The long and arduous offseason is well underway at this point for the Minnesota Golden Gophers. The Gophers in 2024 exceeded preseason expectations from most analysts and experts, winning eight games including a Duke's Mayo Bowl victory over the ACC's Virginia Tech Hokies.

The eight-win season was the Gophers' third in four years and their fifth under head coach P.J Fleck. But now, with the offseason underway, Gophers Nation will go position by position, to review how the Golden Gophers' performed this season on the field.

We start this series off with the most important position, the quarterbacks.

The quarterback room in 2024 was led by New Hampshire transfer Max Brosmer. Brought in last offseason to help elevate the play in the quarterback room, Brosmer took over the reins of a Gophers offense that struggled in 2023 under now Rutgers quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis.

After a slow start for the Gophers in his first few games, Brosmer settled in nicely for the Gophers and was one of the better quarterbacks in the Big Ten. He completed 66.5% of his passes for 2,828 yards and 18 touchdowns while throwing just six interceptions in 13 games.

While Brosmer played virtually every snap at quarterback this year as seen above, the Gophers were able to get a handful of snaps in for their younger signal callers, redshirt freshman Dylan Wittke and true freshman Drake Lindsey.

Lindsey, seen as the potential quarterback of the future for the Gophers played in three games. He completed 4-of-5 passing attempts for 50 yards and a touchdown. Dylan Wittke, who transferred into the program from Virginia Tech last offseason, recorded five snaps but did not attempt any passes on the season.

- I thought, for the most part, Max Brosmer was excellent this season for the Gophers. The jump up from the FCS to FBS is never an easy one let alone jumping to Power Four Football. While he did have some slow performances in the first month of the season and at one point had four interceptions in three games, he settled in nicely. After Minnesota's loss to Michigan in late September, Brosmer was excellent, completing 66.7% of his passes over the program's last eight games while throwing 12 touchdowns to just two interceptions. He also had four rushing touchdowns in that period. His quarterback rating of 137.2 is the fourth-highest career passer rating for any quarterback in Gophers history only behind Tanner Morgan (151.0), Asad Abdul-Khaliq (138.5), and Bryan Cupito (138.3).

- I know Drake Lindsey saw some time in 2024 but I personally would've liked to see the true freshman get some more playing time throughout the season. Yes, he played in three games but just played 17 snaps which isn't going to really move the needle in terms of experience. That being said, there weren't too many opportunities for him to get extended playing time but in those few opportunities, I think it would've been beneficial for him to get a bit more playing time including the bowl game. While Max Brosmer certainly had his own draft stock to worry about, at some point, you also have to consider the future. Allowing Lindsey to perhaps get some run late in that game, again would've been quite beneficial in my opinion. That being said, that's not how P.J. Fleck tends to operate and I get it. Just a personal preference, especially with the possibility of Lindsey being the starter in 2025.

I'm not sure you could really be upset with anything about the quarterback play this season for the Gophers. Brosmer was really good for most of the season and did a great job of leading the Minnesota offense and helping the Gophers be competitive offensively week in and week out. Additionally, he did by all accounts a great job of mentoring the younger quarterbacks on the roster this season according to P.J. Fleck and the leadership and mentoring could have a much bigger impact long term than the impact he had on the field, which is saying something.

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