The foundation of the Gophers football team is in place for the 2024 season.

Of Minnesota’s 22 starters from this season, six are departing seniors and only one (quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis) has exited via the NCAA transfer portal.

That leaves 15 returning starters (seven on offense, eight on defense). Most of the players in that group have announced they are coming back with help from the U’s name, image and likeness (NIL) collective, Dinkytown Athletes.

Gophers head coach P.J. Fleck said Thursday that level of success with the rampant amount of players nationwide entering the portal comes down to a few reasons.

“At the end of the day, you have to have full transparency, where they fit in the program, where they are, what you are looking for, who you are bringing in (via the portal), how many are you bringing in,” Fleck said on the Quick Lane Bowl media call. “Some guys are going to be able to accept that challenge and some aren’t.”

During the season, Fleck had challenged Gophers fans and Dinkytown Athletes to help create funds for players.

“Dinkytown (Athletes) has done a really good job of providing our student-athletes with a lot of support and should be congratulated on that,” Fleck said. “I love where we are at. We can always be better. We are way bigger than we were last year, making huge strides in that department, and we will continue to do that.”

The Gophers have had seven total transfers exit since the end of the season. Other than Kaliakmanis, only one other player was a contributor: running back Zach Evans. Two were freshmen and three were little-used reserves unlikely to play at any time.

Their departures create spaces for the U to add via the portal.

Kramer to start

With Kaliakmanis and true freshman third-string QB Drew Viotto in the portal, backup Cole Kramer is in line to start the bowl game.

“There is really no other option,” Fleck said. “I will say this, in a good way, Cole Kramer, has played a lot of football for us. … He’s been waiting for this opportunity for a long time, and really excited about his leadership and what he’s been able to do since he’s been here.”

The senior from Eden Prairie has played in 21 total games, primarily as a wildcat QB, since 2019. Kramer has played in two games this season (Louisiana and North Carolina), with two rushes for three yards and his only pass intercepted

Walk-on true freshman Max Shikenjanski will back up Kramer, and Fleck said there will be options for an emergency QB, if need be.

Bad memories

The scar left by the Gophers’ 14-10 upset home loss to Bowling Green in 2021 was bound to be pointed out given their matchup in the Quick Lane Bowl at Ford Field in Detroit on Dec. 26.

That spot was poked Thursday.

“I do remember the game very vividly — unfortunately,” Fleck said. “Got to give (Bowling Green) a lot of credit. We were a good football team. That was a good football team they came in here and beat. … That wasn’t a fluke. It was nothing like that. They came in and whooped us.”

Same message

Fleck spent Wednesday night visiting with top recruit Koi Perich in Esko; he’s a four-star safety who committed to Minnesota in June but is expected to visit Ohio State and Florida State before signing day on Dec. 20.

What’s the message in moments when pledges have wandering eyes?

“There is nothing new,” Fleck said. “I was with a guy yesterday. I got done talking to him. You know I can talk, and after 45 minutes I took a breath, then I was like, ‘That sounded like the first time I ever talked to you, didn’t it? This is like the 50th time I said the same thing.’ ”

Fleck wants to reiterate why a player picked them. “Some people come in late, a new flashy shiny object — that happens,” Fleck said. “We’ve had that benefit us on our end. Just a reverse cycle. … You hope they value the things they say they value. You hope they rekindle that spirit of why they picked you. And I hope they stay true to that.”

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When St. Paul’s police chief is off duty, he feels like everyone else does when they notice a police squad behind them.

“I start to question, ‘Was I speeding? Did one of my taillights just go out? Did I go through a red light and not notice it?” said Axel Henry.

With the aim of decreasing nervousness around traffic stops and helping to educate people about such stops, the St. Paul police department is holding its first Project Self Stop on Saturday. Drivers can go to a parking lot south of the Minnesota Fairgrounds to ask officers questions about traffic stops and get advice. They also can get coupons for free taillight replacement.

Saturday’s event is an opportunity for new drivers to go through a no-stress traffic stop, Henry said.

People who pull into the parking lot will be directed to talk to an officer. Instead of an officer’s typical line during a traffic stop — “Do you know why I’m stopping you today?” — a driver can tell an officer why they’re there, such as their taillight not working.

It’s a way for “our community to experience a traffic stop without any of the other fears or traumas or concerns that might go along with those,” Henry said. “We can make all of that better if we work together and we actually practice some things, and we can educate each other and fix some cars that need some repair right now.”

St. Paul police no longer pull over a driver if the only offense is one taillight out, but it still happens around the metro. People will be able to get a voucher Saturday for a free taillight fix. They’re provided by the nonprofit Lights On!

Police will also have free steering wheel locks for Kia and Hyundai vehicles because some models have been stolen at high rates in recent years.

Roseville, St. Paul, Maplewood and St. Anthony police said in 2020 they would move away from traffic stops for vehicle equipment violations, allowing officers to focus on criminal activity and moving violations that endanger public safety.

Ramsey County Attorney John Choi — who has said he began viewing the world differently since Philando Castile was fatally shot by a police officer during a traffic stop in Falcon Heights — announced in 2020 he would no longer prosecute most felonies found during traffic stops that happened for a non-public-safety equipment violation.

