Le Journal

Minnesota Golden Gophers starting quarterback Drake Lindsey was the guest on Mike Grimm’s Go Gopher Podcast today, and the redshirt freshman signal caller confirmed he will be back next season. “There was no doubt in my mind, and I’m really excited to come back for another year here,” Lindsey said. 247 Sports’ Ryan Burns is also reporting that Lindsey has signed his revenue-sharing agreement. This is notable news given the state of college football today, in which a quarterback of Lindsey’s caliber, with three years of eligibility remaining, would be highly coveted in the transfer portal. Lindsey started all 12 games for the Gophers this season, completing 63% of his passes for 2,235 passing yards with 16 touchdowns and six interceptions. Minnesota can now build their offense around him.

Trailing only by three at the half, Minnesota was blown out in the final 20 minutes, losing to #6 Purdue 85-57 in West Lafayette. Jalen Crocker-Johnson and Langston Reynolds combined for 17 points in the first half and the Gophers were keeping things close with the Boilermakers trailing just 32-35 on the road. But Purdue opened the 2nd half with a 29-2 run to end any hope of a second consecutive upset for Gopher basketball. THE STAT: Rebounding has been a relative strength for Minnesota this season but Purdue absolutely dominated the boards last night. On offense, Purdue managed to rebound 43% of their own misses for 14 offensive rebounds. And on defense they secured 87% of Minnesota’s missed shots. TURNING POINT: I would love to know what Matt Painter had to say in the locker room during halftime. Purdue was coming off a 23-point home loss to Iowa State on Saturday and they followed that loss with a lackluster effort in the first half against Minnesota. Whatever was said to get his team back on track, it worked. HOT: Purdue’s All-American point guard, Braden Smith, led the Boilermakers with 15 points but also had 12 assists, six rebounds and five steals for an all-around fantastic game. NOT: Isaac Asuma did not have his best game last night. The sophomore guard struggled shooting in the win over Indiana, but he still managed to find ways to score 15 points. In West Lafayette, Asuma was 1/3 from three, 2/8 from the field and fouled out with just five points. He did lead the team with five rebounds and five assists, but Niko Medved is going to need more from Asuma if this team is going to win Big Ten road games. Bobby Durkin gets an honorable mention here after going 0/5 from three. NOTABLE: Minnesota was 9/11 on free throws in teh second half, a stat that has typically not been very kind to the Gophers. Cade Tyson finished 7/7 from the line. UP NEXT: Minnesota has a few gimme games on the schedule before the end of 2025. First up is Texas Southern on Sunday at noon on BTN.

New head football coach Pat Fitzgerald is bringing on the first new name to his coaching staff from outside the existing crew. And it is a name that means a lot to Spartan Nation. Max Bullough was hired by MSU to be the co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach. Max, who was a linebacker at MSU from 2010-13 under Mark Dantonio brings a great pedigree to East Lansing; he was a two-time captain, a two-time All-American, and played in the NFL for three seasons with the Houston Texans. Bullough, whose family name is synonymous with Spartan Football as a 3rd generation star, has been climbing the coaching ranks since he officially wrapped up his playing career in 2018. He worked as a graduate assistant at the University of Cincinnati in 2019 and then held the same position at Alabama from 2020-22 where he got to be on the 2020 national championship team. In 2023, Bullough came back to the Midwest and served as a graduate assistant at Notre Dame for one season before becoming the linebackers coach for the Irish in 2024. In his first season in South Bend, ND made it all the way to the National Championship Game. Speaking of big games and Max Bullough, many of you certainly remember that after the 2013 Big Ten Championship, a team on which he was a captain, it was announced that Max was being suspended from the team and would not join them in Pasadena for the Rose Bowl. Unfortunate as his Spartan career came to an end, I think the fact that he is coming back here is huge. Perhaps he feels he has unfinished business and he wants to finish what he did not get to finish his first time here. He has been on teams playing in the final game in his last two stops. Hopefully he makes it three in a row. With Bullough’s addition, which has not been officially announced by MSU as of this writing, Joe Rossi will be adding “co” to his job title and will also be tabbed as the safeties coach. We will have to wait and see how this impacts incumbent safeties coach James Adams who had previously been announced as being retained by Fitzgerald. If this does become official, it is nothing short of a great addition to the MSU coaching staff.

