Not much has gone according to plan, and Minnesota (5-7) almost certainly wouldn’t have been able to predict how its season would end.
Obviously it wasn’t picturing needing to replace coach Jerry Kill after health concerns forced him to retire, and it surely couldn’t have known that a losing record would still be good enough to get the program into a bowl game.
But here are the Gophers in the postseason after an arduous season loaded with adversity, in position to cap the year with a victory and potentially generate some momentum for new full-time coach Tracy Claeys.