The College Football Playoff is down to its final four teams, while bowl season rages on around the rest of the country. On Friday, one of the funnier bowl matchups went down in the Duke's Mayo Bowl between Minnesota and Virginia Tech. After a four-quarter defensive struggle, Minnesota came out on top in a comfortable 24-10 victory to finish its season 8-5.

While Minnesota isn't known as one of college football's traditional powerhouses, it has had a lot of success in the postseason. The Gophers have become one of the hardest teams to beat during bowl season, as Friday night's win marks eight straight bowl wins.

Minnesota's last loss in a bowl game came on New Year's Day in 2016, when Missouri knocked off the Gophers 33-17 in the Citrus Bowl. Since then, Minnesota has collected an impressive group of heads in its postseason wins, with victories over Auburn, Georgia Tech and West Virginia among others.

Minnesota did enough on offense to get the win, but it dominated this game on the defensive side of the ball. The Gophers' defense held Virginia Tech to just nine first downs and 223 yards of total offense. The Hokies came up with just 74 rushing yards on 30 carries on a very inefficient night and turned the ball over once.

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While the defense was the star of the show, the offense more than pulled its own weight. Minnesota gained more than 400 yards and consistently moved the chains with 23 first downs. That allowed the Gophers to control the ball for more than 35 minutes and keep the Virginia Tech offense off the field.

Running back Darius Taylor was the engine of the offense for Minnesota in this game. The sophomore ran for 113 yards on 20 carries and found the end zone once while also catching four passes for 17 yards. Wide receiver Elijah Spencer was huge for Minnesota as well with six catches for 81 yards and two scores.

This win gives P.J. Fleck and company plenty of momentum going into the offseason as this Minnesota football team looks to vault itself into the upper echelon of the modern Big Ten. There are still multiple steps that this team has to take in order to get to that point, but this recent trend of postseason success is a good one if you are a Gopher fan.