The #4 seeded Minnesota Golden Gopher volleyball team is back in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2022 and will face off against the #1 seed in their region the Pittsburgh Panthers on Thursday night. Minnesota will try and pull the opposite than the Panthers pulled on the Gophers in the Spring 2021 season to advance to their first regional final since the fall of 2021. Minnesota advanced to the Pittsburgh Region Semifinals after a pair of 3-0 home sweets at Maturi Pavilion last weekend. The Gophers easily took care of Fairfield in the opening round Friday night before adding another clean 3-0 sweep of #5 seeded Iowa State on Saturday to keep their NCAA Tournament alive. Senior Julia Hanson went off in her final two games at The Pav. She recorded 13 kills vs. Fairfield as the Gophers as a team hit a school-record .582 for the match. On Saturday vs. ISU, Hanson took even another step, going for 23 kills on .488 to lead the Gophers to a sweep. Earlier this week Hansen added some hardware as she was named the AVCA Northwest Region Player of the Year. Joining Hanson on the AVCA All-Northwest Region First Team were freshman opposite Carly Gilk and redshirt freshman setter Stella Swenson. Redshirt senior middle blocker Lourdes Myers and freshman middle blocker Jordan Taylor were named all-region honorable mention. Minnesota head coach Keegan Cook was also named the AVCA Northwest region Coach of the Year. It’s the fourth time in his career he has received the honor and his first at Minnesota. By being named to the All-Region team the five Gophers are eligible for All-American honors from the AVCA as well which will be announced at the Final Four next weekend. Pittsburgh will be a tough opponent for the Gophers on Thursday night. They are the #1 seed in their region and the #4 overall NCAA seed. The Panthers went 28-4 this season including a 18-2 record in ACC play. They have been one of the best times in the country over the past few seasons and have made four straight Final Fours since the 2021 season. Pitt lost their first two matches of the season vs. No. 1 Nebraska and then No. 16 Florida, but have won 28 of their last 30 since, only falling at No. 18 Miami and at No. 5 Stanford. The Panthers are led by 2024 National Player of the Year Olivia Babcock, a three-time All-ACC First Team player and the ACC Player of the Year. She averages 5.06 kills per set on .329 hitting. Bre Kelly paces the defense with 1.49 blocks per set while setter Brooke Mosher leads the offense with 9.86 assists per set. Minnesota is 1-2 all-time vs. Pittsburgh, including 0-1 in the NCAA Tournament. That match was the one described above in the Sweet 16 of the Spring 2021 Covid delayed NCAA Tournament played entirely in Omaha, Nebraska. Unseeded Pitt defeated the #3 overall seeded Gophers in five sets, and it was the last time a #4 seed or lower knocked off a #1 seed in NCAA Tournament play. Minnesota would love to return the favor on Thursday night. The two programs also played in 1990 in Minneapolis, a 3-0 sweep for Pitt, and in 1999 in Hawai’i, a 3-0 win for Minnesota. One positive for the Gophers win or lose as the experience this team is getting. Of all 16 teams remaining in the NCAA Tournament, Minnesota is by far the youngest group. Of the seven starters, five are freshmen and two are seniors. Only Indiana (4) starts three-or-more freshman of the Sweet 16 teams. Pitt, SMU, Louisville, Stanford and Texas all start two freshmen. Thursday’s match is set for a 6PM first serve and will air on ESPN2 with Anne Marie Anderson, former Gopher Nicole Branagh and Shelby Coppedge on the call. The winner will face the winner of #2 SMU and #3 Purdue who will play in the earlier regional semifinal on Thursday afternoon on Saturday for a trip to the Final Four.

The artist has been with Alexander Edwards since late 2022