To the final edition for twenty twenty five of Gopher Football Sunday Here on the fan, I am Guardzi back in the six five to one carpets plus studios, justin Guard and we are here until nine o'clock.

If you're new to the show, we spend an hour talking about Gopher football before typically we turn the rest of the day purple on the fan, and it's going to be I would imagine a little bit of a combination because it is Max Brosemer Day, the day that so many of us at Brozmur Brownstones have been waiting for us.

He will get the start against the Seattle Seahawks coming up a little bit later, just after three o'clock pregame at one.

We might talk about that with Ryan Burns from Gopher Illustrated dot Com when he makes his final week the appearance on the show next segment.

But we were recapping a seventeen to seven Gopher victory over Wisconsin yesterday at Huntington Banks Stadium.

They finished the season seven and five, five and four in the Big Ten and take a one game lead in the Battle for Paul Bunyan's Axe Border Battle Series.

I believe it's sixty four to six FFTY three and eight is the Gophers record in the longest continuous running rivalry in college football.

What we do in the first segment of the show, we talk about what we liked, what we didn't like.

Brad Shawn Bryan campe in text line is six four six eight six.

We'll try to review some texts with Burnsy when he joins us about ten minutes from now as well.

And first of all, it was a one of the most interesting days at Huntington Banks Stadium given the weather conditions, the snow globe conditions, as Burnsy said pregame.

Our guy Chipskoggins wrote about it as well.

The temperatures were not cold if you're prepared for it, which most people that live in Minnesota and most Wisconsin fans understand what the weather's going to be like.

But the incessant snow for the entire game was something that has only happened probably twice in the fifteen years that I've been on the sidelines.

And the atmosphere was fun.

It was cool, it was vibrant, the students were there again, it was great.

A lot of Wisconsin fans per usual, which was fun.

Added the good element to it.

It was a fun day at Huntingdon Bank Stadium.

We wrapped up the regular season there yesterday.

Before we get to what we liked, give a little background on how I was.

Feeling leading into the game.

And I had reverse twenty eighteen vibes going into the game yesterday.

What are reverse twenty eighteen vibes?

Well, if you remember twenty eighteen, it was PJ Flex's second year.

The Gophers were five and six, They had a couple of victories going into the Wisconsin game.

If you recall, that was the year that the Gophers got crushed at Illinois, gave up a million yards to the Iliini, who weren't very good.

PJ fires Rob Smith, he hires Joe Rossi.

They'd beat Purdue the next week, speaking of snow, and they're kind of going along.

And I definitely wasn't expecting that day in twenty eighteen that the decade and a half axless streak was going to be stabbed at Camp Randall.

As we know it was.

They got the acts, they brought it back, people met him at the facility.

They went to the Quick Lame Bowl they think it was called then.

I think that was my second quick Laying Bowl.

I've had the privilege of doing three, and the rest was kind of history.

And that was one of the games that propelled them to the next season in twenty nineteen, and obviously everything that's happened since then.

I had reverse twenty eighteen vibes going into the game, and that Wisconsin had been playing a lot better.

We've talked about it on Parentis Spare all season.

I have a lot of respect for this particular Wisconsin club because of all the stuff they dealt with during the season, in terms of the Luke Fickle negativity, the offensive negativity, the former players just constantly ripping the program and going and wanting to go back to the days of Barry Alvarez and Brett Bieliman and Paul Christ and all of that.

And I give these Badgers credit for hanging in because it was ugly there.

About a month ago, Luke Fickle gets to vote a confidence from the ad.

He definitely got saved by a thirty million dollar buyout.

But this Wisconsin defense had hung in all season long, and even though their offense gave them nothing for a million different reasons that we'll talk about, they were rewarded for hanging in the last couple of weeks.

They beat a pretty good Washington team at home a few weeks ago.

They beat a ranked Illinois team last week at Camp randall pretty dominant effort.

I think the final score was twenty seven to ten.

So it was a Wisconsin team that was feeling pretty good about itself.

And if you follow the people that covered the Badgers over there, most of them thought they were coming in a Huntington Bank Stadium yesterday and winning this game and possibly springboarding them even though they couldn't go to a bowl game because they only had four victories, springboarding them into year four of the Fickle Era.

And we know how the Gophers were playing.

We talked about it last week.

Their defense was not good.

It was terrible.

A week ago their defense had been not good.

It had been terrible.

They weren't doing anything well.

They weren't sacking the quarterback, they weren't getting turnovers, they weren't stopping the run.

Northwestern, a team that had scored average twenty two points in Big Ten games, put up thirty eight and the Gophers base got one stop a week ago at Wrigley Field.

So I did not have a good feeling going into the game just because of how the teams were trending, but pretty obvious.

Pretty early.

It was evident to me that a lot was going to have to go wrong for the Gophers.

They were going to have to make a lot of mistakes to not retain the acts yesterday.

So that's how I felt going in.

What did I like as the game was going on?

The defense did what it needed to do.

I just mentioned it.

They had not been good in consistent stretches this season.

They were dreadful last week against Northwestern, and Wisconsin came in with one of the worst offenses you're going to see all year, probably the worst.

On their fourth quarterback to start the game, they end up going back to another guy that they've used a little bit this year.

