We had noted this week that sure, on paper, Minnesota’s defensive stats looked to be quite solid. We also noted that that’s because they have been hashtag blessed with having some of the worst offenses in college football on the first three quarters of their schedule.
At the time of kickoff, one third of the Gophers’ 2023 opponents were ranked below their own 117th ranking in total offense. There are only 130 teams in FBS.
Now, to tell a tale of two halves:
The first half was very back and forth, and given that I was expecting a game where the winner would score in the mid 20’s, for a solid two hours I was thinking “okay, yeah, this could actually be a barn burner!