Link: Full Game Notes (Huskers.com)
When: Saturday, October 16, 2021 | 11:00 AM (CT)
Where: Huntington Bank Stadium | Minneapolis, Minnesota
TV: ESPN2 (Brian Custer, Kelly Stouffer, Lauren Sisler)
Radio: Huskers Radio Network (Greg Sharpe, Matt Davison, Jeremiah Sirles, Jessica Coody)
HUSKERS
Record: 3-4, 1-3 Big Ten
Last Game: vs. #9 Michigan (L 29-32)
Rankings: NR
Coach: Scott Frost (34-31 6th year overall / 15-24 4th year at Nebraska)
Frost vs. Minnesota: 1-2
GOLDEN GOPHERS
Record: 3-2, 1-1 Big Ten
Last Game: at Purdue (W 20-13)
Rankings: NR
Coach: P.J. Fleck (59-43, 9th year overall / 29-21 5th year at Minnesota)
Fleck vs. Nebraska: 3-1
Numbers to Know
5 - The Nebraska offense is one of the nation's best in producing long plays. The Huskers rank in the top 5 nationally in plays of 20+, 30+, 40+, 50+, 60+, 70+ and 80+ yards including leading the nation in both 60-yard and 70-yard plays
10 - Quarterback Adrian Martinez is the first Husker quarterback to rush for 10 touchdowns in a season since Taylor Martinez had 10 in 2012. Adrian Martinez is one of only three players in the nation with 10 rushing touchdowns in 2021.
21 - Nebraska's four losses have come by a combined 21 points. Three of those four losses have come against teams currently ranked in the top 10 in the Associated Press Poll, including three-point setbacks against Michigan State and Michigan.
The Matchup
Nebraska returns to the road on Saturday when it travels to Minneapolis to take on Minnesota in a Big Ten West Division battle. The contest at UM's Huntington Bank Stadium will kick off at 11 a.m. CT with the game televised on ESPN2 and heard on the Huskers Radio Network.
The matchup with Minnesota wraps up a stretch of eight games in eight consecutive weeks for the Huskers, and marks Nebraska's second-to-last road game of the 2021 season. Nebraska is off next week, before returning to Lincoln for a two-game home stand against Purdue (Oct. 30) and Ohio State (Nov. 6).
The Huskers stand at 3-4 overall and 1-3 in Big Ten play after a third heartbreaking loss in the past four weeks against a ranked opponent. Nebraska put together an impressive second-half performance against No. 9 Michigan on Saturday night, before the Wolverines kicked a field goal with 1:24 remaining to escape with a 32-29 victory.
Minnesota enters the game with a 3-2 record and a 1-1 mark in Big Ten play. The Gophers were off last week, and posted a 20-13 victory at Purdue in their most recent game on Oct. 2. Minnesota lost its season opener to then-No. 4 Ohio State, but has won three of four games since that contest.
Coach P.J. Fleck's team boasts one of the Big Ten's best defenses, ranking second in the conference and fifth nationally in rushing defense at 77.0 yards per game. The Gophers are also strong in scoring defense (19.6 ppg) and total defense (307.8 ypg). Offensively, Minnesota features a strong run game and is among the nation's best in ball control, averaging nearly 34 minutes per game in time of possession.
Series History
Nebraska and Minnesota will be meeting for the 62nd time overall and the 11th consecutive season as Big Ten opponents. Minnesota holds a 34-25-2 lead in the all-time series.
- Before Nebraska joined the Big Ten, Minnesota was the Huskers' most frequent opponent among conference schools with 51 meetings between 1900 and 1990.
- Nebraska and Minnesota have split 10 meetings as Big Ten opponents. Minnesota has won five of the past eight matchups, following a 16-game Nebraska win streak in the series.
- Minnesota owned a 29-6-2 lead in the all-time series following a win in 1960, but Nebraska owns a 19-5 lead since 1963.
