Biggest Winners and Losers from Gophers Debacle @ Purdue

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Biggest Winners and Losers from Gophers Debacle @ Purdue

Biggest Winners and Losers from Gophers Debacle @ Purdue — Marc Lebryk-Imagn Images via Reuters Connect

Eric Strack · Minnesota Sports Fan

Sun, Oct 11, 2026 ·

8 min read

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Well, that was fun while it lasted. One week after taking the Little Brown Jug from Michigan at home for the first time in 50 years, the Minnesota Gophers went to West Lafayette on Saturday night and got run over 41-13 by the Purdue Boilermakers.

Minnesota is now 4-2 overall and 2-1 in the Big Ten, and this one felt a whole lot more like the 38-13 beatdown against Mississippi State than the two Big Ten wins that came after it.

Purdue outgained the Gophers 464-275 and won the time of possession battle by more than 14 minutes (37:07 to 22:53). That's not a recipe for victory if you're Minnesota.

Now, the Gophers get their bye week now, which is probably a good thing. But before they get ready for a ranked Iowa squad in two weeks, let us sort through the wreckage.

Biggest Gopher football winners and losers vs Purdue

Fame Ijeboi – Winner

Fame Ijeboi spent the past two seasons in Dinkytown. In 2025, he ran for 441 rushing yards, which ranked second on the team behind only Darius Taylor . He averaged 4.5 YPC, added 54 yards on 12 receptions and scored 3 total touchdowns.

Unfortunately, as is the case oftentimes during the NIL era, shortly after Taylor announced he was coming back for another season, Ijeboi hit the transfer portal and eventually signed with Purdue. Since, all he's done is blossom into the Big Ten's most productive running back.

And Saturday night, with his former team in town, Ijeboi carried the ball 31 times for 195 yards (6.3 YPC) and three touchdowns as the Boilermakers pounded Minnesota's defense into the ground like a spike in soft dirt.

🏈 195 YDS🏈 3 TDSFame Ijeboi had a day in @BoilerFootball's win over Minnesota. https://t.co/ywuaxuWBeh

— Purdue On BTN (@PurdueOnBTN) October 11, 2026

It started early when Ijeboi picked up 48 rush yards during Purdue's first drive alone. When the dust finally settled in West Lafayette, the former Gopher posted six runs of 10 yards or and proved unstoppable at the goal line, where he powered in all three scores.

After Saturday night's performance, Fame now ranks 4th in the Big Ten in rushing yards (594) and 2nd in rushing touchdowns (10). To make matters worse for Gopher fans, he's EXACTLY what the Minnesota offense is missing.

Darius Taylor – Loser

This is not all on Darius Taylor, but the comparison is unavoidable. Blame it on health, but the once-dynamic, exciting running back looks like a cooked shell of what he was when he took the Big Ten by storm as a freshman.

While his 2025 backup ran all over Minnesota's defense, the guy they paid BIG money to stay finished with 7 carries for 15 yards (2.1 YPC). More depressing, his poor performance was pretty standard for this season, where he's carried the ball 64 times for 154 yards and a depressing 2.4 YPC.

Darius Taylor would need 80 carries in a game to reach the 163 yards that Ijeboi currently has. #Gophers

— Minnesota Rossco. Since 1986! (@TheRossBrendel) October 11, 2026

Taylor was much more useful as a receiver, with 7 catches for 51 yards. Meanwhile, the Gophers as a team ran just 13 times for 27 yards. And when Minnesota needed two yards on fourth down in the fourth quarter, it was Taylor who got the call and Taylor who got stuffed.

Taylor has been productive when healthy, I guess. But when is he healthy? He wasn't on the injury report this week so if he isn't healthy now then it's quite possible he never will be. And given how Ijeboi pounded the rock for Purdue, Fleck has to be living in regret this morning.

PJ Fleck – Loser

Speaking of PJ Fleck, he's the second loser on our list. For starters, Minnesota went 0-for-2 on fourth down, 4-of-13 on third down, committed seven penalties for 77 yards and turned the ball over twice without forcing a single takeaway.

We've see the 10-year head coach have some tough games on the sideline, but this one might be at the top of the list. PJ clearly came in with a game plan centered around Darius Taylor and an offensive mindset to establish the run.