And you couldn't let them start to feel good about themselves.

You couldn't let them try to get anything going, and the Gophers really didn't.

They essentially messed up one play at the end of the first half that led to the Badgers only touchdown towards the end of the first half there that made it the ten seven game at the half.

But other than that, they were able to stop the run.

They were able to stop to pass enough, they got the turnovers that they needed to get and finally in the third interception capitalized with the dagger touchdown to Jamison Gears.

How about John Nester when we're talking about things that we liked from the game, the Gopher player hadn't had a defensive day like he did yesterday since the mid nineties.

Two interceptions, of fumble, recovery, nine tackles.

He was everywhere we talked to him on the field after the game.

It was a great performance for him.

Second interception, huge return, set up the dagger touchdown.

We've talked a ton about portal misses the last few weeks on this show.

I think a couple of weeks ago we talked about offensive portal misses coming out of Oregon.

Last week we talked about defensive portal misses coming out of Northwestern.

John Nester was a big time portal hit and I shuddered to think where they would be in the secondary without him this season.

And we saw a taste of it last weekend when he was not available for the Northwestern game.

What the Gophers were dealing with, what they were down to.

They lose justin Wally from a year ago, They lose Ethan Robinson from a year ago, they needed somebody to slide in and john Nester filled that role beautifully, and really the hallmark game for him of the season came yesterday.

And the cool thing for the Gophers is he's got another year left and seems like he's in a good spot in terms of wanting to stay here.

So big credit to john Nester for essentially dominating that game yesterday.

Offensively.

They did what they needed to do and did enough too.

The conditions were rough.

I don't think I've ever talked about a field as much as I talked about it yesterday.

That was essentially my job yesterday on the sidelines was to update everybody on what they were doing to try to.

Get the field playable and keep the field playable.

And what was going on with the coils and what was going on with the snow.

It wasn't cold, but the snow just never let up and it was a nuisance the entire game.

The footing wasn't great.

I think you could tell that running routes was difficult.

I think you could tell that, and the Gophers essentially kept the ball.

They dominated the time of possession early, they converted on seven to fourteen third downs.

They didn't turn it over for the entire month of November, which I don't think is probably being talked about enough, and they didn't turn it over then obviously yesterday, which was really the only way you were going to lose that game to Wisconsin.

Drake Lindsay's passing line is kind of hilarious.

Eighteen of twenty four for ninety yards and a touchdown.

Eighteen passes for ninety yards is hard to do.

Completions is hard to do, but no picks, no fumbles, never really put the ball in harm's way, and Darius Taylor ran for one hundred yards, including that forty nine yard touchdown in the first half.

The only way Wisconsin was beating you yesterday is if you made critical mistakes, if you gave them short fields.

That's how Washington lost to them a couple of weeks ago at Camp Randall, and the Gophers didn't do that, which allowed them to win the field position battle with The final thing that we liked a good punting day from the Australian Tom Weston, who's been up and down this season.

Three punts inside the twenty two inside the tennis yard line, it was pretty obvious Wisconsin was not going to consistently put long drives together, and so the fact that I know there at one point the fans were a little annoyed that the Gophers punted around the forti ish yard line forty five yard line of Wisconsin.

It was a fourth and probably three or four on a day like yesterday, that was absolutely the right thing to do.

Just keep punting, you have the lead, don't give them any short field, don't give them any illusion or an easier touchdown.

Make them move the ball eighty five ninety five yards.

They were just not going to be able to do that.

They haven't been able to do that all year, let alone yesterday, when the field was in the shape that it was, the weather was in the shape that it was.

That was the first time that really all the phases did enough at the same time to have a pretty comp seventeen to seven victory and win the Acts for the fourth time in five years, which, if you remember when we first started on the fan, the Badgers were in the middle of a decade and a half long axe dominant series where teenagers grew up having no idea that the Acts could actually come back to Minnesota, and the fact that it feels like a legit rivalry now, feels like Minnesota's got the upper hand on it now will not go unnoticed on this particular show, and I assume it will not go unnoticed when we chat with Ryan Burns from Gopher Illustrated dot Com coming up next segment.

In terms of what we didn't like, really not much to not like yesterday, they pretty much controlled the game.

I never felt even at ten to seven that the Gophers were going to be in any kind of serious trouble.

Wisconsin turns it over on their first defensive or offensive possession of the third.

Gophers couldn't do much there.

Obviously.

The missfield goal would be something that you don't like, because that's been a problem, thankfully unlike Northwest, and that didn't come down to it yesterday.

Wisconsin moved the ball a.

Little bit better in the second half, but the Gophers were able to get the key turnovers that essentially moved the game along for them and let them keep the Badgers at arms linked and the Gophers end up winning the game that they began as betting underdogs.

By the time all the money came in, they started the week as favorites.

They ended the week as about a point and a half underdog.

I think is what I saw, and they ended up winning the game yesterday and keeping the Acts for a second straight year and the fourth time in five years.

Six four, six eighty six.

That's the brat Shawn Brian camp in text line, you can hit that.

We've got a good long segment with Ryan Burns from Gopher Illustrated dot Com coming up after this.

The Gophers beat Wisconsin seventeen to seven.

