Fall camp: Fleck sees 'clarity and calmness' from Gophers' Drake Lindsey

Minnesota's redshirt freshman QB continues to improve throughout the preseason.

Drake Lindsey getting reps in with the wide receivers at Gophers' fall camp. | Picture via: @tonyliebert (X)

How is Drake Lindsey looking? Is he the real deal? The biggest question going around Gophers' circles this summer is the performance of redshirt freshman quarterback Drake Lindsey.

Following an impressive showing during spring practice, Lindsey is projected to start at quarterback for the Gophers in 2025. As a redshirt freshman with only five pass attempts, he's still viewed as an unknown by many, but Minnesota is confident with what it has seen.

"From where he was last year to where he was this year is night and day. I think he grew more as a true freshman, maybe more than any true freshman I've ever had," Head coach P.J. Fleck said after practice on Saturday. "It's a credit to him, it's a credit to Max Brosmer, it's a credit to Coach Harbaugh, Coach Keegan [O'Hara]. Watching those guys work closely together is impressive."

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Throughout the offseason and preseason media availability, Lindsey's relationship with Brosmer has been talked about ad nauseam. It's now time for Lindsey to make a name for himself and prove that what he's learned from Brosmer can result in production this season.

"I think he's handling the offense really well. 90% of [the offense] is in. It's not a very simple offense," Fleck continued. "We're talking syllables, long, long, long play calls, and checks, and plays at the line of scrimmage. Freedom to do it at sometimes, sometimes freedom not to do it. He's processing at a really high level, as a redshirt freshman. We don't expect anything less. That's why we believe in him and all our quarterbacks."

Lindsey is a much different player than Brosmer in a lot of different ways; age being one of the biggest. Brosmer was 23 years old last season, and Lindsey is still a teenager heading into 2025. He's a different leader, and the offense will likely look different this season.

.@koiperich3 for 7⃣0⃣ yards 👀🃏#RTB #SkiUMah #Gophers pic.twitter.com/9IRpMbqFtP

— Minnesota Football (@GopherFootball) August 3, 2025

"I don't think comfort is a great [word] to use with Drake, because I don't think he's ever that way. The way he drives and challenges himself daily, he's never comfortable," Fleck continued. "There's a clarity and a calmness that you see, I think that's really hard to find... That's two years of work to create that. We got a long way to go until we play Buffalo. We got to keep getting better, but there's a lot of things that tested him today."

Outside of one highlight deep ball to two-way star Koi Perich, Lindsey's performance at practice on Saturday included a lot of intermediate routes. It's important to not look too deep into an early August practice, especially when it's in front of the public, but Minnesota certainly ran the ball more than it passed.

With a dynamic stable of running backs, impressive wide receivers and a talented defense, the Gophers don't need Lindsey to be one of the best quarterbacks in the Big Ten. They need a player who can run the offense at a high level. We're still more than three weeks away from him proving if he can do that in Week 1 against Buffalo.