They've lost three consecutive games, dropped from first to fifth in the Big Ten's West Division standings and are returning home to play — no offense to the State University of New Jersey — a nondescript Rutgers team that doesn't exactly move the excitement meter to 11 when it comes to intraconference opponents.
Minnesota football switches from title hopes to winning 'Gophers Football Playoff'
After three consecutive losses, the team needs a new set of goals. So coach P.J. Fleck has defined a new version of success for his struggling Gophers.
October 26, 2022 at 12:11PM
So just what do the Gophers have to look forward to for the rest of the football season?
Competing, players say. Taking their 4-3 record and turning it into 9-3, which would include snatching the pig from Iowa and keeping Wisconsin's hands off the axe.
"Coach [P.J.] Fleck had a talk with the team,'' defensive end Thomas Rush said Tuesday, three days after the Gophers lost 45-17 at No. 16 Penn State. "We have five games left in the season. We kind of coined it GFP — Gopher Football Playoff.
"We're going to play these five games — starting with Rutgers and [it] being the most important one because it's next — just go one game at a time, continue our process. In the end, we'll look up and see where we're at.''
Where they're at now isn't where they wanted to be after a 4-0 start that was capped by a dominant, 34-7 win at Michigan State in the Big Ten opener. Instead of driving toward their goal of winning the West and advancing to the conference championship game for the first time, the Gophers lost to Purdue, Illinois and Penn State in succession and are playing to reach six wins to gain bowl eligibility and then to improve their destination.
Center John Michael Schmitz, a sixth-year senior, sees another goal, too.
"Just playing for our brothers, playing for each other, leaving it all out there,'' he said. "… We've got five games left, and I'm looking to enjoy every single one of them.''
Praise for the youngster
Redshirt freshman quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis made his first start in the frenzied atmosphere of 109,813 during Penn State's "White Out'' game, and teammates liked what they saw.
"He was confident, he was poised,'' Schmitz said. "We all have confidence in him that he can get the job done. Leading forward, he's going to be a special player for us.''
Added Rush, "I was very impressed with his poise, throwing capability, decision-making and keeping everything under control and not letting the circumstance overwhelm him. … Going forward, he's showing he's very capable.''
Whether Kaliakmanis or Tanner Morgan, who missed the Penn State game because of a concussion, starts against Rutgers will be determined this week. Fleck said Morgan is doing, "surprisingly better,'' a term he's used often since the sixth-year senior was injured Oct. 15.
Big Ten to announce 2023 schedule
The 2023 Big Ten schedule will be announced at 11 a.m. Wednesday on the Big Ten Network. According to several national reports, the conference will keep the East-West divisional format for 2023 before reconfiguring when USC and UCLA join the Big Ten in 2024.
The Gophers have three nonconference games scheduled for 2023: Sept. 9 vs. Eastern Michigan, Sept. 16 at North Carolina and Sept. 30 vs. Louisiana-Lafayette. If those dates don't change, the Gophers likely would open the season against a Big Ten team on Thursday, Aug. 31, if it's a home game. Also, the Sept. 23 weekend is open.
The match was the first between Washington and the Gophers since Keegan Cook left the Huskies to coach Minnesota.
