Ten Years Since Minnesota Defeated UNLV 30-27, 3OT

[IceBoxGopher]

It was well after midnight when Minnesota defeated the UNLV Rebels in triple overtime on the leg of Jordan Wettstein, who drilled a 32-yard field goal. It wasn’t the prettiest of season openers, but I feel like it marked the start of a better decade overall for Minnesota football

In the 10 years since that game in Nevada, the Gophers hit many milestones as seen below:

• 2012: First bowl berth since 2009
• 2013: First win over Nebraska since 1960
• 2013: First four game Big Ten win streak since 1973
• 2014: Most wins, eight, since 2003
• 2014: First time beating Michigan and Iowa in the same year since 1967
• 2014: First time beating Michigan, Iowa and Nebraska in the same season since 1960
• 2014: First back-to-back wins Vs. Nebraska since 1951-1952
• 2014: First New Years Day bowl berth since 1961
• 2015: First bowl win since 2004
• 2016: Most wins, nine, since 2003
• 2018: First time beating Wisconsin since 2003
• 2019: First eight game win streak since 1941
• 2019: First nine game win streak since 1904
• 2019: First win Vs. top five opponent since 1999
• 2019: First win Vs. top five opponent at home since 1977
• 2019: First season with at least 10 wins since 2003
• 2019: First time reaching at least 10 wins in the regular season since 1905
• 2019: First time ever winning seven Big Ten games in a season
• 2019: First season with at least 11 wins since 1904
• 2019: First New Years Day bowl win since 1961 season Rose Bowl

Since the 2012 season, the Golden Gophers have gone 72-51 and 5-3 in bowl games. They've had a 33-6 non-conference record. They also had a non-conference win streak of 21 games.

Minnesota has had a win percentage of .417 or better for 10 consecutive seasons. The most consecutive seasons with that percentage or better since 1921-1949. For the first time in school history, Minnesota had eight consecutive seasons with at least five wins.

The Gophers reached at least eight wins five times in the last decade. The last time the program had that many eight or more win seasons was 1900-1910. The team has also had four seasons with winning records in the Big Ten, most since the 1960s.

 

[Dave H]

I was at that game...it was looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong! Great trip to Vegas though!

True (not so interesting) story: that game was originally scheduled to be played on my grandfather's birthday. He lived in Vegas most of my life and was a Gopher fan going back to Bernie Bierman. He is why my dad loved the Gophs and went to the U and why I did as well. He hadn't been to a game since the 60s and I was taking him for his birthday. He was pumped! He sadly passed away, and a couple days later they inexplicably changed the date of the game away from his birthday. (he died 2/14 they moved it 2/16)

Also I remember we all thought it was really cool Teague came out to the tailgates to meet all us fans. (we have pictures) Little did we know he was likely there trolling for ladies...

 

[Iceland12]

We were there too. Stayed at South Point. There was promotion that if you had a ticket for the game you could use it at their buffet Monday Night. Garden Market is a good buffet and Monday was their Steak Night. Not a bad promotion for South Point. They got some marketing exposure, Sam Boyd wouldn't be sold out and figured that many of the Gopher fans would have headed home by then.

While standing in the waiting line, the people two back behind us saw our tickets and asked if we were at the game? Said yes, then they showed us their tickets. Then we all held ours up and asked if "Anybody else at Saturday's game?"

Must have been at least half the people in line had tickets from the game!

 

[GopherTheJugular]

He sadly passed away, and a couple days later they inexplicably changed the date of the game away from his birthday. (he died 2/14 they moved it 2/16)

That was a nice story, how cool would that have been to be there with him. Just curious about your dates though, what is "2/14" and "2/16"? I don't mean to be insensitive, but February 2014 and February 2016 don't make sense in the timeline of the Gopher/UNLV game.

 

[Zeppelin Gopher]

I was at that game as well- super hot, and a long one.

Sam Boyd had a full bar though. Very nice

 

[Schnauzer]

Thank you for pulling all those “firsts” together. Interesting to read. I happened to be alone at our cabin for that game and hung on every play with no one to high five or listen to my bitching when things didn’t go well. It probably was a turning point of sorts and things have indeed slowly improved since then.

 

[BleedGopher]

I was at the game with iam4Goldy and we still talk about what was almost an epic prank. There was a big thread on GH about how to get out to the stadium as it was a “hike” and most taxis wouldn’t go out there after a game since it’s so far off the strip. And most don’t rent cars in Vegas because you don’t have to in most instances. So a new poster on here said he’d rent a bus to/from the strip and we’d fill it up with Gopher fans and split the cost. The post got a ton of interest and he arranged it on this site for about 50 of us to meet him in the garage of one of the casinos and he assured us he’d be there. We’ll all 50 of us showed and this guy and the bus were nowhere to he found…and none of us knew who the guy was or his contact info. It was getting closer to kickoff and there was no way we could all get there on time, and we were convinced a Badger fan had f’d with us simpletons from MN, but our guy came through, had a kegs on the bus for us and we all got there in time and had a blast.

Go Gophers!!

 

[Ogie Ogilthorpe]

I was at the game with iam4Goldy and we still talk about what was almost an epic prank. There was a big thread on GH about how to get out to the stadium as it was a “hike” and most taxis wouldn’t go out there after a game since it’s so far off the strip. And most don’t rent cars in Vegas because you don’t have to in most instances. So a new poster on here said he’d rent a bus to/from the strip and we’d fill it up with Gopher fans and split the cost. The post got a ton of interest and he arranged it on this site for about 50 of us to meet him in the garage of one of the casinos and he assured us he’d be there. We’ll all 50 of us showed and this guy and the bus were nowhere to he found…and none of us knew who the guy was or his contact info. It was getting closer to kickoff and there was no way we could all get there on time, and we were convinced a Badger fan had f’d with us simpletons from MN, but our guy came through, had a kegs on the bus for us and we all got there in time and had a blast.

Go Gophers!!

I remember this game! Bleed stood me up, told me to meet him up on the concourse and never showed! WTF?!

 

[Some guy]

Since the 1999 Mason breakthrough, the gophers have only gone back to back seasons with 5 or fewer wins once 2010-2011

No coach we have had since Mason has posted back to back 5 or fewer win seasons.

For perspective, when each big ten school last did this compared to MN 2010-2011

Ohio state last did this in 1946-1947
Wisconsin last did this in 1991-1992
Iowa did this in 1999-2000
Penn state did this in 2003-2004
Michigan state did this in 2006-2007
Michigan did this in 2008-2009
Minnesota 2010-2011
Northwestern did this in 2013-2014
Indiana did this in 2017-2018
Maryland did this in 2019-2020
Purdue did this in 2019-2020
Rutgers did this in 2020-2021
Nebraska did this in 2020-2021
Illinois did this in 2020-2021

 

[Dave H]

That was a nice story, how cool would that have been to be there with him. Just curious about your dates though, what is "2/14" and "2/16"? I don't mean to be insensitive, but February 2014 and February 2016 don't make sense in the timeline of the Gopher/UNLV game.

February 14th he died, February 16th they switched the game.