2018 season, when they topped Wisconsin 37-15 in Madison in the regular-season finale to secure a bowl trip.
In 2019, they needed six games to reach six wins; in 2021, they needed eight games, and last year, they needed nine games. In the COVID-19-shortened 2020 season, the Gophers went 3-4 and declined a bowl invitation.
That the Gophers are in this precarious position can be traced directly to their bookend of collapses against the Illinois-based teams. On Sept. 23, Minnesota squandered a 21-point fourth-quarter lead and lost 37-34 in overtime at Northwestern. And Saturday, they took a 26-21 lead with 5:53 to play and got an interception with 4:04 left, yet still couldn't close out Illinois.
"We've got to play an entire game,'' Fleck said Monday. "And the whole thing with this team is, to this day, nine games in, and we still have not played a complete complementary football game yet.''
In Fleck's approach, complementary football means all three phases of the game — offense, defense and special teams — feeding off one another. Instead, the Gophers have been an inconsistent group from half to half if not quarter to quarter, with spurts of solid play offset by assignment breakdowns and mental errors.
For example, take the Illinois game. Sean Tyler fumbled away the opening kickoff, which the Illini cashed in for a touchdown, a miscue that the Gophers chased all first half. Minnesota quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis had a solid opening 30 minutes, completing nine of 11 passes for 130 yards and two TDs as the Gophers took a 17-14 lead.
In the second half, however, Minnesota's offense produced nine points but couldn't sustain drives. Kaliakmanis completed only two of 11 passes for 37 yards, while the run game produced only 32 yards on 18 carries.
In the end, the Gophers defense allowed Illini backup quarterback John Paddock to convert a fourth-and-11 situation for 22 yards, add a 17-yard completion and hit the 46-yard winner to Isaiah Williams with 50 seconds left. Williams ran down the middle uncontested, taking advantage of what appeared to be a communication breakdown between safety Tyler Nubin and linebacker Cody Lindenberg.
"This year, it's just been the consistency,'' Fleck said. "There's times we have it; there's times we don't have it.''
As an example where consistency and situational awareness were needed, Fleck pointed to a play after the Gophers had taken a 26-21 lead in the fourth quarter and got the ball back on Nubin's interception. Facing second-and-7 from the Minnesota 42 and with just more than three minutes to play, Kaliakmanis kept the ball on an option play and ran to the left. Instead of cutting up the field, where he might have gained more yards, he bounced outside and was stopped for a 3-yard gain.
The play was similar to a run by freshman Darius Taylor late in the Northwestern game. Facing third-and-2 from the Wildcats 36, Taylor took it outside rather than cutting up the middle, losing 1 yard and leading to a Gophers punt.
"Bouncing it in the second quarter or first quarter might be OK,'' Fleck said of Kaliakmanis' decision, "but in that situation, we're trying to get the first down [and drain the clock].''
On third-and-4, Kaliakmanis threw high, hard and incomplete on a pop pass to tight end Nick Kallerup when touch on the ball was needed. The Gophers were forced to punt, and the Illini's improbable rally followed.
"Those are learning moments,'' Fleck said, knowing the opportunities this season to put lessons to action are dwindling.
