Gophers, redshirt freshman QB no match for Penn State in 45-17 loss
A month ago the Minnesota Gophers were 4-0 and the talk of college football, with some going as far as saying P.J. Fleck's team was a possible College Football Playoff contender. Those talks are gone and so are any about Minnesota contending for the Big Ten West division title after they were routed at Penn State 45-17 Saturday night.
The blowout loss on national television is the third straight for the Gophers (4-3 overall, 1-3 Big Ten), who lost on homecoming to Purdue and at Illinois last Saturday.
More than 109,000 fans packed Happy Valley on Penn State's annual white out night and they roared from start to finish as Minnesota struggled on offense for a third straight week, this time with redshirt freshman Athan Kaliakmanis at quarterback in place of a concussed Tanner Morgan.
Making his first start of any kind since his junior year of high school in 2019, Kaliakmanis finished 9-of-22 for 175 yards, one touchdown and one interception. His lone touchdown pass went to tight end Brevyn Spann-Ford in the fourth quarter.
Mohamed Ibrahim rushed for 101 yards for his NCAA record-tying 15th consecutive game eclipsing the century mark, but it took him 29 carries to get there as Penn State loaded the box and dared the Gophers to throw.
On the other side, Sean Clifford shredded the Gophers for 295 yards and four touchdown passed and the Nittany Lions gashed the Gophers for 162 yards on the ground.
The loss drops Minnesota to fifth in the Big Ten West.
- Illinois (6-1, 3-1)
- Purdue (5-3, 3-2)
- Nebraska (3-4, 2-2)
- Wisconsin (4-4, 2-3)
- Minnesota (4-3), 1-3)
- Iowa (3-4, 1-3)
- Northwestern (1-6, 1-3)
Up next: Gophers vs. Rutgers, Oct. 29 at 1:30 p.m.
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.