Tale of the Tape: Minnesota Gophers vs Purdue Boilermakers

It’s homecoming week in Dinkytown, meaning the University of Minnesota campus is the place to be this weekend. But while the rest of the school parties, PJ Fleck and the (3-2, 1-1) Minnesota Gophers football team are all business following a 42-3 butt-kicking at the hands of the #1 Ohio State Buckeyes last week.

Saturday evening at 6:30 p.m. CDT, the Golden Gophers are back at Huntington Bank Stadium for their 2025 homecoming matchup against a much more comparable Big Ten foe, the (2-3, 0-2) Purdue Boilermakers.

Minnesota Gophers vs Purdue Boilermakers (Oct 11, 2025)

If you are looking for how the Gophers and Boilermakers matchup on paper, you are in the right spot. Below, you will find all the worthwhile comparables between Purdue and Minnesota, heading into Saturday night’s primetime matchup on Big Ten Network.

Included below, you will find Minnesota Gophers vs Purdue Boilermakers betting odds, basic/advanced tale of the tape (team stats) and top performers to watch from both teams. If you believe there are other statistics or categories that should be added to this post for future matchups, please let us know.

Gophers vs Boilermakers Betting Odds

Obviously, the oddsmakers are all in on the Minnesota Gophers winning by two scores on homecoming, against a Purdue Boilermakers team that PJ Fleck & Co have lost two straight games against (49-30 in 2023, 20-10 in 2022).

But the 2025 Boilermakers come into this one having lost three-straight (USC, @ Notre Dame, Illinois), and as you will see in the tale of the tape below, they are one of the worst teams in the Big Ten on defense and their offense has been unreliable, at best.

On the other side, the Minnesota Gophers defense looks a lot better on paper than it has with the eye test, but you can see in some of the advanced metrics below, that there are plenty of cracks in their armor. Offensively, let’s just say the Gophers move the ball a lot better through the air than they do on the ground.

Minnesota vs Purdue Tale of the Tape (Basic)

MN Gophers vs PUR Boilermakers Tale of the Tape (Advanced)

Lastly, here are some of the players from both teams that you can expect to see a lot on Saturday evening. For the Gophers, redshirt sophomore Drake Lindsey looks to bounce back off of a step-back performance against the Buckeyes in which he went from Ohio State killer in the first drive to Horseshoe loser for the rest of the 3.5 quarters.

Minnesota Gophers vs Purdue Boilermakers players to watch

Without a doubt, this is a get-right game for the young right-handed gunslinger, if he can take advantage of an incredibly leaky Purdue pass defense that only takes the ball away 0.2 times per game.

Defensively, the Gophers will look to hold down Purdue QB Ryan Browne, who has thrown almost as many interceptions through five games, as he has touchdowns.

Darius Taylor will lead Minnesota run game, which has been incredibly pedestrian so far in 2025. Again, the Boilermaker defense will give them a chance to change their best on the ground too.

Purdue’s mediocre run game is led by Devin Mockobee, who is averaging just 3.8 yards per carry this season. Minnesota won’t let that fool them, however, as Mockobee has run all over the Gophers during the past two matchups (265 yds, 2 TD total) between these two Big Ten rivals.