On our USC show at The Voice of College Football, we offered a brief initial look at the Trojans’ 2024 matchup with the Minnesota Golden Gophers and head coach PJ Fleck. Minnesota and Fleck thrived for a few years at the beginning of Fleck’s tenure in the late 2010s, when he came over from Western Michigan. Minnesota came very close to making its first Rose Bowl since the early 1960s, the longest drought among any longstanding Big Ten school (in other words, schools other than Nebraska, Penn State, Maryland, and Rutgers, which have all joined the league in the past 35 years). However, the Golden Gophers fell short in 2019 and have not come closer since then.
Just how would USC and Minnesota match up on the gridiron when they play on Oct. 5 in Minneapolis? We looked at various factors attached to this game. One thing that should help USC is that Minnesota will be coming off a visit to Michigan when it plays the Trojans. Michigan will physically pound Minnesota (regardless of the outcome of the game). Minnesota will face a stiff physical challenge in playing Michigan and USC in back-to-back weeks.
Our conversation on the USC-Minnesota game and the status of the Minnesota college football program begins at 28:50 in the video below:
https://www.youtube.com/live/eEclHR7DrUA?si=P6deHEx8oMMQl3Sd&t=1730
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