Follow Up from Road Trip to Illinois

[huntster17]

I had a very enjoyable trip to Champagne to see the gophers clinch a bowl berth. A couple of observations. First of all they allow charcoal grills for tailgaiting, because they offer places to safely dispose of the used charcoal. I am pretty sure we could do the same. Two, just before game time the Illinois marching band played the Minnesota Rouser when our team was introduced, a very nice touch. Three, the fans stayed mostly in thier seats during halftime to listen to the band and see the performance, (which by the way is not superior to our band at all!). Plenty of tim eto get a snack and so on. Fourth, on third downs our crowd is significantly louder when we are on defense, not even close. The stadium was perhaps 90% full and our third down noise with 40,000 in attendence is close to twice as loud. Al in all a great trip we were clearly the better team.

 

[Gopher Bandanna Guy]

Ditto for me. Very enjoyable time, and the weather made it even easier to enjoy. I recapped some of the details in the other thread here.

The Illini fanbase seemed pretty dejected and beaten down, which shouldn't be a surprise, given their season. But yeah, they currently don't get fired up much for 3rd downs on defense, relative to our fans at home.

Were you in earshot of my 'Who Hates Iowa' callout late in the 4th? It got a stronger response than I expected.

 

[WorkingMyTailOff]

Thank you for the recap. It looked like a wonderful game to be at. Great weather and just a fun football game. Were there a lot of Gopher fans in attendance? Did you guys stick around and have some beers after the game or did you head straight for home?

 

[Gopher Bandanna Guy]

Thank you for the recap. It looked like a wonderful game to be at. Great weather and just a fun football game. Were there a lot of Gopher fans in attendance? Did you guys stick around and have some beers after the game or did you head straight for home?

I would guess there were several hundred Gopher fans in attendance, a small but clearly loyal group!

My group was tailgating all pre-game, but we stuck around and caught the end of the TAMU-'Bama game on another tailgater's big screen setup. It was pretty dark in the grass lot we were in and we left as soon as traffic cleared a bit. Then headed back to Chicago for dinner and drinks.

 

[WorkingMyTailOff]

I would guess there were several hundred Gopher fans in attendance, a small but clearly loyal group!

My group was tailgating all pre-game, but we stuck around and caught the end of the TAMU-'Bama game on another tailgater's big screen setup. It was pretty dark in the grass lot we were in and we left as soon as traffic cleared a bit. Then headed back to Chicago for dinner and drinks.

Cool! Sounds like a great time. At the end of the game, the tv broadcast showed a cool scene with some of the Gopher players being congratulated by some traveling Gopher fans.