Good afternoon from Huntington Bank Stadium, where the Gophers will try to stretch their winning streak to three games when they face Northwestern (2:30 p.m., BTN, 100.3-FM). Minnesota (6-3, 3-3 Big Ten) achieved bowl eligibility last week with a 20-13 comeback win at Nebraska and will try to improve its positioning and stay in the race for the Big Ten West title against the Wildcats (1-8, 1-5), who have lost eight consecutive games.

The big story entering the game for the Gophers is their quarterback situation, namely which QB will start: Athan Kaliakmanis or Tanner Morgan.

Barring a last-minute change in the pregame locker room, it will be Kaliakmanis making his first home start.

Morgan was not in full uniform for the full-padded portion of pregame warmups, an indication he will not play. Earlier in the non-padded portion, the sixth-year senior took shotgun snaps and participated in passing drills with his QB teammates. It's a similar scenario that played out Oct. 22 at Penn State when Kaliakmanis made his first career start.

The team's starter since the eighth game of the 2018 season, Morgan suffered what coach P.J. Fleck termed an "upper body'' injury when sacked on the final play of the first half against Nebraska last week and did not play again. Morgan's latest injury came three weeks after he suffered a concussion late in the loss to Illinois.

Kaliakmanis took over for Morgan to start the third quarter and jump-started a sputtering Gophers offense, leading four scoring drives in a comeback for a 10-0 deficit. The redshirt freshman, who started the Oct. 22 loss at Penn State in place of Morgan, averaged 22.8 yards on his six completions against the Huskers. He also rushed three times for 27 yards, helping free things up for Mohamed Ibrahim to gain 110 of his 128 rushing yards after halftime.

Other story lines to watch:

● Ibrahim will try to extend his streak of 100-yard rushing games to 18 games. His 17-game streak is the longest by any FBS player since 2000. In addition, Ibrahim has 4,086 rushing yards in his career, and he needs 37 to pass Rodney Smith (4,122) for second place on the Gophers' career list. Darrell Thompson is the team's all-time leading rusher with 4,654, and Ibrahim needs 569 yards, or an average of 142.25 over the final four games (including the bowl game), to pass him.

● The Gophers continue to be among the nation's top teams in third-down situations on both offense and defense.

On offense, Minnesota has converted a nation's-best 56.64% (64-for-113) of its third-down opportunities. In wins, the Gophers are at 69.14% (56-for-81), but in losses they are at 25% (8-for-32).

On defense, the Gophers are holding opponents to a 25.45% (28-for-110) conversion rate on third downs, which ranks second nationally behind Marshall (20.61%). In victories, the Gophers rank fourth at 19.12% (13-for-68), while in losses they are 35.71% (15-for-42).

● A victory would leave the Gophers at 4-3 in the Big Ten and in either a second- or first-place tie in the West Division, depending on the outcome of the Purdue-Illinois game. To win the division title, Minnesota needs to beat Northwestern, Iowa and Wisconsin to close the regular season and have Illinois and Purdue lose twice each. The Fighting Illini (4-2 Big Ten) and Boilermakers (3-3) kicked off at 11 a.m. in Champaign. The other key game in the West on Saturday is Wisconsin (3-3) at Iowa (3-3), a 2:30 p.m. start.