Minnesota quarterback Drake Lindsey discusses his performance against Buffalo
Drake Lindsey’s debut as the Minnesota Golden Gophers starting quarterback on Thursday night against the Buffalo Bulls may not have been perfect, but for a first impression, it was a strong one.
The final box score line doesn’t accurately represent the level of play for the redshirt freshman: 19-of-35 passing attempts for 290 yards and a pair of touchdowns, with one interception.
Nonetheless, throughout his first 60 minutes as Minnesota’s starting quarterback, Lindsey was in full control of the Gophers’ offense and showed excellent poise and confidence. With Lindsey’s leadership, the Gophers’ offense totaled 443 yards of offense, the third most in a season-opener for the Gophers during the P.J. Fleck era.
“Felt really good, all the coaches behind me, all the players believed in me,” Lindsey said about his performance on Thursday. “I was really confident in the game plan, prepared really well, so it felt really good.”
The start, while mostly an impressive one for Lindsey, also featured some adversity, as the redshirt freshman threw his first career interception. In the second quarter when a pass intended for Jameson Geers bounced off Geers’ leg and into the hands of a Buffalo defender.
“That was a wild experience,” Lindsey said as he recalled the play. “Great play by the guy, I’ve never seen something like that.”
But it was how Lindsey responded to not just the interception but to the ebbs and flows of the game that was the most impressive. Even when Buffalo cut Minnesota’s lead to 13-10 in the third quarter, the game never seemed to be moving too fast for the Gophers’ starting quarterback.
“I think you have to as the quarterback,” Lindsey said when asked about how he maintains composure and shakes off adversity. “Everybody’s always looking to you. You’ve got to have a good command of the offense, and I thought I did a great job of that tonight.”
That was a sentiment that head coach P.J. Fleck agreed with.
“It didn’t surprise me at all,” Fleck said about Lindsey’s composure during his own postgame press conference. “His composure is the exact same as I saw in a state championship football game.”
“He’s a cool customer,” Fleck added.
That composure was needed throughout the game as Buffalo kept Minnesota within an arm’s reach for the majority of the week one contest.
Not only were the Bulls just one play away from tying or potentially taking a lead on the Gophers, but with a new defensive coordinator calling plays, the Bulls’ defense was completely different than what the Gophers’ expected coming into Thursday night.
Lindsey also credited the Gophers’ coaching staff, in particular offensive coordinator and quarterbacks Greg Harbaugh Jr, as well as assistant quarterback coach Keegan O’Hara, for helping make those adjustments on the fly.
“I think it’s the constant communication with Coach Harbaugh and Keegan (O’Hara),” Lindsey said. “They’re constantly talking to me when I come off on the sideline. We weren’t expecting a lot of the stuff they threw at us.”
“There wasn’t really anything that I saw on tape that they did tonight. Everything was completely different,” he added. “Their pressure tendencies, they didn’t pressure at all last year. And they pressured a lot tonight. I wasn’t expecting that.”
But when in doubt, Lindsey knows what to do: trust those who are playing around him.
“You’ve got to react and trust your playmakers and trust your offensive line and running backs,” he said. “It’s just constant adapting and continuing to get better.”
For Lindsey, the help and coaching of Harbaugh and O’Hara on the sidelines also allowed the game to slow down on the field for Lindsey.
“I would say it felt really natural,” Lindsey said about his adjustment to the speed of the college game. “I would say one of the things that God blessed me with from high school, it always felt really just natural for me to go out there and just relax and play easy.”
He credits his parents, family, faith, and former Gophers quarterback Max Brosmer for that aspect of his game.
“There’s not many things you can teach to just be relaxed,” Lindsey said. ” I got to watch Max (Brosmer) do that, and it’s a blessing to be able to have that. I think constant preparation helps me with that.”
Lindsey and the Gophers will look to build upon their week one performance next Saturday when they host FCS opponent Northwestern State Demons at Huntington Bank Stadium with a kickoff time scheduled for 12:00 p.m.
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