Minnesota Golden Gophers running back Mohamed Ibrahim (24) breaks through the MSU defense during a college football game between the Michigan State Spartans and Minnesota Golden Gophers on September 24, 2022 at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing, MI ((Photo by Adam Ruff/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images))
MINNEAPOLIS - The University of Minnesota football team is out of its bye week, and the Gophers expect to have their top running back on the field Saturday in Champaign against Illinois.
Sixth-year senior Mo Ibrahim stood and watched two weeks ago as Minnesota suffered its first loss of the season, 20-10 to Purdue on Homecoming, at Huntington Bank Stadium. Ibrahim leads the Gophers with 567 yards and eight touchdowns in four games, which is also seventh in the nation. Ibrahim is averaging 141.8 yards per game.
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Gophers coach PJ Fleck previews Illinois at weekly news conference
PJ Fleck said Monday he expects star running back Mo Ibrahim to return Saturday at Illinois, and previewed the game out of the Gophers bye week.
He appeared to injure his left ankle late in Minnesota’s 34-7 win at Michigan State. Ibrahim practiced throughout the week leading up to facing the Boilermakers and even went through warm-ups, then did not play.
"Mo was a game-time decision, you saw him warming up and our doctors and training staff just said we don’t feel good about it this week. We’ll never put Mo in harm’s way, ever. None of our players. We made the decision not to play him," Gophers coach PJ Fleck said at his weekly Monday news conference.
Without Ibrahim, Trey Potts and Bryce Williams had a combined 20 carries for just 48 yards.
"Either we missed a hole, made a cut too early, maybe didn’t trust it enough, or we got beat up front. It was one or the other. Anything that could’ve went wrong in that game went wrong. That’s college football, and what we learned is really good football teams can still find a way to overcome those things," Fleck said. "This football team got a chance to see that you’re human."
Ibrahim returned for a sixth year after suffering a torn Achilles in the 2021 season-opener against Ohio State. Fleck said he expects Ibrahim to play Saturday at Illinois, and could’ve played last week if the Gophers were not on a bye week.
"We would’ve played him last week, but the bye week was a great opportunity for him to have a 7-12 day type injury, allow him to have three full weeks of recovery. That’s all you can continue to do," Fleck said. "Football is a violent game and people are going to get hurt. We know that. He’s played a ton of football, it’s not like we need Mo on every single down of every practice. He practices, he hates to not practice but we need to work on getting him to game day."
Saturday’s game will feature a match-up of two of the best running backs in the country. Chase Brown of Illinois leads the nation with 879 rushing yards through five games, and is averaging 146.5 yards per game. He had 31 carries for 152 yards in last week’s 9-6 win over Iowa.