Gophers' Drake Lindsey already impressing as true freshman

Lindsey has already emerged as a viable option for Minnesota.

Picture via @john_jdlindsey on X /

Minnesota's quarterback room went through a major transition this offseason. Adding Max Brosmer from the transfer portal took most of the headlines, but they also signed 2024 Arkansas Gatorade Player of the Year Drake Lindsey from the high school ranks.

Lindsey threw for nearly 4,000 yards and 50+ touchdowns as a senior for Fayetteville High School and despite a late push from his hometown Razorbacks, Minnesota was able to get him to put pen to paper and sign with the program.

"Right before he signed, we talked about, we had to bring in a transfer at that time and we were talking about Max [Brosmer] and I explained to him, this is going to be a really big thing for you, to learn from him and Max to take him under his wing, and Drake has done that," Gophers offensive coordinator Greg Harbaugh Jr. said Monday.

Lindsey opted to enroll early and join the Gophers program in the spring semester of last school year. At the time, he and Brosmer were the only two scholarship signal callers on the roster and he quickly impressed the coaching staff.

"If you saw him in the spring, he was running the two-offense as a true freshman and he should be a senior in high school," Harbaugh said. "He's done a great job — as soon as he got in [to school] in January, learning the offense, making mistakes, learning from those mistakes. He's a natural thrower of the football."

In the spring portal window, Minnesota added Virginia Tech transfer Dylan Wittke to the quarterback room, but Lindsey still seems to have a stranglehold on the backup role. Minnesota lost Athan Kaliakmanis and Drew Viotto to the transfer portal in the offseason, but Harbaugh is growing a close relationship with the new-look room in 2024.

"You talk about a unique relationship, I tell him all the time, I love him, I love his family," Harbaugh said when asked about Lindsey. "It's cool to be able to coach those guys when you go into the room every day. We have moments, it might be 30 minutes extremely serious, it might be another 10 where we're sharing a story about something, then we're back at it. It's cool to have that relationship with those guys."

The Gophers offense will be led by Brosmer in 2024, but the staff seems to like what they have with Lindsey. The modern college football world seems to change every day, especially when it comes to roster construction, but it looks like Lindsey is the future of the quarterback position in Minnesota.