Gophers Star Avoids Serious Health Scare in Rout

By    |  
Updated:
Follow Us
Darius Taylor, Minnesota Gophers
Credit: Matt Krohn-Imagn Images

P.J. Fleck’s Minnesota Gophers came into their Week 2 matchup against Northwestern State knowing it could be a cakewalk. Of course the head coach was always going to go the route of a nameless, faceless opponent. That didn’t stop them from coming out and immediately setting the tone.

John Nestor read the first play of the game correctly and housed a 29-yard pick sick. Once the Gophers got the ball on offense, it wasn’t long before Darius Taylor got his turn.

Unfortunately, on his third carry of the game, Taylor hit a massive hole on the left edge and scampered 17 yards. He came up just shy of the end zone though, and something was wrong.

P.J. Fleck provides update on Darius Taylor

Taylor had the corner and could have turned up into the end zone. Instead, he looked to avoid contact and grabbed the back of his right leg as he went down in a heap. Postgame, head coach P.J. Fleck shared how much he cares for Taylor and all of his players. He noted that they seem to have avoided something more serious too.

“I really love my players. You hurt for the kid, anybody that gets hurt. You don’t immediately go to like, what are we going to do as a team? We have really good tailbacks. You immediately feel for the person because of everything that young person has been through, and what they invest in themselves, and how hard they work, and the time they spend in the training room to prevent those things. It’s football, it happens. It happened in the NFL game Thursday night, it happens in college football today. Injuries are part of our sport. They always will be. The test of time, they will always be that way. You have to be able to respond to it. That was my whole conversation more was, ‘hey, now you gotta go lead those young guys for right now.’

It doesn’t seem too bad, which was really good. We got a really good, positive diagnosis on that. We’ll see how the week goes as he goes through it. We weren’t going to put him back in the game, that’s for sure.”

P.J. Fleck on Darius Taylor’s injury

Losing Taylor for a substantial period of time would be a serious blow. Leg injuries are now new for Taylor and that’s what makes this latest one so tough.

As a freshman in 2023, Taylor led the Big Ten in rushing through six games before suffering a hamstring injury that ultimately cost him the final seven games. Last season, after a hamstring injury in practice, an aggravation kept him out of the season-opening loss to North Carolina.

Although Taylor played 12 games last season for the Gophers, he was listed as limited following the Rhode Island contest. That forced more action onto the shoulders of Marcus Major and Jordan Nubin.

Related: New MN Gophers Freshman QB Looks Special

After Week 1 against Buffalo, Taylor led the Big Ten in attempts with 30. He piled up 141 yards and turned four catches into 36 yards receiving. Minnesota feasted on the Demons Saturday, and Taylor could have put up gaudy numbers in limited action.

Gophers got key contributions to lean on moving forward

The line for Saturday’s contest against Northwestern State closed at 42.5. That seemed like a lot of points for a typically-conservative Fleck to be giving. They covered that in the first half, and Minnesota sat down starters before the second quarter ended.

Even had Taylor not gotten hurt, he was never going to play the full game. Minnesota saw rushing attempts from 10 different players, and they reeled off yards at a 5.6 yards per carry clip. Freshman Grant Washington paced the group with 126 yards on 20 carries. A.J. Turner, the Marshall transfer, found pay dirt for the first time as a Gopher and had 33 yards on six carries.

Fame Ijeboi also showed plenty of burst out of the backfield. Another freshman, he had 51 yards on just seven carries and ripped off a 14-yard gain. Ijeboi scored his first career touchdown on a 22-yard pass from Stillwater walk-on sophomore quarterback Max Shikenjanski.

As Fleck noted, the Gophers have a boatload of tailback and they’ll likely need all of them to contribute in the short term. It seems unlikely that Taylor would be ready to go next weekend against Cal. Getting him back on September 27 against Athan Kaliakmanis and Rutgers at home would be a great outcome.

Mentioned in this article:

More About:
0What do you think?Post a comment.