PHOENIX — The Gophers football program is working towards promoting C.J. Robbins to defensive line coach, the Pioneer Press learned on Sunday.

Head coach P.J. Fleck has a track record of elevating existing coaches on his staff to bigger roles and is expected to do so again with Robbins, who has been the U’s rush ends coach since February.

Robbins would replace Dennis Dottin-Carter, who was dismissed as D-line coach Dec. 5 after one season in charge of that position group. Over the last few weeks, Robbins has been the acting defensive line coach going into the Rate Bowl against New Mexico at Chase Field at 3:30 p.m. Friday.

In turn, the Gophers will look externally to full Robbins’ current gig. Minnesota has another vacancy at outside linebackers/nicklebacks after Kevin Kane left Friday to become Purdue’s defensive coordinator.

Robbins was a graduate assistant at Minnesota in 2020-21 before coaching stints at South Dakota (2022), Kent State (2023-24) and briefly at Central Michigan (2025). He played at Northwestern and became a captain of the Wildcats. He played in 40 games, with 62 total tackles and three sacks from 2013-16.

The Gophers’ current staff had a bevy of assistants who have climbed the ladder under Fleck at Minnesota, most recently Danny Collins going from safeties coach to defensive coordinator for 2025 and former U linebacker Mariano Sori-Marin, who’s route has been defensive analyst (2023) to nickels/assistant linebackers (2024) to full linebackers coach (2025).

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