The Gophers opened the 1968 football season with home losses to O.J. Simpson and Southern Cal (29-20) and powerful Nebraska (17-14). The crowds for those two home games at Memorial Stadium totaled 116,182.
The Gophers then defeated Wake Forest, went 5-2 in the Big Ten and finished No. 18 in the coaches' United Press International poll.
This was a continuation of a very positive decade, with Murray Warmath's gang going to the program's only Rose Bowls after the 1960 and 1961 seasons, and tying for their most recent Big Ten title with Indiana and Purdue in 1967.