- Scott Frost produced his first win at Nebraska against Minnesota in October of 2018, recording a 53-28 victory in Lincoln.
- Nebraska's 84-point outburst in the 1983 victory in Minneapolis is the largest scoring output by a Husker team in the modern era (since World War II)
Past Five NU-MN Meetings
2016: #21 Nebraska 24, Minnesota 17 (Lincoln)
2017: Minnesota 54, Nebraska 21 (Minneapolis)
2018: Nebraska 53, Minnesota 28 (Lincoln)
2019: Minnesota 34, Nebraska 7 (Minneapolis)
2020: Minnesota 24, Nebraska 17 (Lincoln)
About Minnesota
Minnesota owns a winning all-time record and the Gophers have been one of the nation's top programs since their first season in 1882. The Gophers have 21 former players in the College Football Hall of Fame.
The Gophers have gone undefeated 12 times and have won 10 games in a season six times. Minnesota has had a winning record in two of the last four seasons under Coach P.J. Fleck. The Gophers have played in 21 bowl games in their history, including two Rose Bowls. In the last full season in 2019, Minnesota went 11-2 and finished tied for first in the Big Ten West Division.
First Year: 1882
All-Time Record: 709-528-44
Bowl Record: 9-12
Conference Titles: 18
National Titles: 7
Stadium: Huntington Bank Stadium
Capacity: 50,805
Surface: FieldTurf
Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Enrollment: 47,568
School Colors: Maroon & Gold
About 2021 Minnesota
Minnesota is 3-2 and 1-1 in the Big Ten this season. The Gophers began the season with a 45-31 loss to Ohio State before bouncing back to earn back-to-back wins over Miami (OH) and Colorado. Minnesota suffered a 14-10 setback vs. Bowling Green and earned its first conference victory with a 20-13 road win at Purdue on Oct. 2.
The Gophers feature the second-best rush defense in the league, allowing only 77 rushing yards per game. Tanner Morgan has completed 47-of-90 passes for 709 yards with four touchdowns and a pair of interceptions. Dylan Wright leads the balanced receiving corps with 169 yards on nine receptions and two touchdowns.
Defensively, Minnesota ranks fourth in the conference in total defense, allowing 307.8 yards per game. Jack Gibbons leads the Gopher defense with 30 tackles and two tackles for loss, followed by Mariano Sori-Marin with 28 tackles and 3.5 tackles for loss.
2021 Minnesota Schedule/Results
Ohio State (L 31-45)
Miami (OH) (W 31-26)
at Colorado (W 30-0)
Bowling Green (L 10-14)
at Purdue (W 20-13)
Nebraska
Maryland
at Northwestern
Illinois
at Cockeye
at Indiana
Wisconsin
About P.J. Fleck
P.J. Fleck is in his fifth season at Minnesota and his eighth career season as a head coach and boasts a 59-43 career record. In the past four years, Fleck has had one season with 11 wins and two seasons with winning records. Prior to serving as the head coach for the Gophers, Fleck served as head coach at Western Michigan from 2013 to 016, improving from a 1-11 record his first year to leaving after a 13-1 record in 2016. Prior to serving as a head coach, Fleck held numerous stints as a wide receivers coach with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Rutgers, Northern Illinois and Ohio State as a position coach. Fleck will be facing Nebraska for the fifth time since joining the program in 2017. He has gone 3-1 with the most recent win coming in 2020 when the Gophers defeated the Huskers in Lincoln, 24-17.
Last Meeting
December 12, 2020 - Lincoln, NE
Minnesota 24, Nebraska 17
Nebraska was unable to recover from a slow start, as visiting Minnesota worked its way to a 24-17 win over the Huskers on Saturday at Memorial Stadium.
In a game that often lacked flow but featured few penalties, Minnesota (3-3) took advantage of a tipped Luke McCaffrey pass that resulted in an interception by Tyler Nubin to set the Golden Gophers up with a short field. Four plays and 35 yards later, Minnesota took a 7-0 lead on a Mohamed Ibrahim 26-yard touchdown run with 7:26 left in the first quarter.
