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GophersInIowa

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I wasn't around my computer much this weekend so I apologize if this has been talked about already. What was the iowa crowd like Saturday? About the same as last year? More? Less?
 

I'd say the same, because they left the stadium with their asses kicked.
 

I didn't encounter a bad one all day. I'm sure others did but that's to be expected, pretty calm following in my opinion. Definitely didn't live up to the bad reputation that follows them, maybe it's cause they lost???
 

It's the cameras they put in the bathrooms. Slowed 'em down a bit.
 

sonnygarcia said:
I didn't encounter a bad one all day. I'm sure others did but that's to be expected, pretty calm following in my opinion. Definitely didn't live up to the bad reputation that follows them, maybe it's cause they lost???
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That was our experience also. One should also throw in the fact that unlike at the Dome or Kinnick, the vast majority of Iowa fans at TCF were sombre and sober.
 


fewer seats = fewer iowa fans

no beer = fewer drunk iowa fans
 

I think they came into this game much more low key than last year. They left in almost a state of depression. I'd say we have their number for now, and you need to keep your heel on the neck.

We will see less Iowegians and far more Gopher fans at the 2013 game...
 

I think there were fewer Iowa fans at this game than last year. The AP story for the game said it was maybe 1/3 Iowa fans and I have to say it was much less than that.

That said, this year there seemed to be fewer overall fans there. The bottom half of the student section barely filled up, and there were clearly empty seats on the away side between the endzones. Not a ton, but enough to be noticed. I'd also say the Iowa fans were a lot less noisy than last year. It was very back and forth on the noise whereas this year it was not that noticeable when the Gophers were on offense. Just my take.

Oh and we had a group of 5 guys from Iowa sitting behind us who were cussing and saying rude things all game. Pointing/laughing at our band, laughing at our fans when we were getting loud on defense at the end of the game ("look at these little goofers thinking they can make some noise"), making fun of our MINNESOTA spellout for being lame and taking too long, etc. Clearly drunk. Didn't encounter another bad fan the entire day, though.
 

I think TCF has been an equalizer but not in the way most imagined. From watchnig on TV, seats seem to have been available for both Iowa and Nebraska. I think the Dome made it a much more enjoyable game for visitors. It was climate controlled and sold beer so a game at the dome becomes much more like a NFL experience to fans who seldom get to an NFL game. With TCF, it becomes another away college game so not the same attraction, especially for fan bases that enjoy drinking.
 



The best part is all the Iowa fans made a quick escape after our final defensive stand. It was nice walking out of the stadium surrounded by celebrating Gopher fans and not have to look at any black & yellow.
 

As has been said earlier: they were more subdued, less arrogant than in the past.

I think there is a realization among their fan base that we have their number and that records don't mean much when we play. They were "less" annoying and more focused on the game. The most annoying thing they did from my perspective was they seemed to wait until we had something going on (dance-team recognition and routine or homegrown athlete) before they did their I O W A cheer.

Fortunately, in section 243 we didn't have a lot of Iowa fans, so I suppose they figured that they should be under their best behavior.

My guess is, we'll get the worst of their fanbase next year in Iowa City. That will likely bring out the worst of their fans and they won't be very hospitable no matter what the situation.
 

I'd be surprised if there were more than 7000 Iowa fans (7000/50,000) = 14%
 

GophersInIowa said:
I wasn't around my computer much this weekend so I apologize if this has been talked about already. What was the iowa crowd like Saturday? About the same as last year? More? Less?
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There were more than I wanted (thanks again to the Gopher fans who sold their tickets to the enemy) but they weren't a factor for even a second.

The five guys behind me were raving about our kicking game. They were all college age and were really interested in complaining about how bad their team looked. Very little ripping on each other-we even shook hands after. Best experience by far with Iowa fans.
 



I didn't make it to last years game (long story, I may post it sometime) so I can't compare the two games, but I was actually surprised at how low key the Iowegians were in our section. I did notice in section 108 there were much more Iowa fans, and they were a bit more raucous.

