From CFN: Minnesota Football 2026 Schedule Outlook and Analysis

[pk2]

This article includes the good, the bad, best case, worst case, and a few other things, including:

Games That Will Decide Minnesota’s Season​

1. Iowa, Oct. 24
Minnesota has lost the last two years to the Hawkeyes by a combined score of 72-17. With a trip to Indiana up next, it needs to take back the Floyd of Rosedale trophy.

2. at Washington, Sept. 26
You want to break the road game losing hex of last season? Doing it in the Big Ten opener would certainly do it.

3. Mississippi State, Sept. 12
It's one of the funkier non-conference games of the 2026 college football season, and there will be a big, big problem if the Gophers lose it.

Here’s the link:

https://collegefootballnews.com/college-football/minnesota-football-2026-schedule-breakdown

 

[ergopher]

Agree that Mississippi State is a must win. We've lost at least one nonconference game in 4 of the last 5 seasons, and those have often been preventable losses caused by sloppy play. Of those 4 games, @ UNC is the only one in which we were truly outmatched with Drake Maye being miles ahead of Athan in the ability to run a functional offense. The rest I'd argue we SHOULD HAVE won.

 

[Gophergrandpa]

Agree that Mississippi State is a must win. We've lost at least one nonconference game in 4 of the last 5 seasons, and those have often been preventable losses caused by sloppy play. Of those 4 games, @ UNC is the only one in which we were truly outmatched with Drake Maye being miles ahead of Athan in the ability to run a functional offense. The rest I'd argue we SHOULD HAVE won.

At least we get Miss State at home. On the road, not sure we win.

 

[PMWinSTP]

Agree that Mississippi State is a must win. We've lost at least one nonconference game in 4 of the last 5 seasons, and those have often been preventable losses caused by sloppy play. Of those 4 games, @ UNC is the only one in which we were truly outmatched with Drake Maye being miles ahead of Athan in the ability to run a functional offense. The rest I'd argue we SHOULD HAVE won.

That game @UNC was winnable as well. Who sends in a cold backup QB with limited passing ability to try a fade pass to the end zone?

 

[ergopher]

That game @UNC was winnable as well. Who sends in a cold backup QB with limited passing ability to try a fade pass to the end zone?

It absolutely was, especially frustrating after the full offseason of Athan hype that preceded it. Just the least winnable of those losses byfar. I was at the game in person and very vividly remember feeling like we were still in it at halftime if we cleaned up our gameplan. Evidently, we didn't.

 

[gopherbadgerman]

That game @UNC was winnable as well. Who sends in a cold backup QB with limited passing ability to try a fade pass to the end zone?

NC was far from a great team that year, but they handled Gophs pretty easy. Not a good game from our squad.

I'd say it was winnable, but not a game MN should have won

 

[MNVCGUY]

NC was far from a great team that year, but they handled Gophs pretty easy. Not a good game from our squad.

I'd say it was winnable, but not a game MN should have won

They were not a great team that year but with Drake Maye they were a pretty good offensive team and put up over 30 points in 9 of their games with multiple going over 40.

Looking at the boxscore from that one....you aren't going to win many games when your QB is 11 for 29 for 133 yards with 0 TD and 1 pick. DT did what he could to overcome the lack of any passing game but that is a putrid performance from any QB.