Well, most of the healthy Minnesota players will be playing vs the Hokies. That includes quarterback Max Brosmer, who will be playing in the final game of his collegiate career on Friday. So will sophomore running back Darius Taylor, who can push his rushing totals on the season over 1,000 yards, if he can gain 130 yards on the ground in the season finale.

Minnesota Gophers will be missing lots of talent at Duke’s Mayo Bowl

That’s the good news. The bad news is that some of the other most important Gophers players will not be participating. According to Ryan Burns (247Sports), most of the Gophers who are hoping to hear their name called during the 2025 NFL Draft will not play.

Those names include (LT) Aireontae Ersery, (LB) Cody Lindenberg, (WR) Daniel Jackson, (RB) Marcus Major, (C) Tyler Cooper and (OL) Phillip Daniels. That’s a lot of beef to be missing off of an offensive line that underperformed for much of the 2024 season.

“Minnesota is likely going to be without Marcus Major, Daniel Jackson, Aireonae Ersery, Tyler Cooper, Phillip Daniels. I mean, you’re going to be without quite a bit there.”

Ryan Burns (247Sports) – Gopher Gridiron Podcast (41:20 mark)

The Star Tribune’s Randy Johnson added a couple more guys to the list, noting that the Gophers “might be without” (DL) Jah Joyner and (CB) Justin Walley, as well. As you can see, Minnesota will be far from 100% in Charlotte.

Even with these expected absences, the Minnesota Gophers remain -9 favorites. Why? Well, PJ Fleck is 5-0 in bowl games as head coach at the U of M. Additionally, the Gophers are probably a better team than the Hokies, even with both squads at full strength. But if you think we have an opt-out problem, Virginia Tech has it much worse.

Related: Minnesota QB Max Brosmer Lands on NFL Draft Hot Board

As Burns also notes, the Virginia Tech Hokies will be without two 1st Team All-ACC defensive linemen, “essentially their entire secondary” and two starting linebackers. Good luck stopping Max Brosmer and Darius Taylor with that going on…

What are Gophers missing without Jackson, Ersery, Lindenberg, others?

Nonetheless, Minnesota’s absences will certainly hurt, too. Aireontae Ersery is expected to be a first round draft pick, come April. Daniel Jackson was by far the Gophers most prolific pass catcher, posting 75 receptions for 863 yards and 4 touchdowns. He was also the biggest All-Conference snub of the 2024 class.

Screw fox, that's a Gophers TD and I'm posting it pic.twitter.com/dQOnD9o9Fz

— CJ Fogler 🫡 (@cjzero) September 28, 2024

On defense, Minnesota will lose Cody Lindenberg, who easily leads the team in tackles, with 94. The 2nd highest leading tackler? Kerry Brown and Maverick Baranowski are tied at 59 each. That type of production isn’t easily replaced.

Related: CFB Expert Confidently Picks Minnesota Gophers to Win Duke’s Mayo Bowl

Good thing Virginia Tech is missing their two stud big men up front, on defense, because most of the Gophers offensive line is sitting this game out. Nonetheless, this will be a great opportunity for PJ Fleck and his coaching staff to get a look at some of the linemen who have not gotten a lot of run yet this season, then adjust their post bowl game transfer portal plans, as necessary.

The Golden Gophers offered little punch, offensively, in 2023. That’s not a new problem. This program has lacked offensive firepower, especially through the air, since that historic 2019 season, when Tanner Morgan, Tyler Johnson and Rashod Bateman busted just about every single-season passing and receiving record in the University of Minnesota history books.

Minnesota Gophers needed running back help behind Darius Taylor

But last year, a new issue presented itself. A lack of depth at running back. Thank the football gods for phenom freshman, Darius Taylor, who proved to be one of the best young talents in the country during his first collegiate season.

532 yards as a true freshman in September for Darius Taylor before getting banged up. He’s going to be an animal this year pic.twitter.com/DVY3yE5oIs

— B1G_Ryan (@B1G_Ryan) June 19, 2024

Behind him, however, the RB cupboard in Dinkytown were bare. Early on, while Taylor was winning three-straight B1G Freshman of the Week awards and running all over opposing defenses, life was good, even when it became clear that quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis was in for another difficult season.

Then, Darius went down, and while he did return later in the season, he was never really the same because he wasn’t 100%. So when Taylor committed to a return for his sophomore season, Fleck and Minnesota’s offensive coaching staff needed to find him help.

Sounds like Gophers hit on Oklahoma transfer RB, Marcus Major

We are still weeks out from the start of the 2024 regular season. But PJ believes they may have found what they were looking for, in Oklahoma grad-transfer, Marcus Major.

