Gophers working to avoid letdown vs. UCLA after upsetting the other L.A. team

So, P.J. Fleck, your Gophers football team upset No. 11 USC 24-17 on Saturday night, ending a six-game Big Ten losing streak and sending jubilant players and fans into a field-storming frenzy at Huntington Bank Stadium. What did you do to celebrate?

“There wasn’t any time,” Fleck said of a game that ended at 9:56 p.m. “It’s after midnight before you get home.”

Fleck and his wife, Heather, spent time chatting and watching college football highlights with mentor and former 49ers coach Mike Nolan and his wife, Kathy. Then it was sleep fast for an early Sunday wake-up to get back to work. The Gophers’ task this week: facing UCLA on Saturday night at Rose Bowl Stadium.

There will be all sorts of story lines regarding the Gophers’ first trip to Pasadena, Calif., since Jan. 1, 1962, when it beat UCLA in the Rose Bowl. For Fleck, it comes down to this: Repeating the 60-minute effort he saw from his team against one California squad and carrying it over against the other Los Angeles team.

“We play in a very, very competitive league where every week is going to be a dogfight,” Fleck said Monday. “We’ve been close on a lot of games, and those [losses] sometimes can take a team and turn them into a downward spiral. This team’s never done that. They just continue to come back and work throughout the week.”

To upset USC, the Gophers (3-3, 1-2 Big Ten) used two long fourth-quarter touchdown drives, with the final one capped by quarterback Max Brosmer reaching the end zone on a fourth-down tush-push sneak from inside the Trojans’ 1-yard line with 56 seconds left. Freshman safety Koi Perich’s end-zone interception of a Miller Moss pass sealed the victory, and fans stormed the field after Brosmer’s victory formation kneel-down.

Fleck credited the crowd of 50,913 – Minnesota’s third of 50,000 or more this season – for the atmosphere it created.

However, the field-storming certainly caught the Big Ten’s attention. Safety rules say that the conference can issue a private notification of a violation upon the first episode of field- or court-storming. A second offense would carry a public notification and a third offense would carry a $10,000 fine, at the discretion of the Big Ten commissioner.

The Gophers put themselves in position to celebrate by owning most of the key moments, especially in the second half. Powered by a line that got big games from tackles Quinn Carroll and Aireontae Ersery, Minnesota’s running attack stepped up, as Darius Taylor rushed 25 times for 144 yards and Marcus Major had seven carries for 37. In addition to two TDs on sneaks, Brosmer also scored on a 5-yard option keeper after a great fake to Taylor on a play that tied the score 17-17 with 7:08 to play.

On defense, the Gophers gave up 134 yards to Trojans running back Woody Marks but held Moss to 200 yards passing – 99.5 less than his average. USC coach Lincoln Riley turned away from his productive run game in the fourth quarter, playing into Minnesota’s hands.

“As you’re game-planning it, you’re talking about, ‘All right. If they’re going to beat us, they’re going to have to beat us on the ground,’” Fleck said. “We played a lot of dime, a lot of nickel.”

Fleck came away with a teachable moment on USC’s final possession when cornerback Justin Walley received an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for a gesture that simulated brandishing a weapon. That moved the Trojans to their 40, and they reached the Gophers 28 before Perich’s sealing interception.