The Gophers took the reins off Athan Kaliakmanis and the redshirt freshman lit up the Badgers by throwing for 319 yards including the game-winning 45-yard touchdown late in the fourth quarter as the Minnesota Gophers won in Wisconsin 23-16 in the regular season finale.
Kaliakmanis finished 19-of-29 for 319 yards and two touchdowns. The 45-yard game-winner was on a slant to Le'Meke Brockington, who split the defense and raced into the end zone to silence the crowd in Madison.
The 300-yard effort snapped a streak of 34 consecutive games without a Gophers quarterback throwing for 300 yards. The last time it happened was Nov. 16, 2019 when Tanner Morgan threw for 368 yards in a loss to the Iowa Hawkeyes.
Kaliakmanis had thrown for 87 and 64 yards, respectively, in his previous two games.
After the go-ahead score by Brockington, Minnesota's Justin Walley intercepted Graham Mertz and trimmed the clock to under two minutes before Matthew Trickett's 48-yard field goal banged off the upright, keeping it a one-score game with 1:48 to play.
Wisconsin drove to the Minnesota 20-yard line with 32 seconds to go and drew a pass interference call in the end zone, giving them the ball at the 5-yard line with 26 seconds left. But then the Badgers melted down a holding penalty and three false starts, making it 2nd-and-goal from the 30.
A short completion got them to the 25 with 5 seconds left and the game ended on an incomplete pass into the end zone.
Kaliakmanis completed his 19 passes to four different receivers:
- Brevyn Spann-Ford: 7 catches, 95 yards
- Daniel Jackson: 5 catches, 86 yards, 1 touchdown
- Dylan Wright: 5 catches, 86 yards
- Le'Meke Brockington: 2 catches, 52 yards, 1 touchdown
Note: Mohamed Ibrahim's streak of 19 consecutive games with 100+ yards ended. He finished the day with 70 yards on 27 carries.
Minnesota finishes the regular season 8-4 and now awaits their bowl game fate.
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