Minnesota Golden Gophers projected to play bowl-game opponent they've never faced in 2024

Head coach P.J. Fleck and the Minnesota Golden Gophers football team are looking to make it the fourth consecutive year to play in a bowl game in 2024.

Under Fleck's lead, the Gophers have only failed to make a bowl game appearance twice since he took over in 2017.

Fleck is 5-0 in bowl games at Minnesota, winning the Quick Lane Bowl over Georgia Tech in 2018; the Outback Bowl against Auburn in 2020; a Guaranteed Rate Bowl victory over West Virginia in 2021; a Pinstripe Bowl win against Syracuse in 2022; and a winning return to the Quick Lane Bowl in 2023 against Bowling Green.

Action Network's Brett McMurphy released his "Week 0 Bowl Projections" this week and has the Gophers playing in the Duke's Mayo Bowl on Jan. 3 against an opponent they have yet to face in their long history on the football field: the Louisville Cardinals.

The Gophers enter the predicted matchup as underdogs, as Louisville is favored with a -13.5 spread.

Louisville enters the 2024 season just outside of the Associated Press Top 25 poll, leading the schools with the most "others receiving votes" category (111).

The Cardinals have made three straight bowl games, most recently the Holiday Bowl last season in a losing effort against the USC Trojans, 42-28. Louisville went 10-4 on the season, the first year under head coach Jeff Brohm and the first time the team has seen double digit wins since joining the ACC in 2014.

The program last won a bowl game in 2022 against Cincinnati in the Fenway Bowl, 24-7.

According to Pro Football Focus, the Gophers' projected win total is predicted at 6.9 in comparison to the Cardinals' 7.1.