It was one of two passes attempted by McCaffrey after he entered briefly to replace starter Adrian Martinez at quarterback because of a minor issue. The Gophers added a 31-yard Anders Gelecinskyj field goal near the end of the first quarter to take a 10-0 lead to the second.
Nebraska (2-4) responded with a pair of touchdown drives in the second quarter to take a 14-10 lead with just under three minutes left in the first half. The first drive covered 75 yards in six plays, fueled by a 47-yard run by Wan'Dale Robinson. It culminated with an eight-yard touchdown pass from Martinez to tight end Austin Allen to cut Minnesota's lead to 10-7.
The Husker defense held Minnesota on the ensuing drive, before Martinez engineered a 13-play, 73-yard march that lasted five minutes and culminated with his seven-yard touchdown run to give Nebraska a 14-10 lead with 2:57 left in the half.
With momentum on their side, the Husker defense returned to the field looking for a quick stop to give the offense a chance to extend the margin before halftime. However, Minnesota had other ideas. On the first play of the Gopher drive, Cam Wiley sprinted 61 yards down the Minnesota sideline before Marquel Dismuke made a touchdown-saving tackle at the Husker 14. Nebraska appeared to make Dismuke's hustle hold up when Cam Taylor-Britt stopped Morgan after a four-yard gain on 3rd-and-14. But after Nebraska called timeout to save time on the clock for the offense to respond after an upcoming Minnesota field goal attempt, Taylor-Britt's hit was reviewed and he was ejected from the game for targeting. It was one of only three penalties called on Nebraska in the game, but Minnesota got a fresh set of downs at the Husker 7. Two plays later Morgan hit Brevyn Spann-Ford on a four-yard touchdown pass to give the Golden Gophers a 17-14 halftime lead.
Minnesota made that lead stand, as both teams went scoreless in the third quarter, before the Gophers got a one-yard touchdown blast from Ibrahim on 4th-and-Goal with 11:26 remaining in the game to put Minnesota up 24-14.
The defenses exchanged stops, before Nebraska mounted its only scoring drive of the second half. The strange drive included a 37-yard Connor Culp field goal on 4th-and-4 that the Huskers chose to take off the board after Minnesota was called for an offside penalty. Three plays later, Martinez scampered 12 yards into the end zone for an apparent touchdown, before a flag for a holding penalty - NU's third and final penalty of the game - wiped that score off the board. Nebraska was forced to settle for Culp's 30-yard field goal to cut Minnesota's lead to 24-17 with 4:42 left.
But the Huskers were unable to stop Minnesota on its final possession, as the Gophers went 70 yards in nine plays and ended the game in victory formation at the Nebraska 5.
Nebraska managed 308 yards of total offense on the afternoon, including 197 yards on the ground and 111 through the air. Martinez led the Huskers with 15 carries for 96 and a touchdown, while going 16-for-27 passing with another score. Dedrick Mills finished the game with 12 carries for 50 yards, while Robinson finished with eight carries for 49 yards. Robinson added six receptions for 41 yards to lead the Husker receivers.
Morgan led a Minnesota offense that total 393 yards, including 212 rushing and 181 passing yards. He completed 17-of-30 passes while adding two carries for 10 yards. Ibrahim led the Gophers on the ground with 20 carries for 108 yards and two scores, while Cam Wiley added seven carries for 81 yards. Chris Autman-Bell led the Minnesota receiving corps with five catches for 82 yards.
Deontai Williams led the Husker defense with 10 tackles including one for loss and a pair of breakups. Nick Henrich added nine stops while Will Honas and JoJo Domann pitched in four stops apiece. Mariano Sori-Marin led the Minnesota defense with 18 tackles, while Nubin added seven tackles to his interception.
