This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/cfb by /u/usffan on 2025-07-15 15:42:05+00:00.

The cumulative link to the preseason rankings can be found here.

Minnesota (high = 31, low = 45) is the 8th B1G team to come up in our countdown at #39, meaning they project to be the 11th best team in the conference. P. J. Fleck begins his 9th season rowing the boat in the land of 10,000 lakes, and he does so as the winningest coach of the Golden Gophers in the last 75 years. They’re coming off an 8-5 season that was capped off with a Duke’s Mayo Bowl win over Virginia Tech, and Minnesota has their sights set on more than condiments in 2025.

Roster outlook

The Golden Gophers return only the 84th ranked production for next season, including the 45th least production on offense in FBS. While QB Max Brosmer will still be in Minnesota, he’ll be wearing Vikings purple. His former back-up Drake Lindsey will be the new starter. Their top 2 WRs (Daniel Jackson and Elijah Spencer) are also gone, but they do get back RB Darius Taylor and his 1,300+ rushing/receiving yards and 12 TDs. While Fleck’s recruiting didn’t set the world on fire (15th best in the B1G, 49th in the nation), he did bring in a top 30 portal class nationally (9th in the B1G), including 3 new P4 linemen plus UCLA WR Logan Loya.

Schedule and outlook

The Golden Gophers schedule certainly sets them up to go bowling again at a minimum. Their OOC games to open the season are Buffalo, Northwestern State and a road trip to Berkeley, and they should be favored to win all 3 of those before opening their conference schedule at home against lower ranked Rutgers, setting up a decent chance of going to the Horseshoe undefeated at the start of October. Considering they get Purdue next, I think Minnesota has a great chance of reaching the halfway point of the season at 5-1, and the second half opens with 3 straight interesting games (Nebraska, @ Iowa and Michigan State) before they travel to Eugene. They close out the season at Northwestern and at home against a Wisconsin team that might be lucky to be in bowl contention. In all, Minnesota has at least 8 games where they figure to be favored and 2 others that should be close enough that a 10-2 record is not exactly a stretch. It’s all going to come down to whether Lindsey is able to step up and be a great QB.