It’s Time To Start Giving TJ Thomas First-Team Rep Carries

The Gophers have not been the greatest on offense this season. They are near the bottom in the Big Ten in total offense (307.6 yards per game) and dead last in rushing (887 total yards).

The Details

One culprit could be Darius Taylor’s middling performance as a starting running back. He’s averaging just 2.7 yards per carry on nearly 30 more carries than TJ Thomas, who has 137 more yards and averages 5.8 yards per carry.

So, why isn’t Thomas the lead back in this Gophers offense?

TJ Thomas is also a reliable outlet option in the passing game, with 21 receptions for 161 yards. Taylor has a few more yards on him in the receiving game. But the transfer from Elon must have caught people’s attention and challenged longtime RB1 Darius Taylor for carry and pass-catching supremacy.

• TJ THOMAS DOWN THE SIDELINE 💨💨💨
• @GopherFootball pic.twitter.com/kCCsSYodRK — CBS Sports College Football 🏈 (@CBSSportsCFB)
• October 31, 2026

“TJ is really, really cool because he has such a positive attitude,” offensive coordinator Greg Harbaugh Jr. told Bring Me The Sports in August. “He has such a great mindset, and he’s super twitchy, super athletic, has elite hands. And the thing that goes unnoticed with him, not by me, is he’s super, super smart.”

Ultimately, the Gophers perform better when Thomas is on the field. Darius Taylor has had enough time to prove himself as the first-team running back, and he has repeatedly gotten fewer yards per carry than Thomas.

It is time to see a shift in the Gophers’ running back room, with Thomas first on the depth chart. He deserves it given his performance this season.

TJ THOMAS GOES 72 YARDS 🚨

@GopherFootball continues to dominate!

Watch on BTN pic.twitter.com/1AOj5wuWNK — Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork)

Still, despite his injuries (lower-body and hamstring), Fleck is confident Taylor can lead the Gophers’ rushing attack.

“There are things that happen in our lives that are unfortunate that you work and battle through. Right? Period,” Fleck said in an October press conference. “Especially if it’s an injury, and you do everything you can to get better from that, but he’s a really good football player. In the pass game and the run game. And we need him at his absolute best.”

When his backup is outperforming him in every rushing metric, don’t you think players can’t battle through injuries, and you have to give more carries to the healthy running back who’s outperforming him?

You would think so, as the Gophers face a gauntlet schedule to get their elusive sixth win of the season to become bowl-eligible. They’ll play at one of the toughest places to play in the country, Penn State, for the Governor’s Bell. Then, they’ll play at home against an upstart Northwestern team, and on the road to battle for the axe against rival Wisconsin. Wins won’t come easy at the end of the season.

“You look at the last two weeks with top 5 teams, you’re right there with a chance to win both of them,” Fleck said in a press conference on Monday. “And I couldn’t have asked anything more of my coaches and players, but now we have to respond, and there’s a proper way [of] doing that.”

A proper way to respond would be to name TJ Thomas the starting running back on your football team and watch the team that is last in rushing rise in the Big Ten.

Matt Kennedy

Minnesota Daily Student Newspaper Graduate with stops at KSTP-5 Eyewitness, Barstool Sports, and Rivals.com. An aspiring beat writer who is having a ball (pun intended) watching and analyzing Minnesota sports.