Duck Dive: Minnesota 2026 film study preview from an Oregon perspective

Hi, it's your favorite film reviewer from Oregon. The Ducks and Gophers don't play until 2028 (first time ever for the Ducks in Huntington Bank Stadium, last game in Minneapolis was in 1975 in the Brick House) but I write up the entire Big Ten every summer to keep my film study sharp, and I like talking with my friend Max Oelerking from Ski-U-Pod. This article has a podcast interview with Max embedded in it which is sort of a rough draft of the article for double-checking all my facts before publishing, it's got some interesting opinion and strategy discussion too as well as some fun stories (he's got a good one about taking his wife to her first ever Gophers game, the one y'all stole against Purdue last year).

I think the offense is poised for growth with the Lindsey in his 2nd year and Taylor coming back, and I think making the move at WR coach was long overdue, but most importantly it seems like OL coach Callahan has returned to his senses after a two-year vacation and quit fooling with the transfer portal and playing guys out of position (actually I think all the tools to be a much better offense were there in 2024 and 2025 but were substantially restricted by the OL madness).

The defensive roster management I think has been excellent in terms of getting everything in place to replace lost production and replicate the 2025 defense (and there's a larger discussion to be had about the turnaround in program fortunes to do that, and host a for-real Spring game again), but I continue to question that defense. I wouldn't play a high stress, blitz-heavy, cover-1 defense with this talent profile (great front, journeyman safeties, fishing in the portal every year at CB), I'd do the exact opposite. I'm wondering if DC Collins reverses course from the hyper-aggression which defined his first year.

Very detailed, thanks for sharing

Kerry Brown is not a journeyman. Very underrated safety in my opinion. Was better than Koi last year.

GoldRush said:

Kerry Brown is not a journeyman. Very underrated safety in my opinion. Was better than Koinlast year.

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I found evaluating the safeties post-Rossi to be challenging, because a) so much cover-1 with a field/boundary split meant the safeties had very different roles when they were in coverage, b) most of what they're doing isn't what people traditionally think of as "safety stuff" - over the top coverage support or coming downhill to kill the play, since the corners are on islands in man and the high safety is in leverage support on crossers while the low safety is on the Y-receiver in man, and c) much of what Henderson was doing in 2024 and Perich in 2025 was more like linebacker play anyway. I don't really think apples-to-apples comparisons are available, or where they are, the sample was frustratingly small. When I wrote up my Perich article I found only about 30% of reps to be doing "safety stuff" that I thought would be translatable across systems for technical (as opposed to athletic) evaluation. I did find Perich's frequent (about 25%-30%, depending on situation) low shoulder hits instead of proper wrap up tackling to be a frustrating flaw in his form with no real excuse for it, and others did better. But on the other hand, I've never seen a safety at his age instinctually calculate the correct intersect angle (I built a secant method script into my charting tools, it's pretty neat) and start running to the exact right spot to prevent any extra yardage gain.

Good evaluation on Drake Lindsey. We need some receivers to step up and I'm optimistic Smith, Jennings, and Tracy will give Drake weapons to throw to. It would be nice if a TE emerges as a weapon. Add Taylor into the mix and Drake has the potential to throw for 3000+ yards with 30+ tds.

Good Lord, more thorough and accurate deep dive than 75% of local media could/would provide. Well done, and I hope you’re getting the deserved clicks!

MGGopher said:

Good Lord, more thorough and accurate deep dive than 75% of local media could/would provide. Well done, and I hope you’re getting the deserved clicks!

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I was just thinking the same thing. Super deep, really well done (and accurate in my opinion) and makes our local reporters look like a bunch of stooges.

MGGopher said:

Good Lord, more thorough and accurate deep dive than 75% of local media could/would provide. Well done, and I hope you’re getting the deserved clicks!

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To be fair, I'm like Reader's Digest - I get to condense a year's worth of reporting into a single article, so all those little nuggets that the local media are dutifully collecting I get to smelt down and present coherently, but they should get the credit for the original work. And I can't recommend Max and the guys at Ski-U-Pod highly enough for regular coverage of the football team; I've never asked a question and gotten a wrong or misleading answer, or an "I don't know" when it turned out that was knowable, just candid, well informed, and intellectually honest analysis. I do this for 18 teams and a guy like Max is worth his weight in gold.

GoldRush said:

Kerry Brown is not a journeyman. Very underrated safety in my opinion. Was better than Koi last year.

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Solid not great in my opinion

gopherbadgerman said:

Solid not great in my opinion

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Funny how nobody called him “great” except you. Saying “solid not great” like you’re correcting something just makes it look like you argued with a point nobody made.

Unregistered User said:

Funny how nobody called him “great” except you. Saying “solid not great” like you’re correcting something just makes it look like you argued with a point nobody made.

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Thank you I appreciate the feedback. Coming from someone who has called me extremely inappropriate names on this forum I’ll take it with a lot of pride. I don’t know what your personal beef is with me.