They finished the year seven and five, five and four in the Big Ten.

We'll get some final season thoughts and season evaluations from Burnsey as well when we return to Gopher Football Sunday on the Fan.

All right, welcome back to go for Football Sunday on the Fan.

Justin guard in the sixty five to one Carpets Plus studio.

We are here until nine o'clock, a two hour edition of Sunday Sermons of Dan Barrero's coming up because the vike Kans have a late game today at Seattle.

It's a one o'clock pregame kickoff.

Shortly after three, the Max Brozmer era of Minnesota Vikings football begins.

We're having at least, I'm having some user air with the bratch on Brian Cafe in text line six four six eighty six.

So if you'd like to communicate with Ryan Burns and or me in the next twenty five to thirty minutes or so, please tweet me at Guardsy.

Please tweet him at Ryan Burns MN and he joins us now on the Connectico Water Systems hotline.

First things first, Burnsy, can I count on you to tap in to Grey's Food Hall in the North Loop today at three o'clock to help usher in the Max Brozmer era of Minnesota Vikings football so we can all watch it together and remember where we were when the franchise has changed forever.

Can I count on you at Grey's Food Hall today at three o'clock?

Well, I just appreciate that already.

I can see behind you here that you've already changed it to the Brozemer Brownstones and as a founding member, and I know that you're asking for stakes within your company there.

It's going to be a very impressed day for you in about seven hours to see hopefully Max Brozmer go to a lot of tempo.

We're gonna hope Kevin O'Connell goes to two things for Max Brosmer today, with the state of that offensive line tempo in a short passing game, koc give the young man a chance against a pretty good Seattle defense from what I'm told, in a road environment, but I will be a grace food hall, Nordon and I've been doing watch parties there pretty much every road game this season.

I would love to see people come and join us.

The food is awesome, They've got TVs everywhere, They've got a great bar upstairs with a million options and opportunities.

So we'd love to see Gopher fans come on in watch and watch the Brozemer era begin together.

We will call it the Brozmur Brownstones Community Room.

We will have a party there in the Brosemar Brownstones Community Room and community Party.

I would love to see people join us at three o'clock.

I'm looking forward to this appearance by Burnsy.

If our discussion during the break is any indication, Burnsy has one of his cats in his office right now.

His hair is all over the place.

You can tell he's in moderating the message board all night long and getting everything up at Gopher Illustrated dot com.

He's he's on one this morning already, which I am excited about.

I'm looking forward to diving into a lot of it.

But let's start with the game first, Bernsy, before we talk about big picture stuff.

I don't know if you heard my open or not, but I never really got the sense that the Gophers were in much trouble yesterday if they weren't going to put themselves in much trouble, and they didn't offensively not turning it over obviously defensively, you give up the one inexplicable play before the half, which didn't make a ton of sense, and then the touchdown that I know you have some thoughts and feelings on as well, But what did you What were the Brian Burns' main headlines or takeaways from the latest victory against Wisconsin, So you.

Weren't worried that well, that's interesting because the entire state of Wisconsin.

I saw the ESPN graphic that you saw out of Madison where we're seeing thirty point big, like, what just what are we doing over there?

In the story, I told you you were on some I told you were on well.

I don't know if you heard the open, but I did have reverse twenty eighteen vibes going into the game.

I don't know if you know what did.

We talked about it on parentis Bear.

That's where I reminded you even last year where the Gophers came into that game at Camp Brandle, they had lost one at Rutgers which their offensive line implodes in the fourth quarter.

They lose a close, heartbreaking game to Penn State, who is a top five team in the country, one that went to the College Football Playoffs semi finals last year.

Where the defense gets the ball six minutes all three timeouts, the offense never sees the ball.

Like the vibes weren't good going into Camp Brandle last year and they found a way, and then this year again vibes not good for Minnesota.

Wisconsin had been two to one this month with two ranked wins, and then we get the snow Globe game.

But I want to ask you this.

We have spent so much time on this Sunday morning all year talking about the Gopher defense and lack of takeaways.

How audible do you think the sigh of relief was?

Or Danny Collins and he watches the Wisconsin freshman quarterback snap the ball into the motion man.

And then after a scrum.

Where it looks like your three children trying to find something at the bottom of a pile, actually come away with the football.

What do you think?

Danny Collins was like, this is how I get my takeaway.

He can take it anyway he can get it.

But how big, how loud do you think that sid was?

Well, it was funny that they always say catch the ones they throw to you and make the plays that are presented to you, And that was such a gift and they still almost returned it.

It should have been such an easy fumble recovery.

I know nothing was easy yesterday on the field, the ball, the whole deal.

But when there was a scrum for it, I thought it'd be impossible to not get this ball if you were the Gophers.

And for whatever the reason, yesterday was the day because the other two were really good plays.

A tipped interception, who knew a tipped interception to a guy that's waiting right there, the tip doesn't just go fall harmlessly to the turf or over somebody's head.

And then Nester makes a great play on the final interception.

Yeah, I was thinking of you the whole time, and I even brought it up to the defense, to Nester specifically on the field.

After that, you know they knew about the turnovers talk because you were relentless on it all season long, rightfully so that they weren't able to weren't able to do that.

