The roster of Gopher linebackers in 2023 compared to 2022 reveal the realities and ravages of the current state of college football.

Inexperienced players Devon Williams and Maverick Baranowski have been thrust into starting roles in all six games this season. A year ago, they were the No. 8 and 9 linebackers on Minnesota’s total tackle list. Williams had two tackles and Baranowski one.

How Minnesota was forced to start a redshirt freshman and redshirt sophomore this season has been the byproduct of three primary factors:

1. Inevitable graduations. Last year spelled the end of college football for top tackler and leader Mariano Sori-Marin as well as backup Josh Aune of St. Paul.

2. Injuries. Top returner Cody Lindeberg was expected to be an all-Big Ten-caliber player, but the Anoka native’s leg injury has forced him to miss all six games so far this season. Also, Derik LeCaptain is out for the year with an arm injury.

3. Transfer portal. Backups Braelen Oliver and Donald Willis exited the U after last season. Oliver returned to his home state to play at Georgia Tech, while Willis apparently sought more playing time at the Group of Five conference level and transferred to Western Michigan.

Defections of top-end players via the transfer portal deliver bigger impacts to programs and a higher level of angst to fan bases, but the exits of up-and-coming or depth pieces can wreak its own level of havoc on rosters such as the Gophers’.

“It’s either experienced depth or it’s going to be young depth,” Gophers head coach P.J. Fleck said Tuesday on KFAN. “Every team is going to do that based in what you do in NIL (name, image and likeness) and transfer portal. … That’s up to us. That is what it looks like. This is called young depth.

“It’s good. It just might not be as flavorful and what you want exactly right now because of how college football has changed and adapted. It’s my job to solve those issues and make those problems solutions. It’s not just a magic wand. There are answers to it, but some people don’t like those answers.”

The best short-term answer is Lindeberg gets healthy. Going into a rivalry game at No. 24 Iowa on Saturday, Fleck said Lindeberg is “closer,” without sharing more details.

“He’s one of our best players; we need him on the field. We are definitely closer” to getting him back, Fleck said on the radio. “… He’s a huge part of our football team, and when you have a team that lacks lots of experience in the depth, that is what happens. We had to stay healthy at certain positions.”

The loss of an all-conference performer will hurt any team, but that’s especially true on middle-tier programs like Minnesota. If safety Tyler Nubin, for instance, were sidelined, the U’s defense would be much more susceptible as younger, green players took over.

“(Lindenberg) knows the answers. … He’s got all the checks, including the late shifts and motions that happen really late that change our fits,” Fleck continued. “He’s got all the answers to the test. We’re getting young players to know those answers right now. But again, it’s one thing of knowing it and mastering and doing it and another thing of just learning it. We have some of those things going on right now.”

It has been a baptism by fire for Baranowski and Williams, who made their first starts in the opener against Nebraska. They have gained valuable reps, but missed tackles, some poor run fits and missteps in zone-coverage drops have been issues at times.

Gophers defensive coordinator Joe Rossi has built a name for himself with quality defenses over the past four seasons. He said that success is predicated on players being able to think critically about their roles and apply their knowledge.

“Young guys want you to give them the answer,” Rossi said. “I want them to figure out the answer. When they get to that point, then they really know it.”

Previous trials have led to greater understanding for many previous players, including some who have moved onto the NFL. But growing pains along the way can be bumpy.

Given the amount of turnover at linebacker, the Gophers brought in senior transfer Ryan Selig from Western Michigan, but he has played only 167 snaps. Williams leads the position with 357 snaps, while Baranowski is at 294. Walk-on linebacker Tyler Stolsky has stepped in for 18 snaps. That’s it.

The long-term point Fleck wants to make is that having more robust NIL options for players will help keep future players from being as enticed to head to another school, be it closer to home or to a smaller conference where playing time seems more readily available.

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s independent bid for president is facing a big hurdle just as it gets off the ground: a grueling, expensive fight to get on the ballot in 50 states and Washington, D.C.

