It's a shame the 2003 Michigan game atmosphere couldn't have been replicated. As great a homefield advantage the dome has been for the Vikes, never happened with the Gophs.
7-1 and 20th in the country against Northwestern in 2008 and it draws 54,000. Can't blame 'em. Fooled enough.
True, but just think if we'd won that game against Michigan. That might have been enough to establish a legitimate homefield advantage for the Gophers, but unfortunately Glen Mason's teams always managed to shat the bed before a true homefield advantage could ever really begin to take hold. And to be fair, that's not just on Mason either, as there were decades worth of failure-induced fatalism and disappointment working against Gophers football and the establishment of a rockin' iteration of the Metrodome in favor of Golden Gophers football.
I still maintain to this day the loudest I've ever heard the Metrodome was when #1 Oklahoma came to play the Gophers in 1985, national TV on WTBS on a Saturday night and at that time the only game on TV, the star-studded Boomer Sooners the unanimous #1 behind Troy Aikman and a bevy of star players on both sides of the ball, and wee Minnesota, fresh off the 83-14 loss to Nebraska just two years before, but suddenly infused with Lou Holtz-inspired hope, and the Dome was packed, and
LOUD. It was so loud the TV cameras were shaking, and you could hardly hear the announcers at times. And of course we lost, but in an epic game and titanic struggle that ended 13-7 and came down to literally the very last play, with Ricky Foggie's hail mary being thrown right on target into the heart of the end zone but being knocked away by Boomer Sooner as the clock rolled to .00. Greatest game I've ever seen any Gophers team play, and at that time it was very, very possible to believe. The potential was unmistakable, so much so you could almost taste it, and it became possible and even highly realistic to envision greatness ahead and all the accompaniments that went along with that, including a loud, loud home field....but then of course Lou bolted in very short order, we slipped back into mediocrity, ineptitude and a terrible, gnawing frustration, and all that feeling of limitless opportunity, hope and potential were lost and gone just like that
Given all that, it's hardly a wonder to me we're such a fatalistic fan-base. Really, almost the Chicago Cubs of college football teams and fans.