And they talk about it all the time.

They emphasize it all the time.

Their last period of practice every day is about turnovers.

And so it's not for lack of emphasis, but that first one was funny that it was so close to not being somehow a fumble recovery when it was absolutely gift wrapped on a black Friday Thanksgiving weekend.

Yeah, I mean, nothing had gone right for the Gopher defense all month.

We'd spent so much time talking about it, and for them to not only get one takeaway but three takeaways, to me is the story of the game.

Where we'll talk about the offense and they've got a lot of awards, but one of the underrated talked about parts or undervalued things about the Gopher offense was they never shot themselves in the foot outside of the Iowa game, to the point where in Big Ten play the Gopher offense gave the ball away the least amount of times of any Big Ten offense they had four giveaways all Big Ten play.

They had zero giveaways in the entire month of November.

And in a game where it's again then the snow Globe game, where between every media timeout you're watching men with shovels out there on the every five yard increment on the hashes, trying to have anything resembling.

A field out there.

That's important and that's what matters.

So to be able to shut down what is remains a bad Wisconsin offense was something the Gopher defense needed to do and you're able to win the football game because of it.

Where would they be without John Nester?

I mean we are on the sabbath, so WWJD what would John do?

And John Nester would lead the team in tackles, have three takeaways because he had two picks.

Plus he's the one who were actually jumped on that fumble.

You've also got him having two tackles for loss in open space where.

I mean they missed him immensely.

I mean they did.

And it's kind of ironic to me that the Iowa transfer comes into the Minnesota Wisconsin game and has arguably the biggest impact.

But I mean they would be lost without him.

From yesterday, I mean, he was fantastic all around.

Again pro football focus not the end all be all, especially grade wise, but from rewatching the game this morning, already, I agree that he should be the highest graded guy.

I agree that he should be the highest graded tackler in coverage and run defense.

And he was absolutely flying around.

I thought Maverick Bereanowski put an exclamation point on his what I thought was a very good twenty twenty five season for him.

He's the one who actually reads the eyes of Hunter Simmons, which that was a very important drive coming out of.

Halftime for the Goper defense.

You had just given up seven points allegedly, now you actually did.

That's what the Big ten referee said.

We'll get to that later, but you needed to get momentum back on your side.

Bereanowski just stares down the quarterback, gets his hands on the football, deflex it right into the chest to John Nestor, and then Anthony Smith shows up late, gets the pressure on Hunter Simmons, John Nesters in the hip pocket returns to sixty something yards and John Nester had a fantastic game yesterday.

And the other part I want to discuss with you too, is Aiden Gooseby at corner of all places where had I looked into it after the game.

Aiden Gooseby had been used at safety for nine hundred plus snaps in his Gopher career.

Here he had played two snaps at outside corner before last night, where he played over forty five, and you saw him end the game with one of the most vicious legal hits you will ever see in modern football, where he could have probably intercepted that football.

But as you saw in the waning moments of that game, there was a little bit of chippiness between the two teams, and I think sending a message of physicality is something that the young man wanted to send.

So again, there were great individual performances within it.

I'm not trying to sell you that the Wisconsin defense is any good.

They're not.

But you kept a bad offense bad outside of one sixty eight yard play.

Yeah, let's talk about a couple of the changes and that they did.

Because we've already got a text about Tony Nelson, which I'm sure you have thoughts and feelings on that he got to start yesterday.

We're going to get to the offense in a minute.

But you wonder, because we saw last week what they were trying to do in the secondary, especially with Nestro out was untenable.

Right A.

Hunter Stone literally was perfect in the second half.

He had won incompletion, but Anthony Smith was lined up off side, so that was rendered irrelevant.

We always talked about that.

The strength of this defense we thought was the safety room, right with Gooseby, with Kerry Brown, with Koy Parritch.

We wondered about corner.

That was a fair concern.

I think we saw that.

You wonder what may have been if they got to that card quicker the let's just move one of our safeties a little bit, as opposed to rolling with younger guys or even a Bingo McMillan, who is a great story because he's been around forever at a million different schools.

You do wonder about the what if they're of taking from your strength to plug one of your weaknesses.

Because Gooseby, as you said, I thought, played pretty well yesterday.

I mean that's going to be the what if part personnel wise of the season is did you stick with your previous right guard.

Way too long?

I'd tell you absolutely, without any shadow of a doubt, did, especially when the pride to Tracy Minnesota comes in and elevates the floor where I don't know that Tony Nelson's got an immensely high ceiling as an offensive lineman, but I can tell you the floor is exponentially higher where the previous right guard would have some gaffs where they're catastrophic, whether it's a I mean just an absolute three, four or five plays game where they're just giant red marks in the ledger.

I don't know that Tony Nelson has more black in the ledger, but there's certainly not anymore red from what I saw yesterday against what I still think is a very good Wisconsin front seven.

Again, there's a lot of warts with the Wisconsin team.

It's why they won four games this season.

Their defense, in specifically their defensive line is pretty dan good to me.

So whether it is Tony Nelson not being inserted sooner on the right side of the offensive line, whether it is not moving Aiden Gooseby after one of the bye weeks over to cornerback with all the different things that they had going on injury wise, yes, I mean it's easy to say for you and me.

