Just like Colorado, a 1-1 record sits beside the Minnesota Golden Gophers heading into week three. Both schools suffered their lone loss to a top-5 team; CU is coming off a narrow loss to then-No. 5 A&M and Minnesota fell to then-No. 4 Ohio State 45-31 in its opener.
“They’re a really good team, they played Ohio State really well,” said Karl Dorrell on Minnesota. “They probably felt that they didn’t play as well last week (a 31-26 win over Miami (OH)), I’m sure they’ll be working on getting some things fixed just like from our standpoint as well coming off the Texas A&M game.”
Leading the Gophers offense will be senior quarterback Tanner Morgan. Through two games, Morgan has completed 52% of his passes for 317 yards and three touchdowns. But according to Dorrell, it’s the Gophers ground game that the Buffs should be worried about. After senior running back Mohamad Ibrahim suffered a season-ending injury in week one, sophomore Trey Potts stepped up for Minnesota against the RedHawks. Potts ran for 178 yards and two touchdowns in his first collegiate start.
“They’re definitely a run-first offense,” Dorrell said. “They really churn out yards and they’re pretty efficient at doing that… They use a lot of tackles to play the tight end positions. They try to use a big offensive front and they try to make defenses defend them. That’s going to be a tremendous challenge again for our defense this week.”
In fact, the Gophers O-line has the most combined starts (193) than any other FBS program.
As for Minnesota’s defense, Dorrell expects a similar “structure” to what the Buffs saw against Texas A&M. Explosive plays will be hard to come by on Saturday and no yard will come easy. Linebacker Mariano Sori-Marin has racked up 16 total tackles in two games while Tyler Nubin and Terell Smith help control the secondary. Minnesota has, however, allowed a total of 71 points compared to CU’s 17 surrendered.
Fifth-year head coach P.J. Fleck leads Minnesota, which has won its last 20 non-conference games. None of those were against CU as the Buffaloes last played and beat the Gophers in 1992.