Howdy y'all. Just got back to Texas from a whirlwind few days up North and wanted to thank the Gopher fans once again for being great hosts.
Seven of my college buddies (try to all) meet up every Labor Day weekend to shoot the bull, get our livers back into tailgate season form, and do our fantasy draft. The tradition started our junior year in college with a ranch weekend to dove hunt, then Vegas our senior year. Since school we've met in Fort Worth when there was a good Labor Day home opener, Vail, Austin and New Orleans. Now in our 5th years out of school, Minneapolis/Chicago made the cut.
Flew up to Minneapolis on Wednesday afternoon and the folks at the Hyatt downtown recommended Manny's steakhouse. We were able to get a late table and hit the bar while we waited. I was really impressed with the ribeye and will find my way back if I'm ever up in the Twin Cities again. We acted younger than we are and hit some Dinkytown bars and got some friendly banter from the Gophers. Thursday breakfast at Tony's, then gave ourselves a self guided tour of the UM campus. Nice digs y'all have up there! Went up to Target Field for the Twins game (at least 10 people saw our purple and said "wrong stadium"), then wandered the tailgate scene and were invited to join a couple different Gopher tailgates. Had a blast. The game was closer than we expected but the crowd at TCF Bank Stadium was great and we enjoyed the fans (we were in the middle of Gophers and nowhere near the visitor section). After a long day of drinking, we crashed after the game.
After breakfast in Dinkytown Friday (I think it was a placed called Al's(?)) we flew over to Chicago. Took the train to South Bend for Notre Dame-Texas on Saturday, took in the Notre Dame experience (sports bucket list) and laughed at Texas getting pounded. Sunday we hit Wrigley for the Cubs-Dbacks (another sports bucket list item). Then, Sunday night one of our buddies who works for an ad agency in Chicago was able to call in some favors to get us a tour of Soldier Field and have our fantasy draft up in one of the executive suites.
Absolutely awesome and exhausting long sports weekend. Loved experiencing the stuff in South Bend and Chicago, but you can't beat traveling to see TCU football. From the fun banter with Gopher fans in Dinkytown on Wednesday night, to the Gophers that welcomed us at their tailgates on Thursday afternoon/evening, to the game and wandering around Minneapolis, we had a great time. I hope I have an excuse to get back up to Minneapolis soon.
At the game, I saw an outstanding Minneapolis defense. The secondary was as excellent as expected (though Boykin flat-out missed what should've been two TDs to wide-open receivers). I was especially impressed with your d-line, which I expected to be much greener. I'm not sure yet if Leidner still just had accuracy issues or if our young D is better than I expected. I'll follow how through the season, but I think the passing game may be the Gophers only real weakness this year. I think that defense will put the Gophers in position to win every game on the schedule--offense just needs to be able to score more than 20 points per game. No doubt you've got a great coach--on and off the field. And the fans represent he prove a and school superbly.
I hope the Frogs and Gophers Otha cross again because this was a fun home and home series. Good luck this year. Hope you'll let me hang around a little and follow the Gophers the rest of the season.
Seven of my college buddies (try to all) meet up every Labor Day weekend to shoot the bull, get our livers back into tailgate season form, and do our fantasy draft. The tradition started our junior year in college with a ranch weekend to dove hunt, then Vegas our senior year. Since school we've met in Fort Worth when there was a good Labor Day home opener, Vail, Austin and New Orleans. Now in our 5th years out of school, Minneapolis/Chicago made the cut.
Flew up to Minneapolis on Wednesday afternoon and the folks at the Hyatt downtown recommended Manny's steakhouse. We were able to get a late table and hit the bar while we waited. I was really impressed with the ribeye and will find my way back if I'm ever up in the Twin Cities again. We acted younger than we are and hit some Dinkytown bars and got some friendly banter from the Gophers. Thursday breakfast at Tony's, then gave ourselves a self guided tour of the UM campus. Nice digs y'all have up there! Went up to Target Field for the Twins game (at least 10 people saw our purple and said "wrong stadium"), then wandered the tailgate scene and were invited to join a couple different Gopher tailgates. Had a blast. The game was closer than we expected but the crowd at TCF Bank Stadium was great and we enjoyed the fans (we were in the middle of Gophers and nowhere near the visitor section). After a long day of drinking, we crashed after the game.
After breakfast in Dinkytown Friday (I think it was a placed called Al's(?)) we flew over to Chicago. Took the train to South Bend for Notre Dame-Texas on Saturday, took in the Notre Dame experience (sports bucket list) and laughed at Texas getting pounded. Sunday we hit Wrigley for the Cubs-Dbacks (another sports bucket list item). Then, Sunday night one of our buddies who works for an ad agency in Chicago was able to call in some favors to get us a tour of Soldier Field and have our fantasy draft up in one of the executive suites.
Absolutely awesome and exhausting long sports weekend. Loved experiencing the stuff in South Bend and Chicago, but you can't beat traveling to see TCU football. From the fun banter with Gopher fans in Dinkytown on Wednesday night, to the Gophers that welcomed us at their tailgates on Thursday afternoon/evening, to the game and wandering around Minneapolis, we had a great time. I hope I have an excuse to get back up to Minneapolis soon.
At the game, I saw an outstanding Minneapolis defense. The secondary was as excellent as expected (though Boykin flat-out missed what should've been two TDs to wide-open receivers). I was especially impressed with your d-line, which I expected to be much greener. I'm not sure yet if Leidner still just had accuracy issues or if our young D is better than I expected. I'll follow how through the season, but I think the passing game may be the Gophers only real weakness this year. I think that defense will put the Gophers in position to win every game on the schedule--offense just needs to be able to score more than 20 points per game. No doubt you've got a great coach--on and off the field. And the fans represent he prove a and school superbly.
I hope the Frogs and Gophers Otha cross again because this was a fun home and home series. Good luck this year. Hope you'll let me hang around a little and follow the Gophers the rest of the season.