NEBRASKA CORNHUSKERS (3-4, 1-3) | at | MINNESOTA GOLDEN GOPHERS (3-2, 1-1) |
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When: Saturday, October 16, 2021 | 11:00 AM (CT)
Where: Huntington Bank Stadium | Minneapolis, Minnesota
TV: ESPN2 (Brian Custer, Kelly Stouffer, Lauren Sisler)
Radio: Huskers Radio Network (Greg Sharpe, Matt Davison, Jeremiah Sirles, Jessica Coody)
HUSKERS
Record: 3-4, 1-3 Big Ten
Last Game: vs. #9 Michigan (L 29-32)
Rankings: NR
Coach: Scott Frost (34-31 6th year overall / 15-24 4th year at Nebraska)
Frost vs. Minnesota: 1-2
GOLDEN GOPHERS
Record: 3-2, 1-1 Big Ten
Last Game: at Purdue (W 20-13)
Rankings: NR
Coach: P.J. Fleck (59-43, 9th year overall / 29-21 5th year at Minnesota)
Fleck vs. Nebraska: 3-1
Numbers to Know
5 - The Nebraska offense is one of the nation's best in producing long plays. The Huskers rank in the top 5 nationally in plays of 20+, 30+, 40+, 50+, 60+, 70+ and 80+ yards including leading the nation in both 60-yard and 70-yard plays
10 - Quarterback Adrian Martinez is the first Husker quarterback to rush for 10 touchdowns in a season since Taylor Martinez had 10 in 2012. Adrian Martinez is one of only three players in the nation with 10 rushing touchdowns in 2021.
21 - Nebraska's four losses have come by a combined 21 points. Three of those four losses have come against teams currently ranked in the top 10 in the Associated Press Poll, including three-point setbacks against Michigan State and Michigan.
The Matchup
Nebraska returns to the road on Saturday when it travels to Minneapolis to take on Minnesota in a Big Ten West Division battle. The contest at UM's Huntington Bank Stadium will kick off at 11 a.m. CT with the game televised on ESPN2 and heard on the Huskers Radio Network.
The matchup with Minnesota wraps up a stretch of eight games in eight consecutive weeks for the Huskers, and marks Nebraska's second-to-last road game of the 2021 season. Nebraska is off next week, before returning to Lincoln for a two-game home stand against Purdue (Oct. 30) and Ohio State (Nov. 6).
The Huskers stand at 3-4 overall and 1-3 in Big Ten play after a third heartbreaking loss in the past four weeks against a ranked opponent. Nebraska put together an impressive second-half performance against No. 9 Michigan on Saturday night, before the Wolverines kicked a field goal with 1:24 remaining to escape with a 32-29 victory.
Minnesota enters the game with a 3-2 record and a 1-1 mark in Big Ten play. The Gophers were off last week, and posted a 20-13 victory at Purdue in their most recent game on Oct. 2. Minnesota lost its season opener to then-No. 4 Ohio State, but has won three of four games since that contest.
Coach P.J. Fleck's team boasts one of the Big Ten's best defenses, ranking second in the conference and fifth nationally in rushing defense at 77.0 yards per game. The Gophers are also strong in scoring defense (19.6 ppg) and total defense (307.8 ypg). Offensively, Minnesota features a strong run game and is among the nation's best in ball control, averaging nearly 34 minutes per game in time of possession.
Series History
Nebraska and Minnesota will be meeting for the 62nd time overall and the 11th consecutive season as Big Ten opponents. Minnesota holds a 34-25-2 lead in the all-time series.
- Before Nebraska joined the Big Ten, Minnesota was the Huskers' most frequent opponent among conference schools with 51 meetings between 1900 and 1990.
- Nebraska and Minnesota have split 10 meetings as Big Ten opponents. Minnesota has won five of the past eight matchups, following a 16-game Nebraska win streak in the series.
- Minnesota owned a 29-6-2 lead in the all-time series following a win in 1960, but Nebraska owns a 19-5 lead since 1963.
