Minnesota is back from its bye week with the kind of stretch that can define a season, and it begins Saturday with a heavyweight rivalry game against Iowa at Huntington Bank Stadium.
Kickoff is set for 2:30 p.m. on Fox Sports 1, with the Gophers 4-2 and coming off a 41-13 loss at Purdue two weeks ago. Iowa arrives at 5-1 after its own bye and a win at Washington two weeks ago.
The matchup also carries Floyd of Rosedale stakes, and the No. 15 Hawkeyes are still in the College Football Playoff conversation.
The path after Saturday doesn’t get any easier. Minnesota has six regular season games left and needs at least two wins to become bowl eligible. Beyond Iowa, the schedule includes a trip to top-10 Indiana, a home game against No. 9-ranked UCLA, a road game at Penn State for the Governor’s Bell, a home date with currently No. 24-ranked Northwestern and the season finale at Camp Randall against Wisconsin for Paul Bunyan’s Axe.
"We brought this up way back in the spring, talking about the schedule we’re going to have. You have no idea who’s going to be ranked, who’s not.
But we do know we’re going to play four rivalry games, all four trophies are up for grabs. We’ve got one of them, we’ve got three left," Gophers’ coach P.J.
Fleck said Monday. "You’re going to play at least 7-8 ranked teams, that’s just the Big Ten."
If Minnesota is going to make anything of that gauntlet, the run game has to improve. Darius Taylor’s production has dipped badly since a three-touchdown first half in Week 1 against Eastern Illinois.
Over his last 50 carries, he has gained 98 yards. The Gophers, meanwhile, rank 17th out of 18 Big Ten teams in rushing at 3.7 yards per carry.
Taylor appears to be dealing with some kind of undisclosed injury, and Fleck said the key is getting him back to his best.
"I don’t know if it’s clicking or not clicking, it’s just going back to that word consistency. The more he practices and he’s able to practice the way he can practice, the better he’s going to be," Fleck said. "We need him at his absolute best."
If Taylor can’t give Minnesota more, the burden shifts to T.J. Thomas, A.J. Turner and Xavier Ford to handle more of the load.
Saturday also puts Fleck across from a familiar figure in Kirk Ferentz, the longest-tenured coach in the Big Ten. Fleck is in his 10th season at Minnesota, while Ferentz is in his 28th at Iowa. Fleck is 1-8 in the series and has yet to beat the Hawkeyes at home.
Ferentz has built Iowa into one of the league’s most reliable programs. His 209 wins with the Hawkeyes are the most in school history, and he has delivered nine-win seasons 10 times, including at least eight wins in nine of the last 10 seasons. Iowa has also reached the Big Ten title game twice.
Minnesota’s coach had high praise for him.
"I think he’s arguably one of the greatest college football coaches of all time, you can make an argument for that. The consistency he has won with, he’s been doing it for so long.
People always ask is it harder to build it or sustain it? I think it’s both," Fleck said.
"When you’re sustaining it for 28 years, and the consistency of what you pour out of that program, that’s why I think it’s one of the greatest feats. He is one of the greatest coaches of all time."
Minnesota also learned Monday that its Oct. 31 game at Indiana, the 2025 defending national champions, will kick off at 2:30 p.m. at Memorial Stadium and air on CBS.
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