Kennedy said he planned to “spoil” the election for both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump — and if polls that show him pulling as much as 14 percent of the general electorate hold, he certainly could be. But it will depend on whether his campaign can successfully navigate the complex ballot access process.

Kennedy has some important advantages heading in, first and foremost money. He has raised millions since his launch. But it’s less clear how much preparation the campaign has done to qualify for ballots across the country. Kennedy is essentially in a race against the clock. North Carolina and Texas require independent candidates to file by mid-May, and a crash of deadlines across the country over the summer, with 29 state deadlines in August alone.

“We have a robust ballot-access team and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s name will be on the ballot in all 50 states,” press secretary Stefanie Spear said in a statement. The campaign declined an interview request and did not respond to a list of detailed questions.

But veterans of past third party presidential bids say it will require more than cash. Beyond gathering signatures for nominating petitions, it takes significant expertise to navigate specific rules for every state and the requirements needed before signatures can even begin to be collected — and then to beat back the legal challenges that will almost certainly follow.

“I wondered if they had thought it all through before making the switch over,” said Michael Arno, a ballot access expert who’s firm was working with No Labels until April of this year and devised the independent ballot access plans for Howard Schultz in 2020 and Michael Bloomberg before that.

It’s not just about collecting sometimes tens of thousands of signatures in a given state — that’s actually the easy part, according to ballot access experts. An independent candidate for president has a litany of other challenges to getting on the ballot.

One of the biggest barriers are potential legal challenges from either major party, which are nervous that Kennedy could hurt their candidate. In multiple states, there are processes to challenge signatures after they’ve been submitted to election offices.

Theresa Amato, the campaign manager for Ralph Nader in 2000 and 2004, said “it was an incredibly, incredibly difficult period of time in 2004 because there was a full-fledged campaign to keep us off the ballot by the Democratic Party and its affiliates.” Amato, who has also written a book on ballot access for non-major party candidates, pointed out that “every other week, we would end up with a new summons challenging the candidacy in one state or another.”

The DNC and RNC did not respond to a request for comment.

Even beyond the party machinations, there are several other requirements that vary from state to state that a campaign must be conscious of to actually make it on to the ballot.

The signature gathering requirements in some states are daunting. As an independent, Kennedy will need about 200,000 signatures in California, another 145,000 in Florida and more than 110,000 in Texas, according to a recent analysis of the rules from Richard Winger’s Ballot Access News. In Tennessee, by contrast, only 275 signatures are needed.

“I think that most people don’t realize how incredibly laborious it is to comply with the aggregate level of signatures that are required and the minutiae — curlicues, I call them — in each state,” Amato said.

Two dozen jurisdictions also want candidates to name their slate of presidential electors. Ross Perot, who ran as an independent in 1992, spent a month trying to find electors before he could start collecting signatures in California, ballot access expert Winger said. In California, it’s a requirement to have those 54 people in place before any of the signature collections can start.

Then every state has a different number of signatures needed, including some that have different requirements about how many signees must come from different parts of the state.

And a big one? More than half of all states require the presidential candidate to also declare their vice presidential pick when working to get on the ballot. It might not be difficult for Kennedy, a so-far well-funded candidate who polls higher than the whole GOP primary field challenging former President Donald Trump, but his campaign will need to start its own vetting process to make that crucial decision. He might be able to take advantage of the laws in some states that allow you to name a VP temporarily and then substitute them for your real pick.

Kennedy’s decision to run as an independent after competing for four months as a Democrat is a more spontaneous approach to the race than most independent candidates typically take.

No Labels has been working on its ballot access plan for two years and says it is “on track to be on the ballot in 28 [states] by year’s end” though it aims to be on the ballot in all 50 states. Already in this cycle, No Labels is facing popular backlash from organizations, including from organizations like Third Way and MoveOn.org, which is circulating an online petition against the group.

In 2020, Schultz commissioned his plan with Arno before launching a candidacy — which ultimately didn’t happen.

Arno said that Perot, who is probably the candidate Kennedy could resemble electorally if his support is as strong as polls indicate, started the process long before his entry into the race in 1992.

