It’s been a different kind of offseason for the Minnesota Gophers football team. Normally, PJ Fleck likes to take a full 25-man class of mostly high schoolers. In 2021, Fleck opted for just 16 of those. Because of the free year of eligibility in 2020 for existing players, Fleck has filled out roster holes with transfers this offseason, hoping for more immediate results in 2021.

The latest in his impressive transfer class is DT Nyles Pinckney. A former Clemson Tiger, Pinckney has a wealth of experience that current Golden Gophers can only dream of.

Pinckney is a graduate transfer who played four seasons under Dabo Swinney. That includes NINE games as a RS freshman, ELEVEN games as a RS sophomore, TWELVE as a RS junior and ELEVEN more in 2020 as a RS Senior.

Pinckney is already on NFL Draft radars and had an invite to the East/West Shrine Bowl this offseason. Still, he only started 13 of his career games for the ACC powerhouse. That’s why Nyles is looking to pump up his NFL profile for one more season under another “raw raw” head coach, PJ Fleck.

pic.twitter.com/Dpwh0th16i

— Nyles Pinckney (@NylesPinckney) January 11, 2021

Wealth of experience at DT

The Gophers now have a ridiculous wealth of experience at defensive tackle. According to GopherIllustrated.com, Pinckney will become the most tenured of the DT bunch (by snap count – 1,166) when he joins the team. But he joins 7th-year senior Micah Dew-Treadway and 5th year seniors Keonte Schad and (NC State transfer) Val Martin.

Together, they house around 3,000 career defensive snaps. The senior group will allow another year of growth for promising young DT’s Rashad Cheney and De’Angelo Carter as well.

Gaining strength and experience up middle of defense

Fleck has now added multiple transfers up the middle on defense, including Pinckney and Martin at DT and Jack Gibbens at inside linebacker. That’s good because this is a defense that was destroyed by the interior run game all season.

The other transfer they added was Dylan Wright from Texas A&M, who still has all four seasons of his eligibility remaining.

Eric Strack | Minnesota Sports Fan

The Gophers continued their incredible 1996-1997 season on Friday vs the Clemson Tigers, in a packed Alamo Dome. Fans got 10 extra minutes of gameplay, than what they bargained for, on a night that I’m sure will go down in history (and then be erased from it).

It didn’t look that way, to start. The Gophers completely dominated the first 15 minutes of this Sweet-16 matchup and it looked like this one might get away early. They couldn’t miss. Midway through the half, Bobby Jackson, Sam Jacobson and Co. were shooting 77% from the field…

Sam Jacobson gets 3 the old fashioned way…. this 1997 team was so stacked. #Gophers pic.twitter.com/499cWOx9bY

— Minnesota Sports Fan (@realmnsportsfan) March 21, 2020

Bobby Jackson gets blitz by a screen on defense but recovers for his own fast break old-fashioned 3… pic.twitter.com/p4sT6VEsn2

— Minnesota Sports Fan (@realmnsportsfan) March 21, 2020

The Gophers cooled off at the end of the 2nd half though, and Clemson caught fire, leading to a rabid comeback. In no-time, a lead that stood strong at around 15 points for most of the first, was down to just 6 points when the teams entered the locker room.

The second half didn’t start off much better. Bobby Jackson had gone cold and that’s part of what drove the comeback for Clemson. Just a couple minutes into the second, Bobby had the ball at the right-side wing and, during live play, turned to the ref and said something that was aggregious enough for him to be T’d up on the spot.

Clem Haskins immediately pulled him out and had to talk him down. As Bobby grabbed a warmup and tried to relax, Sam Jacobson reminded the country how he plans on playing in the NBA, too.

With a man in his face and Bobby venting, Sam raised up and drilled this 3-pointer before going back and playing POST defense that single-handedly caused a turnover. Sam does it all… and the Gophers needed it in this moment.

Sam Jacobson with the clutch 3 and D. #Gophers were losing momentum and B. Jackson was on the bench… frustrated after a tech-foul pic.twitter.com/DcjDhDXiY0

— Minnesota Sports Fan (@realmnsportsfan) March 21, 2020

From that point forward… this game was a heavyweight bout. Both teams through haymakers back and forth, showing us what great college basketball looks like. I have a feeling, future college basketball just won’t be the same.

Like many of these March Madness games do, this Sweet 16 street fight came down to clutch free throws… and the Sophomore Quincy Lewis, who I think has a very real future in local TV broadcasting, wasn’t up to the challenge.

