Those of us who were at the game...your thoughts?

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Rescooter said:
Here's my brain dump from the trip and the game (lots of random stuff here):
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I loved making the trip. Even though I am physically and emotionally drained, I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Go Gophers!
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Great post. I was also there and feel pretty much the same as you. Despite the relatively low attendance, the atmosphere was intense and loud...probably a product of having a good percentage of both team's most loyal and passionate fans in attendance. I was surprised MN fans didn't outnumber MZ by much more at the actual game, as we FAR outnumbered them around town and at pregame events.

Speaking of pregame, the free "fanfest" was a blast. Surprised they didn't serve BW3 wings anywhere at the BW3 fanfest (save for the many Blazin' challenges they were BEGGING people to join, lol!), but it was well-organized and fun. Like Rescooter, I also met Prez Kaler and thanked him for supporting the program. I got a picture with him and classed it up by wearing my free BW3 novelty shades.

Was disappointed at the outcome of the game, but it didn't take me long to get over it. MN made some great plays here and there and kept it close for the most part, but the game changed on 4 or 5 big plays that MZ made (or we didn't). Wasn't rocket science. Two pretty evenly-matched teams, one of which made a handful of plays that changed everything.

My travel party agreed that we had a BLAST planning and making the trip, and that the whole atmosphere around a big bowl game was just really fun. Can't wait to do it again -- hopefully sooner than 52 years from now!
 

1. Gopher band better than the Missouri
2. Had to be a couple of thousand at the Alumni Party
3. Missouri fans before and after we're cool. They couldn't believe how many Gopher fans were there.
4. I would say at least 15,000. We had the end zones packed.
5. Highly suggest renting off of VRBO. Vistana Village was pretty nice and reasonable.
6. A lot of Gopher fans from the following areas: Tampa/St . Petersburg/ Destin/ Fort Walton Beach
Fort Meyers, St. Augustine, etc.
7. Quote from one of the BWW offical: "Amazed at the number of Gopher fans here. Very impressive"
8. Kill: I didn't like the end of the first half. You could see the dissatisfaction from Cobb and Leidner.
9. Special teams: Worst we've seen all year. Morrell was especially bad. James had a stinger on the punt return Jones dropped. James did come back for a later punt after they worked the stinger out.
10. Final analysis: I thought we had to play an error free game to win. We didn't. They shut Cobb down pretty good after the first quarter. Campbell missed a lot of key tackles. Botichelli was getting
handled pretty easy, which really hurt. On offense Mitch had some good throws, but missed Isaac F.
on the long pass.by trying to drill it versus laying it out there. Edwards needs to catch the sideline and up route. That was a big drop. I thought the secondary played great except for Murray getting beat on that last corner route. Across the board Missouri had better athletes, but we're getting better. Tough way to end the season, but hell we made it to a major bowl game and we showed the nation that put the Gophers in a meaningful game and we will pack the house.
 

This "MItch was horrible" crap has got to stop. He played the best game of his Gopher career and it was one of the best QB performances in the 15 years I have had season tickets. In case people forgot already, we were playing a team that played in the SEC Championship Game and which has one of the best defensive lines in all of college football. Mitch is going to be our QB for the next two years. There is nobody who is already here or we are going to be able to recruit who will be good enough beat him out. Mitch will be easily ranked in the top 5 of QB's in the Big 10 next year and the year after. Given the history of Gopher QB's every Gopher fan should get down on their knees and give thanks and pray that Mitch doesn't get hurt.
 

I won't attempt to evaluate the game. That's been covered by others. I thought the stadium renovations were well done. We sat near mid field in the lower portion on the Gopher side of the stadium. The Pioneer Press stated about 22,000 Gopher fans were in attendance. All the Gopher fans I met were enthusiastic and most were polite and well behaved. Most were not students, but were snowbirds who drove in from all parts of Florida. So much for the notion that Gopher fans don't travel. Florida has an enormous MN snowbird population which makes that state a good venue for Gophers in future bowl games. I chatted with a few of the players on the night before the game. They were unanimous in praising Coach Kill and had much respect for him and the way he runs the program, including any discipline for misconduct that he has had to deal with recently. They all felt the program was on the rise and expect to be even better next year.
 

I also say enough is enough of the "Leidner sucks" song. He did fumble a couple times, which you just can't do, but otherwise had a very good game and made some good throws. Besides that, he is by all accounts a great leader and teammate who has been a big part of helping lead this program from nothing to its first Jan 1 bowl game in 52 years!
 


gopherinorlando said:
I also say enough is enough of the "Leidner sucks" song. He did fumble a couple times, which you just can't do, but otherwise had a very good game and made some good throws. Besides that, he is by all accounts a great leader and teammate who has been a big part of helping lead this program from nothing to its first Jan 1 bowl game in 52 years!
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Agree completely. Mitch is our leader and QB for the next 2 years. I was very impressed by the gathering at UNLV but this crowd blew the doors off the UNLV numbers. Norwood said at the tailgate and the social how much our showing is going to help in the years to come when it comes to bowls. I would say a solid 20k for our attendance, excellent job by the Gopher faithful!
 