Media Jackal guys, hindsight analysis is always twenty twenty, but especially now knowing that Aiden Goosby can look pretty dang good at corner.

I mean, that's something that I think, I hope that they continue to experiment with a heading to now Bowl game prep and certainly even looking forward to the twenty twenty six offseason.

This is Ryan Burns from Gopher Illustrated dot Com.

This is Gopher Football Sunday on the fan.

We're here until nine o'clock.

Burrew would take over with Sunday Sermons nine to eleven.

Vikings Football Sunday starts at one today.

The Max Brozmer era of Vikings Football begins today against the Seattle Seahawks.

Were discussing a Gophers victory seventeen seven over Wisconsin yesterday at Huntington Bank.

They finished the season seven and five, five and four in the Big Ten.

You mentioned it already and I know you wrote about it, and it's a good nugget that the Gopher offense didn't turn the ball over in the month of November.

And when your defense isn't getting turnovers, obviously you need to hold onto the ball.

And it didn't help them really until obviously yesterday.

But It was one of the most interesting games weatherwise Burnsey in that it wasn't cold, but the snow was just enough and the wind was just enough where you knew it was gonna be tough sledding.

I think some of the issues I think about that open pass Lindsay to Brockington.

It's almost like Brockington couldn't get to where Lindsay had been throwing it to him all week because Drake doesn't miss that badly.

Guys were just every play, guys were trying to re establish their footing, and so it wasn't going to be an offensive masterpiece.

I think Lindsay's line is hilarious.

Eighteen of twenty four for ninety yards.

Eighteen of twenty four for ninety yards in a.

Time just Donovan McNabb for the Minnesota Vikings right now.

Seriously, it's I mean, I don't even know if you can, if that's mathematically possible to do eighteen of twenty four for ninety yards.

The A dot, as you like to say, has to be a world record low like that might be the lowest aid dot Drake Lindsay ever has in his entire football life.

But I to me that they kept the ball in the first half, they converted on third downs.

They I thought played the field position game really well.

I thought they handled the mess that it was yesterday pretty well offensively.

Given again, we've talked about it all year on Paris Bear, Wisconsin's defense has been good this year.

They've kept them games that they had no business being in because of how bad the offense is.

And I've been impressed with their defense all year.

So to grind that out yesterday I thought was a big plus and positive for the offense.

Yeah.

Was Drake Lindsay perfect yesterday?

No?

I mean that one you mentioned off the turnover where Brockington's dragging across the middle wide open and he kind of throws it off his back foot and throw sales.

If that's on target, I think Brockington may score.

If not, he's down inside the five, But instead you end up kicking a field goal and it's blocked and you get no points.

I mean, that could have been a huge inflection point.

But now that we've got twelve games of data on Drake Lindsay, I think maybe the thing that I wish I could stress to people is I don't think you're valuing enough how much he values the football.

I mean he finishes the regular season.

I was sixteen passing touchdowns and only six interceptions.

And I think this next guy is probably listening to the program right now.

The Mounds View Mustang Adam Weber, like Weber threw for a ton as a freshman.

Again, he had twenty four passing touchdowns.

But and I say this with the utmost peace and love to mister Weber.

I mean he also had nineteen picks that season as a freshman.

Again, that's what freshmen do.

They make poor decisions and that maybe force balls they shouldn't.

I can't remember many games outside of the Iowa game where the entire team implodes, essentially in that game in Iowa City, where Drake had blow ups like that, And to only be able to point to one thing or one game on the schedule where your freshman quarterback imploded.

I mean six interceptions for a freshman in the Big Ten, with sixteen passing touchdowns, completing over sixty percent of his passes, I think somewhere close to sixty.

Three sixty four percent.

I mean, what a great freshman season for him.

Yeah, half his interceptions were in that Iowa game.

Yeah, three of them, and that was the first time where he looked like you would expect a freshman to look like, making bad reads, making bad decisions, making bad throws, looking completely rattled.

I agree with you, and Chipper wrote about it.

I don't know if you read it this morning.

That to me is if we're doing season long takeaways, and we'll get to some of those in a minute, that to me is the biggest one.

That they have a dude at quarterback.

I think they have a legit, bonafide dude.

And we said it all off season that you don't have to hand the program over to a retro freshman in twenty twenty five.

If you don't want to look around college football, not very many teams are doing it right that aren't recruiting the five star guys right.

The Bryce under was the Julian sayings, you know, go down the list that aren't recruiting the arch mannings, who, by the way, had to sit a couple of years before he played, Like, you don't have to do that, And I think it was a great evaluation by Harbo.

It was great recruiting by Harbo, Fleck, Matt Simon, everybody that put the full court press on him, and obviously you got to keep him, and that's always going to be you know, my rant about that.

I don't worry about that with him as much as you know, maybe some other people do.

But you got to keep him number one, which I'm not too worried about.

But you got to help him, right.

I mean, he did all this with, as you said, a line that was not good for much of the season, right in in flux, not you know, you did it with receivers that, as you've brought up multiple times, were not exactly the most electric or.

Were sure handed, as we even saw yesterday in those conditions exactly.

So now it's you gotta get the dude some help because he did all of that.