He needed both free throws to ice the game and send Minnesota to the Elite 8. He needed one to secure a 3-point lead. Instead, he missed both and that led to this game-tying layup, which sent the game to its first OT. Clem Haskins took blame for the bad transition defense, saying he was too worried about the 3 that would have won it for the Tigers.

Quincy Lewis misses two free throws which allows Clemson to come down and force OT… #Gophers pic.twitter.com/ZiRwRm4aDL

— Minnesota Sports Fan (@realmnsportsfan) March 21, 2020

“We didn’t want to let them beat us with a three, and we told them to get back on defense,” he said. “I think that was a case of overcoaching, because we got too concerned with the three that we let them get an easy basket.” — Clem Haskins

The Baltimore Sun – March 21, 1997

The first OT felt like the Gophers trying to hang on and Rick Barnes was frustrated after the game, because Clemson didn’t take advantage (quote below) I’m sure he felt like there was a chance for Clemson to go for the jugular…

They took an early 4-point lead but the Gophers were able to hold it together and actually had a chance to win at the buzzer… but Bobby Jackson clanked a mid-range jumper (a shot I think might disappear in 20 years) that would’ve kept us from the 2nd overtime… which was all gophers.

With Minnesota up 4 of their own points and 1:40 left on the clock, Bobby crossed half-court… where the ball would stay until it was ticking under :40. It was an incredibly possession, that essentially ended the game. Jackson rose up and buried a 15-footer to put the maroon and gold up 6. Even more clutch than his make though, was Courtney James’ offensive rebound to extend the possession.

With time running out, the #Gophers take a full minute off the clock, before Bobby Jackson ices the game and sends the maroon and gold to the Elite 8… pic.twitter.com/MDd1LsLhMg

— Minnesota Sports Fan (@realmnsportsfan) March 21, 2020

Jackson would finish with 36 points and 9 rebounds. Jacobson helped out with 29 of his own. The rest of the team scored 25 combined. This is nothing new from the Gophers, though. Batman Bobby and Robin Sam have been stopping opponents in their tracks all season.

That’s why Jackson was named Big Ten Player of the Year.

1997 Bobby Jackson was better than you remember him… #Gophers pic.twitter.com/teOvVWvVob

— Minnesota Sports Fan (@realmnsportsfan) March 21, 2020

When it was all said and done, this was one of the better college basketball games I’ve seen played and the coaches agree… though Clemson coach Rick Barnes didn’t want to talk about that postgame.

“Wow — that’s my statement for the game,” said Minnesota coach Clem Haskins. “I’ve been a part of a lot of games — over 2,000 to be exact as a player and a coach — and this one ranks right up there with all of them. These guys refused to die. They refused to quit.” — Clem Haskins

The Baltimore Sun – March 21, 1997

“We all know it was a great game, but right now everyone on our team feels very disappointed. We did a great job to get the game into overtime, but we didn’t do a great job executing in the first overtime.” — Rick Barnes

The Baltimore Sun – March 21, 1997

Now, the Gophers look to the Elite 8, where UCLA and a chance at the Final 4, awaits.

Eric Strack | Minnesota Sports Fan

We replayed this game, from the below YouTube video, as a large group on Twitter today. Ryan James of GopherIllustrated.com (247 Sports) coordinated the effort. I believe his plan is to do the same thing with the UCLA game, next weekend. Follow him on Twitter, to keep updated on that viewing party.

Here is the full game from the YouTube channel we watched on:

The Minnesota Golden Gophers men’s basketball team provided a small bright spot in an otherwise dismal weekend for Minnesota sports fans Monday Night at The Barn. While most people were glued to their TV sets, watching the Vikings lose to the Seattle, the Gophers finally seemed to come together and beat a team from a power 5 conference.

Marcus Carr and company took down the Clemson Tigers 78-60 on the opening night of the annual Big 10 ACC challenge, which is now tied at one game a piece, after Miami (FL) took down Illinois last night too. The Gophers never trailed in the game and seemed to have full control for all 40 minutes. Carr led the team with 24 points and 9 assists, while Oturu and Kalscheur both provided worthy performances all around.

Depth is a huge concern with this team, all but 9 points tonight came from the starters. This team will need more from the bench if they want to make any type of noise during the Big Ten season. While the Gophers seem to be a team with major growing pains, it is still fun to watch when they control the game like they did last night.

Minnesota opens up a brutal Big 10 schedule next Monday at Iowa, before playing two more non-conference games

SKI-U-MAH

Cam Thompson | Minnesota Sports Fan