Can The Gophers Shock The College Football World?

Tomorrow night, the Minnesota Golden Gophers have the chance to make a statement in the college football world as they travel to play at defending national champion and #1 ranked Ohio State.  

The Buckeyes only have 3 losses at home under current Head Coach Ryan Day in his seven seasons in Columbus, so a win by the Gophers would really shock most everyone outside the Gophers program. But the more staggering numbers, according to the Ohio State Game Notes for Saturday’s game, is the Buckeyes success rate over Minnesota.  

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OSU has won 12 games in a row over the Gophers, 28 of the last 29 games and 40 of the last 42 since 1969. I told you staggering numbers. That is one of the most dominant records one school has over another in college football at the FBS level. 

Breaking Down The Teams This Season 

Here is the tail of the tape between these two teams this season. 

Ohio State is averaging 36 points per game, while allowing a mere 5.5 points per contest. The Gophers are scoring at a clip of 33 points per game while giving up just over 16 points per game.  

Two of the four first opponents Ohio State are from Power 5 conferences where they allowed a total of 13 points between the two, 7 against Texas and 6 against Washington. Minnesota’s schedule has been weaker overall and their best win is over Rutgers last week.  

Only 40 yards separate the two teams in the number of yards they average per game, while the Gophers have allowed 3 fewer yards per game than the Buckeyes, but remember the caliber of the teams the two squads have played to this point.  

One way that the Gophers could gain momentum in the game is to force turnovers and steal possessions. Minnesota has 3 interceptions thus far this season and they’ve forced 4 fumbles. Any chance the Gophers get to take the Buckeye Offense off the field, they need to capitalize. 

Ohio State’s Quarterback Julian Sayin has thrown three interceptions thus far this year, can the Gophers defense create schemes that confuse the sophomore signal caller? That is if the Buckeyes decide to throw the ball very much. They’re averaging 181 yards rushing per game, and Minnesota’s defense has not done a great job this year of stopping the run allowing 230 yards per game.  

When the Gophers have the ball, they need to try and find something that resembles a running game, which they didn’t have last week against Rutgers, when they totaled only 35 yards on the ground. Minnesota was missing leading rusher Darius Taylor, which had an impact on the output. Taylor is questionable for Saturday’s match up. Ohio State allows only 97 yards per game, so even with Taylor the challenge will be daunting. 

That means, the passing game is going to have to not only be efficient, but methodical in managing the clock while continuing to pick up yards. But the challenge there is that Ohio State’s defense through 4 games has only allowed 132 passing yards per game.  

Another area that Minnesota’s offense must excel at on Saturday is on 3rd down conversions. This may be one of the biggest challenges of the day since the stingy Buckeye defense only allows opponents to pick up a first down on third downs just 21% of the time. Again, keeping the OSU offense on the sideline benefits the Gophers, if they take care of the ball.  

Something else the Gophers could help themselves with is by having good field position. The shorter the distance, puts a little more pressure on a very good OSU defense.  

I could go on and on about the discrepancy between these two teams, but it will basically require Minnesota to play as near a perfect game as they can and get some luck along the way too.  

Maybe they’ll feel a little disrespected being selected at the Homecoming game opponent for the Buckeyes, where teams normally try to pick a team they feel they’ll beat easily to appease the home crowd. And if the record I listed above is any indication, that could be just what OSU fans are in store for Saturday.