Who could lead the Gophers backfield in 2023?
Few teams have run the football more the Minnesota Golden Gophers in recent years. Outside of the service academies (Army, Navy, Air Force), no FBS team has run the ball more than Minnesota, which did so just over 66% of the time last season. Even with a revamped wide receiver room and a new quarterback, the running game will remain a key part of P.J. Fleck's offense this fall.
The problem is that the Gophers' backfield will look drastically different than it did a year ago. Mohamed Ibrahim left Minnesota as the school's all-time leading rusher with 4,668 yards and 53 touchdowns, so the big question entering the season is who will fill Ibrahim's shoes.
The Gophers lost a pair of candidates to replace Ibrahim over the past couple of years as Bucky Irving (Oregon) and Trey Potts (Penn State) hit the transfer portal, but they've also replenished the group via recruiting and the transfer portal.
If the Gophers want experience, they can lean on Bryce Williams. A sixth-year senior, Williams has 227 career carries, including 51 carries for 249 yards and three touchdowns last season. He also has experience in the passing game with 11 catches for 91 yards. But he hasn't been a big-play threat, averaging just 4.3 yards per carry.
If the Gophers want more runs to the house, Sean Tyler could be a candidate.
He already has a productive track record at Western Michigan. A fifth-year senior, Tyler ran for 1,000 yards in back-to-back seasons with the Broncos and averaged 6.5 yards per carry during the 2021 season. With speed to burn, this could give Minnesota's backfield a more dynamic threat.
Others fighting for carries are freshmen Zach Evans and Darius Taylor.
Evans was a three-star recruit for the Gophers in the 2021 class and picked Minnesota over several Power Five schools including Arizona State, Iowa, Kansas, Notre Dame, Texas and Utah. His freshman season was derailed due to injury but he turned heads while scoring twice, including a 75-yard touchdown, in the Gophers spring game in April.
"It didn't shock me, but it made me feel really good because [Evans] does it all the time," Fleck told reporters in April. "It's the third level, making somebody miss at that safety level. Instead of just getting tackled for a gain of 12, you saw him make someone at the third level miss and now it's a huge run for 70 yards."
Taylor is another prized recruit, choosing Minnesota over Big Ten rivals Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa as a four-star recruit in 2023. He was so coveted that Fleck called him one of the "prized recruits" in this year's incoming class and referenced his NIL offers while accusing new Wisconsin head coach Luke Fickell of "negative recruiting."
But Taylor's production was a good reason the Gophers were interested as he carried the ball 268 times for 2,450 yards and had three six-touchdown games during his senior season at Walled Lake Western High School in Michigan.
"I think he can handle 30 to 39 carries," Fleck said of Taylor last December. "Every week it looked like we were watching a video game...so maybe Mo's records might be broken by the guy he helped recruit to bring in here and I know Mo would love that."
The Gophers are going to throw the ball more in 2023. If they want to win the Big Ten West, that's something they'll have to do. But if Taylor can add a home-run threat and one of the younger backs can step up, it should make life easier on the passing game, which could lead Minnesota to its most explosive offense in recent memory.