Perot “had called me in November of ’91,” long before his infamous Larry King interview. “He thought about it five months earlier and he had a team already set up,” Arno said.

Signature gathering itself can be expensive. “If you’re not thinking in the range of somewhere between $7 to $10 a signature, which I know sounds horrendous, you’re not going to be able to get significant enough professional signature gathers,” Arno said.

The high stakes around the election could mean signature gathering could quickly become contentious. To combat the pushback when she worked on the Nader campaign, Amato said they trained their signature collectors in non-violent deescalation.

Sometimes their signature collectors would be confronted while working or people would pretend to sign a petition and then cross out the whole page, making the whole page invalid. In some instances, she said, party-aligned operatives would try to intimidate voters into rescinding their signatures.

“It’s another area [in a campaign] that requires a professional approach to becoming a viable presidential candidate. If you’re not thinking about it, you’re probably not a viable presidential candidate,” Arno said.

The first deadline is Jan. 6, 2024, in Utah with a named vice president required.

Patrick Williams is still overthinking it.

That was clear in the first quarter of Tuesday’s preseason game against the Toronto Raptors. After three minutes, coach Billy Donovan had seen enough, yanking the forward off the court for a lengthy discussion about the same improvements Williams has been trying to make for more than a year.

After practice Wednesday, Donovan’s frustration was palpable. Williams didn’t crash the boards enough. He danced away from physical defenders. He passed up multiple 3-point opportunities when defenders ducked under a screen, leaving him wide open with nearly 5 feet of space.

This all might sound familiar.

Williams, 22, hasn’t figured it out. But for Donovan, the disconnect has been mischaracterized.

“The perception of him not being aggressive — really, the thing he’s got to get better at is the moment of the decision of what to be aggressive with,” Donovan said. “When people say, ‘be aggressive’, people think, ‘Hey, just get the ball and drive it to the basket.’ That’s not being aggressive.”

Donovan doesn’t think Williams needs to be bouncing off defenders or throwing himself through double teams in order to unlock his next level. But he needs to start making decisions — to shoot a 3-pointer, to grab a rebound, to drive through an opponent — rather than falling back into his comfort zone.

Decisiveness, aggressiveness — this might all be semantics. But they’re the main thing holding Williams back, even on his best nights.

Williams acknowledged he was in his head too much Tuesday. He didn’t feel as if he was hesitating on specific plays, but the issue was still a mental barrier — especially on the boards.

“It’s definitely something I can do,” Williams said. “I don’t think that’s a secret, that I can rebound. It’s just more so going back and getting it. It’s just a mindset. I don’t think physically there’s nothing I can’t do. It’s just having that mindset to go.”

The problem is nearly universal across the Bulls roster. Every improvement the Bulls want to make — taking more shots, drawing more fouls, generating more catch-and-shoot 3s — stems from aggressively getting into the paint with aggression and decisively shooting the ball.

Players know this. Coaches know this. Fans certainly know it too. Yet the timidity remains.

“We just have too many shots we’re passing up,” Donovan said. “We’re shot-faking and passing them up and we’re trying to drive the ball and we’re not even going to the rim. We’re driving to the elbow and stopping and trying to pass it. Then we end up with a more difficult shot than we had prior to that.”

Williams is the most blatant example of the Bulls’ lack of edge — if only because of the disparity between his best and worst moments. Donovan believes the key to unlocking Williams is to encourage him to embrace contact with the ball in his hands.

“Because of his size, I don’t necessarily mind when he gets to his spot and pulls up,” Donovan said. “The ones I do mind are when he settles, because I do think there’s another gear that he can go to physically where he can just go right through the guy and get to the rim or get to the free-throw line and generate more offense that way. A lot of times he — I don’t want to say gives up on the play — but he’ll stop because he can always go to that. But you don’t get fouled on those shots, you don’t offensive rebound those shots.”

That doesn’t bother Williams’ greatest competition on the roster — fellow forward Torrey Craig, who replaced him with the early sub Tuesday.

It has become clear that Craig will push Williams — either into a better version of himself or potentially out of his position.

