Minnesota vs Nebraska: 5 storylines to watch in the Gophers' season opener
Minnesota's season opener against Nebraska is less than two days away. As the Gophers continue to prepare for the Cornhuskers, Gophers Nation continues to prepare itself for the season opener.
Today, we take a look at five storylines to watch in the Gophers season opener on Thursday night.
1. The Athan Kaliakmanis era begins
Minnesota fans got a taste of what Athan Kaliakmanis could bring to the Golden Gophers last season as he played in 10 games. Now, the Illinois native takes over as the program's full-time starter, a little bit of a different beast than what he experienced last season. Nonetheless, head coach P.J. Fleck is very high on Kaliakmanis entering the season. "There's an X factor, and I think that's what Ahtan brings," Fleck said during his press conference in late July ahead of fall camp beginning. The Gophers hope that X-factor shines through on Thursday night.
Kaliakmanis will have to grow in some areas, especially his ability to throw the ball in non-play action situations but the Illinois native has the skill set to help make this Gophers' passing attack a bit more dangerous than it has been over the last few years.
2. What will the new look Cornhuskers look like?
The Scott Frost era in Lincoln was nothing short of a disaster. The good news for Cornhuskers fans is that the Matt Rhule era probably can't go much worse. Notably, in his last two college football stops at Temple and Baylor, year ones were particularly ugly. It's unclear what Rhule's first season at Nebraska will bring but whatever it may bring, the Golden Gophers are going to get their first crack at the new-look Huskers.
3. How do the Gophers make up for the loss of Mohamed Ibrahim?
It's not easy to replace a talent like Mohamed Ibrahim, but the Gophers will have to do it anyway. This offseason, they brought in Sean Tyler from Western Michigan and recruited one of the country's best high school running backs in Darius Taylor. Together, they join the likes of Bryce Williams and Zach Evans in the Gophers' backfield. What will the Gophers rotation this season look like? Will Darius Taylor see a notable workload? How will spring game standout Zach Evans perform? The Gophers backfield and rotation is an underrated storyline entering this week's matchup and an intriguing one at that.
4. Can the Western Michigan transfers make an immediate impact?
We already mentioned Sean Tyler above but Corey Crooms and Ryan Selig also made the move from Kalamazoo to Dinkytown this offseason. Crooms is expected to be a big impact wide receiver for the Golden Gophers while Selig is expected to be among the program’s linebacker core this season. While the three won’t make or break the Gophers’ season, they do have the abilities to help decide if the Gophers are true Big Ten West contenders this fall.
5. Can the Gophers' defense follow up their tremendous 2022 campaign?
The Gophers defense in 2022 was nothing sort of phenomenal, but the program did lose quite a few important pieces from a year ago, including LB Mariano Sori-Marin, S Jordan Howden, and DT Trill Carter, among others. How can Joe Rossi’s unit follow up on that 2022 performance this fall? Matching their allowed 13.8 points per game will be tough, but even if the Gophers can replicate that performance to a quality degree, the Gophers should still have one of the better defenses in the Big Ten this fall.
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