The Minnesota Golden Gopher football team will play 5 road games in 2022 and each one provides an opportunity for you to avoid that fall wedding overlapping your college football Saturday. Send a card and hit the road, because the Gophers road to Indy makes a few intriguing stops you won’t want to miss. Last season the Gopher football squad had an impressive 4-1 record on the road but this year brings a little bit more of a challenge away from Huntington Bank Stadium.
5. Illinois
Unfortunately, I don’t have much reason to recommend a trip to Champaign except for the sight of blood. Here’s an opportunity to see Minnesota avenge one of two bad losses from 2021. Anything less than a two-score win against the Illini will result in a miserable 7-hour drive back to the Twin Cities.Buyer Beware: Late October is harvest season in rural Illinois. There may be a tractor or two slowing down traffic through Le Roy, Illinois on I-74.
4. Michigan State
Maybe the most interesting matchup for the Gophers. This will be the first visit to East Lansing since 2013 and should set the scene matchup of unbeaten teams when they meet in late September. Sparty has won 5 straight meetings and is trending up after a successful 2021 campaign where they won the 2nd best trophy to have the Paul Bunyan namesake.3. Nebraska
Husker fans may be my favorite Big Ten school to party with. Win or lose those corn heads know how to BOOZE. Bring that extra case to your tailgate for this one, if you don’t drink it someone will! Minnesota is 4-1 against the Huskers over the course of the Fleck era, so if you want a trip that includes a Gophers win, this is the trip for you.
Buyer Beware: If Nebraska sucks again, this game could very well be an 11 am kickoff. Now imagine this…. It’s 3 pm, the game is over and you have the whole night ahead of you with only a subpar bar scene surrounding you in Lincoln.2. Wisconsin
Wisconsin is the worst state ever. I have never visited the hell hole that is Madison, Wisconsin, but this game is always the biggest matchup on the schedule for the maroon and gold. The most credible ranking of best college towns in America has Madison in the top 5, but I think that’s all bullshit. It might as well be the trash-filled streets of Philly in my eyes. Expect no love when sporting your gopher gear behind enemy lines. The Badgers didn’t forget about Minnesota fans rushing the field and dancing on their grave to the tune of ‘Jump Around’ after taking back the axe. Don’t expect the Minnesota Nice treatment, but a Gopher win would cap off the regular season in the sweetest of ways. If this goes down as the breakthrough game that sends the Gophs to Indy for the first time, you won’t want to miss it!
Buyer Beware: Badgers don’t hold their liquids well. Expect long lines for the bathrooms within Camp Randall.
1. Penn State
No surprise here, this is far and away the best game to attend on the road this year. The whiteout game is one of the greatest traditions in college football and is guaranteed to provide an electric environment when the Nittany Lions host the Gophers in prime time. The Gophers last visited Happy Valley in 2016 when they lost in overtime via Saquon doing Saquon things. It’s not often you see a rematch three years after the last matchup and have the same starting QBs from the previous matchup. Yes—Sean Clifford is still playing college football at 24 years old. In my mind, that is the age equivalent of Brett Favre with the Vikings.
Parlay engineer with Twitter fingers.