Minnesota AD Mark Coyle offers update on Gophers football following pause in practice

On Monday, the University of Minnesota announced the Golden Gophers will not practice on Tuesday due to presumptive positive coronavirus (COVID-19) tests.

All meetings are being conducted virtually.

Mark Coyle, who has been Minnesota’s Director of Athletics since May 2016, provided an update on Tuesday, saying the goal is for the program to return to the practice field on Wednesday.

On no #Gophers football practice Tuesday, AD Mark Coyle said on @wccoradio: “We hope to have an update a little bit later once we get more information from our medical people. … Our goal is to get back to practice (Wednesday) in preparation for our game Saturday in Madison."

— Andy Greder (@andygreder) November 24, 2020

The Golden Gophers (2-3) are set to battle their fiercest rival, the No. 18 Wisconsin Badgers (2-1), in Madison on Saturday at 2 p.m. ET on the Big Ten Network.

Minnesota is coming off a 34-31 home victory over the Purdue Boilermakers, while Wisconsin fell to the No. 11 Northwestern Wildcats, 17-7, in Evanston.

First squaring off in Minneapolis in 1890, the Golden Gophers and Badgers have met 129 times, with Wisconsin leading the series by the narrowest of margins, 61-60-8.

The Badgers have won 15 of the last 16, however, including a 38-17 triumph in 2019.