North Carolina and Minnesota will open the 2024 college football season on Thursday night, continuing a two-game home and home series.
While there are a lot of questions surrounding the Tar Heels entering this game, the biggest question surrounds a star Minnesota player. Running back Darius Taylor reportedly suffered an injury during training camp and there are questions about his status.
A big sign of bad news for Minnesota is that the betting line went from Minnesota being 2.5-point favorites to UNC now being 2.5-point favorites on some books. That’s a four-point swing in a matter of days, something that a team missing a star player could influence.
There has been no official word on any injury and P.J. Fleck did keep things close to the vest during a media session on August 19th when asked about Taylor:
“He’s doing great, but we brought in a ton of players for that reason in general. If anybody ever gets banged up, and we got a few bumps and bruises but I’m going to use the same line as we get 10 days before. The injury report will come out two hours before.
But this is a very healthy football team and I love how they’ve gone about their business throughout training camp.”
Andy Greder of the Pioneer Press reported earlier in August after a practice that Tayor had left and was limping. In addition to that, top wideout Daniel Jackson has also been limited at times:
Updates: #Gophers star tailback Darius Taylor left Tuesday’s practice limping and then icing his left leg. Head coach PJ Fleck said it wasn’t serious issue. Top wideout Daniel Jackson has been limited for more than a week. Experienced safety Darius Green was active in practice.
— Andy Greder (@andygreder) August 13, 2024
Both are significant injuries for the Gophers’ offense ahead of the week 1 game. We won’t know much until the injury report is put out around two hours before kickoff but this is a big development.
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