Minnesota defensive tackle Micah Dew-Treadway sure looked happy to be home Saturday.

The Notre Dame transfer from Bolingbrook, Illinois — just down the road from Evanston, the sight of the Golden Gophers’ 41-14 shellacking of Northwestern — had a big grin after playing a big role up front as Minnesota held another hapless opponent in check.

“It takes all of us,” Dew-Treadway said. “We had to put our hard hat on.”

He was talking about a win over the defending Big Ten West champs, who have looked like anything but that this time around. But Dew-Treadway’s words encapsulate a 2021 Gophers team that is as magnanimous as it is tenacious, as team-oriented as it is surprising.

No one expected this a month ago when Minnesota lost to Bowling Green — no one, that is, except those inside Stadium Village.

But the Gophers have not only recovered, but thrived, because of one word that starts with an “I” and was mentioned by coach PJ Fleck and multiple players after their 4th straight win.

“We just continue to form our own identity,” Fleck said. “I think that’s really difficult to do and be a really good team to do that. That’s why I said they’re fun to coach, because they don’t care who gets credit. They go out there and play really hard. They focus on the things that are really important to each other. And that’s it. Internal expectations and that’s it.

It’s the biggest difference between turning a once-proud also-ran into a division contender in one of college football’s best conferences and spinning around in circles trying to figure out how to compete.

Run the ball. Control the clock. Sound, gap-assignment defense. Get after the quarterback.

Northwestern learned all about it Saturday.

Minnesota held the ball for over 40 minutes. The Wildcats had it less than 20.

The Gophers ran for 308 yards, including more than 100 each for freshman backs Mar’Keise Irving and Ky Thomas. Northwestern ran for 143.

That’s the formula. And it continues to work. To the tune of sole possession of first place in the B1G West Division.

That’s ahead of Iowa and Wisconsin, both of whom loom on Minnesota’s schedule during the season’s final month.

“It’s pretty remarkable to see,” said Gophers quarterback Tanner Morgan. “Again, it just shows our identity.”

In theory, this is what you should see from one of the sport’s largest and most experienced offensive lines. But the execution in wins over Northwestern, Nebraska, Maryland and Purdue has been uncanny.

“Our O-line is special right now,” center John Michael Schmitz said. “We’re playing as a unit right now, five as one, and those young backs are special. They’re making some great plays, just the reads they’re making.”

Said Morgan: “I think it all starts up front.”

All this with the B1G’s reigning running back of the year and his heir apparent out for the season with injuries. After another backup, Bryce Williams, went down Saturday, the Gophers were down to a pair of freshman scholarship running backs and a converted linebacker.

The latter, Derik LeCaptain, scored a touchdown Saturday afternoon. That’s where we’re at.

“No matter who’s back there, we’ve just got our foot down, got our head down, we’re grinding all the time,” Schmitz said. “That’s our identity.”

There’s that word again.

But it permeates the other side of the ball, too. As we wrote last week, the B1G’s No. 3 total defense might be its most improved.

Dew-Treadway, Nyles Pinckney, Thomas Rush, Boye Mafe and the rest of a deep defensive line don’t do anything fancy. But they do it consistently.

The group even added an explosive play of its own with Justin Walley’s scoop-and-score Saturday.

On a macro level, Minnesota has benefited from a somewhat-advantageous schedule and a B1G environment where it seems almost anybody can beat almost seemingly anybody.

That works in reverse, of course. So a return to Huntington Bank Stadium against Illinois this Saturday can’t be overlooked.

But the Gophers are in control. And it’s because they know exactly who they are, and they don’t try to be someone they’re not.

“Complementary football,” Fleck said, “is the word that keeps coming out with our guys playing for each other and understanding situational football, and that’s a really smart football team we have that understands situations and understands who we are. And I think that you have to know who you truly are to be successful. Be yourself. One of the biggest things to be tough is being authentic. We got a tough football team because we’re real and authentic. I think that’s one of the biggest measuring sticks of being a tough football team.”