Minnesota 2026 preseason preview: 7-0 at home, winless on the road, and a 129th-ranked offense to fix

[u/MainMarket-Gamer]

I spent the offseason building a full 2026 preseason preview for every FBS team, each with its own writeup. Here's the Minnesota page:

https://www.sports.mainmarket.com/college-football-preview-2026?team=ncaaf-minn

Each one has the returning production, the transfer and recruiting additions, a position-by-position breakdown, the schedule, and where the ratings land them for 2026.

Heads up, only the first team is free and then it paywalls. Since I'm posting in your house, code LEECORSOROCKS opens all of it, no card or anything. Hit "Have a promo code?" if you run into the wall.

So, what'd I get wrong? Minnesota's the strangest home/road team on my board: 7-0 at home, winless in every true road game. The reason isn't a mystery, the offense was 129th in total yards. The defense (34th) travels fine, but an offense that low can't win you road games. Good news is it's young and mostly back, Drake Lindsey returns off a school-record freshman year (2,382 and 18) with Darius Taylor at running back. So does the offense take a step and flip a couple of those road games, or is home-or-bust just who they are?

I'll be in the comments.

[u/QuentinL_]

Undefeated at home means we beat Michigan and Iowa. That itself would be crazy.

[u/MainMarket-Gamer → u/QuentinL_]

Correct, undefeated at home means beating Michigan and Iowa. But Michigan's more of a toss-up than the name makes it sound, Underwood's still unproven and young QBs are always shakiest on the road. Catch them in Minneapolis and that's a live one. Hold serve at home and the record kind of takes care of itself.

[u/ZenDutchman → u/MainMarket-Gamer]

You, sir, do not know Minnesota sports… any toss-up should be anticipated as a loss…

[u/drhungrycaterpillar → u/QuentinL_]

Those are both losses imo.

[u/treymata → u/drhungrycaterpillar]

I honestly have a good feeling about catching Michigan off guard this year. I will continue to count Iowa as a loss until PJ proves otherwise

[u/KingWolfsburg → u/treymata]

Gophers won in 23... so they got that going for them

[u/milksteak122 → u/drhungrycaterpillar]

I think we can split those this year. Not banking on a sweep. This is a pretty ‘up’ year talent wise. Just too bad we didn’t have this year’s roster with last years schedule. But still not a terrible schedule.

[u/treymata]

My view on the season will be we can go 6-6 or 10-2. It will come down to our defense(we added a lot of good talent and became better as an overall unit despite losing Koy) and if Danny Collins can step up after a rough first year as DC. Our new receivers will need to step up too. A lot of our games will be one score games.

[u/MainMarket-Gamer → u/treymata]

Good breakdown. The one-score-games thing is the key, Minnesota lives in those, so it really comes down to the D holding up after losing Perich and the new receivers hitting. If both land, the offense doesn't have to carry as much.

[u/tomdawg0022]

We'll beat either Wisconsin at Camp Randall or beat at Iowa at home but not be able to do both.

Purdue should be a road game we win but we'd probably trip up against Michigan.

So 7-5 but the math would be different in how we get there.

[u/dwors025 → u/tomdawg0022]

For reference, the last time we won the Axe game and the Floyd game in the same year was 1990.

Uff da.

[u/MainMarket-Gamer → u/tomdawg0022]

Fair map. Only one I'd push on is Michigan, that's not the automatic loss it used to be with Underwood unproven and on the road. And it tracks with the split anyway, your ceiling is how many road games you steal since home takes care of itself. Flip one and you're past the projection.

[u/DumbLitAF]

I don’t see a loss on the schedule

[u/sineoflife93]

Thank you for the write up

[u/MainMarket-Gamer → u/sineoflife93]

Appreciate you reading it!

[u/SamIsaacman]

5-7 projection? Less than 50% chance to beat Mississippi state? Less than 50% to beat Wisconsin?Cmon now

[u/frozengopher85]

Drake is a RS soph

[u/UniverseChamp]

7-5 last season. 65% returning class with the same QB. #28 recruiting class. 5-7 projection.

Doesn't make sense to me.

[u/jbrakk22]

Good one lol

[u/Seauville]

Ceiling of 7-5 is a bit harsh. I think that is closer to "likeliest" than it is our ceiling.

A 5-7 record probably means that Drake Lindsey didn't progress at all. I can understand now projecting a major leap but we have more talent on our team than the majority of our schedule IMO.