Minnesota vs. Purdue
Minnesota and Purdue have 81 meetings on file, the first in 1894; Minnesota leads the series 42–36–3 in the games on file. Over the last 10 meetings it’s Minnesota 6–4. Share
- Minnesota wins
- 42
- Purdue wins
- 36
- Ties
- 3
- Earliest on file
- 1894
- Longest streak
- 7 Purdue
- Current streak
- 1 Purdue
- Last 10 meetings
- Minnesota 6–4
- Most recent
- 2026
The series at a glance
| ’0 | ’1 | ’2 | ’3 | ’4 | ’5 | ’6 | ’7 | ’8 | ’9 | W–L | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1890s | 2–2 | ||||||||||
| 1920s | 1–0 | ||||||||||
| 1930s | 3–1–2 | ||||||||||
| 1940s | 4–2 | ||||||||||
| 1950s | 3–3–1 | ||||||||||
| 1960s | 4–5 | ||||||||||
| 1970s | 3–2 | ||||||||||
| 1980s | 6–4 | ||||||||||
| 1990s | 4–6 | ||||||||||
| 2000s | 3–5 | ||||||||||
| 2010s | 6–3 | ||||||||||
| 2020s | 3–3 |
- Both ranked
- 1 meeting: Minnesota 1, Purdue 0; 1 both in the top 10
- Average margin
- 12.6 points; 34 decided by one score (8 or fewer)
- At Minnesota
- 34–13–3 Minnesota’s record at home
- At Purdue
- 23–8 Purdue’s record at home
- Shutouts
- 9
Every meeting on file, as played. Ranks are the AP poll’s going in.
Games that tell the story
- Minnesota’s biggest win1936: Minnesota 33, Purdue 0by 33 points
- Purdue’s biggest win1998: Purdue 56, Minnesota 21by 35 points
- Upset1949: Purdue 13, Minnesota 7Purdue had a 16% chance, by our ratings before kickoff
- Upset2022: Purdue 20, Minnesota 10Purdue had a 28% chance, by our ratings before kickoff
- Upset2018: Minnesota 41, Purdue 10Minnesota had a 33% chance, by our ratings before kickoff
- Ranked showdown1936: Minnesota 33, Purdue 0No. 5 Purdue at No. 1 Minnesota
Coach against coach
| Years | Minnesota | Series | Purdue |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1932–1936 | Bernie Bierman | 2–1–1 | Noble Kizer |
| 1938–1940 | Bernie Bierman | 2–0–1 | Mal Elward |
| 1947–1950 | Bernie Bierman | 3–1 | Stuart Holcomb |
| 1956–1968 | Murray Warmath | 6–6 | Jack Mollenkopf |
| 1979–1981 | Joe Salem | 2–1 | Jim Young |
| 1987–1990 | John Gutekunst | 3–1 | Fred Akers |
| 1992–1996 | Jim Wacker | 2–3 | Jim Colletto |
| 1997–2006 | Glen Mason | 1–7 | Joe Tiller |
| 2017–2022 | P.J. Fleck | 4–2 | Jeff Brohm |
Head-coach pairings with three or more meetings on file, the series read from Minnesota’s side (Bierman 2–1–1 against Kizer). A season split between coaches goes to the one credited with the game.
Both programs through the years
Our Elo rating at the end of each season, a measure of how strong a team was, not a forecast; 1500 is an average FBS team.
Stars of the series
Biggest days
| Tanner Morgan Minnesota | 21 of 22, 396 yards, 4 TD | 2019 Passing | |
| David Blough Purdue | 29 of 48, 391 yards, 4 TD, 1 INT | 2016 Passing |
Biggest days: the week’s best individual games by our big-days rule, from box scores (2004 on).
From the newspapers
1894 · St. Paul daily globe, Saint Paul, Minn., Oct 28, 1894
1896 · The Saint Paul globe, St. Paul, Minn., Oct 18, 1896
1897 · The Indianapolis journal, Indianapolis [Ind.], Nov 26, 1897
1928 · Evening star, District of Columbia, Oct 14, 1928
1932 · The Bismarck tribune. (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, North Dakota, Oct 8, 1932
Public-domain newspapers from the Library of Congress’s Chronicling America, found through the American Stories dataset (Dell and Harvard, CC BY 4.0). The earliest meetings with a story on file; each game’s page has the full text.
Every game
Every game is listed as played on the field.