As another reply to you said, the Gophers didn't get crushed. The final score was 21-17, and Syracuse only retook the lead with 1:14 left in the game.
The disappointment from the Minnesota side going into that game was because we had just won 8 games for the first time in 10 years, and had hopes for a decent bowl game, a better one than we usually get, maybe a New Year's Day game. Instead the Gator Bowl took an 8-4 Nebraska team with a head to head loss to Minnesota, to play Georgia, after Nebraska had already played Georgia in the previous year's Capital One Bowl. Minnesota ended up not just getting denied the chance to go to a better bowl game than usual, they got sent to the exact same bowl game for the second year in a row, despite being 8-4 instead of 6-6 like the previous year, and against a 6-6 opponent, whom we had also just played in the regular season the year before. Best season in a decade and we play an opponent we played last year in the same bowl game we went to last year. Syracuse being mediocre was just one of multiple factors.
I'm curious about Syracuse fans' amusement at our disappointment. Are Syracuse fans excited to play Minnesota for a 4th time in 15 years? That's the main reason for disappointment with the opponent, just that we've played them a few times semi-recently, it's not really disrespect. Even playing 7-5 Wake Forest or 7-5 Louisville would just be a new opponent and have some appeal in that respect. West Virginia had that going for them last year.
If Syracuse fans wanna talk shit, we can remind them we've won 3 of the last 4 against them, and Donovan McNabb lost to a Jim Wacker coached team.
Also Georgia Tech fans were disappointed to be playing a 6-6 Minnesota in Detroit in 2018, and it wasn't disrespect to us. They just wanted to play a better team in a better bowl game, and were disappointed with what they got. I don't think anyone here is holding a grudge against Georgia Tech for that.