It was supposed to be a farewell sendoff for one PJ -- Georgia Tech’s Paul Johnson -- but the Quick Lane Bowl quickly became all about the other -- P.J. Fleck, that is.
The boat was rowed quite a bit in a one-sided affair up in Detroit as Minnesota dominated from start to finish in an eventual 34-10 victory that may have been the latest sign that the Gophers were turning a corner under their energetic head coach who is all to familiar with winning in the state of Michigan.
While Minnesota quarterback Tanner Morgan was just 7-of-13 passing for 132 yards, the young freshman did toss two beautiful scoring strikes to top wideout Tyler Johnson (57 yards too) and kept the chains moving when needed as the program won their third straight bowl game. Running back Mohamed Ibrahim was really the straw that stirred the drink in this one though, posting a breakout game with 224 yards and a pair of scores for an offense that seemed to do whatever they wanted and had zero problem taking advantage of several short fields.
It’s not often that you see a team win the time of possession battle over an opponent running the triple option but the Gophers didn’t really have any issues doing just that as all but one offensive drive before the final kneel-down wound up putting points on the board and that lone exception resulted in a missed field goal just before halftime.
While everything was going right for the Big Ten program at Ford Field, the Yellow Jackets couldn’t buy a stop on defense and managed just one sustained drive on offense prior to the final quarter. QB TaQuon Marshall barely looked like the explosive playmaker we’ve seen this season and completed just four passes for 76 yards while rushing for 75 more on the ground. He did make a nice read and pitch to Nathan Cottrell for a 20 yard touchdown in the third quarter but there just weren’t many big plays and Tech was behind the sticks far too often on third down to get anything going.
The result (and perhaps the effort overall) is surely a bummer to so many of the players on the roster who no doubt wanted to send their head coach out with a win after he announced he was stepping down earlier in the month to wrap up an 11-season tenure. Johnson concludes his tenure on the Flats with a 82-60 overall record and, while the ending wasn’t what he or the team wanted after falling to 7-6 on the year, there are still plenty of good memories with him in charge of the program to reminisce over like that thrilling Orange Bowl run back in 2014.
He wasn’t the PJ who wound up with a Gatorade bath on Wednesday night though as the Gophers rose to the occasion and turned in a dominating performance to give Fleck his first postseason victory at Minnesota.