We we first got to our seats (first row), there was a huge line of Iowa fans standing in front of them (our seats) and prevented us from getting to them. I thought about being a hardass and telling them they had to move, they were blocking our seats.. But let them have their little fun getting up close and personal with their team. They went to their seats about 10 minutes or so after we got down to the first row. As I was eavesdropping on their conversations, not a single time did I hear anything about they wanting the pig back or going to smoke us or whatever. Just chatted on about their players and watching the warmups. I would say I was impressed with that group of fans, but it seemed to be a family of them (some older guys, some kids and maybe one teenager/college aged kid), so that probably had more to do with them not being tools.
 

tikited said:
There were more than I wanted (thanks again to the Gopher fans who sold their tickets to the enemy) but they weren't a factor for even a second.

The five guys behind me were raving about our kicking game. They were all college age and were really interested in complaining about how bad their team looked. Very little ripping on each other-we even shook hands after. Best experience by far with Iowa fans.
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I'd describe the iowa crowd as pretty subdued. There's no doubt there were less of them this year than last, and compared to 08' they were much less angry, drunk, and vicious. They were quiet until iowa took the 11 point lead, then deadly quiet after the onside kick.
One exception would be the 50+ year old guy in front of us who wanted to fight people after the gophers sealed it, he almost lost it, looked around for takers and decided better and literally ran down the stairs and out.

I did feel a bit wary walking back alone through the tailgate lots past some very pissed off looking squakeye fans, but I honestly think they were more pissed at Ferentz than at the gophers.

What a great game!
Halloween, beautiful weather, good tailgate, exciting game, win, floyd.
 

The IA fans around us knew their football and easily spouted out IA players names as plays were made or missed on the field. Speaking with them I found out most lived here in the cities. no complaints except for the one guy who would congratulate his fellow IA fans by leaning over me (crotch in ma face).
 

I sat next to three middle aged Iowa fans in section 217 of which I assume were brothers but looked oddly and similarly inbred. They were all dressed exactly the same (Iowa hooded sweat shirt with black sweat pants). I really did try to get a picture of the three but it was too obvious. When they weren't glued to their iPhones throughout the game, they yelled the oddest complaints: "QUIT stepping out of bounds!" (as the IA running back was pushed out of bounds after a 15 yard gain when time was not a factor) and "learn how to sack!" (as Gray did a tuck and run and juked a few defenders down the field). When MN had a good play and I was high-fiving the other MN fans nearby, these three would also join in on the celebrating. Win or lose, it was the most entertaining game I've ever been to thanks to those three.
 

The Iowa fans next to me were incredibly respectful. They cheered when the nat championship winning dance team was announced. Cheered Goldy's championship. Were loving watching the student section on the jumbo tron. I had no problems. The rudest fans I saw were gopher fans harassing the respectful Iowa guys near me after the game.

That kind of embarrassed me because of how respectful they were throughout towards the gophers
 

As usual, I had a fair number of Iowa fans sitting near me. Many of the seats around ours are owned by scalpers and have different opposing fans in them each game. I was suprised at how subdued they were even when things seemed to be going Iowa's way. Perhaps it was because it took longer than they wanted, but when Iowa scored their first touchdown, the father and son sitting behind us barely even clapped.

I did my best to be respectful to them as well making sure that I complemented McNutt and Coker loud enough that they could hear it. But I did slip up once. Late in the fourth quarter, the Iowa fans were streaming out of the gates below our section in very large numbers before the game was final. It was even before we had totally sealed it with the last 1st down we needed. I couldn't resist rubbing it in a little bit and yelled, "Hey, where are you going. I thought you were supposed to be the greatest fans in the world." For that, I apologize.
 

