Spring opponent review: Minnesota

The Minnesota Gophers went through a unique coaching change this off-season after winning 9 games in 2016.

P.J. Fleck will take over for the fired Tracy Claeys after going 13-1 this past season at Western Michigan. Nebraska travels to Minneapolis to take on the Gophers on Nov. 11. HOL caught up with TheGopherReport.com's Matt Jensen-Howard to get his thoughts on Minnesota coming out of the spring.

Previous Spring Opponent Reviews: Arkansas State | Oregon | Northern Illinois | Rutgers | Illinois | Wisconsin | Ohio State | Purdue | Northwestern

Minnesota hired P.J. Fleck after their bowl game victory over Washington State. The Gophers went 9-4 in 2016, but the program still lacked that energy and excitement level it needed to to be successful in a big city like Minneapolis.

The hope is Fleck can change that, as the Gophers currently sit at No. 15 in the Rivals 2018 recruiting class rankings, and you are seeing more marketing and branding with things like Fleck's coined "Row the Boat" phrase he took with him from Western Michigan.

You can also expect to see a more of an open offense under Kirk Ciarrocca. They want to be a balanced team, but at WMU Ciarrocca ran more pass heavy sets in spread formations.

On defense Robb Smith comes over from Arkansas after being the defensive coordinator in Fayetteville the last three seasons. He will run both 4-3 over and 4-3 under as his base scheme. He's a coordinator known for his aggressive looks.

The Gophers bring back a solid base of 14 starters in 2017, but must replace quarterback Mitch Leidner and wide receiver Drew Wolitarsky. They will look towards either Demry Croft or Conor Rhoda to be the starter this season at quarterback. Coming out of the spring Croft had a slight edge according to Jensen-Howard.

They will have a very good running game with both running backs Shannon Brooks and Rodney Smith returning. All together they have eight starters returning on offense. There still are some questions with the offensive line and receiver.

Defensively they have a solid front seven returning, but still have questions on the back end. They return a base of six starters for Smith to work with in 2017.

There may not be a better one-two punch at running back in the Big Ten than Smith and Brooks. They are the clear stars of this Gopher team under Fleck in year one.

Smith had 1,158 yards on 240 carries for 16 touchdowns in 2016, while Brooks had 650 yards on 138 carries for five scores.

The duo has 2,987 yards rushing over the last two seasons, to go along with 30 touchdowns.

The Gophers will be led on defensive by senior defensive tackle Steven Richardson. In 2016 Richardson led the Gophers with 11 tackles for loss and seven quarterback sacks.

He is not the biggest defensive tackle, but is equally effective against both the run and pass. He's one of the more "powerful" interior linemen in the Big Ten.

With the loss of Drew Wolitarsky, the Gophers lost nearly all of their production at wide receiver. One player that made some noise this spring at receiver was Tyler Johnson.

A year ago Johnson had just 14 catches for 141 yards and one touchdown, but he left the spring as arguably Minnesota's best receiver. He's really grown in a short while under new receivers coach Matt Simon.

With the Gophers making a switch to more spread looks on offense, the wide receiver position remains wide open.

With so little talent and production returning, there's plenty of playing time up for grabs, and that remains the biggest question coming out of the spring.

Besides Johnson, look for Rashad Still, Eric Carter, Melvin Holland Jr. and Isaiah Gentry to all battle for snaps this fall.

Over the course of this spring there were times the Gophers didn't have five healthy offensive linemen for one practice. It caused Fleck and his staff to get creative, just to put together practice situations.

Multiple Gopher offensive linemen had off-season surgeries that caused them to miss the spring. There are still a lot of questions how this group will gel with new offensive line coach Ed Warinner, who comes to Minnesota after serving as the offensive coordinator at Ohio State.

Jensen-Howard: "Just kind of getting balanced on offense will be important. They probably have two All-Big Ten caliber backs in Rodney Smith and Shannon Brooks, but without a quarterback with any sort of experience and without wide receivers with any sort of experience that would definitely be something to look at as an x-factor on Minnesota's end going up against an experienced secondary.

"The defensive line lost a couple players, but I think the defensive line should be alright this year. Knowing though the Huskers always have solid line play, that might be a factor in this game as well."

Jensen-Howard: "Last year they went 8-4 in the regular season and beat Washington State in the Holiday Bowl to finish 9-4. I would not expect them to win 9 games this year or next year, just because what they lost last year and what they lose next year.

"But with Fleck's recruiting I would expect they will build eventually, but for this next year I would guess probably around 7-5."