International Drive was nice.Loved seeing all the Gopher fans walking the streets..Also cool to hangout in the lobby of the Hyatt Regency with the fans and the players hanging out. Pregame atmosphere was cool.Definitely neat seeing so much Maroon and Gold.Also cool to see Eric Decker and his beautiful wife there cheering on the Gophers.Our section screamed Decker a couple times and he acknowledged us and then of course of the drunk gopher fans told him to come home cause NY and the Jets are a dump..His wife got a kick out of it..Can't imagine it was an easy year for him there. Tough game..Just too used to coming up disappointed in the end..Still cheered them on when all the players headed for the tunnel after the game

Figured we would be louder but maybe it was just because i was near the Gopher Endzone.. Im now 0-3 in bowl games..Not good
 

There were well over 20,000 gopher fans there. So happy we traveled so well.
We were on the morning sun country flight which was completely sold out with gopher fans. Hopefully sun country made some money and will provide additional flights like that in the future.
The stadium was OK, no complaints.
Where were all the buffalo wild wings? I couldn't believe they weren't selling them at the tailgate...
Beers were big.
I was OK with the cloudy weather, only got a little sun burnt.
Gophs made too many mistakes. Penalties and turn overs killed us. Still was a crazy entertaining game from the start!
Our band was way better.
The fly over was awesome.
the area around the stadium was scary but we walked through it after the game and all the people were nice. (but still scary)
Mortell sucked
Maxx is the man
Stop bashing Mitch, he only missed 2 throws and had a great throw dropped. We just made too many other mistakes to win the game. Oh well. They were a good team that made some gutsy calls but I do honestly feel like "we lost" the game because we didn't play like we had all season. If we just protect the ball and not have stupid penalties we win the game easily.
 

Leidner had been hot and cold all year. At Citrus, he was cold. He couldn't rush, held the ball too long, and fumbled, sorry gents...outside of couple of good throws...overall I thought he didn't play that well. My whole section in 133 was yelling at him. I'm sure I'm not the only one.

Hey....I'm just one opinion. Our D as a group should've been the VIP of the game!

We lost this one on our own.

With that said! I had a blast watching our boys this year. Can't wait for next year! I even got to meet and got a picture with Coach Kill on the field!! I was pretty excited about that, highlight of the game for me.
 



Yah-E said:
Leidner had been hot and cold all year. At Citrus, he was cold. He couldn't rush, held the ball too long, and fumbled, sorry gents...outside of couple of good throws...overall I thought he didn't play that well. My whole section in 133 was yelling at him. I'm sure I'm not the only one.
Hey....I'm just one opinion. Our D as a group should've been the VIP of the game!
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I can't say I can agree with any of this. Mitch had a good game overall. The Defense was porous.
 

When you see a flamingo for the first time, you just have to call it a successful trip.
 

Artie Yamamoto said:
When you see a flamingo for the first time, you just have to call it a successful trip.
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Yep, we saw one too! Pink as all get out.

Our roadkill count on the way down from Atlanta included two deceased bobcats and a black fox fending off a pack of buzzards from a carcass outside Savannah. Pretty cool.

Go Gophers!
 

Bowl-

1. 1st bowl and had a blast. Great location and recommend being as close to the team and festive activities. Had a blast at the team bar watching the basketball game at Orlando Point.

2. Had to drive to the dump by the stadium, but had a blast tailgating with many Gopherholers right across from the stadium.

3. Nice cheap stadium with lots of Gopher fans. looked 2-1 Gopher fans and about 18,000-22,000 total Gopher fans.

Game-

Special teams and turnovers cost us the game. Coaches had the right game plan, but execution let us down. Can't give a team like that extra possessions which led to wearing down the defense. Made tackles all day and then fell apart in the front 7 down the stretch. Leidner played excellent and was on a roll completing about 14 passes in a row at one point. Again it was lack of athletes at WR that kill our passing game IMO. The pass to Wolitarski in the endzone in the 4th, he made to attempt to jump and compete for the ball. A better athlete may have run down the throw to Fruechte. Outside of Maxx I didn't see any WR high point or attach the ball this year. We need athletes outside. I think we will see a very different attach next year with Maxx and Cobb gone.

Coaching-
Didn't like the end of first half and Missouri took advantage on the onside pooch kick. Perfect play and our guys did not have back side covered. Don't know if that was coaching or just players falling asleep.

James got hurt letting Jones into the game and he struggled with punts all year. I hope they can find another punt returner this off-season.

Will be interesting to see who steps forward and pushes Mitch this off-season. However, he is not a worry for me. It's WR and LB for me.
 



Yah-E said:
He couldn't rush,
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I don't think that was really his fault though. There just wasn't a whole lot of room for him to run.

held the ball too long
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He did take a bad sack, but I felt he got rid of the ball on time pretty consistently.

outside of couple of good throws
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He had a lot more than just a couple of good throws in my opinion. For the most part he was consistently hitting guys in stride, and that is not something we have seen a lot of from him.
 

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