What Minnesota players had to say following the Gophers' 20-17 win over New Mexico in the Rate Bowl
Following Minnesota’s 20-17 win over New Mexico in the Rate Bowl, quarterback Drake Lindsey, defensive end Anthony Smith, and wide receiver Jalen Smith met with the media. Here’s what they had to say.
QB Drake Lindsey:
On his performance: “Yeah, you know, obviously we didn’t start fast, and that’s one of the biggest things in this program is we’ve got to do that.
But we battled all day, and I think this is just a show of how 2025 went.
You know, there were times where we weren’t in it. It looked like at points, you know, we’re down 14. We had to battle back.
I mean, this whole season we battled back and finished games at the end.
And that’s a credit to Coach Fleck’s culture in this whole program.”
DE Anthony Smith:
On announcing his return: ” I did talk to (defensive line coach) CJ (Robbins) about it.
I broke down what my goals were. I told CJ I was going to get MVP and announced to everybody that I was going to come back. And I made my decision pretty early in December.
I mean, I definitely knew that I wanted to come back. I knew how good our team was going to be next year for 2026. And I wouldn’t want to miss that for the world because I felt like we left a little bit of meat on the road this year.
I’m ready to go get after it next year.”
On New Mexico’s fake punt: “Yeah, throughout the week we were getting that look every single day. And Coach Lee, you know, he prepares us like no other.
We’re in the special teams game with everybody and we’re learning what goes on.
We knew the one player came out until we saw another player. And then we knew it was a fake.
We all in the defense really diagnosed it really well and knew that it was the fake player this play.
And, again, I was prepared for it because the coaches prepared so well. And I just executed it.”
On the overall experience: “It was amazing, seriously. Both people did an amazing job with the experience that we had.
It was really next to no other. This has been the funnest ballgame I’ve been to so far.
So, again, it was amazing this entire week. The weather was amazing. And, again, being around my teammates, being around the seniors, it was really special.
It was truly a special meeting for all of us.”
On Gophers fans traveling: “This is such an amazing feeling. We step on the field and you’re all Gopher fans yelling for us.
When they play, anytime we’re hearing them.
We travel so well, and that’s a testament to all of us Gopher fans.
We appreciate them so much because when they travel, we hear them and we really appreciate them.”
WR Jalen Smith:
On having the chance to step up with a small WR room available: “I mean, yeah.
When you have less guys, obviously you’re going to have more opportunities. But it’s not really about me. It’s about the group as a collective.
We talked about all week just being ready, even guys like Bradley who’s a freshman and hasn’t played yet, going over our call sheets and just being on our stuff so that when our moment comes, we can make the play.
So it was just us as a collective being ready for the opportunity no matter who was in the game, regardless of how many guys we had in our position here.”
On his two-touchdown day: “A lot of it goes to the guy sitting right next to me in the line (Drake Lindsey). There’s only so much you can do as a wideout that you have control over. So I’m just appreciative of my coaches putting me in positions to go make those plays.
And Drake trusting me to throw me the ball because at the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about, trust. He’s not going to throw me the ball if he doesn’t believe that I can make the play.
So I’m just appreciative of my teammates, the whole line for holding up.
You know, Drake for making all those great passes and coaching staff for putting me in those positions.”