An analysis of the first year of data showed the changes led to a significant decrease in stops for equipment violations and dramatically decreased the racial disparity in subsequent vehicle searches, though Black drivers continued to be much more likely to be stopped for a moving violation and have their vehicle searched compared to drivers of other races and ethnicities, according to the Justice Innovation Lab.

Project Self Stop

What: Opportunity to talk to police officers about traffic stops and get coupons for free taillight replacement
When: Saturday, Dec. 9, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Where: 1680 Como Ave., St. Paul

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Michael Phillips | Chicago Tribune

So many good and even great films this year! It’s nice to use an unironic exclamation point for the movie year that was, amid a year soaked in political dread and menace, in America and beyond.

The Writers Guild of America and Screen Actors Guild strikes fought back against the studios and streaming giants, gaining some meaningful financial ground and some roadblocks, at least, to de-accelerate the artificial intelligence encroachments in an industry barely, chaotically recognizable from a few years ago.

The summer of 2023 drew audiences as if COVID wasn’t a thing anymore. Millions responded to the weirdest, simplest, happiest ad hoc marketing coup of recent movie times: Barbenheimer! The “barb” half was based on a toy, the “enheimer” half told the story of the man behind the weapon that stripped our planet of any future certainty. Both were verifiable and remarkable eyefuls. And “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” ended up making nearly $2.5 billion as a double act.

Meantime, the corporate consolidation riddle of Warner Bros. Discovery is such that “Barbie” can gross $1.4 billion and it’s a gnat on the elephant of debt now vexing CEO David Zaslav.

Money can market hits, and sometimes make them, but this year’s highlights — lavishly budgeted in some cases, micro-budgeted in others — worked closer to an artistic impulse. We take heart from the year’s signs of cinematic life. In some cases, the titles included in my list premiered on the 2023 festival circuit and will become available commercially in 2024. In one or two cases I’m deliberately withholding a movie or two from inclusion until next year. There’s more than enough to contend with as is!

Again, with the unironic exclamation point. Never thought I’d see the day, or type the punctuation.

Best movies

10. “May December”: Dueling, intertwining portraits in damaged and damaging women, with an extraordinarily tricky tonal range and sterling work from Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore. Directed by Todd Haynes.

9. “Oppenheimer”: Propulsive almost to a fault, but a genuine feat of intelligent showmanship in the service of legitimately sticky and eternally troubling moral complexity. Written and directed by Christopher Nolan.

8. “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar,” “The Rat Catcher,” “The Swan” and “Poison”: For Netflix, Wes Anderson adapted four Roald Dahl stories, adding up to a nearly perfect 90-minute experience. Comparisons are cheap, but I prefer this project to Anderson’s “Asteroid City,” even if I’m still singing “Dear Alien (Who Art in Heaven).”

7. “Return to Seoul”: A Korean-born wanderer returns to Seoul, three different times in her life, in search of her long-buried origin story. This one lingers in mysterious ways. Written and directed by Davy Chou.

6: “The Zone of Interest”: Using only the horrific Auschwitz setting of Martin Amis’ novel, writer-director Jonathan Glazer’s razor-sharp exercise in sustained and brutal irony is unlike anything else on, or even near, the subject. Premieres in Chicago Jan. 12.

5. “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret”: Judy Blume’s evergreen charmer of a bestseller gets the film version it deserves, even if it didn’t get the audience. Written and directed by Kelly Fremon Craig, with wonderful work from everyone, none better than Rachel McAdams.

4. “Barbie”: Director/co-writer Greta Gerwig takes Mattel on a quest of existential inquiry, funny first, reflective and touching when it counted. Not what the toy company wanted, probably, until the money rolled in. But Gerwig wanted it, and we did.

3. “Killers of the Flower Moon”: Martin Scorsese’s mournful elegy is an Old West gangster movie about American might, right and murderous racism. Though it didn’t go deeply enough into the lives of the Osage Nation characters, this was a near-miss, saved and elevated by late-stage rewrites. It’ll last a long time.

2. “The Boy”: All of 25 minutes, this singular portrait of one broken Israeli soldier’s life at home, in perpetual wartime — filmmaker Yahav Winner was killed in the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre — has zero interest in anti-Palestine propaganda. Streaming on YouTube.

1. “Past Lives”: “Brief Encounter,” chronologically expanded, and told through the eyes and heart of a Korean woman (Greta Lee) reconnecting in New York with her childhood friend (Teo Yoo). Written and directed by Celine Song with exquisite observational acumen.

Top 11-20, in alphabetical order: “All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt”; “Fair Play”; “Four Daughters”; “I’m a Virgo” Amazon limited series; “In the Rearview”; “Poor Things”; “The Royal Hotel”; “Showing Up”; “A Thousand and One”; “The Unknown Country.”

Worst movies

The bummer list, in alphabetical order:

“Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania”
“Cocaine Bear”
“Fast X”
“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3″
“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny”
“The Killer”
“Meg 2: The Trench”
“Renfield”
“Saltburn”
“Strays”

Michael Phillips is a Tribune critic.

mjphillips@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @phillipstribune

©2023 Chicago Tribune. Visit chicagotribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

An officer in St. Paul was shot and wounded in the leg Thursday and a suspect was reported to be “down” with CPR being performed, according to initial emergency radio dispatches.

The incident happened before 2:30 p.m. in the area of Cretin and Marshall avenues. Police recovered a gun at the scene, according to a police radio dispatch.

Additional information wasn’t immediately available.

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