Minnesota's crown jewel of their 2023 recruiting class, four-star running back Darius Taylor, had a coming-out party on Saturday night while the Golden Gophers defense kept Eastern Michigan to just 152 yards on Saturday night in a 25-6 win for the Golden Gophers.
Taylor finished his breakout performance with 193 and one touchdown on 33 rushing attempts. He averaged 5.8 yards per carry on the evening. Western Michigan transfer Sean Tyler recorded 93 yards on 17 rushing attempts of his own but fumbled three times in the process, losing one.
Fellow Western Michigan transfer Corey Crooms led all receivers with three receptions for 45 yards, while defensive backs Darius Green and Tre'von Jones, alongside linebacker Maverick Baronkowski, led the Golden Gophers defense.
Green recorded seven tackles in the game, including five solo tackles and one tackle for loss, while Baronkowski recorded seven tackles, including one sack. Tre'von Jones, who recorded the first interception as a Gophers in week one against Nebraska, recorded his first sack as a Gopher against the Eagles on Saturday night. Sophomore linebacker Devon Williams also had an interception on the evening, while Kyler Baugh recorded two sacks.
The Golden Gophers would get on the board in the second quarter as Dragan Kesich made his third field goal of the season, drilling a 24-yard chip shot after the Gophers drove 56 yards over ten plays. It wasn't the Gophers' first long of the game, and it wasn't their last either.
On their first drive of the game, the Gophers drove 79 yards on 12 plays, getting as far as the Eastern Michigan two-yard line. Choosing to go for it on fourth down, Athan Kaliakmanis would get stuffed at the line of scrimmage on 4th and one from the two, giving Eastern Michigan the ball from the Gophers' four-yard line.
After failing to score on their first drive, the Golden Gophers would score on each of their next four drives, going 56, 93, 74, and 64 yards to score. On top of Kesich's chip shot to open the scoring early in the second quarter, the Gophers would also see Darius Taylor pick up his first career touchdown with 3:57 remaining in the first half. Keisch would add on a second field goal midway through the third quarter. A few minutes later, at the 2:05 mark of the third quarter, Athan Kalikamnis would get revenge for getting stuffed earlier, punching it in for the Gophers to make it a 20-6 game.
In the fourth quarter, the Gophers almost blocked an Eastern Michigan punt for a touchdown; however, after review, it was determined that the Gophers did not recover the ball in bounds. Instead of potentially extending their lead to 26-6, the Gophers would have to settle for a safety to make it 22-6 with 8:51 remaining in the fourth quarter.
After back-to-back drives of turnovers, with Sean Tyler coughing up his third fumble of the game and Athan Kaliakmanis throwing an interception, the Gophers would go on one last scoring drive with under five minutes to play. This time, they would drive 45 yards across 11 plays, but much like their first drive would stall out in the red zone at Eastern Michigan's two-yard line. Dragan Kesich would drill his third field goal of the day, another chip shot to put the Gophers up 25-6.
After a quality first-half performance defensively in which they allowed just six points and 148 yards, the Golden Gophers defense in the second half kept Eastern Michigan to just a mere four yards of total offense in the final 30 minutes of play. The Gophers' defense recorded four sacks and five tackles for a loss in the win.
Minnesota will now travel to Chapel Hill next weekend to face the North Carolina Tar Heels as both teams look to improve to 3-0 on the season. The 17th-ranked Tar Heels, in week two, survived a scare from Appalachian State, winning 40-34 in two overtimes.
The Golden Gophers' win on Saturday night improves P.J. Fleck's record against non-conference opponents while at Minnesota to 19-1.
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