For the first time since 2017, the Gophers plan to hold a spring football game at Huntington Bank Stadium on a Saturday that they hope won’t be impacted by weather, a global pandemic or transfer portal complications. Minnesota officials announced the game will be played Saturday, April 25, and will be free to attend. Details such as a start time, parking information and potential fan activities will be announced at a later date.
The last time the Gophers pulled off a spring game on a Saturday with no alterations was in P.J. Fleck’s first season as coach in 2017. Since then, they have been thrown curveballs or opted out of a spring game.
- In 2018, the game was moved up to a Thursday because of the forecast of a blizzard, a move that proved to be correct when a blizzard dumped 15 inches of snow on the Twin Cities that weekend.
- In 2019, 2022 and 2023, the spring games were moved from the stadium to the Gophers’ indoor practice facility because of weather.
- In 2020, the spring game was canceled because of COVID-19.
- In 2021, the game was played as scheduled at the stadium but in front of a reduced crowd because of COVID-19 concerns.
- In 2024 and ’25, the Gophers scrapped their spring games and instead held practices that were either open to the public or open to Dinkytown Athletes members. That was part of a trend of college football programs moving away from spring games, at least in part because of the spring transfer portal window, which enabled other programs to see opposing players. That spring portal window was eliminated in September.
The Gophers also announced they will be accepting customized oars at their spring game and will hold their annual diaper drive that day, too.
