The Tracy Claeys era as head coach in Minnesota began against an unfamiliar opponent as the Golden Gophers welcomed Oregon State to town to open up the college football season on a Thursday night for the second consecutive year. This was only the first time since 1981 that Minnesota squared off against OSU, and just the fourth time overall in the series, with the Gophers holding a 2-1 advantage. Though the Beavers were only a two-win team from a year ago, the Gophers haven’t had the best of times facing off against the Pac-12. They haven’t won a game against the Pac-12 since defeating Oregon in the 2003 Sun Bowl, and haven’t won in the regular season since they faced Cal back in 1987. Though OSU as a foe may be something unfamiliar, the Beaver head coach is a familiar face as Gary Andersen, entering his second year as head coach, previously was head coach at the University of Wisconsin from 2013-2014 where he led the Badgers to two consecutive bowl games, and two wins over the Gophers (20-7 and 34-24, respectively).
The game began with a bang as Jalen Myrick returned the opening kickoff 56-yards into Beaver territory, but the momentum very quickly came to a screeching halt as the OSU defense forced a Gopher 3-and-out. After two more 3-and-outs, one for OSU and another for Minnesota, it looked as though the Gophers were going to force a second for the Beavers, but on third down, junior linebacker Cody Poock committed a personal foul targeting penalty against OSU receiver Landry Payne and was subsequently ejected from the game. Linebacker Nick Rallis would be injured a few series later, and the Gophers found themselves thinning out at linebacker very quickly. On that same drive for OSU, they built a bit of momentum off the Gopher penalty and drove downfield and found the endzone on a touchdown pass from Darell Garretson to Noah Togiai for a 7-0 lead with 5:52 remaining in the first quarter.
After the Gophers had another drive stall out, Garretson and the fans around Minnesota were introduced to Tai’yon Devers after his first career sack forced a fumble that was recovered by the Gophers, and gave them the ball with excellent field position. After a short 6-play, 28-yard drive following the fumble, the Gophers finally got on the board just under three minutes into the second quarter when senior quarterback Mitch Leidner executed a quarterback keeper and dove into the endzone to even up the game at 7-7. The next drive for OSU ended in virtually the same way the one previous did. Tai’yon Devers sacked Garretson forcing a fumble, and it was recovered by freshman Kamal Martin to give the Gophers the ball. The Gophers were able to sustain a good mix of passing and rushing on a drive that was capped off by a 4-yard rushing touchdown from Rodney Smith to give the Gophers their first lead of the night, 14-7. The lead would be short lived because just over two minutes later, Garretson found Victor Bolden on a 30-yard passing score to even up the game once again at 14-14. The Gophers would add a field goal, the first of kicker Emmit Carpenter’s career, to take a 17-14 lead into the break.
After back to back drives resulted in punts for both teams, the Gophers found themselves on defense again, and they found themselves losing another starting linebacker. Midway through the second OSU drive, linebacker Jonathon Celestin was flagged for a targeting personal foul, the second for the Gophers defense, and was ejected from the game, thinning out the linebacker core once more. After an OSU punt was downed inside the 5-yard line, the Gophers offense made a mistake when the second snap was shot over the head of Leidner and resulted in a safety. Two drives later, OSU retook the lead 23-16 after Garretson connected on a screen pass for a 16-yard score to Tim Cook.
With the Gophers still trailing at the start of the fourth quarter, their offense finally started clicking as they put together a big 12-play, 80-yard drive spanning just under five minutes, that finished off with another Rodney Smith touchdown. Three drives later, the Gophers once again lost a defensive player to a targeting personal foul, this time as the freshman Devers hit OSU quarterback Garretson late. A defensive stand for the Gophers on fourth down gave them the ball back, and they would march downfield on the ensuing drive and cap off the scoring for the night on a 1-yard run by Leidner.
Overall, Thursday night’s opener was a very typical Minnesota performance. They relied heavily on the ground game and a strong defense, as well as found some moderate success through the air. According NCAA rules, both Celestin and Devers will be forced to sit out of the first half of next week’s game against Indiana State due to the second half targeting penalties (Poock will be eligible to play entire game).
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