Last week, we began our 2024 position reviews for the Minnesota Golden Gophers by taking a look at Max Brosmer and the quarterback room. It was a strong season for Brosmer who helped solidify the Gophers passing attack and brought some much-needed consistency to the passing game.

Today, we move onto the Gophers' heart-and-soul offensively, their running back room.

POSITION REVIEWS: QB

Six different Minnesota running backs played during the 2024 season but two of those six running backs Darius Taylor and Marcus Major saw nearly 90% of all snaps throughout the season.

To no surprise, Darius Taylor was the Gophers' leading ball carrier, totaling 205 carries across 12 games. The only game he missed in 2024 was the Gophers' season opener against North Carolina. With his 205 carries, Taylor amassed 986 yards and 10 touchdowns. He also had 54 receptions for 350 yards and a pair of scores.

The Michigan native found the endzone in eight of his 12 games played. He also had one passing attempt for 10 yards and a touchdown in the Gophers' Duke's Mayo Bowl victory over Virginia Tech.

Marcus Major, a transfer from Oklahoma last season led the Gophers' running back room in their season opener against North Carolina when Taylor was out due to injury. In that matchup, he had a quality game with 20 carries for 73 yards and one touchdown. He also had one reception for 27 yards.

However, after Taylor returned for the Gophers, he only surpassed 10 carries once throughout the rest of the season, a 10-carry day against Penn State in November. His remaining 10 games consist of 8, 7, 7, 5, 3, 2, and 2 carries. Major did not play in Duke's Mayo Bowl, choosing to opt-out.

Jordan Nubin, after seeing a sizeable role in 2023 with depth issues at running back was the program's No. 3 back in 2024 and only recorded 11 carries on 60 total snaps, totaling 19 yards, an average of 1.7 yards per carry. Ultimately, it's not surprising to see Nubin exit the program this offseason after seeing his total snaps going from 290 in 2023 to 60 in 2024.

Then there's the trio of Jaren Mangahm, Sieh Bangura, and Fame Ijeboi who all saw snaps this past season. Mangham, a transfer in his final year of eligibility saw just 22 total snaps but had 19 carries on those 22 attempts including nine carries for 57 yards against Virginia Tech. He also had one reception for seven yards. When given opportunities, Mangham was solid, averaging 6.5 yards per carry.

Ohio transfer Sieh Bangura likely regrets his original choice to leave the University of Ohio. After rushing for over 1,800 yards throughout the 2022 and 2023 seasons, Bangura was hoping to find a considerable role with the Gophers. However, those hopes would never come to fruition. He would appear in just three games, totaling 12 yards on four carries. He entered the transfer portal in December and returned to Ohio.

Finally, freshman Fame Ijeboi saw time in two games, recording two carries for 13 yards.

- When the Gophers have a running back they believe is a bell cow back, there are only so many carries to go around. Dating back to the 2020 season, the Gophers have had a featured back three times (2020, 2022, 2024). In those four seasons, the lead back (twice being Mohamed Ibrahim and twice being Darius Taylor), and percentage of carries were 71%, 64%, and 64%. With Taylor set to return in 2024, it's likely that he once again see upwards of 65%, if not more of the carries, if he can stay healthy.

With that being said, it is interesting to see how the Gophers plan on keeping their now stable of eight running backs happy for the 2025 season. Darius Taylor will be the featured back but you also have two viable backs in A.J. Turner and Cameron Davis likely as the No.2 and No.3 backs. Not to mention younger backs such as the previously mentioned Fame Ijeboi. That's a lot of mouths to feed with only so many carries to go around.

At the same time, Davis only has one year of eligibility remaining and if Taylor has another strong season next fall, Turner theoretically could be in line to be the starter come the 2025 season. Nonetheless, the Gophers have a good stable of running backs with not enough carries to go around, if they do choose to give Taylor, 60-65% of the total carries once again in 2025.

- Darius Taylor's emergence this season as a legitimate threat out of the backfield is only going to add to his draft stock entering 2025. Gophers fans should enjoy the 2025 season when it comes to watching Taylor because very well could be his last in the maroon and gold. Throughout his two years on campus thus far, Taylor has over 2,200 yards from scrimmage and 17 touchdowns.

- It would've been interesting to see what Jaren Mangham could've done with a bit of a bigger role. He was solid when given an opportunity. In the five games he played, he averaged over 4.5 yards per carry in four of those including his nine carries, and 57-yard performance against Virginia Tech.

Some may give the Gophers' running back stable a higher grade here, some may go with a straight B instead as well. That being said, for the most part, the Gophers' tailbacks were given a tough situation this season as a usually strong offensive line when it comes to run blocking struggled to open up holes consistently for the running backs. The running backs, however, made up for it well and still averaged 4.5 yards per carry on the season as a group. They had 23 runs of 15+ yards and did a great job of breaking tackles with 81 forced missed tackles in 13 games. The rushing attack certainly wasn't the strength that it was in years past for the Gophers but that falls more so on the offensive line than it does the running backs.

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