The Gophers’ running game is heading into the season with a simple but stubborn question hanging over it: can it get significantly better?
That issue starts with Darius Taylor, who walked into a Dinkytown restaurant for lunch one day last September looking down after a hamstring injury. The 2025 season had just begun, but the setback meant he would miss the next two games - at California and in the Big Ten opener against Rutgers. It was the opening stretch of what turned into a long, frustrating year.
Taylor missed three games overall. In the 10 he did play, the Detroit native rushed for a collegiate-career low 670 yards and four touchdowns. As a team, Minnesota finished last in rushing yards in Big Ten games with 696, which was 206 fewer than 17th-place Maryland.
Still, Taylor is approaching this fall with a different mindset. He told the Pioneer Press at Big Ten Media Days in July: “I’ve learned over my career, (injuries are) a part of the game, with how violent the game is,” Taylor told the Pioneer Press at Big Ten Media Days in July.
“Being (unhappy) does nothing for me. It does nothing for the team.
It does nothing for anybody around me. So, being down about it is kind of useless for me.
The big thing is keeping a positive mindset.”
He has also made some off-field changes in an effort to stay on the field, adding Pilates classes and working with a personal chef. Those are part of the Gophers’ broader push to revive a rushing attack that has usually been one of the program’s strengths.
Offensive coordinator Greg Harbaugh says the fixes have to come from both scheme and mindset.
“I want to be downhill and I want to have multiple schemes within what we do,” Harbaugh said last week. “… I looked at what the strengths are of our offensive line. How can we get those guys to play with a mindset and identity to play as physical as possible and then play fast?”
He added as camp wound down: “That is what I’ve loved about it,” Harbaugh added as preseason camp finished. “I’ve really enjoyed seeing them grow from a physical standpoint.”
The coaching staff around him has been reshaped, too. Former Alabama head coach Mike Shula is in as an offensive assistant, former Gophers offensive line coach Matt Limegrover is back as an assistant O-line coach to Brian Callahan, and former Minnesota players Mo Ibrahim and Isaac Fruechte - now coaching elsewhere up the ladder - are directing the running backs and receivers, respectively.
Taylor is still the clear lead back. Over three seasons, he has piled up 3,142 yards from scrimmage and 21 total touchdowns. Behind him are Elon transfer TJ Thomas, freshman Ryan Estrada and AJ Turner, who is returning from a season-ending knee injury.
Last year, though, the bigger issue wasn’t only Taylor’s injury. The right side of the offensive line struggled badly. Central Florida transfer guard Marcellus Marshall and Kentucky transfer tackle Dylan Ray never meshed, and both are gone now.
Tony Nelson, who started over Marshall in the Rate Bowl win over New Mexico, is expected to take over full-time at guard. At right tackle, one of the most important battles on the roster, D.J. Shipp was ahead in fall camp while Tennessee transfer Bennett Warren was sidelined for weeks.
“If we have to play them both, we will,” head coach P.J. Fleck said last week.
“… Bennett is coming back from being a little banged up, but he’s healthy now. … If some guy plays better than the others, then we will play that guy more often.”
Up front, senior Greg Johnson is the leader. The Prior Lake native was placed on the watch list for the Outland Trophy, awarded to the best interior lineman in college football.
“Coach Harbaugh talks about it all the time, that our identity needs to be physicality and that starts up front,” Johnson said. “It doesn’t matter who we have in the backfield.
If we don’t do our job, we’re not going to have a successful run game. I try to take that on myself and just make sure that we’re five playing as one.”
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