Is Minnesota star running back in danger of missing season opener?

North Carolina and Minnesota will open the 2024 college football season on Thursday night, continuing a two-game home and home series.

While there are a lot of questions surrounding the Tar Heels entering this game, the biggest question surrounds a star Minnesota player. Running back Darius Taylor reportedly suffered an injury during training camp and there are questions about his status.

A big sign of bad news for Minnesota is that the betting line went from Minnesota being 2.5-point favorites to UNC now being 2.5-point favorites on some books. That’s a four-point swing in a matter of days, something that a team missing a star player could influence.

There has been no official word on any injury and P.J. Fleck did keep things close to the vest during a media session on August 19th when asked about Taylor:

“He’s doing great, but we brought in a ton of players for that reason in general. If anybody ever gets banged up, and we got a few bumps and bruises but I’m going to use the same line as we get 10 days before. The injury report will come out two hours before.

But this is a very healthy football team and I love how they’ve gone about their business throughout training camp.”

Andy Greder of the Pioneer Press reported earlier in August after a practice that Tayor had left and was limping. In addition to that, top wideout Daniel Jackson has also been limited at times:

Both are significant injuries for the Gophers’ offense ahead of the week 1 game. We won’t know much until the injury report is put out around two hours before kickoff but this is a big development.

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