Speaking of gambling, how about some of the chances Fleck took Saturday afternoon? For starters, the Golden Gophers elected to go for it on fourth down four times and converted twice, including Mohamed Ibrahim’s 26-yard touchdown run to give his team an early 7-0 advantage in the first quarter.
“I told the team before (the game), ‘We’re going to be aggressive,'” Fleck said. “We went for some fourth downs, we had a new kicking situation … I want to put our team in a position to be successful.”
Then, possessing the ball with a seven-point lead with under five minutes left in the game, Minnesota didn’t turn to three vanilla running plays and then punt the ball to the Huskers. Instead, it sparked a back-breaking drive with a 10-yard pass, and Ibrahim did the rest to the seal the victory. Another risk, another reward.
“Again, moving parts, you are finding out what your team can and cannot do and you have new players coming in and showing you what they can do as it happens in real-life time,” Fleck said.
The Golden Gophers showed their coach what they could do, all right. The flight home to Minneapolis should be a doozy, as the team celebrates an improbable victory.
And there should be extra room to space out on the charter. Another win.
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