On Saturday, Rodney Smith took the opening kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown and the Gophers never looked back. Minnesota racked up 409 rushing yards en route to a dominating 54-21 victory over Nebraska.
“For them to come out and play like they did today, that shows their courage, their strength, the process the culture and I’m proud of them for that,” said P.J. Fleck.
BY THE NUMBERS
409 Rushing yards for the Gophers. Demry Croft set Minnesota’s all-time, single-game rushing record for a QB with 183 yards, Rodney Smith ended with 134, and Kobe McCrary had 94 yards and three touchdowns. It was an all-out ground assault for the Gophers.
“First of all, we kept it very simple this week,” said Fleck. “We went back to the basics of our offense and we were going to allow Demry to run the ball a little bit more but Demry had to make the decisive decisions to make that happen.”
2 Runs of 60+ yards for Croft, including a 73-yard touchdown in the second quarter. Throughout the game, Croft looked more decisive, and it paid dividends.
“I thought he did a great job deciding when to pull it and deciding when not to pull it,” said Fleck of Croft. “And I think that’s where the growth has come from.”
4 Fourth down stops for the Gopher defense, including a key stop in the first quarter when Nebraska was in the red zone.
“Those are game-changing plays,” said Jacob Huff. “When you get a team that wants to try you and make a fourth down conversion and you’re able to stop them, that’s huge.”
54 Points for the Gophers was the most ever during Big Ten play at TCF Bank Stadium. The previous high was a 51-14 victory over Iowa in 2014. Who hates Iowa?
6 Rushing touchdowns, three for Croft and three for McCrary. That’s the most for Minnesota since they had six against San Jose State in 2013.
100 Yard kickoff return for a touchdown by Rodney Smith to start the game. Smith found a huge hole and burned the kickoff team to the end zone.
“Parted like the Red Sea; all I had to do was run straight,” said Smith.
9 Scoring drives on 10 attempts for the Gophers. The Gophers ended with seven touchdowns and two field goals on the day.
2019 In-state recruits were a focus during Fleck’s postgame presser. After Eden Prairie’s J.D. Spielman racked up for 141 receiving yards for Nebraska, Fleck noted the importance of keeping the top talent in the state.
“We’ve got to keep those difference-makers right here, in the state,” said Fleck. “Everybody hear that, 2019’s?…Why do you have to go anywhere else? Keep ‘em here. If we keep ‘em here, we’ll do exactly what we said we were gonna do.”