P.J. Fleck said Akron was "doing some really good things in the zone game," so Minnesota went to counter and gap runs. They paid off in the fourth quarter, when A.J. Turner scored from 4 yards and T.J. Thomas broke a 71-yard touchdown run. Before the switch, with Darius Taylor sidelined, Minnesota's backs averaged about 1.3 yards per carry in the first half.
Minnesota won 41-7 at home. That is the expected outcome; the Gophers were a 24-point favorite and cleared the number by 10, moving to 2-1. So the score tells you almost nothing. What happened inside it tells you a lot.
What the box score gives, and what it takes back
The raw repair was real. Minnesota finished with 395 total yards on 64 plays, 6.2 per play, with 191 net rushing yards and just four penalties for 45 yards. But Thomas's single 71-yard run accounted for 71 of those 191 rushing yards; his other 12 carries produced 51.
The passing touchdowns came the same qualified way. Drake Lindsey went 17-for-31 for 204 yards with three touchdowns and a tipped-ball interception, and the scoring throws covered 16 yards to Roman Voss, 6 to Noah Jennings and 18 to Jalen Smith. Each of the three followed a special-teams field-position play. They were Quayd Hendryx's 42-yard kickoff return, Javon Tracy's long punt return to the Akron 8, and Joey Gerlach's recovery of Sean Patrick's muffed punt. Minnesota did not need to drive the field to build its lead. It needed the ball at midfield or better.
Tracy's day is the cleanest thing to hold onto and the most annoying. He ran out of bounds near the Akron 8 while looking back at the coverage team with an apparent clear path to the end zone; Minnesota scored three plays later. The ball security that was the question after the Week 2 muff is no longer the question; the decision at the end of the return is.
The defense looked like itself again, 221 total yards allowed on 3.7 yards per play, 3-of-13 on third down, eight tackles for loss.
Seattle, 11 p.m. Eastern, and the part nobody has tested
Minnesota plays at Washington on Saturday at 8 p.m. PT (11 p.m. ET) on FOX, in the Big Ten opener for both teams. FanDuel has Washington favored by 9.5; the simulation gives Minnesota about a 13 percent chance to win.
Here is why the game is worth staying up for even at that price. Minnesota opened with three home nonconference games against Eastern Illinois, Mississippi State and Akron before Big Ten play begins in Seattle, which means the thing fans have been arguing about all offseason has not been touched. The Gophers went 7-0 at home and 0-5 in true road games in the 2025 regular season. Three home games in September produced zero evidence about that. Saturday produces the first.
And the program has no memory to draw on. This is Minnesota's first trip to Seattle since 1976; the last meeting between the schools was in 1977, a 19-17 Minnesota win in Minneapolis. Nobody in this building has been through it.
So watch the run calls, specifically. If Taylor plays, the whole plan looks different. As of a Sept. 21 preview, his status for Washington had not been determined, and the Big Ten's availability report required a Wednesday update. Counter and gap runs against Washington's front, on the road, with a late kickoff, are the question that actually matters. Same with Tracy. A punt return that flips 40 yards of field is worth more to a nine-point underdog than it was in a 41-7 game, because Minnesota probably is not going to out-drive Washington for four quarters.
What a good night looks like doesn't require the upset. Minnesota was picked tenth in the Big Ten preseason media poll. Beating Akron by 34 at home was never going to change that. A competitive, functional night in Seattle would.
Nothing else on Saturday's board changes Minnesota's math, which makes this a simple week of one game, one late kickoff, one question. Full numbers are in the interactive guide, and the methodology explains how the projections are built.