Gophers top Syracuse for 6th straight bowl victory
Although the biggest storyline from the Pinstripe Bowl was the injury to quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis, the Minnesota Gophers defeated Syracuse 28-20 for the sixth straight bowl victory.
- 2022: Minnesota 28, Syracuse 20 –Pinstripe Bowl
- 2021: Minnesota 18, West Virginia 6 – Guaranteed Rate Bowl
- 2020: Minnesota 31, Auburn 24 – Outback Bowl
- 2019: Minnesota 34, Georgia Tech 10 – Quick Lane Bowl
- 2018: Minnesota 17, Washington State 12 – Holiday Bowl
- 2017: Minnesota 21, Central Michigan 14 – Quick Lane Bowl
It's the fourth straight bowl win under head coach P.J. Fleck. The previous two were under head coach Tracy Claeys. Before that, Minnesota had dropped seven straight bowl games under Glen Mason, Tim Brewster and Jerry Kill.
In the Pinstripe Bowl, redshirt freshman Athan Kaliakmanis left the game in the second quarter with an apparent leg injury. He was replaced by sixth-year senior Tanner Morgan, who threw the ball just seven times. Two of them went for touchdowns to Daniel Jackson.
Sixth-year senior running back Mo Ibrahim had 71 yards on 16 carries, one of them for his 20th touchdown of the season. His 20 touchdowns are a single-season Gophers record and he passed David Cobb for the most rush yards in a season (1,665) and Darrell Thompson for the most rush yards in Gophers history (4,668).
The biggest play of the day belonged to Minnesota's defense as freshman cornerback Coleman Bryson picked off Garrett Shrader and returned it 70 yards for a touchdown to put the Gophers up 21-10 in the third quarter.
The Gophers end the 2022 season with a record of 9-4. They went 9-4 in 2021, 3-4 in the Covid-shortened 2020 season, 11-2 in 2019, 7-6 in 2018 and 5-7 in 2017, which was Fleck's first year at Minnesota.
