Demry Croft departs Gophers

Published 7:49 am Tuesday, November 28, 2017

MINNEAPOLIS  — Coach P.J. Fleck will start his second season at Minnesota facing the same challenge as in his first year in charge of the Gophers: by breaking in another new starting quarterback.

Demry Croft has decided to leave the program, following a final month in maroon and gold during which he set the school’s single-game quarterback rushing record in one contest but completed only 10 passes for an offense that produced just 10 points over the other three games combined.

Croft, a redshirt sophomore who replaced fifth-year senior Conor Rhoda as the starter at midseason, asked Fleck for his release from his scholarship after Minnesota’s 31-0 loss to Wisconsin on Saturday. Team spokesman Paul Rovnak confirmed that Fleck will grant the request by Croft, who completed 51 of 123 passes (41.5 percent) for 674 yards, four touchdowns and seven interceptions.

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Whether Croft, who was recruited by then-coach Jerry Kill’s staff out of Boylan Catholic High School in Rockford, Illinois, will transfer to another school to continue his football career was unclear Monday. The St. Paul Pioneer Press first reported Croft’s departure after he did not attend the team’s season-ending awards banquet on Sunday.

Rhoda and Croft were named co-starters for the opener against Buffalo. After a strong performance at Oregon State by Rhoda, Fleck announced that Croft was suspended from the team for an unspecified off-the-field reason. He was reinstated to the roster after three weeks.

Croft then replaced a struggling Rhoda in the first half against Michigan State and threw three touchdown passes to Tyler Johnson in a fourth-quarter rally that fell three points short. The only one of his six starts that stood out in a positive way was the 54-21 victory over Nebraska in which he had 10 rushes for 183 yards and went 9 for 15 for 105 yards through the air.

The Gophers, who finished 5-7 to miss a bowl bid for the first time in six years, have two viable but unproven returning candidates for the job in 2018.