And what I liked, and I talked about this on the broadcast yesterday.

You've talked about this too the last month or so, he really he got on his guys, like if there was a penalty, he was pissed when Tracy drops the first ball, he's on his ass.

Like I like that, Like because he's he's a dude, he's a competitor and that So that's the biggest takeaway for me from the seasons.

You have a guy, you have easily the best quarterback they've had in our time covering it right, Tanner Morgan thinks he's going to be the all time leader in everything.

You know, if he win, all is sudden done.

You know, if he hangs around for an entire career and get some help, that to me is that I don't think should be undervalued either, because how long have we been waiting for a quarterback?

How many How long have a lot of programs been waiting for a quarterback that you can talk as optimistically about as Drake Lindsay.

I mean, it's it's an elite observation.

It's why I think you might have a full hour on Sunday mornings to be able to wax.

Poetically about it.

And I feel very strongly as we sit here on November thirty at that Drake Lindsay will be back next year, because I know the text will come in or the emails or wherever they will be.

Well, Drake's gonna leave go to Arkansas when they eventually hire a coach, YadA, YadA.

I think PJ.

Fleck, and I think Drake Lindsay and I think the offensive coordinator Greg Harbow are all on the same page.

That they want to keep this thing rolling.

Conversations have been had for some time here behind the scenes about keeping Drake and I, like I said, I feel very very confident as we sit here that Drake Lindsay will be here next year.

Now, if and when Drake.

Lindsay comes back, that's what you have to do is imagine what Drake Lindsay would look like with a running game that actually functions right now.

That's getting an offensive line to play more physical and to have less ma's missed assignments.

Up front.

It's figuring out what you want to do at tailback where Darius Taylor does run for one hundred yards yesterday and he's able to slide into the end zone there on a hole in which I think you could take your Well, you're Minnetonka now, so I'm gonna say you drive a Maserati.

Yeah.

Lexis Lexus TX.

Thanks to Lexus of Wisetta and Lexus of Maplewood.

What's it like to be on the west side of the river compared.

To me on the east side?

Well, maple Wood, Lexus of maple Wood.

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But go ahead the TXT.

I just wish you a happy Honda days.

To be quite honest with you, there's room for all your cats in the Lexus TX.

I can promise you that it's a.

Finding a car running game.

Yeah.

I mean, this is the next step that Harbo has to figure out.

They've also got to figure out what do you do with Darius Taylor and what do you pay Darius Taylor?

I mean, these are the discussions that you and I get to have on paring a spare Now for the next couple months.

Is everybody's getting their contract offers out, because that's with this day and age is.

I'll remind all the listeners that because of the house settlement, PJ Flex got fourteen fourteen and a half million to be able to pay his players.

So does every other Power two team.

So yeah, Flex got fourteen more million dollars, but so does everybody else in Power two.

But what do you offer Darius after a season in which he was oft injured.

I don't know how many actual quarters, especially in Big ten play he was at one hundred percent, and I don't know that I exactly want to dedicate a large chunk of the linimited finite budget that I have run, especially if you're going to have to pay Drake a million plus, which I'm sure they do.

And we'll see what Anthony Smith decides.

Yes, he did walk on Senior Day yesterday, but we've seen Gophers walk on senior Day and come back before.

So imagine what Drake Lindsey can look like with a running game.

Imagine what Drake Lindsay can look like with receivers who actually go up and get the football or get consistent separation.

And that's where my plea to the Gopher staff is also this guards I want to get your opinion on as much as it is cleaning up the portal, where I don't know that the discussion around it is they necessarily had a ton of whiffs.

I don't know that there's necessarily enough hits.

And yes, it's easy to say after a game like that where John Nester, portal, Tom Weston, even the punter yesterday, him being able to change field position was a huge part of it.

But I think the Gopher staff has to do a better job of getting young players.

Ready to go.

Yeah, we talked about Drake Lindsey like Drake Lindsay was ready to go as redshirt freshman, and Greg Harbow deserves credit for that, but you look at other positions on this roster, the young guys weren't ready to go.

And I think about Wednesday coming up here on National Signing Day, and I think a great place to check out coverage for that is a place called Gopher Illustrated dot Com that's having a seventy five percent off deal to get behind the paywall, and especially as we all await the Lane Kiffin decision and coaching carousel stuff, it's a great place to go.

Like you are going to be signing on Wednesday, one of the best classes that Fleck has had here, and you think about some of the young guys even in this state, like Forest Lakes, Howie Johnson, Roman Boss, the pride of Jackson County, Central Cold Spring, Minnesota.

Stand up.

You've got Andrew Trout coming to coming down to campus.

Like you have young talented players.

Now you have to do a much better job of getting them ready to play, because that's where I don't know that you're going to be able to afford a bunch of high impact portal guys.

That's the reality of.

The situation with Minnesota's budget here again, whether you want to look at athletic budget where the Gophers are bottom three and spending in the Big Ten, the realistic Dinky Town athletes budget like, you're not going to be able to outbid other Big ten teams.

You could be comparable, but being the highest bin in the room is not something I anticipate them being in January.

So where do you pivot?

You have to pivot to your own roster, and it's the young guys, the true freshman, the red shirt freshman, the red shirt sophomores.

