Gopher football notes
Tar Heels make first visit to Minnesota
The Gopher football team opens its season Thursday night at Huntington Bank Stadium with a nationally televised game vs. North Carolina.
Kickoff is at 7 p.m. at Huntington Bank Stadium. The game is in on FOX, with Jason Benetti on play-by-play, Brock Huard as analyst and Allison Williams as reporter.
What you need to know
The Gopher football program opens its 141st season, the eighth under head coach P.J. Fleck.
Minnesota is 98-36-6 all-time in season openers, including 5-2 under Fleck. The Golden Gophers are 102-31-7 all-time in home openers and are also 5-2 under Fleck. Minnesota is opening a season at home for the 12th straight year.
Sophomore running back Darius Taylor was named to the 2024 Maxwell Award watch list. He played in only six games last season as a true freshman because of injuries. However, in those six games, he rushed 138 times for 799 yards (fifth most ever by a freshman in school history) and five touchdowns. Taylor did not play in enough games to be listed in the NCAA stat rankings last season, but if he were eligible, his 133.2 yards per game would have led the nation and would have been eight yards more than Cody Schrader from Missouri, who averaged 125.2 yards per game.
Taking over the Minnesota offense is sixth-year transfer quarterback Max Brosmer from the New Hampshire. A finalist for the 2023 Walter Payton Award and a second-team FCS all-American, Brosmer was 294-for-459 passing last year for 3,464 yards and 29 touchdowns with five interceptions. He also rushed 57 times for 126 yards and three scores.
Minnesota is opening the season on a Thursday for the 16th time in school history, all since 2001. In fact, the Golden Gophers have opened on a Thursday for the last 11 full seasons since 2012 (excluding the 2020 COVID season).
The Golden Gophers open the 2024 season with four straight home games for the first time since 1987. Minnesota started that season 4-0 with wins over Northern Iowa, Cal, Central Michigan and Purdue. The next three opponents this year are Rhode Island, Nevada and Iowa.
P.J. Fleck is in his eighth season at Minnesota, where his record is 50-34. He is fifth in program history for overall wins, Big Ten wins (29) and games coached (84).
North Carolina’s Mack Brown is a 46-year veteran of collegiate coaching, He has served as a head coach for 35 seasons with stops at Texas (1998-2013), North Carolina (1988-97, 2019-23), Tulane (1985-87), and Appalachian State (1983). Brown has posted a record of 282-149-1 (.654). His 282 career victories rank seventh on the FBS all-time list and with Nick Saban retiring, are the most among active coaches.
North Carolina has played its first game against a Power Conference team 21 times since Mack Brown’s first season in Chapel Hill in 1988. The Tar Heels are 8-2 in those games with Brown as the head coach and 0-11 under all other head coaches.
Since Brown returned to take over the UNC program in 2019, Carolina owns a 38-27 overall record. 16 of the 27 losses have been by seven points or less with four setbacks coming in overtime.
All-time results
North Carolina leads series 1-0
2023: North Carolina 31, Minnesota 13