Through the Eyes of a Former Gopher: Sean Hoffman on ”Golden Opportunities”

As a player, the legs are starting to come back and the focus isn’t about getting through the two a days; rather it’s on the game plan to beat Southern Cal. It seems like an eternity since you were crawling out of bed at 5:00 am in February to go through grueling winter conditioning. You passed the monotony of Spring Ball where you were forced to bang heads daily with the same guy you share an apartment with. (Biased opinion here, but spring ball was the worst part of the year.) On through the summer where you started seeing progress; your bench press started going up and your forty time started going down. The summer was also when you started becoming a team. Players forced each other to get better and policed those not putting in the work. Leaders emerged during the summer; often guys who had been in the shadows before, but were now ready to play and push their teammates to be better.

There is no better feeling than getting on that charter plane with your teammates and coaches after you have put the work in during fall camp. My first two years we flew now-defunct Champion Air and for a guy that doesn’t like to fly, climbing on board were some stressful steps to take. I tell people it was a little like getting on the “Indian Express” from the movie Major League. Once aboard your thoughts were solely focused on the task at hand. You had 60-some guys on that plane that would run through a wall for you, and you for them. You were now a team, and for the next four months the guys on that plane were your family. I liked playing on the road because it felt like the team closed quarters and the focus was sharper. Maybe it had something to do with playing home games inside a dump….sorry I mean dome.

Once the team meal and meetings were over you were left with time to call or see your parents if they had made the trip. At this point of the trip I tended to get a little feisty and unruly. I suppose it was the nature of the sport getting to me a little bit; you weren’t going to a musical after all. Most of the time your roommate at the hotel would be someone you shared the same position on the field with. I didn’t care as long as they didn’t snore. There were a few nights I slept in the bathroom because my roommate was causing an earthquake with his snoring.

I was always up early with a cup of coffee in hand. I wanted to be the first in line to see my preferred trainer to get my ankles taped. I guess I was a little superstitious with how things were done. Then it was on to the pregame meal – one thing I will say is we never went hungry. We would then split up as an offense and a defense for one more meeting to go through signals and our specific offensive and defensive keys to the game. Finally, Coach Mason would address us as a team and go through the team goals one more time. This is the part of the day when you looked around and saw game faces starting to appear. Guys were focused now – legs were bouncing and feet were tapping as Mase started lighting the fire. I have never boxed, but would imagine it would be very similar to a fighter shadow boxing in the locker room minutes before his entrance music started.

Now depending on who and where we were playing the drive into the stadium was always entertaining. In that 15-20 minute ride I have seen some of the craziest things imaginable directed at a visiting team. Some like Penn State were very gracious, stopping their tailgating activities to wave or yell good luck. While others like our neighbors to the East or South, not so much. Again, I believe this has probably more to do with genetics then it does the booze they are consuming.

Inside the locker room, the movies have it right. Guys have the earphones in and the music is cranked. Coach comes in with his final instructions and the captains head out for the coin toss. As the doors open to the hallway you can hear the band playing and the dull roar of the crowd. Arm in arm you walk with your brothers; the guy from Fargo right next to the guy from Miami with their minds on the same goal. The crowd getting louder and your step a little faster, the last years work leading up to this moment. Coach yells just two words “let’s go” and you run out onto the field like you’re floating on air. What happens next is why we play the game. It doesn’t matter if you’re picked to finish first in the country or last in the Sun Belt Conference. This is why college football is the greatest team game in world.

I look forward to writing this column weekly for the GopherHole. I doubt this will be Pulitzer Prize winning material, but I hope I can share some insights into college football and maybe some funny stories.

Go Gophers Beat SC!!

Recruited by Jim Wacker, Hoffman came to The U from Fargo, North Dakota and quickly earned the reputation as a vocal leader and a true “program guy.” His work ethic was pivotal in Minnesota returning to its first (and second) bowl game since 1986.

Hoffman’s name can be found all over the Gopher defensive record book: most tackles all time by a Gopher freshman (107 in 1997), single-game record holder for tackles for a loss in a game (six), seventh all time with 27 tackles for a loss and 12 quarterback sacks and second all time with seven fumble recoveries. A second-team All Big Ten selection in 2000, Hoffman was also a two-time recipient of the team’s Neil Fredenburg Award, given to the Gopher with “courage and love of the game.”