- Scott Frost produced his first win at Nebraska against Minnesota in October of 2018, recording a 53-28 victory in Lincoln.
- Nebraska's 84-point outburst in the 1983 victory in Minneapolis is the largest scoring output by a Husker team in the modern era (since World War II)
Past Five NU-MN Meetings
2016: #21 Nebraska 24, Minnesota 17 (Lincoln)
2017: Minnesota 54, Nebraska 21 (Minneapolis)
2018: Nebraska 53, Minnesota 28 (Lincoln)
2019: Minnesota 34, Nebraska 7 (Minneapolis)
2020: Minnesota 24, Nebraska 17 (Lincoln)
About Minnesota
Minnesota owns a winning all-time record and the Gophers have been one of the nation's top programs since their first season in 1882. The Gophers have 21 former players in the College Football Hall of Fame.
The Gophers have gone undefeated 12 times and have won 10 games in a season six times. Minnesota has had a winning record in two of the last four seasons under Coach P.J. Fleck. The Gophers have played in 21 bowl games in their history, including two Rose Bowls. In the last full season in 2019, Minnesota went 11-2 and finished tied for first in the Big Ten West Division.
First Year: 1882
All-Time Record: 709-528-44
Bowl Record: 9-12
Conference Titles: 18
National Titles: 7
Stadium: Huntington Bank Stadium
Capacity: 50,805
Surface: FieldTurf
Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Enrollment: 47,568
School Colors: Maroon & Gold
About 2021 Minnesota
Minnesota is 3-2 and 1-1 in the Big Ten this season. The Gophers began the season with a 45-31 loss to Ohio State before bouncing back to earn back-to-back wins over Miami (OH) and Colorado. Minnesota suffered a 14-10 setback vs. Bowling Green and earned its first conference victory with a 20-13 road win at Purdue on Oct. 2.
The Gophers feature the second-best rush defense in the league, allowing only 77 rushing yards per game. Tanner Morgan has completed 47-of-90 passes for 709 yards with four touchdowns and a pair of interceptions. Dylan Wright leads the balanced receiving corps with 169 yards on nine receptions and two touchdowns.
Defensively, Minnesota ranks fourth in the conference in total defense, allowing 307.8 yards per game. Jack Gibbons leads the Gopher defense with 30 tackles and two tackles for loss, followed by Mariano Sori-Marin with 28 tackles and 3.5 tackles for loss.
2021 Minnesota Schedule/Results
Ohio State (L 31-45)
Miami (OH) (W 31-26)
at Colorado (W 30-0)
Bowling Green (L 10-14)
at Purdue (W 20-13)
Nebraska
Maryland
at Northwestern
Illinois
at Cockeye
at Indiana
Wisconsin
About P.J. Fleck
P.J. Fleck is in his fifth season at Minnesota and his eighth career season as a head coach and boasts a 59-43 career record. In the past four years, Fleck has had one season with 11 wins and two seasons with winning records. Prior to serving as the head coach for the Gophers, Fleck served as head coach at Western Michigan from 2013 to 016, improving from a 1-11 record his first year to leaving after a 13-1 record in 2016. Prior to serving as a head coach, Fleck held numerous stints as a wide receivers coach with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Rutgers, Northern Illinois and Ohio State as a position coach. Fleck will be facing Nebraska for the fifth time since joining the program in 2017. He has gone 3-1 with the most recent win coming in 2020 when the Gophers defeated the Huskers in Lincoln, 24-17.
Last Meeting
December 12, 2020 - Lincoln, NE
Minnesota 24, Nebraska 17
Nebraska was unable to recover from a slow start, as visiting Minnesota worked its way to a 24-17 win over the Huskers on Saturday at Memorial Stadium.
