It’s unlikely the Gophers football team would be riding a four-game winning streak this November without its decision to bring in another quarterback last November.

That’s when Gophers head coach P.J. Fleck told last year’s starting QB Athan Kaliakmanis the program would head into the NCAA transfer portal for another signal caller for 2024. Kaliakmanis had the option to stay and compete for the job, but he decided to transfer and wound up at Rutgers.

This leads us to Saturday. New QB Max Brosmer and the Gophers (6-3, 4-2 Big Ten) will face Kaliakmanis and the Scarlet Knights (4-4, 1-4) for an 11 a.m. kickoff in Piscataway, N.J.

The upgrade Minnesota has made at QB has been playing out over the first two months of this season. Brosmer has the Gophers on the upswing, while Kaliakmanis and Rutgers have slumped.

Their stat lines are revealing, especially over the past four games:

— Brosmer has completed 68 percent of his throws (191 of 280) for 1,989 yards, 13 touchdowns and four interceptions this season. In the Gophers’ four-game winning streak, he has completed 71 percent for seven TDs and no picks, and has added three rushing scores.

— Kaliakmanis, meanwhile, has completed 54 percent of his passes (131 for 242) for 1,650 yards, nine TDs and five INTs. During a four-game losing streak, he has completed 49 percent with two TDs and four INTs while tacking on one rushing TD.

Brosmer has been outstanding late in games, especially during the four-game winning streak. He led game-tying and game-winning drives in the upset of then-No. 11 Southern California on Oct. 5, a game-winning drive against UCLA on Oct. 12 and the go-ahead drive against then-No.  24 Illinois on Saturday. All came in the fourth quarter.

In 2023, Minnesota failed to close out games, most glaringly in the 37-34 road loss to Northwestern in September and the 27-26 home loss to Illinois in early November.

The Illini loss had two crucial fourth-quarter plays where Kaliakmanis failed to execute. His incorrect decision to bounce a run outside on second down left them in third down. Then his lack of touch on an incompletion allowed the Illini to complete an improbable comeback in the final minute.

Going into this season, the Gophers sought more competition for progress — and turned it into a CFP acronym for the team to rally around. That aim was key as they scoured the transfer portal. They soon connected with Brosmer, and offensive coordinator Greg Harbaugh reached deep into Brosmer’s past to find out if he could bring the right intangibles and leadership to Minnesota.

The QB from FCS-level New Hampshire checked those boxes. The sixth-year graduate transfer’s ability to process in the pocket contributed to the Gophers’ offense evolving into something to better fit Brosmer’s strengths of working through progressions in the short and intermediate passing game.

The Gophers ran the the ball on 62 percent of offensive plays with Kaliakmanis a year ago, but are now passing the ball on 51 percent of snaps with Brosmer this year. That 13 percent increase in passing plays has been a difference-maker for Minnesota.

During his redshirt sophomore season, Kaliakmanis needed to be coaxed into a more prominent leadership role. It never really took. But that hasn’t been the case with Brosmer, and that was most recently on display on Saturday in Champaign, Ill.

Going into a pivotal fourth-down drive, Fleck overheard on the headset Harbaugh telling one of the other assistants to “let ’em go.”

“It must have been Max talking to the offense and making that his drive,” Fleck said. “Not him (per se), but, ‘We need to put together a big drive here.’ I thought they did a really good job of that.”

After Illinois took a 17-16 lead, the seven-play, 75-yard touchdown drive included four straight completions, beginning with a 37-yard catch from Daniel Jackson.

With Rutgers, Kaliakmanis is only the most forward-facing connection to Minnesota and Fleck.  Scarlet Knights head coach Greg Schiano had Fleck on his staff at Rutgers, and with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers more than 10 years ago. Then there are former U assistants in offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarrocca and defensive coordinator Joe Harasymiak.

On the other side, Minnesota’s defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman was a Rutgers’ linebackers coach the previous two years. Rutgers also has former U safety Michael “Flip” Dixon and Athan’s brother, receiver Dino Kaliakmanis.

“You look at both sides of the ball, there are a lot of people who have a lot of connections,” Fleck said Monday. “That can’t be the focus. That’s not going to be the focus. The focus is on working to get this football team better.”

Fleck mentioned a few times Monday how Rutgers is coming off a bye week, meaning an additional week for Schiano, Ciarrocca, Harasymiak and Kaliakmanis to prepare and add to the familiarity they have with Minnesota.

“We’ve got a lot of work to play catch-up,” Fleck said. “And to get our football team better and find a way to be 1-0 against a really good team.”

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