I described my experience in length on another thread where I shared my experience taking some German kids to their first American football game. I had Iowa fans both in front of me and behind me. All in all they were pretty subdued and not a problem. The lowlight was a rednecky family sitting in front of me. Thankfully they weren't "anti Gopher" really, but were getting a little out of hand ripping their own team. The one younger dude couldn't take it anymore when they missed their second field goal. He stood on the bench in front of him, and started screaming a long line of F-bombs at the kicker. Right at the time when my inner clock told me he was taking it a little too far, I notice many fans in front of him turning around to throw the stink-eye at him. When he continued on for another 20 or 30 F-bombs, people started to ask him to quit, including one older fella from the end of his row, and another old (but big) Gopher fan from the next section. These last two older guys clearly had enough and came over and started yelling at him. They said they were about to call security and when the redneck's wife/girlfriend started saying something in his defense, the older guy from the next section cut her off by saying "do you want to get thrown out too?!" Things quieted down very rapidly after that for this guy. I'm not sure if it was the dual scolding, or the continually deteriorating Iowa team performance but the guy eventually spent the majority of the game quiet as a mouse and sitting on his hands.

All in all I agree with what others have said here... they were a quiet group compared to last year and certainly the last visit to the dome. There was something about that dome (maybe as simple as BEER, or maybe something more complex such as it being a pro venue indoors) but I have noticed visiting fans are a lot easier to deal with at TCF Bank Stadium.
 

Without a doubt, the NDSU fans have been the most obnoxious, drunk, and least knowledgeable of the visiting fans so far this year.
 




Agree with everyone else's assessment. Very subdued, quiet, respectful. I heard a completely different story from folks downtown after the game...

I was shocked that we didn't have Iowa fans next to us as the seats are owned by scalpers (I assume since it's never the same people). They actually were empty for the first time. The other surprise was the announced attendance was 46,000+. That means there were 4000 tickets available through the ticket office, plus over 1000 tickets on StubHub, plus eBay, etc. I don't know if something is going on at Iowa or what, but I expected better attendance and more jackassery from them. Not complaining at all, but odd.
 

There were about 6 in my row. They were fairly quiet most of the game. The husband of the couple next to me looked pretty glum until Iowa scored their last TD. He looked somewhat confident and then when we scored he went back to looking glum. My only complaint about them was when I left my seat at half time and returned I practically had to ask each of them individually (8) to let me pass to my seat.
 

KrisHumphries said:
The Iowa fans next to me were incredibly respectful. They cheered when the nat championship winning dance team was announced. Cheered Goldy's championship. Were loving watching the student section on the jumbo tron. I had no problems. The rudest fans I saw were gopher fans harassing the respectful Iowa guys near me after the game.

That kind of embarrassed me because of how respectful they were throughout towards the gophers
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Sorry about you and Kim-hope you find true love with someone else.
 

Lakeville Goldy said:
Agree with everyone else's assessment. Very subdued, quiet, respectful. I heard a completely different story from folks downtown after the game...

I was shocked that we didn't have Iowa fans next to us as the seats are owned by scalpers (I assume since it's never the same people). They actually were empty for the first time. The other surprise was the announced attendance was 46,000+. That means there were 4000 tickets available through the ticket office, plus over 1000 tickets on StubHub, plus eBay, etc. I don't know if something is going on at Iowa or what, but I expected better attendance and more jackassery from them. Not complaining at all, but odd.
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I think the U is sitting on the empty student seats and that is where most of the missing seats are coming from.
 

I have four seats in Section 207, and haven't sat in them all year. I have young kids, so we move around quite a bit. Don't assume if the seats next to you are empty or with different fans they are owned by scalpers. We go sit in the upper deck above the student section as it is more open, even though we don't have the seatbacks from our real seats. Over there, the Iowa fans were OK, but you could tell it was mostly because they weren't in control of the game and were just waiting. I'd put the number of Iowa fans at about 13,000 to 15,000.
 

KrisHumphries said:
The Iowa fans next to me were incredibly respectful. They cheered when the nat championship winning dance team was announced. Cheered Goldy's championship. Were loving watching the student section on the jumbo tron. I had no problems. The rudest fans I saw were gopher fans harassing the respectful Iowa guys near me after the game.

That kind of embarrassed me because of how respectful they were throughout towards the gophers
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Dude, sorry to hear about your marriage.
 

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