In a game that often lacked flow but featured few penalties, Minnesota (3-3) took advantage of a tipped Luke McCaffrey pass that resulted in an interception by Tyler Nubin to set the Golden Gophers up with a short field. Four plays and 35 yards later, Minnesota took a 7-0 lead on a Mohamed Ibrahim 26-yard touchdown run with 7:26 left in the first quarter.
It was one of two passes attempted by McCaffrey after he entered briefly to replace starter Adrian Martinez at quarterback because of a minor issue. The Gophers added a 31-yard Anders Gelecinskyj field goal near the end of the first quarter to take a 10-0 lead to the second.
Nebraska (2-4) responded with a pair of touchdown drives in the second quarter to take a 14-10 lead with just under three minutes left in the first half. The first drive covered 75 yards in six plays, fueled by a 47-yard run by Wan'Dale Robinson. It culminated with an eight-yard touchdown pass from Martinez to tight end Austin Allen to cut Minnesota's lead to 10-7.
The Husker defense held Minnesota on the ensuing drive, before Martinez engineered a 13-play, 73-yard march that lasted five minutes and culminated with his seven-yard touchdown run to give Nebraska a 14-10 lead with 2:57 left in the half.
With momentum on their side, the Husker defense returned to the field looking for a quick stop to give the offense a chance to extend the margin before halftime. However, Minnesota had other ideas. On the first play of the Gopher drive, Cam Wiley sprinted 61 yards down the Minnesota sideline before Marquel Dismuke made a touchdown-saving tackle at the Husker 14. Nebraska appeared to make Dismuke's hustle hold up when Cam Taylor-Britt stopped Morgan after a four-yard gain on 3rd-and-14. But after Nebraska called timeout to save time on the clock for the offense to respond after an upcoming Minnesota field goal attempt, Taylor-Britt's hit was reviewed and he was ejected from the game for targeting. It was one of only three penalties called on Nebraska in the game, but Minnesota got a fresh set of downs at the Husker 7. Two plays later Morgan hit Brevyn Spann-Ford on a four-yard touchdown pass to give the Golden Gophers a 17-14 halftime lead.
Minnesota made that lead stand, as both teams went scoreless in the third quarter, before the Gophers got a one-yard touchdown blast from Ibrahim on 4th-and-Goal with 11:26 remaining in the game to put Minnesota up 24-14.
The defenses exchanged stops, before Nebraska mounted its only scoring drive of the second half. The strange drive included a 37-yard Connor Culp field goal on 4th-and-4 that the Huskers chose to take off the board after Minnesota was called for an offside penalty. Three plays later, Martinez scampered 12 yards into the end zone for an apparent touchdown, before a flag for a holding penalty - NU's third and final penalty of the game - wiped that score off the board. Nebraska was forced to settle for Culp's 30-yard field goal to cut Minnesota's lead to 24-17 with 4:42 left.
But the Huskers were unable to stop Minnesota on its final possession, as the Gophers went 70 yards in nine plays and ended the game in victory formation at the Nebraska 5.
Nebraska managed 308 yards of total offense on the afternoon, including 197 yards on the ground and 111 through the air. Martinez led the Huskers with 15 carries for 96 and a touchdown, while going 16-for-27 passing with another score. Dedrick Mills finished the game with 12 carries for 50 yards, while Robinson finished with eight carries for 49 yards. Robinson added six receptions for 41 yards to lead the Husker receivers.
Morgan led a Minnesota offense that total 393 yards, including 212 rushing and 181 passing yards. He completed 17-of-30 passes while adding two carries for 10 yards. Ibrahim led the Gophers on the ground with 20 carries for 108 yards and two scores, while Cam Wiley added seven carries for 81 yards. Chris Autman-Bell led the Minnesota receiving corps with five catches for 82 yards.
Deontai Williams led the Husker defense with 10 tackles including one for loss and a pair of breakups. Nick Henrich added nine stops while Will Honas and JoJo Domann pitched in four stops apiece. Mariano Sori-Marin led the Minnesota defense with 18 tackles, while Nubin added seven tackles to his interception.
