Minnesota Golden Gophers Season Preview | Can they make a Bowl Game?, Max Brosmer Spotlight, & more!

all right d next up in our preview is the Minnesota Golden Gophers backto back N9 and4 seasons and then they took a step back last year with a six- seven record winning the Quick Lane Bowl though ending out the season on a high but the biggest culprit for why Minnesota took a step back was that they could not get anything going with their passing game they had the sixth worst offense in the power five in terms of EPA per pass now they do add a new quarterback and Max brosmer from New Hampshire but they'll need some receivers a step up in order to ease his transition to the FBS right he's an FCS quarterback let alone the Big 10 he's a guy moving up to the FBS level uh and of course a power four level in one of the best conferences in America as well he should have a really good run game to help out uh as well which I think is going to be uh their biggest strength in this team is their run game honestly with uh Darius Taylor Jordan nuban as well uh Taylor I think is a rising star man last year he was second among true freshman with 8800 rushing yards um so he's a really really good player golden goer also added uh Ohio running back C bangora and Oklahoma's Marcus major from the transfer portal and they each earned 70 plus rushing grades last year also they bring back four starting offensive linemen after having a top 40 run blocking grade in the country at 68 and one of those returning starters is the guy we'll talking about in a little bit Aron ursery left tackle he is the best run Blocker in college football in my opinion so um he's one of the top 10 tackles in the country again we're going to talk about him in a little bit as well but their run game should be really good the weakness is going to be the passing game and they need some players to step up in the passing attack namely Max brasmer the new quarterback uh 79.9 passing grade last year Dawn I'm sure you're going to break him down just a second but that's solid but again that's solid in the FCS level what's it going to look like in the Big 10 right and Daniel Jackson uh is the number one receiver he's actually a pretty good number one receiver I think but other than that they were 109th in receiving grade last year and only three of their pass catchers had 100 plus receiving yards last year and Daniel Jackson is the only one of them that's coming back to school so there's a lot of question marks that at quarterback a lot of question marks at receiver as well but talk to about the new quarterback Dolan and Max brosber you were an absolute sicko and dove into the New Hampshire tape for us that way you could tell us about this new quarterback for Minnesota so when you're watching the uh New Hampshire tape what did you see um you see a guy first of all look he led all FCS QBs and passing in the regular season last year and you saw some flashes of some really good moments right like they got into a really fun shootout that they just barely lost to Central Michigan um big upset over U Albany who was a final four team in the FCS last year and arguably the the best defense in the entire FCS like there are some moments he's really good at targeting teams down the seams into the post right like deep over the middle of the field targeting slot receivers and tight ends doesn't throw outside the numbers as much but he's kind of kind of your prototypical pocket passer who's going to attack down the seams I think he's going to really fit in with the play action game in Minnesota here um the biggest thing is just you know in the dropback game and throwing horizontal walls kind of fitting the ball through Zone Windows right like sometimes he just doesn't see that second Defender coming or if he needs to be on the move and his feet aren't set when he's throwing then he's got an issue like he's not a guy you want to improvise but I think it's perfectly reasonable to think that he could mix in deep shots with the Run game with the play action I don't think he's a super high volume passer at the FB s level like 25 throws or less per game would be really ideal especially with their running game but he can he can do some things especially if they're trying to pull safeties in with the Run game and get it over the top of them I think he can absolutely do that and one of the big benefits he has is you mentioned arante ursery you got that big monster I'm sure a lot of people will think back to Daniel fele who's with the Ravens now this is a guy just you know need some work in the pass Pro technique but you know other than a couple of blowups he'll give you some good work and in the Run game he's just monstrous man he's just mauling people right so when you talk about ursery their run game and then the play action working off of it with brosmer I think he can absolutely succeed at this level they just have to support him the right way call plays the proper way and really get this run game going behind ursery and this and these running backs I mean it's the same way we see Minnesota try to win all the time we've seen it for years but it's a physical brand of football if brosmer can give them just that deep threat over the top and take the safeties out of the box then I think Minnesota's got something rolling a little bit on offense yeah absolutely I'll talk about Ur a little bit more right now he had the third best run blocking grade in the country last year only TSA fanga and Joe alt had higher grades those two were top 15 picks in the NFL draft um he also was really dominant on Zone runs 89.9 run blocking rate on Zone runs that was fourth in the country now he's is in consistent there are some games like you mentioned that are terrible in pass Pro Al some games that are pretty good and actually one of those games was pretty good Dawn was against Ohio State surprisingly with Jack Sawyer and J maloa two of our best Edge defenders in the country he only allowed one pressure on 23 pass blocking snaps against Ohio State so he's got some high highs in pass Pro as well um he's the best run Blocker in the country in our opinion and is a top 10 returning offensive tackle in college football as well yeah absolutely and defensively they've got a guy who's really good in the trenches too and that's their best pass rusher JW Joiner man the 10th best pass rush grade in the country at a 90.8 this guy gives you prototypical edge player size at 65 and 265 he's a really good athlete needs to work on his technique in the Run game for sure but when you've got a pass rusher like this and obviously you know you talk about the Run game Minnesota's gonna want gonna want to play from in front but when they're playing from in front and you've got this guy rushing the passer you're gonna have some problems in the back field because he can just really is a big dude who can really get after in the pass rush again if he if he fixes up his run defense this could be a guy who shoots up draft boards come next year's draft jot Joiner is a really good pass rusher and if Minnesota gets ahead you better look out for him he's one of my favorite sleepers dude in the uh NFL draft next year one of my favorite sleep in college football too was third best pass rush win rate in the country and only latu latu had a higher pass rush win rate among power five Edge Defenders as well so really bad run Defender right now 49.7 run defense grade last year which was the fth fifth worst in the power five for Edge Defenders but you mentioned it man that pass rushing ability and a great athlete as well 97 percenti gas score uh he's going to be really really fun player to watch watch next year what is the bottom line for this Minnesota team right now D will they bounce back and get back to like the 9 and4 level that they were in 20121 and 2022 or is it more like a six and seven team that we saw this past season I think there's a chance I think obviously that's kind of the range I think they should fully I think they should expect to make a bowl game for sure I think you've got enough Run game you've got enough defense I know you lost Tyler nbit on the back end but they're still pretty good in the trenches right and and I think you know the X Factor of course is brosmer if he can give them enough in the passing game like last year they really struggled with Athan cic Manis um trying to throw the football it just just wasn't working right their passing game you mentioned it at the top like they they've certainly leaned more towards the Run than the pass but I think they should expect to make a bowl game I think they could they could certainly be if they execute everything properly a little bit better than that I certainly wouldn't put him in playoff contention considering how load to the Big 10 is at the top but I think as usual look PJ Flex going to put a good outfit out there right and they're going to be physical they're they're still that big Big 10 West cold weather physical team so they're going to give themselves a chance every week and if they get better quarterback play than they did last year with brosman and there instead of cic Menace then you know they could really surprise some people win a few more games than you think yeah I think so too I think right now I say they're probably be like around six and six team as of right now but if Max brosmer can find as as much success as he did at the FCS level I think they could definitely be better than that but if not and I think he'll be about average or so then I think they're going probably struggling to make a bowl game and right around the six and six Mark I think for Minnesota uh next year but that's what we got for our preview of the Minnesota Golden goers heading into 2024 again we're doing this for every one of the 70 power five teams make sure you guys subscribe to the channel so you don't miss a single one [Music]