Minnesota Football vs. North Carolina: Staff Predictions

Road trip! The Minnesota Golden Gophers (2-0) head to Chapel Hill to take on the No. 20-ranked North Carolina Tar Heels (2-0) on Saturday at 2:30 p.m.

This Week’s Thoughts:

Blake: See my opponent preview.

GoAUpher: I would be happy to be wrong. The only thing I feel relatively sure of is that Minnesota’s defense should be able to keep them in this game. Whether the offense is able to rise to match them is more of a question.

gopherguy05: The defense keeps the UNC offense relatively in check, but the Gophers offense struggles against against a real defense and needs to figure things out.

GopherNation: Minnesota will struggle to score, but so will North Carolina. It took them two overtimes to take down Appalachian State, but that may be a bit of a wake-up call just ahead of this matchup.

HipsterGopher: These schools have never played each other in football. However they have played 5 times in men’s hoops. I am predicting Saturday’s football game will have the exact same score as the 1980 Gopher basketball win over the Tar Heels.

mowe0018: PJ Fleck is 5-0 against non-Big Ten Power 5 teams on neutral/away venues at Minnesota. Winning ugly thus far has various shades of 2019. While I don’t predict 11 wins, I do think UNC is getting a tad too much love thus far and Minnesota is better than their final scores indicate.

Ustreet: First to 21 points wins. I expect to hate watch this game.

WhiteSpeedReceiver: Have you accepted Joe Rossi as your savior? If not, he may scream at you until you figure your shit out.

wildcat00: This is a bit of a homer pick on my part, because I’m not entirely sure what to make of the Tar Heels. I think the game might come down to the Gophers being a bit tougher on defense than UNC, and then putting the game away with a late field goal.

zipsofakron: Two things: 1) Minnesota will win this game strictly because it is important to the overall character arc of Gopher fans. Win here and the expectations are sky high, which sets up a delicious letdown. 2) The meat of the Big Ten is better than the meat of the ACC and I think UNC will be surprised by the stoutness of the defense.

Post your score predictions in the comments!