How are your "casual Gopher fans" friends/family jumping on board?

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Stan

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I'm sure we all have friends, co-workers, family that know that you/we are die-hards, live and die with every game etc and often mock us during the down years, say "same old Gophers" after tough loses, etc. and now are coming to us to talk about the game, ask for tickets, text how excited they are, etc.

I'm hearing from a lot of people who are excited that normally mock me. They are asking for Iowa tickets, a few say they want to road trip to Nebraska.

I embrace it with them, knowing they'll jump off if we falter, but why not welcome them in and who knows, they may be a converted die-hard in due time.
 

People who casually follow the team are more excited than the people that closely follow the team.
 

In 2012, I went out to a restaurant and asked that the Gopher game be put on. There were some a-holes who kept yelling "touchdown Jackrabbits!" through the game. I haven't heard any of that lately. I think it's also gotten easier getting a TV turned to the Gophers game without the staff looking at you like you're from Mars, and have just requested some alien thing which they were previously unaware of.
 

I've been a Gopher diehard since I was around 12 years old. That was back in the early 00's when my grandfather passed his season tickets to us after the 03' Michigan debacle. All of my good friends have grown to watch the games and root for the Gophers due to my commitment. Those that haven't....have been relegated.
 

I begged folks to go to the Nebraska game with me last year and no one would….this year my brother went with my mom and is begging my mom to get him tickets when she is out of town. Mocked last year, this year they act like they have always been fans...
 


Beat Illinois and they will really come out of the woodwork. Here's the thing. You've two football teams in this State. One is an inspiration. The other is what's all wrong about core values. You tell me?
 

Some guy said:
People who casually follow the team are more excited than the people that closely follow the team.
Click to expand...

There is an element of that that is true. Casual fans see 6-1 which gets them interested. Those that closely follow things are excited about the 6-1 but also realize we have only beat one team with a winning record at this point (Middle Tennessee State 5-3) and we have a stretch of 4 games to close the year against teams that will all almost certainly have a winning record when we face them.

The opportunity is there for a great year but there is still a lot of work to be done and some tough games looming on the schedule. We should be able to get into the 2nd bye at 7-1 and then the team will have a week off to heal up and get ready for the gauntlet.
 

My friends who are all mostly Viking fans first and Gopher fans 3rd, 4th or 5th (if ranking them based on interest in local teams) have started to talk more about them. Usually I just keep to myself about the Gophers, but they've started talking about them and I may even be able to get them to a tailgate for Iowa or Ohio State so that's fun.

But they'll also be the first ones to go back to ignoring them if we get spanked by Iowa.
 

Stan said:
I'm sure we all have friends, co-workers, family that know that you/we are die-hards, live and die with every game etc and often mock us during the down years, say "same old Gophers" after tough loses, etc. and now are coming to us to talk about the game, ask for tickets, text how excited they are, etc.

I'm hearing from a lot of people who are excited that normally mock me. They are asking for Iowa tickets, a few say they want to road trip to Nebraska.

I embrace it with them, knowing they'll jump off if we falter, but why not welcome them in and who knows, they may be a converted die-hard in due time.
Click to expand...

I couldn't agree more. I begged people to go to games with me, with free tickets...and sometimes, there were no takers. Now I got about 20 requests for tickets this past week...but they still wanted them for free. So there's interest, but people still aren't willing to pony up. I told them about the $30 tickets from the U, which is like 1/2 of what us season ticket holders pay...and they still had to think about it.

Some Guy - I have to disagree. I think us die hards have endured so much, that we are enjoying the journey more than anyone!
 



MNVCGUY said:
There is an element of that that is true. Casual fans see 6-1 which gets them interested. Those that closely follow things are excited about the 6-1 but also realize we have only beat one team with a winning record at this point (Middle Tennessee State 5-3) and we have a stretch of 4 games to close the year against teams that will all almost certainly have a winning record when we face them.

The opportunity is there for a great year but there is still a lot of work to be done and some tough games looming on the schedule. We should be able to get into the 2nd bye at 7-1 and then the team will have a week off to heal up and get ready for the gauntlet.
Click to expand...

I hate this argument. Who else are we supposed to beat? You can only play the games on your schedule. Plus, SJSU, Michigan, and NW would all be above .500 had they beaten the Gophers. Purdue would be .500. We're part of the reason our opponents are below .500.
 

From a student perspective the main thing I've noticed is excitement starting to build for those last four games. Last week support was surprisingly weak for the NW game and this week it was great, mainly because of Homecoming. But everyone is super excited for the Iowa and tOSU games, even casual fans without season tickets.
 

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