SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what Minnesota wants to do with the football when it faces West Virginia in Tuesday night's Guaranteed Rate Bowl at Chase Field in downtown Phoenix.
 
It wants to run the ball, run the ball and run it some more.
 
During the regular season, there were only three teams in the FBS that attempted fewer passes than the Golden Gophers.
 
One was Army. Another was Navy and the third was Air Force. If the Marines played college football, they probably would have been the fourth.
 
The Golden Gophers (8-4) tried just 243 passes this year, completing 144, for 1,997 yards and 12 touchdowns. They ran the ball an average of 45.8 times per game behind an offensive line that features three potential NFL prospects in right tackle Daniel Faalele, right guard Blaise Andries and center John Michael Schmitz.
 
This group is big, powerful and works well together, and, behind them, Minnesota has run the ball on almost every team it has faced this year, including Ohio State.
 
"They've lost several running backs as they've gone through the season, but they've continued to be productive in the run game," West Virginia coach Neal Brown said.
 
All-American candidate Mohamed Ibrahim had 163 yards rushing by the third quarter against the Buckeyes before suffering a season-ending lower leg injury. In came Trey Potts, who ran for 178 yards the following week in a victory over Miami, Ohio, and then had 121 in a road win at Colorado. 
 
Bryce Williams was the man against Nebraska, gaining 127 yards on 17 attempts, and then Ky Thomas and Mar'Keise Irving took over with 100-plus-yard rushing efforts in the victory over Maryland.
 
Thomas, who led the team on the ground in its season-ending victory over Wisconsin, led the Golden Gophers with 680 yards and five touchdowns on 145 attempts for the season.
 
Irving accounted for 570 yards and scored four touchdowns on 114 attempts, while Potts finished with 552 yards and six scores on 111 rushes. All three players averaged better than 4.7 yards per carry.
 
Twice the Golden Gophers ran for more than 300 yards in wins against Maryland and Northwestern, and topped 200 yards versus Ohio State and Colorado.
 
"The last six games, their opponents have averaged just 10 possessions and 57 plays, so you have to take that into account," Brown pointed out earlier today. "Efficiency is going to be important for us and you kind of shrink what your game plan looks like from an offensive perspective because you have a pretty good feeling going into the game you are not going to get 80 snaps, so there is no reason carrying the same amount of plays you would than maybe in a normal game."
 
Minnesota's top passing performance came in a 27-22 loss at 19^th-ranked Iowa when it threw for 220 yards and two touchdowns.
 
Senior Tanner Morgan, one of college football's most efficient passers in 2019 when Kirk Ciarrocca was calling the plays, ranked No. 71 in that category at the end of this season.
 
Morgan completed 59.7% of his 236 pass attempts for 1,935 yards and 10 touchdowns – six of those TD passes going to senior wide receiver Chris Autman-Bell, who caught a 68-yard touchdown aerial in the Iowa loss. That was Minnesota's longest scoring play from scrimmage this season.
 
In all, he grabbed 35 passes for 490 yards. Minnesota's No. 2 receiver was Brevyn Spann-Ford with 23 catches for 296 yards and a touchdown. As a group, the receiver corps accounted for just 166.4 yards per game.
 
Consequently, coach P.J. Fleck made the decision at the end of the regular season not to renew the contract of offensive coordinator Mike Sanford Jr., who has since taken a job with Colorado.
 
Ciarrocca, who served as Neal Brown's offensive analyst this season, is returning to Minnesota to once again handle the play calling duties for the Golden Gophers in 2022. Because of his relationship with both coaches, Ciarrocca made the decision to skip the bowl and will not be in Phoenix to call the offense for the Golden Gophers. Those duties will fall to co-offensive coordinator Matt Simon, who also serves as the team's wide receiver coach.
 
Simon was thrust into a similar role in Minnesota's 2020 Outback Bowl victory over Auburn.
 
