Max Brosmer had to wait an extra hour to make his Gophers debut. Heavy rain and severe thunderstorms swept through Minneapolis and caused a delay in the Gophers home opener against the North Carolina Tar Heels.
The game ended with the Gophers kicker, Dragan Kesich, missing his second field goal of the night and North Carolina escaping Minneapolis with a 19-17 win.
Postgame, Gophers head coach P.J. Fleck said it was a team loss.
“This isn’t lost by one person. This isn’t lost by one play,” Fleck said.” We had a lot of opportunities on offense and defense and special teams.”
Joining Brosmer as team newcomers were Jai’Onte McMillan and Marcus Major, Minnesota’s leading rusher Thursday.
The Gophers 2023 leading rusher, Darius Taylor, was absent due to an injury, but Fleck said he was “close to playing.” On the defensive end, Minnesota was without an experienced returning safety, Darius Green, who led all returning secondary members with 51 tackles last season.
North Carolina won the toss and deferred, which meant Brosmer led his first drive as a Gopher to start the game.
Brosmer completed his first pass on third down, but it fell short of the first down marker and Jordan Nubin could not get the line to gain. After the second consecutive three-and-out for the Gophers, fifth-year punter Mark Crawford flipped the field with a punt that rolled to the three-yard line, a net of 58 yards.
Minnesota’s defense got the Gophers the ball right back with a three-and-out of their own.
The Gophers worked their way into the red zone before stalling inside the 10-yard line. Kesich, a top 10 kicker in the nation last season, missed his first attempt of the season.
Both teams had under 50 yards of offense in the first quarter, which ended scoreless.
North Carolina leaned on their veteran running back Omarion Hampton, who totaled 31 yards on back-to-back carries in the second quarter.
The Tar Heels continued to move the ball, and graduate quarterback Max Johnson dove across the plane to score the game’s first touchdown.
Minnesota could not respond, as the Tar Heels forced the Gophers’ third three-and-out in four drives.
Johnson tested Minnesota’s Justin Walley and paid the price as Walley picked off the pass intended for Bryson Nesbit and returned it 70 yards to the Tar Heels’ six-yard line.
Walley said he played his technique and trusted in his coaches on the interception.
“The ball was there, and I just made a play on the ball,” Walley said. “Got some good blocking from my teammates and did what I could with it.”
Walley reverted to his roots as a running back and punt returner from D’Iberville High School.
A few plays after, Major punched it in for a touchdown tying the game to put the cherry on top of Walley’s pick.
The Gophers’ defense came up with another three-and-out, bringing Bromser and the offense back onto the field. The New Hampshire transfer unleashed a perfectly layered ball to Daniel Jackson on a deep out route for 20 yards to the North Carolina 29-yard line.
Major ripped off a 19-yard rush down to the three-yard line, and two plays later, the Gophers used the tush push, with tight end Nick Kallerup shoving Bromser into the endzone.
Minnesota took the touchdown lead into the break and held the North Carolina offense to 93 yards in the first half.
North Carolina mixed pass and ran well to start the second half. The Tar Heels drove down the field, and timely plays from Johnson helped them convert three third downs.
After a methodical 17-play, 70-yard drive, the Gophers got a stop on third-and-14, forcing a field goal. Noah Burnette banged it through the uprights for the Tar Heels to make it 14-10 Minnesota with 6:34 left in the third quarter.
North Carolina’s offense quickly returned to the field after Minnesota started with a three-and-out. The Gophers sent pressure that got to Johnson, who was hit while he threw an incompletion on third down.
A holding call by Bryan in the secondary gave the Tar Heels a first down and erased the stop for the Gophers.
On the hit, Johnson suffered an injury and was carted off the field.
The sophomore quarterback Conner Harrell took Johnson’s place under center. Brown said North Carolina planned to use both quarterbacks in the game but did not expect it to occur through injury.
After leaning on Hampton to get into field goal range, Burnette hit a career-long 52-yard field goal to pull the Tar Heels within one point with 19 seconds left in the third quarter.
Brosmer led the Gophers’ offense down the field, making critical plays like a third-down scramble where he broke a sack.
Gophers wide receiver Le’Meke Brockington made a grab and turned upfield before having the ball stripped. The ball bounced right into the hands of Major, who gained 16 more yards for a total of 38 yards on the North Carolina 10-yard line.
“Coach always talks about chasing the ball,” Major said. “You never know what’s going to happen. I was just right there with it and I had my dogs back.”
The drive resulted in a 30-yard Kesich field goal, which put Minnesota in the lead 17-16 with more than three minutes left.
After a run with Hampton to start the drive, the Tar Heels used Harrell’s legs on the triple option, getting to the outside before lofting it downfield to J.J. Jones, who picked up 32 yards to the Minnesota 30-yard line.
North Carolina ran it three straight plays and burned two of Minnesota’s timeouts before Burnette drilled a 45-yard field goal to put the Tar Heels up 19-17 with 1:44 left.
With just his second completion to a tight end, this one to Jameson Geers, Brosmer got the Gophers into field goal range. After two runs to gain a bit more for Kesich, with four seconds left, it all rested on his shoulders for the second consecutive season in week one.
Last season’s Big Ten Kicker of the Year could not rekindle his game-winning magic from a season ago.