1994 Minnesota Golden Gophers football team

The 1994 Minnesota Golden Gophers football team represented the University of Minnesota in the 1994 NCAA Division I-A football season. In their third year under head coach Jim Wacker, the Golden Gophers compiled a 3–8 record and were outscored by their opponents by a combined total of 348 to 256.^[1]

1994 Minnesota Golden Gophers football
Conference	Big Ten Conference
Record	3–8 (1–7 Big Ten)
Head coach	Jim Wacker (3rd season)
Offensive coordinator	Bob DeBesse (3rd season)
Defensive coordinator	Marc Dove (3rd season)
Captain	Chris Darkins, Ed Hawthorne
Home stadium	Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome
Seasons ← 1993 1995 →

1994 Big Ten Conference football standings

v t e	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		T			W		L		T
No. 2 Penn State $	8	–	0	–	0			12	–	0	–	0
No. 14 Ohio State	6	–	2	–	0			9	–	4	–	0
Wisconsin	5	–	2	–	1			8	–	3	–	1
No. 12 Michigan	5	–	3	–	0			8	–	4	–	0
Illinois	4	–	4	–	0			7	–	5	–	0
Purdue	3	–	3	–	2			5	–	4	–	2
Iowa	3	–	4	–	1			5	–	5	–	1
Indiana	3	–	5	–	0			6	–	5	–	0
Northwestern	3	–	5	–	0			4	–	6	–	1
Minnesota	1	–	7	–	0			3	–	8	–	0
Michigan State †	0	–	8	–	0			0	–	11	–	0
$ – Conference champion † Michigan State forfeited 5 wins including 4 conference victories, over Wisconsin, Indiana, Northwestern, and Purdue. Rankings from AP Poll

Defensive tackle Ed Hawthorne and linebacker Broderick Hall were named All-Big Ten first team.^[2] Kicker Mike Chalberg was named All-Big Ten second team.^[2] Defensive back Justin Conzemius was named first team Academic All-American.^[3] Kicker Mike Chalberg, defensive back Justin Conzemius, offensive lineman Chris Fowlkes, offensive lineman Luke Glime, linebacker Luke Hiestand, offensive lineman Todd Jesewitz, linebacker Ben Langford, wide receiver Tony Levine, defensive back Dan LiSanti, linebacker Craig Sauer, quarterback Cory Sauter and linebacker Chris Smith were named Academic All-Big Ten.^[3]

Chris Darkins was awarded the Bronko Nagurski Award and Bruce Smith Award.^[4] Craig Sauer was awarded the Carl Eller Award.^[4] Free safety Rishon Early was awarded the Bobby Bell Award.^[4] Justin Conzemius was awarded the Butch Nash Award.^[4] Ed Hawthorne was awarded the Paul Giel Award.^[4]

The total attendance for the season was 253,851, which averaged to 42,308 per game.^[5] The season attendance high was against Iowa, with 53,340 in attendance.^[5]

Schedule

Date	Time	Opponent	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
September 3	7:00 pm	No. 9 Penn State	Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome Minneapolis		L 3–56	51,134
September 10	7:00 pm	Pacific (CA)*	Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome Minneapolis		W 33–7	37,719
September 17	6:00 pm	San Diego State*	Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome Minneapolis		W 40–17	32,212
September 24	1:10 pm	at Kansas State*	KSU Stadium Manhattan, Kansas	MSC	L 0–35	40,002
October 1	1:00 pm	at Indiana	Memorial Stadium Bloomington, Indiana		L 14–25	38,195
October 8	1:00 pm	at Purdue	Ross–Ade Stadium West Lafayette, Indiana		L 37–49	33,158
October 15	6:00 pm	Northwestern	Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome Minneapolis		L 31–37	44,377
October 22	1:00 pm	at Wisconsin	Camp Randall Stadium Madison, Wisconsin (Paul Bunyan's Axe)		W 17–14	77,745
November 5	6:00 pm	Illinois	Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome Minneapolis, Minnesota		L 17–21	35,069
November 12	12:00 pm	at No. 19 Michigan	Michigan Stadium Ann Arbor, Michigan (Little Brown Jug)		L 22–38	105,624
November 19	6:00 pm	Iowa	Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome Minneapolis (Floyd of Rosedale)		L 42–49	53,340
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game All times are in Central time

Roster

1994 Minnesota Golden Gophers football team roster
Players			Coaches
Offense Pos. # Name Class RB 5 Rafael Cooper Fr RB 44 Chris Darkins Jr QB 17 Cory Sauter Fr QB Tim Schade WR 4 Ryan Thelwell Fr WR 19 Alan Slavik So	Defense Pos. # Name Class DT 90 Ed Hawthorne Sr CB 24 Rodney Heath So LB 16 Craig Sauer Jr	Special teams Pos. # Name Class	Head coach Jim Wacker Coordinators/assistant coaches Legend (C) Team captain (S) Suspended (I) Ineligible Injured Redshirt

Game summaries

Penn State

See also: 1994 Penn State Nittany Lions football team and Governor's Victory Bell

At Kansas State

See also: 1994 Kansas State Wildcats football team

At Wisconsin

See also: 1994 Wisconsin Badgers football team and Minnesota–Wisconsin football rivalry

Iowa

Iowa at Minnesota

1 2 3 4 Total • Hawkeyes 14 14 21 0 49 Golden Gophers 10 7 15 10 42 Date: November 19 Location: Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, Minneapolis, Minnesota Game attendance: 53,340 Sources: Box score and Game recap

Scoring summary 1 Iowa Odems 3-yard fumble recovery on punt (Brion Hurley kick) Iowa 7–0 1 Minn Darkins 56-yard run (Chalberg kick) Tied 7–7 1 Iowa Tavian Banks 25-yard run (Brion Hurley kick) Iowa 14–7 1 Minn Chalbert 32-yard field goal Iowa 14–10 2 Minn Rios 8-yard pass from Schade (Chalberg kick) Minn 17–14 2 Iowa Sedrick Shaw 46-yard pass from Sherman (Brion Hurley kick) Iowa 21–17 2 Iowa Sedrick Shaw 17-yard run (Brion Hurley kick) Iowa 28–17 3 Minn Darkins 1-yard run (Schade pass to Atwell) Iowa 28–25 3 Minn Osterman 80-yard pass from Schade (Chalberg kick) Minn 32–28 3 Iowa Odems 34-yard pass from Sherman (Brion Hurley kick) Iowa 35–32 3 Iowa Sherman 9-yard pass from Tim Dwight (Brion Hurley kick) Iowa 42–32 3 Iowa Porter 10-yard fumble return (Brion Hurley kick) Iowa 49–32 4 Minn Darkins 3-yard run (Chalberg kick) Iowa 49–39 4 Minn Chalberg 28-yard field goal Iowa 49–42

See also: 1994 Iowa Hawkeyes football team and Iowa–Minnesota football rivalry

References

1. "1994 Minnesota Golden Gophers Schedule and Results". SR/College Football. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved November 1, 2017.
2. Keiser, Jeff (2007), 2007 Media Guide (PDF), p. 180^{[permanent dead link‍]}
3. Keiser, Jeff (2007), 2007 Media Guide (PDF), p. 182^{[permanent dead link‍]}
4. Keiser, Jeff (2007), 2007 Media Guide (PDF), p. 181^{[permanent dead link‍]}
5. Keiser, Jeff (2007), 2007 Media Guide (PDF), p. 160^{[permanent dead link‍]}