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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EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Everything was going right for the Vikings.

Not only was young quarterback J.J. McCarthy continuing to show signs of growth on Sunday afternoon at MetLife Stadium, the Vikings looked like they were well on their way to a win over the New York Giants.

The narrative completely changed when the worst case scenario played out in real time.

On a sequence shortly before halftime, McCarthy got strip sacked by edge rusher Brian Burns, and safety Tyler Nubin returned the fumble for a touchdown. To make matters worse, McCarthy suffered a right hand injury in the process, which ultimately knocked him out of the game for good.

As a result, the Vikings asked rookie quarterback Max Brosmer to finish the game against the New York Giants.

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EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — After slowly walking off the field under his own power on Sunday afternoon at MetLife Stadium, veteran center Ryan Kelly was immediately evaluated for a concussion.

That update from the Vikings served as a sobering moment in a rather meaningless game against the New York Giants.

This would be the third time Kelly has suffered a concussion this season alone and the sixth time his has been documented with a concussion in his career. He has already spent time on injured reserve this season as the result of a concussion.

There was a lot of discussion between everybody involved regarding whether Kelly should return in any capacity. He made it clear that he wanted to play and he’s been wearing a guardian cap since being activated from injured reserve.

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St. Paul police say that a federal agent was struck by a vehicle Sunday morning and fired their weapon in response. The driver was not injured in the shooting and was taken into custody by federal agents.

The federal agent who was hit by the car suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

About 8:30 a.m. Sunday, St. Paul police officers received a report of shots fired on the 1300 block of Westminster Street, according to a press release from the police department.

When officers arrived, they were informed that a federal agent had been involved in a use-of-force incident.

Preliminary information given to officers was that the federal agent “was struck by a vehicle and
fired their service weapon in return.”

No St. Paul police officers were involved in the arrest or use of force.

The department referred all questions about Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigations to those agencies.

The agencies did not respond to emails from the Pioneer Press on Sunday morning.

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