Get explosive or get left behind

Greg Harbaugh Jr. listened to the question, pondered it for a couple of seconds and gave a sly smile.

“If you’re going to have more explosive plays, what needs to happen?” the Gophers offensive coordinator was asked.

“That’s the age-old question,” Harbaugh responded during Wednesday’s media session. “If I throw the ball down the field, we’ve got to throw it accurately. We’ve got to catch it. We’ve got to block. The key to explosive plays is everything.”

So far in the 2025 season, generating explosive plays has been a challenge for the Gophers, who take a 2-1 record into Saturday’s 11 a.m. Big Ten opener against Rutgers (3-1) at Huntington Bank Stadium.

Twelve offensive plays have gained 20 or more yards for the Gophers, which is tied for 110th nationally. Minnesota has had four plays go for 30 or more yards, which is tied for 119th.

If you throw out the 66-0 rout of Northwestern (La.) State, a struggling FCS program, the Gophers have seven plays of 20 or more yards and two of 30 or more against Buffalo and California, against whom they averaged 18.5 points.

“I thought we created some explosive plays against Cal but just didn’t take advantage of it at the end of the day,” Gophers coach P.J. Fleck said. “… We got beat in the explosive play battle. Defensively, we’ve got to eliminate them. Offensively, we’ve got to create more."

In the 27-14 loss at Cal, the Gophers were without star running back Darius Taylor because of a hamstring injury. His absence showed as Minnesota averaged only 3.5 yards per carry and got only four receptions for 7 yards from their running backs.

Taylor’s status won’t be known until the Big Ten’s availability report is released at 9 a.m. Saturday, though Fleck on Monday said Taylor is doing “really, really well.”

“We have the ability to be explosive,” Harbaugh said. “We have an explosive quarterback. We have explosive playmakers. We just have to execute consistently throughout the course of the game, and at the end of the day, it comes down to me.”

Harbaugh is in his third season as the Gophers’ primary play-caller, and Minnesota ranked tied for 109th and 95th nationally in plays of 20 yards or more in 2023 and ’24. The better the quarterback play, the better his offenses have been.

In 2023, the Gophers averaged 20.9 points per game with Athan Kaliakmanis in his first full season as starter. Kaliakmanis is now in his second season as Rutgers’ starter.

This year, redshirt freshman Drake Lindsey has the reins and is showing promise, completing 60.5% of his passes as a first-year starter. He has a live arm that can stretch the field and is developing an increasing connection with wide receiver Le’Meke Brockington, who caught a career-high eight passes for 106 yards at Cal.

Lindsey expects explosive plays to become a bigger factor.

“We’re really close,” he said. “When you look back at the film, even against Cal, we had eight explosive plays [as the Gophers define them]. … We could have had five more when it comes down to execution of details."

Since Fleck became the Gophers coach in 2017, Minnesota hasn’t been an air-it-out offensive juggernaut that lives and dies on a deep passing game.

Rather, the Gophers have used a strong running game to set up the pass and help the defense by owning the time of possession battle. In six of Fleck’s previous eight seasons, the Gophers ranked 94th or lower in plays of 20 yards or longer.

Last year, the Gophers were 134th and last among FBS teams with only 10 plays of 30 yards or longer. Yet, they still went 8-5 with a winning record in Big Ten play. The 2021 and ’22 teams went 9-4 with 20-yard plays ranking 99th and 94th.

The gold standard for explosive plays in the Fleck Era came, of course, in 2019 when the Gophers went 11-2 and finished No. 10 in the final Associated Press and coaches polls.

They had 74 plays of 20 yards or longer, tied for 23rd nationally, and averaged 34.1 points per game. That team featured future NFL wide receivers Rashod Bateman and Tyler Johnson, quarterback Tanner Morgan, who passed for 3,253 yards and 30 TDs; a future All-American running back in Mohamed Ibrahim; and two future NFL starting offensive linemen in Daniel Faalele and John Michael Schmitz.

Those types of offensive weapons haven’t stood out this year, though with Taylor and Lindsey, the Gophers have productive players in two key skill positions.

How much the wide receiver group and the offensive line improve this season will help determine just how explosive Minnesota’s offense can be. For now, it’s part of the developmental process.