Javon Tracy turned Minnesota’s season opener into a special teams record book night Thursday, returning two punts for touchdowns in a 59-7 win over Eastern Illinois. The second came early in the third quarter, after an 87-yard score late in the first quarter had already put the Gophers in control.
The performance gave Minnesota its first punt return touchdown in eight years and made Tracy the first player in program history to do it twice in the same game. He finished with 167 punt return yards, fielding four of Cade Cox’s nine punts, and the returns helped bury Eastern Illinois before the night was halfway done.
Tracy was searching for more than just open space. He also caught five passes for 98 yards in the first half, including a 55-yard reception that carried to the 1-yard line and showed why Minnesota wanted the ball in his hands as often as possible. He was told last week he would be the primary punt returner, which made Thursday night his first game in that role after a late decision that paid off immediately.
That payoff matters because Minnesota had gone eight years without a punt return touchdown at all, a run that stretched back to Demetrius Douglas on Nov. 24, 2018, at Wisconsin. Tracy’s two-score night reset the standard in one game, and it also came in a league where the last Big Ten player to do it in the same game was Daequan Hardy on Oct. 14, 2023, against Massachusetts. The Big Ten record book already had two-touchdown games from Kevonte Martin-Manley, Garcia Lane and Earl Girard, and Tracy joined that small company in a way that will travel fast through the conference.
P.J. Fleck made clear afterward that the result reflected more than one player’s burst. He praised Daniel Da Prato’s impact as special teams coordinator, called the setup sharp on this night and handed Da Prato a game ball as a nod to the new assistants on staff. Tracy echoed that feeling, saying the work around him made the plays feel easy and that everybody else did their job.
The bigger question now is not whether Minnesota found a return man for the moment. It is why the Gophers waited until last week to put Tracy in that role, because if Thursday was the trial run, it looked like a decision that could define the rest of the season.
