Minnesota vs California Gameday Prediction
The Minnesota Golden Gophers will take on the California Golden Bears on Saturday night in Berkley and with kickoff just hours away, it’s time for our official game prediction.
Game / Broadcast Details
Where: Berkley, California
Stadium: California Memorial Stadium (52,428)
Time: 9:30 p.m. CT
Television: ESPN
Radio: KFAN 100.3 | Mike Grimm, Darrell Thompson, Justin Gaard
Odds: Minnesota is a 2.5-point favorite over California with the total currently set at 41.5 points according to BetMGM.
Prediction
This should be an interesting overall matchup, Minnesota through two games against talent they have overmatched has looked strong. The same thing can be said about California who beat Oregon State in week one and Texas Southern last week. The Golden Bears expected to be towards the bottom of the ACC this year could be a spoiler team instead thanks to quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele.
For the Gophers, Drake Lindsey has been great through his frist two career starst, completing 27-of-44 passing attempts for 429-yards and three touchdowns. However, the Gophers are expected to not have starting running back Darius Taylor who is nursing what is thought to be a potential hamstring injury.
The lack of Taylor could be troubling for the Golden Gophers, who are 2-6 with their star running back since 2023. That being said, that is why they addressed their depth in the transfer portal this offseason by brining in A.J. Turner from Marshall and Cameron Davis from Washington. The Gophers’ offense will need Turner and Davis, as well as potential redshirt freshman Fame Ijeboi to pick up Taylor’s slack.
This should be a good test for the Gophers wide receiver room as well while being the biggest test of Drake Lindsey’s career thus far. We’ll see how Jalen Smith, Javon Tracy, and company are able to handle Power Four cornerbacks for the first time this season.
Ultimately, if Darius Taylor was healthy, I would’ve picked Minnesota to win this game but I just need to see more out of the rest of the backfield before trusting that they’ll be able to move the ball efficiently enough on the ground in order to pull out a win.
California 23 – Minnesota 20
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