PJ Fleck told media members gathered on campus Saturday that “It’s one thing to be able to show it in the offseason,” Fleck beamed about his new veteran running back, “then you let him out there and run. His first few days of practice, he has been awesome.”

Marcus Major puts the game away for the #Sooners against SMU.

Check out my full highlight video: https://t.co/45KQHYvc4H pic.twitter.com/Qp2HLjaEpi

— Randall Sweet (@RandallSweet5) September 10, 2023

Gopher coaches aren’t the only ones who have been pleasantly surprised by the 5th year running back. Media eye-witness accounts at recent practices tell the same story. Ryan Burns (247Sports) went as far as calling Major “the 1B to Darius Taylor’s 1A”.

After being limited in spring practices, Oklahoma transfer running back Marcus Major has emerged as a viable option behind starter Darius Taylor.

Andy Greder – Pioneer Press

Related: Koi Perich is Trying to Make Up for Late Start with Gophers

The guy who has been turning heads during this first week has been Oklahoma graduate transfer tailback Marcus Major... He’s got some wiggle and juice to him and had a long run tonight where he made multiple defenders miss in a phone booth for an explosive play. If he keeps this up, I won’t be surprised if he’s the 1B to Darius Taylor’s 1A for North Carolina.

Ryan Burns – 247Sports

Look, we all know that New Hampshire transfer quarterback, Max Brosmer, is the one true key to the Minnesota Gophers’ success in 2024. But we’ve found out in past seasons how quickly injures at the running back position can derail the full potential of any offense, especially one overseen by PJ Fleck.

Related: Minnesota Gophers Flip Two-Sport Alabama Commit

Marcus Major only carried the ball 194 times during his five-year career at the University of Oklahoma. Nonetheless, his 833 career rushing yards make him the 2nd most prolific collegiate running back on roster.

Oklahoma Transfer Portal Running Back Commits to Minnesota Gophers

Later, after many of us had already called it a weekend, Oklahoma Sooners running back Marcus Major announced on social media that he too is heading to Dinkytown. Major is a graduate transfer who has one year of eligibility remaining. He never rushed for over 308 yards at Oklahoma, a number he reached last season, on a career-high 78 carries.

Let’s do it! #Gophers pic.twitter.com/Q9jk9EFFK8

— MDMJ24 (@Md24jr) January 8, 2024

Related: Minnesota Gophers Football Transfer Portal Tracker 2023-24

What are Gophers getting in Marcus Major?

A composite 4-Star high school recruit out of Oklahoma City, Marcus ends a 5-year run with his home state Sooners where he rushed for a total of 833 yards (4.3 YPC) and 8 touchdowns in 35 games played.

As a redshirt freshman in 2020, he appeared in 10 games and had fans around Norman excited. But injury issues and a stacked Sooner backfield cut into his long-term production at OU.

The segment I look forward to most each week on my #Devy Podcast is talking about my deep dive player. This past week I spoke about Oklahoma redshirt freshman RB Marcus Major.

A big sleeper 💤of mine. Kid can play.
Give a listen👇https://t.co/EX7Vvn8p52 pic.twitter.com/jvDbXuZNgd

— Brandon Lejeune (@DevyDeepDive) January 25, 2021

Honestly, I think the Gophers are getting an undervalued experienced running back who, in the least, will add a power and short-distance presence to their ground attack that they lacked in 2023, especially when Darius Taylor was out with injury. Marcus Major brings a lot of experience, but not a lot of punishment on his body, for a 6th-year back.

The Gophers, as a program, have two options when shopping in the transfer portal. They can take standout high school school talent (former 4-star kids usually) who didn’t reach their potential at helmet schools (like Oklahoma and Penn State).

Their other realistic option is to take established college standouts from smaller schools, who didn’t get the looks out of high school, but dominated lower level competition at their previous University. We’ve seen both approaches work and both approaches fail. Driver and Major are in the former category.

Related: Gophers Koi Perich Snags Interception, Blocks Punt in All-American Bowl MVP Performance

Gophers lose backup transfer portal QB commitment

In other news from the weekend, Minnesota also lost a transfer portal commitment from quarterback Logan Fife, who had committed to Minnesota from Fresno State.

Fife played part time for the Bulldogs each of the past two seasons. In 2023, he threw 91 passes, completed 57.1% of them for 642 yards, 3 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. He was not expected to start and only has two years of eligibility remaining.

After careful consideration with my family, I have decided it is best for me to DECOMMIT from The University of Minnesota. My recruitment is back open.

— Logan Fife (@fife_logan) January 7, 2024