Page 12 - Gophers News Today

The first two years for Ben Johnson as head coach at his alma mater Minnesota were a struggle in many ways, with myriad injuries that made program development all the more challenging given the impact of the transfer portal and growing pains for a young team. After going 22-39 overall and 6-33 in the Big Ten, there is pressure this season on Johnson to shepherd measurable progress even with external expectations never lower. For now, with the opener on Nov. 6 against Bethune-Cookman coming up,...

Dragan Kesich made four field goals and Minnesota won at Iowa for the first time since 1999 to snap an eight-game losing streak in the series, holding the No. 24 Hawkeyes to 12 yards in the second half in a 12-10 victory Saturday. With the Floyd of Rosedale bronze hog statue at stake in the cross-border rivalry, Iowa appeared to take the lead with 1:21 left when Cooper DeJean fielded a punt that had bounced near the Minnesota sideline and returned it 54 yards for a touchdown.

Look for a low-scoring game. The matchup pits two of the nations worst offenses.

Line: Iowa by 3 1/2, according to FanDuel Sportsbook. Iowa can stay ahead of the pack in the Big Ten West with a win here. The Hawkeyes hold a half-game lead over Wisconsin and own the tiebreaker against the Badgers after winning in Madison last week.

In his day job, Jamie Verbrugge often sits quietly to the side at Bloomington city council meetings, a municipal manager running the day-to-day work in the state's fourth largest city with a mostly soft voice and a low-key demeanor. Residents might not recognize him on some nights and weekends. Verbrugge, a self-described recovering introvert, deepens his voice and cranks up his volume, his ...

Jim Delany paid a visit to Minnesota in 2015 when he served as Big Ten commissioner, and he used the occasion to attend a Gophers football game. Delany met with reporters in the pressbox and when asked about the disparity in competition between the league's East and West divisions, Delany dismissed that line of thinking by suggesting that success tends to be "cyclical." Sorry, commish. It ...

Michigan has yet to be tested this season and might not find a tough game for another month. The Wolverines are focused on their own excellence — and having a fun time doing it. Will Johnson returned an interception 36 yards for a score on Minnesota's second snap, a spark the second-ranked Wolverines kept from start to finish in a 52-10 win over the Gophers on Saturday night.

Line: Michigan by 18 1/2, according to FanDuel Sportsbook. The Wolverines, who received 10 first-place votes in the latest AP poll, are on a smooth track to what would be a third straight College Football Playoff appearance. Michigan has allowed only 30 points in five games and no more than a touchdown in any of them.

Line: Minnesota by 11½, according to FanDuel Sportsbook. The Gophers badly need to bounce back in their homecoming game after blowing a 21-point fourth-quarter lead last week and losing 37-34 in overtime at Northwestern. Minnesota lost its 2021 homecoming game to a non-power conference team, Bowling Green.

Drake Maye threw for a season-high 414 yards to go with two touchdowns as No. 20 North Carolina pushed past Minnesota on Saturday.