BleedGopher
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per Sid:
Many boosters might disagree with me, a man who has covered the University of Minnesota’s sports teams for 71 years, but I think the TCU game on Thursday will be the biggest opening game in the history of Gophers football since Minnesota began the 1968 season facing O.J. Simpson and USC.
The Gophers were coming off a tie for the 1967 Big Ten title with Indiana and Purdue, but they didn’t go to the Rose Bowl because Minnesota had been there more recently than Indiana. USC beat Indiana 14-3 in the Rose Bowl and won the national championship, and the Gophers believed they could have beaten the Trojans.
The 1968 game at Memorial Stadium, with USC ranked No. 2 and the Gophers No. 16, was a great one. Simpson rushing for 236 yards and four TDs. The Gophers took a 10-point lead in the first quarter and led 20-16 midway through the fourth before eventually falling 29-20.
What Gophers coach Jerry Kill has done the past two seasons, with back-to-back records of 8-5 and going to bowl games — including a New Year’s Day bowl game last season — are quite the accomplishments when you realize the Gophers haven’t won a Big Ten football title in nearly 50 years.
As of Wednesday afternoon, 40 tickets remained for the TCU game at TCF Bank Stadium, so it’s the first sellout in more than 20-some years. Everything about this clash is sensational compared to what has been the story of Gophers football in recent years.
http://www.startribune.com/tcu-game-is-biggest-gophers-football-opener-in-decades/324022671/
Go Gophers!!
Many boosters might disagree with me, a man who has covered the University of Minnesota’s sports teams for 71 years, but I think the TCU game on Thursday will be the biggest opening game in the history of Gophers football since Minnesota began the 1968 season facing O.J. Simpson and USC.
The Gophers were coming off a tie for the 1967 Big Ten title with Indiana and Purdue, but they didn’t go to the Rose Bowl because Minnesota had been there more recently than Indiana. USC beat Indiana 14-3 in the Rose Bowl and won the national championship, and the Gophers believed they could have beaten the Trojans.
The 1968 game at Memorial Stadium, with USC ranked No. 2 and the Gophers No. 16, was a great one. Simpson rushing for 236 yards and four TDs. The Gophers took a 10-point lead in the first quarter and led 20-16 midway through the fourth before eventually falling 29-20.
What Gophers coach Jerry Kill has done the past two seasons, with back-to-back records of 8-5 and going to bowl games — including a New Year’s Day bowl game last season — are quite the accomplishments when you realize the Gophers haven’t won a Big Ten football title in nearly 50 years.
As of Wednesday afternoon, 40 tickets remained for the TCU game at TCF Bank Stadium, so it’s the first sellout in more than 20-some years. Everything about this clash is sensational compared to what has been the story of Gophers football in recent years.
http://www.startribune.com/tcu-game-is-biggest-gophers-football-opener-in-decades/324022671/
Go Gophers!!