Williams briefly lost the starting job to Javonte Green last season, although that rotation change was quickly nixed because of a lingering injury that Green never shook. Donovan made it clear the door is still open for a similar change this season — either on opening day or later.

Craig, 32, has embraced his role as motivator for Williams. It’s a respectful competition — the pair grew up less than an hour away from each other and voiced a deep, long-standing respect for one another’s game.

But Craig wants to get the absolute most out of Williams, even if it means talking trash and roughing him up a bit in practice.

“I stay in his ear,” Craig said. “I make sure most everything is positive, but I show tough love when it’s necessary.”

Craig is a solid perimeter shooter but doesn’t have the same playmaking potential Williams has shown. But potential quickly loses value when it’s competing against consistent results.

The half-life of this edge over Craig has yet to be determined — but it will narrow with each performance like Tuesday night.

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Massachusetts could turn to an additional $800 million in state dollars to help bolster its position when applying for federal grants under legislation Gov. Maura Healey filed Thursday.

A trio of laws — the Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act — signed by President Joe Biden made more than $1 trillion in federal funds available to states. Local officials estimate Massachusetts can compete for a remaining $17.5 billion that could support everything from transportation to technology services and security.

Most federal grant programs require states to put up cash to cover a portion of proposed project costs and Healey said having money in hand to match federal dollars will make applications from Massachusetts more competitive when they are sent down to Washington. Healey’s bill creates a fund to build up matching dollars.

“This Capital Investment and Debt Reduction Fund will give Massachusetts a competitive edge in pursuing this historic federal funding grant opportunities,” Healey said. “And after we get through the push for federal funding, the remaining funds will be available to invest in state assets, taking pressure off traditional capital programs and our debt portfolio.”

Officials have already identified more than $2 billion in state matching funds from various sources like the fiscal 2024 budget and the state’s capital investment plan.

But estimates show a need for roughly $3 billion in matching funds if Massachusetts applies for and receives all $17.5 billion in grants the state is eligible for, according to the Executive Office of Administration and Finance.

Healey proposed using interest earned on the state’s rainy day fund, an $8 billion account that is typically reserved for emergencies, to pay for the $750 million in state matching dollars.

State officials anticipate the interest generating $250 million each year for the Capital Investment and Debt Reduction Fund, which will also be seeded with $50 million in revenue from a surtax on incomes over $1 million.

The principal of the stabilization fund “will remain preserved for mitigating the impacts of a substantial, unanticipated reduction in revenues that cannot be managed with normal budgetary reductions and savings measures,” the Executive Office of Administration and Finance said in a policy memo.

The state would stop drawing on the interest of the rainy day account if its balance is declining or it drops below 10% of the state’s total operating budget, which in fiscal 2024 neared $56 billion.

“We think those are guardrails that are both fiscally responsible and support our needs in terms of what we’re trying to accomplish, while not jeopardizing the commonwealth’s physical health in terms of its ability to weather a rainy day,” Administration and Finance Secretary Matthew Gorzkowicz said.

Having a “plan of attack” for going after federal grant programs that require state matching funds “is a really solid approach,” said Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation President Doug Howgate.

He said protecting the balance of the stabilization is important.

“We got to make sure we protect our stabilization fund, right, and we’re not kind of robbing Peter to pay Paul. And so I think the idea of ensuring that our stabilization fund balance doesn’t decline as we’re gonna go down this road is a really important thing to have,” he said. “As a principal, that makes sense.”

Healey also signed an executive order establishing the Federal Funds and Infrastructure Office led by Director Quentin Palfrey, who unsuccessfully ran for attorney general in 2022. Healey said Palfrey and his team have already “yielded results” even before the office was cemented.

Healey pointed to $108 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation for East-West Rail, a successful bid to serve as one of three hubs for a Biden administration-backed “nationwide health innovation network,” and an application for roughly $1.5 billion for the Cape Cod bridges as examples of Palfrey’s work.

“Today’s executive order also creates a new clearinghouse that will help us to be systematic and strategic and thoughtful in our pursuit of these federal funds,” he said.