They have to pour everything they have and do a much better job of elevating those guys to get them ready to play so that hopefully this twenty twenty six team can be again what I think many people thought the twenty twenty four team was going to be.

All right, let's in our final couple of minutes here talk big picture and season observations.

Recap.

They finished seven and five, five and four in the Big Ten.

They go undefeated at Huntington Banks Stadium, they go winless away from hunting Ten Bank Stadium.

It's there's opinions on all sides of it on how this season should be viewed, and I understand arguments on all sides of it.

I think you can make an argument on all sides of it.

Whatever your argument is, I think you have legitimate evidence on the season.

For me, it was it was a solid season.

It wasn't a great season.

It wasn't a disastrous season.

And you look at.

A lot of others.

They finished ninth in the Big Ten, essentially top half, which I don't think is an unrealistic place for the Gophers to finish when you think about the top six teams that are typically going to be there and then everybody else, you know, fighting for the final handful of spots there in the top half.

So I think because of how the road games went, burns Ey, I think that clouds it for people, which I understand.

I mean, they were non competitive in most of the road games, you know, three of the five the col game, even Mark Coyle said yesterday with me, that's one that sticks out to him as one that got away.

And we all know what happened at Northwestern.

But I don't think it was a disaster.

It obviously wasn't epic.

I think it was a good, solid season where again you kept Wisconsin at Bay and have a trophy in the case.

And now let's see what twenty twenty six turns into with the quarterback as we just talked about, with some of the best recruiting classes that Fleck has had here with again more of the top players in state.

Staying, I just think the program is in a good spot.

I really do.

I just think it's in a good, solid spot.

Now, of course, you want to take it to another level.

PJ said that to the team yesterday, like I typically don't talk about things that are said in the locker room because it's not really my place.

But when I can hear things, you know that are said from the coaches and the players and all of that.

But he says that to the team, like we're in a good spot.

We have to take it to a different spot.

We have to take it to a different level.

These are the guys that are in the program now that need to do that.

The guys that have been here have gotten it where it is.

Good job by you, but we have to move.

He even joked, he said, we went under feel at home and the team started to go crazy, and he goes, hold on, we lost every game on the road, like he's well aware of it, like everybody else is well aware of it, and I think that needs to be noted.

But I just feel like it's in a really good, solid, stable spot and now let's see where they can go with the best quarterback that they've had and the best couple of recruiting classes back to back that they've had.

What do you want to say in our final four minutes or so on that?

Yeah, I think it's a great little nugget there.

And I think perspective is something that Look, when you get to be my age guards, you you try to be able to wax poetically about something like that.

Where perspective in life we're even with this team is something I feel like the casual or even the hardcore fan base loses from time to time.

Where with the win yesterday, you keep the acts in Dicky Town.

Okay, you get to seven regular season wins, that is an over on the preseason Vegas over under at six and a half.

Your seventh win is also your fifth in Big Ten plays.

That means you finish above five hundred and the Big Ten for the fourth time in five seasons.

Now, I don't know if you read this nugget a Goph illustrated afterwards.

But do you know when the last time was the Gopher football program finished above five hundred and four out of five seasons before this current stretch that they're right in right now.

I did read that, but I've been in like five states in two countries in the last two weeks, and I can't remember I did read it.

It was a long time ago.

Well, I can see that you're still back in the Bahamas with a rum runner right now, and that's okay.

I know it's one of your favorite drinks.

But the last time that had happened nineteen sixty five to nineteen sixty nine, Murray Warmath was the coach.

Yeah, so little perspective.

You've also got the Gophers going undefeated at home for the first time since nineteen sixty seven.

It's fifty eight years ago.

Now, I'm not here trying to tell you that even with the birthday boy yesterday, Philip John Fleck getting his win passing your guy Mason your face for the I think it's for the fourth most all time wins here at the University of minnesot I'm not saying build the statue, right because you're right, they got absolutely blasted on the road.

I was there just like you were at Iowa, Ohio State Oregon.

They threw away games after midnight against Cal, they threw one to the backstop at Wrigley Field, where you score thirty five points, find a way to lose.

Like, this thing wasn't perfect.

And I want to cover ceiling seasons like twenty nineteen.

You want to talk about them, We want to come on this program Sunday mornings and do so.

But this roster was never going to be the one that did that, which is why you could even go back to Big ten media days in late July.

I never really understood why Flex messaging back then was b delusional and talking about the College Football Playoff with stuff like that, because that was never going to be this team.

To me, that was last year's team where you had six guys make fifty threes.

Another I think three or four were on practice squads in the NFL.

That was team in which you could say that should have been nine wins going to Florida, YadA YadA.

Well, yeah, you can point to the Northwestern of Cal games is one you threw away.

But I also could tell you, I mean we could look at the entire Big Ten slate at home where they got lucky against Rutgers, they found a way to win against Michigan State.

We can go down the line there where the two most complete performances, or the Wisconsin game against the four win Wisconsin team, and then you're Nebraska team, which I can't wait to see because knowing tomorrow is December first, you're ready to hear about how Nebraska is gonna win the offseason for the fifty fifth straight year and Tom Osborne and the black Shirts are going.