"The last time he was in this situation they go and beat a top 10 team in the Outback Bowl, and he did a great job," Brown said. "And they were different in that game. This isn't Matt's first go-around at this, and I'm sure he wants to have a future in this so he's going to take full advantage of it.
 
"I don't expect them to change who they are, but we do expect the ball to be in the air a little bit more," Brown added.
 
Defensively, Minnesota has pretty much stopped everybody since its season-opening, 45-31 loss to Ohio State.
 
Boye Mafe, a 6-foot-4, 265-pound senior defensive end, led Minnesota with six sacks and nine tackles for loss to earn All-Big Ten Second Team honors by the media.
 
Mafe's roommate, Esezi Otomewo, a 6-foot-6, 285-pound senior defensive end, had 27 tackles, 2½ TFLs and a sack to earn All-Big Ten Honorable Mention honors. Jack Gibbens, a 6-foot-4, 245-pound senior linebacker, led the team with 86 total tackles. 
 
"They're really good," Brown said. "If you look at their last six games, nobody has had more than 300 yards against them. I don't remember the last time I've played an opponent that's gone on a stretch like that. They are top 10 nationally in a bunch of different categories, and I think it starts up front with three guys who are really talented in the interior of the defensive line. Their two defensive ends already have Senior Bowl invitations."
 
Colorado had minus-19 yards rushing and 63 yards of total offense against the Golden Gophers. Maryland, which defeated West Virginia 30-24 in the season opener, managed just 268 total yards in a 34-16 loss to Minnesota.
 


Northwestern produced 241 total yards in a 41-14 defeat. Iowa had 277 yards, Indiana 218 and 18^th-ranked Wisconsin got 233 in its season-ending loss to Minnesota.
 
Minnesota held all six of its remaining opponents to fewer than 277 yards, an amazing stat in today's college football.
 
Purdue had success throwing the ball against the Golden Gophers, completing 34 of its 52 pass attempts for 371 yards, but ended up losing 20-13.
 
Only Ohio State was able to run and pass against Minnesota this season, the Buckeyes gaining 201 yards on the ground and 294 yards through the air in their 14-point triumph.
 
Minnesota's other three defeats were 14-10 to Bowling Green on Sept. 25, 14-6 at Illinois on Nov. 6 and 27-22 at Iowa on Nov. 13. Against the Falcons, 31-point underdogs in that game, Minnesota's passing attack accounted for just 59 yards and two critical interceptions.
 
The Illinois defeat was a case of Minnesota receiving a dose of its own medicine. Illinois ran for 185 yards, sacked Morgan six times and picked him off twice in 14-6 victory in Minneapolis.
 
Afterward, Minnesota rebounded to rout Indiana 35-14 on Nov. 20 and concluded the regular season with an impressive 23-13 win over No. 18 Wisconsin.
 
Fleck has now claimed the Paul Bunyan Axe twice in the last three seasons for Minnesota.
 
The Golden Gophers are making their third bowl appearance under Fleck, who defeated Georgia Tech 34-10 in the 2018 Quick Lane Bowl and downed Auburn 31-24 in the 2020 Outback Bowl.
 
Overall, this will be the 22^nd all-time bowl appearance for Minnesota, which has never faced West Virginia on the gridiron.
 
Tuesday night's game will kick off at 10:15 ET and will be televised nationally on ESPN (Dave Flemming, Rod Gilmore and Stormy Buonantony). Mountaineer Sports Network coverage on stations throughout West Virginia and online via WVUsports.com and the popular mobile app WVU Gameday begins at 6:45 p.m. leading into regular network coverage at 9:15 p.m. with Tony Caridi, Dwight Wallace and Jed Drenning.
 
This will be West Virginia's third appearance in this bowl game. It lost to Missouri 34-31 in 1998 when the game was called the Insight.com Bowl and rallied to defeat Arizona State 43-42 in 2016 when the game was known as the Cactus Bowl.
 
The Mountaineers are making their second bowl appearance in Brown's three seasons at WVU. His team rallied to defeat Army 24-21 in last year's Liberty Bowl.