It became obvious very early that game plan was not going to work because Taylor was ineffective from the opening kick. Instead of making adjustments, Fleck went back to the ground game again and again and again. Even when Minnesota came out of halftime down 21-3, the Gopher offense went 3-and-out on three-straight run plays.

Lindsey's third down slot fade is too far, and PJ Fleck elects to punt from Purdue 37 on a 4th and 4.Nestor catches it at the 2, but just a bit surprised you don't try a field goal, if not just go for thatbut also, that's a very Fleck decision

— Ryan Burns (@RyanBurnsMN) October 11, 2026

PJ Fleck: The Big Ten's Most Okayest Football Coach❤️ https://t.co/UxMZBudtcF

— Scary Alvarez (@barryisthedon) October 11, 2026

Drake Lindsey hasn't been the first round draft pick he was touted to be by some draft experts this preseason but PJ is going to have to show him a little bit of trust the rest of this season if the Gophers are going to recover and finish strong, meaning the head coach will have to change his best.

By the time Fleck woke up, the game was already over. To his credit, PJ did not dodge his responsibility for Saturday's loss. We got a lot of classic Fleck talk in his post game presser. But when it came to his own showing, PJ called it "a really poor head-coaching performance," and nobody watching would disagree.

"In every single aspect – offensively, defensively, special teams – we beat ourselves. And, in every aspect, we got beat. When those two [happen], the score looks like that."

PJ Fleck, via the Star Tribune

PJ Fleck Haters – Winners

Two weeks of good vibes, a road win at Washington and the Little Brown Jug back in Minneapolis had the PJ Fleck critics pretty quiet. Of course, that didn't last long.

By the end of the night, the haters had a 28-point road loss to Purdue, a 2.1 yards-per-carry rushing attack and a head coach calling his own performance poor. The Gophers have now lost both of their games this season by a combined 79-26, and the back half of the schedule features six teams that are a combined 27-6.

And don't forget about that time he traded a timeout and challenge for two yards that turned a 51-yard field goal into a 49-yard field goal that Drewzqyki would have made from 65, given where it hit the netting behind the end zone.

Confused. #GophersPJ Fleck challenges the spot from the 33-yard line to 31 and gets it moved to 31, but still loses a timeout? Also, Fleck gets it to fourth and 2 at Purdue's 31 and still attempts a field goal? Need an explainer

— Andy Greder (@andygreder) October 11, 2026

If you watched yesterday's game, it's hard to come away feeling optimistic for the future — not when we've been complaining about the same things for a decade.

With a bye week on the horizon, we will spend the next two weeks talking about whether or not PJ Fleck should be fired and the majority will probably prefer he be let go, despite the numbers telling us he's the best coach in modern day Gopher history.

Coach	Years	Overall W-L	Win %	Big Ten W-L	Big Ten Win %
PJ Fleck	2017-present	70-46	.603	41-41	.500
Glen Mason	1997-2006	64-57	.529	32-48	.400
Tracy Claeys	2015-2016	11-8	.579	6-8	.429
Jerry Kill	2011-2015	29-29	.500	14-21	.400
Tim Brewster	2007-2010	15-30	.333	6-21	.222

Luckily for Fleck, he has Mark Coyle and the U of M Board of Regents on his side so he's going nowhere. However, that shouldn't take away from the legitimacy of said question surrounding PJ's ability to lead Minnesota to a brighter future.

Danny Collins – Loser

Danny Collins ' defense had been the story of Minnesota's turnaround. After the Mississippi State mess, it held Washington to 279 total yards with seven sacks, then held Michigan to just 180 total yards, per the Star Tribune.

Purdue blew that up. The Boilermakers ran for 305 yards on 47 carries (6.5 YPC) and piled up 464 total yards. Quarterback Ryan Browne added 81 rushing yards and a score on just seven carries. The Gophers finished with zero sacks, three tackles for loss and zero takeaways.

Maverick Baranowski led the Gophers with 11 tackles. As he put it after the game, "we've got to tackle better." The bye week could not come at a better time for Collins and his defense.

MSF Live Stream – Winner

The game was ugly. The company was not. Our live stream of Gophers vs Purdue on the Minnesota Sports Fan YouTube channel pulled in over 1,000 views on Saturday night.

Thank you to everyone who hung out, vented and stuck around through a fourth quarter nobody should have had to watch alone. Misery loves company, and we had plenty of it.