Gophers enter Duke’s Mayo Bowl, dreaming of much bigger things

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Wednesday afternoon, an Arizona State team projected to finish last in the Big 12 nearly reached the final four of the College Football Playoff, falling 39-31 to Texas in a double-overtime thriller in the Peach Bowl.

Twelve days earlier, Indiana, a program with a 3-24 Big Ten record from 2021-23, finished a Cinderella season with an 11-2 record and 27-17 playoff loss to Notre Dame.

Friday night, the Gophers will play Virginia Tech in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl at Bank of America Stadium in a matchup of teams with 7-5 overall and 6-6 conference records, respectively. It’s a pat on Minnesota’s back for a winning season, though a 2-3 start quickly took the Gophers out of the conversation regarding the expanded 12-team playoff.

The larger playoff field is a game-changer — and expectation-raiser — in college football. The Big Ten, for example, landed four teams in the 12-team field. Coaches see a prize no longer reserved for just the upper crust.

“It’s a real goal for us,” Gophers coach P.J. Fleck said Thursday. “When you start to see some of the teams that were not only in it, played in it, anybody’s got a shot. I’m not saying it can happen every single year, but absolutely [it’s possible]. … We talk about it with our players. We talk about how close we were this year."

Fleck points to the Gophers’ 3-4 record in one-score games this season as how close and how far the Gophers were to that aim. Included in that was the 26-25 home loss to Penn State on Nov. 23 — against the same Nittany Lions team that’s advanced to the playoff semifinals.

Quinn Carroll, a senior offensive tackle for the Gophers, will play his final collegiate game Friday. He gave a glimpse of the players’ aspirations.

“At the beginning of the season, that was our goal,” Carroll said. “Ever since January when we knew this would be the new rule with a 12-team playoff, with our schedule and with how talented we are ... we can play with anybody. Looking back at a lot of games this year, losing by one point, two points, three points, you understand we could have and probably should have been there.”

That, of course, didn’t happen, but it doesn’t deter Carroll into thinking what he believes the Gophers can be in the future.

“It’s important for guys on the team now to realize that this is real,” Carroll said. “Minnesota is a College Football Playoff-contending team and should be every year.”

To accomplish that aim, the Gophers will need to show they can be upwardly mobile in the new, 18-team Big Ten. With a 5-4 conference record this season, they finished tied for seventh with Michigan in the standings. They likely would need an Indiana-like spike to reach the top four. The Hoosiers, 3-9 in 2023, posted an eight-win improvement in coach Curt Cignetti’s first year in Bloomington.

Recent history shows the Gophers had one of those breakout seasons. It was in 2019, when they went 11-2 with a victory over Auburn in the Outback Bowl in Tampa, Fla. The Gophers finished No. 10 in the final polls that year — their best showing since 1962 — highlighted by a 31-26 upset of No. 5 Penn State. Losses to Iowa and Wisconsin, however, prevented the Gophers from advancing to Indianapolis for the Big Ten championship game.

Since that Outback trip, the Gophers under Fleck will have played in bowl games in Phoenix, New York, Detroit and now Charlotte. They will thank those cities for the hospitality but embrace the chance to upgrade.

“It’s made the want and need to get to the College Football Playoff that much stronger,” said senior defensive end Danny Striggow, who’ll play his last Gophers game on Friday. “That’s a goal going into every season, and it hurts not to be there. But it’s great to give more teams the opportunity.”

For Fleck, the opportunity must be seized.

“Twenty teams can say they were close,” he said. “Can we close the gap and get the job done?”