Minnesota ‘rows the boat’ past West Virginia in Guaranteed Rate Bowl win

PHOENIX — The Minnesota Golden Gophers “rowed the boat” past the West Virginia Mountaineers in the 2021 Guaranteed Rate Bowl at Chase Field in front of a crowd of 21,220 fans.

“Row the boat” is a never-give-up mantra created by Gophers head coach P.J. Fleck after his infant son died of a heart condition in 2011. It refers to the energy (oar), sacrifice (boat) and leadership (compass) required in order to achieve what they set out to accomplish.

Minnesota dominated West Virginia on Tuesday night by a final score of 18-6 to win the 32nd edition of the bowl and the first since 2019 after last year’s exhibition was canceled due to COVID-19.

The Gophers finished with a whopping 358 total yards of offense — 249 of which came on the ground — to go along with 38:29 minutes of possession. Compare that to the Mountaineers’ 206 total yards, 15 of which came on the final play of the contest.

Offensively, Minnesota was led by redshirt-freshman running back Ky Thomas and freshman running back Mark’kiese Irving. The duo combined for 273 rushing yards on 40 carries (6.8 yards per rush) and one touchdown. Thomas took home the offensive player of the game award thanks to his 144 yards on 21 carries (6.9 per attempt) and half of the Gophers’ touchdowns on the night.

“I thought our guys played incredibly hard, played tough,” Fleck said postgame. “First of all, start with the year: When you look at this year… if you would have bet Ky Thomas would have been the bowl game MVP, you’re probably not working anymore.

“That’s no disrespect to Ky, but when you look at our backfield of seven tailbacks with scholarships, not many people in the country have seven scholarship tailbacks, and we do. And we needed every single one of them. In fact, we needed to move a linebacker over to running back.”

Defensively, Minnesota made life a living nightmare for West Virginia quarterback Jarret Doege, as the Gophers sacked the WVU QB a total of five times, hit him an additional two times and picked him off once. Minnesota junior safety Tyler Nubin took home the defensive player of the game award after he put up eight total tackles (seven solo) one tackle for loss, one sack and one pass breakup.

“I think it was really just our mentality on defense, just really keeping everything in front of us, being aggressive on the outside, tackling well — just everything that we’ve been doing all year,” Nubin said postgame.

“I think we just wanted to up the emphasis on everything that we did. Just playing good defense, going out one more time, playing elite defense with our guys. I really don’t think it was anything too different. I think it was just emphasis on getting better at what we do and what we do well and doing that in the game.”

Despite losing the turnover battle 2-1, Minnesota was all over West Virginia pretty much from the opening kickoff and could’ve blown the doors off the Mountaineers in the first half if it weren’t for some self-destructive errors in the first quarter. In fact, Minnesota’s worst starting field position of the first half was their own 35-yard line after West Virginia sent a kickoff out of bounds.

After forcing West Virginia to punt on each of its first three possessions, Minnesota’s offense moved right down the field and into the red zone on each of its first three drives. However, a missed 33-yard field goal by kicker Matthew Trickett and a lost fumble by Thomas on the first two Gopher possessions, respectively, led to a scoreless game after the first 15 minutes of play.

“They’re talking about three drives empty. It could have been a lot different if we were able to execute on those,” Fleck said. “That’s what I love about this team: They just moved on to the next play. Their response is incredible.

“There’s a major difference between response and reaction. These guys are trained to respond. They taught us an awful lot tonight. They are an example of the culture. We just coach. We can’t play. We can’t be the one out there responding. They have to do it and they’ve got that down.”

Both teams traded rushing touchdowns early in the second quarter, with Minnesota using offensive lineman Daniel Faalele to punch in the opening score of the contest from two yards out.

Touchdown Minnesota

Daniel Faalele rushes it in from two yards out. The 2-point conversion is good.

8-0 Gophers | 2Q 14:19 pic.twitter.com/U7x7yEoWic

— Jake Anderson (@jwa1994) December 29, 2021

“Not at all, he’s 400 pounds,” Fleck said when asked if there was any hesitation on the play call. “Once that thing gets moving forward, it’s hard to be able to stop that thing.

“We ran the ball with him a few years ago in the spring game. We threw it last year and we decided to run it this time. There was no hesitation. I thought [co-OC Matt] Simon did a great job calling the game, smart game, especially as you miss a field goal to start the game. Then you fumble, which we won’t have to talk about.”

After failing to cross midfield until the second quarter, West Virginia capitalized on its only red zone trip of the contest on a 4th-and-goal from two yards out. Doege scrambled to his right and found the pylon for his team’s lone score of the ballgame.

Minnesota answered two drives later via the run game after Thomas busted one open for a 50-yard gain, and two plays later, punched it in from five yards out to bring the contest to its halftime score of 15-6 in the Gohpers’ favor.

Touchdown Minnesota

RB Ky Thomas finishes off the drive with a 5-yard TD run. PAT is good.

15-6 Gophers | 2Q 2:14 pic.twitter.com/lHVJXS5ZAZ

— Jake Anderson (@jwa1994) December 29, 2021

The second half left much to be desired, as a 49-yard field goal from Trickett was the only scoring done in the final 30 minutes of the ballgame.

In fact, the Mountaineers only managed to cross midfield three times in the contest, none of which occurred in the fourth quarter as the Gophers bled the final eight minutes off the clock en route to victory formation.

West Virginia has only managed to cross midfield 3 times through 3 quarters. WVU drives:

Punt
Punt
Punt
Touchdown
Punt
Interception
Punt
Turnover on downs

18-6 Minnesota | 4Q 15:00

— Jake Anderson (@jwa1994) December 29, 2021

Minnesota finishes its 2021 season with a 9-4 record (6-3 Big Ten), while West Virginia completes the year under .500 at 6-7 (4-5 Big-12).

“Nine wins is really a tremendous season for us,” Fleck said. “But when you look at how they got to nine wins and the people they are and what they overcame to get there, as (his wife) Heather said, those are the statues. Those are the trophies of these young men growing up.”

“Row the Boat. Ski-U-Mah. Go Gophers,” he added at the conclusion of the press conference.

Follow @jwa1994