Inside Gophers Nation: Gophers upset Iowa; Basketball scrimmage vs CSU
Welcome to the first edition of the Inside Gophers Nation. A couple times per week we will put together these articles that take a look at some of the notable stories around Dinkytown that perhaps we have not been able to cover. A roundup per se. Additionally, we'll also drop recruiting news, intel, and more in these articles as well.
Gophers upset Iowa 12-10
What a win on Saturday afternoon for Minnesota over Iowa, but man, was it ugly. That being said, a win is a win and the Golden Gophers despite all odds found a way to take down Iowa on Saturday. This was a win that the Gophers and P.J. Fleck desperately needed, and it allows them to potentially salvage their season.
That being said, there is still a lot that has to be fixed with this Golden Gophers offense. It failed to find the endzone in the 12-10 win. Athan Kaliakmanis was able to do enough through the air but still didn't look particularly good, while the rushing attack was fine enough. At the end of the day, it was the Gophers defense that stepped up.
Heading into the weekend, it was hard to see an avenue for Minnesota to win this game, especially with how the Gophers' run defense had struggled this season, especially of recent. But to completely dominate the line of scrimmage, keeping Iowa to just 11 yards on offense while picking up four sacks, is a tremendous effort. Make no doubts about it, despite the offensive struggles, the Gophers were very much the better team on Saturday against Iowa and deserved the win.
The Gophers showed up ready to go in the trenches and completely dominated an Iowa team that quite frankly isn't used to being outplayed by fellow Big Ten West opponents not named Wisconsin. But again, this is a huge momentum win for the Gophers and won that they can hang their hat on.
With their remaining schedule that consists of Michigan State, Illinois, Purdue, Ohio State, and Wisconsin, getting to bowl eligibility is well in reach for the Gophers and an eight win season isn't out of the question either. That said, to get to that eight win mark, they'll need to find a bit more consistency out of the offense going forward.
Gophers land in top five for Uche Iloh
Iloh has an official visit set to Minnesota for December 9.
Men's basketball dominated in secret scrimmage against Colorado State
According to the famous Trilly Donovan burner account on Twitter (or X) - The Minnesota men's basketball team lost 87-49 in a scrimmage against Colorado State on Saturday. Dawson Garcia led the Gophers with 13 points and 6 rebounds.
This is an interesting scrimmage for the Golden Gophers ahead of the season. Colorado State historically over the last few years has been a very good program including an NCAA Tournament appearance in 2021-2022 but went 15-18 last season in 6-12 in Mountain West Conference play. In this year's preseason poll for the MWC, the Rams were selected to finish fifth behind San Diego State, Boise State, New Mexico, and Nevada.
It's a good test for Minnesota in the preseason but the result obviously is not encouraging whatsoever. Ben Johnson and the Gophers are coming off a terrible 2022 in which they went 9-22 including 2-17 in conference play and the media as a whole doesn't have much faith in Johnson and the Gophers to turn it around in 2023-204 as they're expected to be among the worst teams in the Big Ten.
Dawson Garcia showing up in the scrimmage is a good early sign though, the Gophers will need for the Minnesota native to pick up where he left off last season. In 23 games last season, Garcia averaged 15.3 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 2.2 assists per game while shooting 45.7% from the floor and 34.5% from deep.
The Golden Gophers are set to have an exhibition game against Macalaster on November 2 before their regular season gets under way on November 6 against Bethune-Cookman.
Hockey
Solid start to the season for the Golden Gophers on the ice. The Gophers are 3-1 on the season including opening up at 3M Arena at Mariucci with a 5-2 win over Bemidji State. They defeated St. Thomas in their two matchups 6-5 and 3-0 while splitting their two games against North Dakota.
The Gophers defensively this season through four games have been stellar, allowing just 1.8 goals per game and seven goals total. Its worth noting that five of those goals came in one game against St. Thomas, allowing just two goals in their other three games.
Jimmy Snuggerud, Brody Lamb, and Oliver Moore are off to great starts. Snuggerud, the St. Louis Blues First round pick in the 2022 NHL Draft is following up a great freshman season in which he tallied 21 goals and 29 assists for 50 points in 40 games. He's found the back of the net five times already this season including two power-play goals. Snuggerud will be a fun one to watch this year as he will be a legitimate contender for the Hobey Baker Award this season.
Around the conference ...
Michigan: 3-2-1
Ohio State: 2-1-2
Michigan State: 5-1
Minnesota: 3-1
Notre Dame: 2-3
Penn State: 4-1
Wisconsin: 5-1
============================
- Talk about it INSIDE GOPHER NATION.
- SUBSCRIBE TO LOGoldenGophers
- Follow us on Twitter: @MinnesotaRivals, @AlexCarlsonTGR, @SeanW_Rivals, @DylanCC_FB,, @GopherKaneRob, @LOGoldenGophers
- SUBSCRIBE to The Gopher Report.