Darius Taylor runs Gophers to Quick Lane Bowl victory over Bowling Green

One can only wonder what the Gophers football team’s season would have looked like had Darius Taylor not been sidelined for seven games due to injuries.

It’s unlikely his presence would have moved the needle against the likes of Michigan or Ohio State and perhaps not even in the Big Ten West standings, but the Gophers almost certainly wouldn’t have had to rely on their good grades to qualify for a bowl game.

Taylor reminded Gophers fans exactly how good he is on Tuesday, running for 208 yards and a score in Minnesota’s 30-24 Quick Lane Bowl victory over Bowling Green in his native Detroit.

The Gophers’ offense ran through Taylor all day Tuesday, and he capped a dominant performance with a 17-yard touchdown scamper out of the wildcat formation in the fourth quarter that essentially put the game on ice for Minnesota (6-7).

Taylor also caught two passes for 11 yards.

Bowling Green (7-6) struck first and fast when quarterback Connor Bazelak hit a wide-open Odieu Hiliare for a 46-yard touchdown and a 7-0 lead on the Falcons’ opening drive.

The Gophers struggled to cover Hiliare all day as he caught 10 passes for 152 yards and the score.

The Gophers answered quickly after Taylor drove them down the field on a drive that was capped with a 4-yard touchdown pass from Cole Kramer to Elijah Spencer. The Falcons, however, maintained a 7-6 advantage after Dragan Kesich was stopped at the goal line after taking a direct snap and running left on a two-point try.

Kramer, a fifth-year quarterback and longtime Gophers backup, completed 8-of-16 passes for 26 yards, two touchdowns and one pick in his first and last career start.

Kramer was in the midst of moving to Arizona and planning a wedding to his fiancé, Katie Miller, when Gophers starting quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis and third-stringer Drew Viotto entered the transfer portal, leaving Minnesota with just walk-on freshman Max Shikenjanski in the quarterback room. Gophers coaches reached out to Kramer to start the bowl game, and he jumped at the opportunity.

Bowling Green took a 10-9 advantage into the halftime break after each team added a field goal in the second quarter, but the Gophers quickly started to take over in the second half.

Minnesota ran a tush push with Kramer on a 78-yard touchdown drive early in the third quarter that was largely driven by the legs of Taylor. Kramer’s 1-yard touchdown run gave the Gophers a 16-10 lead.

On their next drive on a short field after a Bowling Green punt, Kramer hit Jameson Geers for a 7-yard touchdown pass that extended the Minnesota lead to 23-10.

The Falcons got within a score in the fourth quarter when PaSean Wimberly got to the outside on a sweep and scampered into the end zone for an 18-yard score to cut their deficit to 23-17.

But Le’Meke Brockington had a 51-yard return on the ensuing kickoff, and the Gophers took advantage of the short field with Taylor’s touchdown run.

While the Falcons were able to cut the lead back to a score again when Bazelak scored on a 2-yard run to cap a 75-yard scoring drive with just over two-and-a-half minutes remaining, they were out of timeouts and needed an onside kick to keep their hopes of a Quick Lane Bowl victory alive.

They didn’t get it.

Fittingly, on the first play of the ensuing drive needing just one first down to salt the game away, Taylor ran for 10 yards and the first down. Then Kramer took three knees to cap his first and last start.