With spring football in the books and the Minnesota Golden Gophers appearing to be done in the transfer portal outside of any potential last-minute additions, Gophers Nation will be taking a position-by-position look at the Golden Gophers' 2025 roster. Today, we start that series with the quarterback position.

Last season, the Gophers enjoyed a strong year from FCS New Hampshire transfer Max Brosmer at the position. After a bit of a slow start, Brosmer found his footing and became one of the top quarterbacks in the Big Ten last fall, completing 66.5% of his passes for 2,828 yards and 18 touchdowns while throwing just six interceptions.

But now, Brosmer is with the Minnesota Vikings, hoping to earn a spot on the Vikings roster or practice squad this upcoming fall.

With Brosmer no longer a part of the program, the Gophers' quarterback room in 2025 will have a new face for the third straight season as the full-time starting quarterback.

Over the offseason, the Gophers looked to add experience to the room and originally hoped to do so in the form of Georgia Tech transfer Zach Pyron. However, after a disappointing spring, Pyron left the program before the end of spring practices and transferred again, this time to Southern Alabama.

After Pyron's departure, the Gophers went back into the transfer portal and this time, ended up finding Boston College and Old Dominion transfer Emmett Morehead. The fifth-year quarterback brings 16 games of experience (10 of which came in 2022) with him to Minnesota and a career stat line of 136-for-238 (57.1%), for 1,465 yards and 10 touchdowns to six interceptions.

Notably, he missed all of the 2024 season for Old Dominion with a knee injury. Nonetheless, he brings some much-needed experience and will be able to supply some veteran leadership to the room.

The Gophers also added 2025 quarterback Jackson Kollock to the room this offseason. The California native has the potential to be a starting quarterback down the road for the Gophers, but the 2025 season will be a developmental one for the former four-star signal caller.

While questions remain about the quarterback room as the season approaches, one thing is clear: this is now Drake Lindsey’s team.

With Zach Pyron leaving the program this spring, it is almost certain that redshirt freshman Drake Lindsey will be the Golden Gophers' QB1 come Week One against Buffalo.

As a true freshman, Lindsey saw playing time in four games and totaled 20 snaps. It's certainly on the lighter side, and there is an argument that he likely could've seen quite a few more snaps last year, but we don't get paid to make those decisions.

That being said, Lindsey spent the majority of his true freshman season alongside now-former Gopher Max Brosmer.

"Drake has attached himself to Max's hip," P.J. Fleck said about Lindsey in December. "As well as Dylan. You see Max somewhere, and Drake is right there. It's just not the football piece," he noted. "It's the mannerisms. It's how you lead. It's what you say. It's when you say it. It's how you say it."

Fleck and the Gophers hope that the time spent learning under Brosmer will lead to success this fall.

There's a lot to like about Lindsey's potential. The Fayetteville, Arkansas native has prototypical height and size at 6-foot-5 and 230 pounds while possessing a big, strong arm, capable of making all the throws in the book, while also showing strong accuracy and decision-making during his high school career.

But this isn't Arkansas high school football anymore. Seeing mop-up duty last season is one thing; being a Big Ten starting quarterback is a whole other level.

The good news for Lindsey and the Gophers is that he should be able to ease into being a starting quarterback over the first two weeks with games against Buffalo and Northwestern State. But the level of difficulty quickly picks up with Cal, Rutgers, and Ohio State as the next trio of teams on the Gophers' schedule.

With an overall navigable schedule in 2025, the Gophers' 2025 fortunes will largely fall onto the shoulders of Lindsey. The Gophers have a terrific backfield to complement Lindsey, and their starting trio of wide receivers should present a rather quality floor for the passing attack as well.

If Lindsey is able to develop over the course of the summer, fall camp, and eventually throughout the 2025 regular season as the Gophers will hope he can, Minnesota will have the chance to be quite the surprise team in the Big Ten this fall.

While the battle for QB1 is over, the battle for the QB2 spot will be ongoing into fall camp. Redshirt sophomore Dylan Wittke will be the clubhouse favorite and will compete with incoming transfer Emmett Morehead for the spot.

Morehead has the edge in experience and college production, having formerly started at Boston College but only played in four games over the last two seasons. Wittke only has a handful of snaps under his belt, but will have the advantage of being familiar with the Gophers' system, having transferred into the program in January of 2024.

That being said, even if Morehead is the third quarterback on the depth chart this fall for the Gophers, he'll bring four years of college experience to the room, which, as previously stated, was much needed. Before his arrival, the Gophers' quarterback room had just 25 total collegiate snaps to its name. Morehead, on the other hand, has 451 career snaps.

Walk-on Max Shikenjanski could push for the No. 2 spot, but is unlikely to win the job in our opinion.

Entering the 2025 season, the Minnesota quarterback room is headlined by Drake Lindsey, who has the talent and potential to develop into a top-end quarterback in the Big Ten. However, as a first-year starter, he will likely experience his fair share of ups and downs. Beyond Lindsey, the depth at the position remains a major question mark.

Dylan Wittke, like Lindsey, has limited experience at the collegiate level, and while he certainly had potential coming out of Buford High School (GA), his floor and ceiling are both lower than Lindsey's in our opinion. Emmett Morehead has starting experience at the collegiate level and the most experience by far, but has only played in four games since 2022 and missed the entire 2024 season with a knee injury.

Dylan Wittke, like Lindsey, has limited collegiate experience. While he showed promise coming out of Buford High School in Georgia as part of the 2023 recruiting class, his floor and ceiling both appear lower than Lindsey’s. Emmett Morehead brings the most experience of the group, having started games at the collegiate level, but he has only played in four games since 2022 and missed the entire 2024 season due to a knee injury.

Where is Morehead entering the 2025 season? How healthy is that knee? These are fair questions to ask.

Ultimately, the bottom line is that this is Drake Lindsey's team now. Minnesota's ability to reach its ceiling in 2025, with how their schedule breaks, hinges on how quickly he can develop into a reliable Big Ten-caliber starting quarterback. If Lindsey struggles or suffers an injury, the a drop-off in quarterback play. While the Gophers should already be a run-heavy team in 2025, even with Lindsey at quarterback, a setback at the position could force the Gophers to become even more dependent on the ground game, which would certainly limit their ceiling.

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