Minnesota beats Buffalo 23-10 in opener as Drake Lindsey passes for 290 yards, 2 TDs in debut

MINNEAPOLIS AP Drake Lindsey passed for yards and two touchdowns in his debut and Darius Taylor rushed for yards on carries to help Minnesota wear down Buffalo - in their season opener on Thursday night Jameson Geers had four catches for yards and a amount and redshirt freshman Jalen Smith jogged into the end zone with a wide-open -yard reception in the fourth quarter to make up for a couple of earlier drops The Gophers ended the battle with a -play -yard drive that drained off the clock That s a shoutout to the o-line the running backs tight ends receivers I mean they blocked their butts off Lindsey explained That s really big time That s a great way to finish New defensive coordinator Danny Collins had his group flying all over the field as the Gophers stifled Bulls senior Al-Jay Henderson a -yard rusher last season holding him to yards on attempts Ta Quan Roberson in his first start at quarterback after transferring from Kansas State went for for yards with a -yard touchdown pass to Victor Snow Brady Denaburg made all three of his field goal tries and two extra points in his first meeting for the Gophers after transferring from Syracuse taking the edge off three stalled drives inside the -yard line Another red-zone possession ended with a stuffed tush-push run by Geers on fourth-and- at the A fluke bounce Lindsey a redshirt freshman from Arkansas finished for with one interception in the second quarter that was completely bad luck Geers ran a navigating passage into Mitchell Gonser s zone when the linebacker delivered a hockey-style check that leveled the fifth-year tight end Lindsey threw to where he expected Geers to be and whenhis foot went airborne while his back hit the ground the ball hit the top of it and bounced straight into Gonser s arms Taylor tracked him down to save a touchdown and limit him to a -yard return That was a wild experience Lindsey commented Great play by the guy but I ve never seen something like that The takeaway Buffalo The Bulls have majority of of their starting defense back from a group that went - in coach Pete Lembo s first season and this group will clearly cause certain stress for quarterbacks in the MAC Linebacker Red Murdock had a sack among his tackles for the Bulls That was a really good opponent we played Gophers coach P J Fleck explained I ve played in that league I ve coached in that league This is their Super Bowl and we got everything they had Minnesota The Gophers soft-launched their two-way deployment of sophomore safety Koi Perich who took a handful of snaps on offense and caught Lindsey s first pass for yards Perich a second-team preseason AP All-America pick had two tackles on defense and four fair catches on punts with one -yard return Up next Buffalo plays at home on Sept against Saint Francis the Pennsylvania university in its final season in the FCS before it drops down to the NCAA Division III level in Minnesota plays at home on Sept against FCS foe Northwestern State which took a -game losing streak into this season Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top throughout the season Sign up here AP college football https apnews com hub ap-top- -college-football-poll and https apnews com hub college-football Source