With leading wideout Le’Meke Brockington not playing in Friday’s Rate Bowl, Minnesota needed someone to step up in a relatively thin receiver room.
Jalen Smith leaped at the opportunity. The redshirt freshman dove for a pair of touchdown catches, the second a game-winner in overtime.
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With a 20-17 victory, the Gophers (8-5, 5-4 Big Ten) improved to 7-0 in bowl games under head coach P.J. Fleck and denied New Mexico (9-4, 6-2 Mountain West) its first 10-win season since 1982.
Smith came into the day with only two touchdown receptions this season. He matched that total while recording six catches for 64 yards.
His classmate, quarterback Drake Lindsey, gave him a chance in the end zone on third-and-8 in overtime after New Mexico started the extra frame with a 36-yard field goal.
Lindsey threw off his back foot. As the ball reached the paint, Smith lifted off. He extended in front of a Lobos defensive back to reel in the pass before securing the 12-yard score when he hit the ground.
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The first Lindsey-Smith connection was even more impressive. It also came on third down, this time on third-and-4 with less than two minutes left in the first half. New Mexico was leading 6-0 at that point.
That was, until Lindsey floated a pass to the back corner of the end zone. Lindsey put it only where Smith could get it, away from three trailing Lobos defenders.
The 10-yard touchdown pass hung in the air for what felt like a minute. Smith tracked it perfectly and laid out for the score.
Minnesota, which entered third nationally in fewest penalties per game (3.3), had nine penalties for 87 yards against New Mexico.
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The Gophers survived those mistakes as well as a 100-yard kickoff return touchdown by Lobos senior running back Damon Bankston early in the fourth quarter.
Bankston came into the matchup averaging 30.4 yards per kickoff return this season and had already ran one back for six.
Friday, New Mexico turned his house call into eight points. A trick play was behind the conversion. Running back Scottre Humphrey took a direct snap and handed it off to quarterback Jack Layne, who faked a pitch reverse and then threw over the middle to a wide-open Keagan Johnson for a two-point conversion that tied the game 14-14.
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That was a special play in a special New Mexico season that began with the Lobos bringing back just 34 players from the 2024 campaign, the fewest returners of any FBS team this season.
They were picked 11th in the Mountain West preseason poll. Then they finished 6-2 in conference play.
But in their first bowl game since 2016, they came up short in overtime versus a Minnesota team that just keeps winning this time of year under Fleck.
This news was originally published on this post .
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