To be ranked twentieth in the preseason polls.

But my thing here is is.

This, Like I have seen even casual local media, it's been like, well, look at who they played.

They don't get to pick who they play, man like, they play who they play.

And they finished the buff five hundred and the Big Ten, and I don't know that there'll be a single go for drafted in the next NFL draft to put Anthony Smith Alex to come back.

I mean, that's kind of my point here is this isn't the most talented team that Pleck has had.

That's also his problem that it's not the most talented team, but at a place like the University of Minnesota that has to rebuild and doesn't get to reload like in Ohio state, or even now that Indiana's got Mark Cuban money.

I would encourage people, potentially even speaking here in a few minutes, to go look at where they bought Fernando Mendoza from, which is cal for xyz million.

But look, it's a good, solid season.

It continues upon a run of good solid seasons where I've already seen the casuals in the social media chirpin'.

Well, here comes de Troy.

Here we go seven to five, like can not?

Can we not?

On a Sunday morning?

Here again you win the Acts for the fourth time.

In five years, by the way, which again it's a bad Wisconsin team.

You kept a bad Wisconsin team bad in those weather conditions.

Oh good for you.

Wisconsin beat a lot of bad Minnesota teams in the stre of the streak of fifteen, right, I mean, that's that's how.

They again, no one wants to hear that.

They all just want to again, you know, go down.

And that's where again you win for the fourth time in five years, which that's the first time I am thirty three years on this planet.

That's the first time in my lifetime that's happened since I think nineteen ninety that stretch five years previous.

So you cannot be elated about this season.

And I don't blame you.

I'm not telling you to be I'm telling you that for this team to be seven and five, I think we all agree.

Now you're probably gonna be going to a bowl game that is either in I'm gonna guess Arizona, Nashville, or Las Vegas.

Which also brings me to my final point here is can we have the Gopher administration actually stand up for not only this football team, but this fan base, because I'm so tired of the narrative that the Gopher football fan base doesn't travel anymore.

I mean, you have been there like I have, from Boulder to the bowl games to Aachenal Hill game, like for the Rose.

This generation of Gopher football fan especially if you give them a destination to go to where they have not been to Nashville.

And I know you continue to try and tell me every single offseason the Gophers were just a Nashville Justine Well, mister guard, they haven't been there in twenty years or even they've they've never been to a bowl game in Vegas.

They're competing with Nebraska, and essentially I would tell you Penn State for those Bulls, because I think Northwestern is going to go to Detroit now that they're six and six.

Miss me with the whole thing of that.

This Gopher fan base won't travel because again, these bowl games are worried about selling tickets and getting money into the.

Nashville area of the Vegas area wherever.

I want the Gopher administration to spend the next six days five days grand standing and doing everything you have to do behind the scenes to show them that if you give the Gophers a Nashville Bowl game, I mean, I don't know where you're going to be.

I'm sure you're gonna be like Morgan wall and throwing cheers off on the Broadway by the time we get you out of the bar.

But give them a reason to travel and they will.

I'm just tired of this.

I mean, Minnesota just being content with accepting a bowl game.

Actually grandstand for this team so you can actually go to a bowl game.

We've seen too many.

Times that Minnesota gets passed over for again a bat This Nebraska team is nothing to write home.

About Penn State.

They still don't even have a coach in their six and six.

Why should those two teams be getting Vegas in Nashville above you, I just don't agree.

With that, So we'll find out again.

You're not going to know the ballgame destination officially until Sunday afternoon next week, so another seven.

Days from now.

But that's where Mark Coyle and PJ.

Fleck and the entire A Minute get to now spend their next seven days figuring out what is their preferred Bowl game order and trying to make those bowl committees agree with them.

Burnsy, thank you for that last six minutes.

I hope you feel better and got that off your chest.

Enjoy go FORER grid Iron Radio a little bit later today.

I'll be listening to it later, as you know.

And thank you for every Sunday and all the different things you did this year with all of our weird travel schedules and everything you know, from the tarmac and cal to last night after Wrigley, making this show work pretty much every single week when we didn't have international games for the Vikings.

I appreciate you for getting up every Sunday and helping us out and we will talk to you this week on Parentis Bear Buddy.

We love all the listeners.

We appreciate all of you guys coming up to us on Oak Street telling you that you listen again.

We appreciate all of you more than you ever know.

Appreciate your guards.

You can't wait to do it again next year.

Yeah, we'll see as soon.

That is Ryan Burns from Gopher Illustrated dot Com.

We ran the clock out.

We'll wrap up the show when we come back.

Let's go for football Sunday on the fan.

I'm furrency like we typically do.

Thanks to him for jumping on all season long.

Thanks to Brett Lake Moore as well.

We had to do a lot of moving parts this season because of crazy late games and travel schedules and everything that happened.

So appreciate everybody hanging out and getting up with us every Sunday at eight o'clock.

We will do it again next year.

Of course.

Reminder, come see me Gray's Food Haul, North Loop, Minneapolis today, the day we'll remember when it all changed for the Minnesota Vikings.

The Max Brozemer Era starts today just after three.

Come see me at Gray's Food Hall.

Thanks everybody, Sunday sermons of dan Baros Next