USC-Minnesota football series is improbably insignificant

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BleedGopher said:
Per Matt:

USC and Minnesota are both championship-rich college football programs. That’s not hyperbole. Minnesota has six college football national championships, putting the Golden Gophers in 10th place on the all-time list. USC is tied for sixth with nine national titles. You can do the math and realize that these programs have combined for 15 national titles.

So: Where are the great, classic meetings between these two programs? It’s true that Minnesota’s 1930s and early-1940s juggernauts under coach Bernie Bierman did not play in the Rose Bowl. Bierman did not believe in playing an exhibition game, which is what he thought the Granddaddy was.

Yet, even if Minnesota did play in the Rose Bowl back then, the Gophers’ best teams and the Trojans’ best teams would not have lined up against each other. USC’s dominant teams under Howard Jones were produced in the early 1930s. Jones dominated at USC from his arrival in 1925 through the 1933 season. Then he hit a lull in 1934, and that’s precisely when Bierman’s best Minnesota teams emerged. Minnesota won five of its six national titles from 1934 through 1941, in years when USC football was not elite.

Much later, Minnesota won the national title in 1960 and USC won in 1962. One of the two teams made the Rose Bowl three straight years, from the 1960 through 1962 regular seasons, but they never met in the Granddaddy. That’s why we say this series is “improbably insignificant” heading into the Big Ten era.

USC leads the series 6-1. The last meeting came in 2011, with the Trojans winning, 19-17.

“The Trojans have won five in a row against Minnesota after losing 25-19 on the road in 1955 and tying the Golden Gophers 20-20 at home in 1965. Both teams were ranked when they met to open the 1968 season, with the Trojans winning 29-20 in the first of three games that season against the Big Ten, along with Northwestern and Ohio State.”

trojanswire.usatoday.com

USC-Minnesota football series is improbably insignificant

Trojans-Gophers is ‘improbably insignificant’ because these programs have a combined 15 national titles. Can you believe that?
trojanswire.usatoday.com trojanswire.usatoday.com

Go Gophers!!
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My parents moved us out to San Diego when I was a kid and I begged my dad to take me up to LA for the 1965 season opener vs. USC. It was a Friday night game. USC was ranked #10 and Mike Garrett was poised for his Heisman season. Warmath made an odd first quarter decision, going for two after a touchdown. It failed but USC missed a PAT kick later to make the final score 20-20. Garrett ran for about 145 yards, which seemed like a mile at that time. John Hankinson passed for 200 yards for the Gophers that night, which also seemed like a great feat. Most of the catches were made by Aaron Brown (a great 2-way player), Bloomington's Ken Last and a tight end from LA named Kent Kramer. The tie seemed to suggest big things for that Minnesota team but they suffered a deflating loss at home to Washington State the next week, 14-13. They did go on to beat Iowa, Michigan and Wisconsin, but those trophy victories didn't seem to mean as much then, maybe because the Gophers enjoyed more success vs. those rivals at that time.
 


IceBoxGopher said:
That 2011 game showed just what a roller coaster Jerry Kill's first year was here. On the road, against a Blue Blood that finished the season 10-2 and No. 6 in the country, and the Gophers nearly pulled off that upset.

Then the very next week lost to New Mexico State at home.

Same case later in the season, too. Played a Michigan State team that finished 11-3 with an Outback Bowl win really close, losing 31-24, then lost 28-13 to a Northwestern squad that ended the year 6-7.
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Thank you for not reminding me of the NDSU loss…. Oh crap I just reminded myself.
 

Nomellini said:
My parents moved us out to San Diego when I was a kid and I begged my dad to take me up to LA for the 1965 season opener vs. USC. It was a Friday night game. USC was ranked #10 and Mike Garrett was poised for his Heisman season. Warmath made an odd first quarter decision, going for two after a touchdown. It failed but USC missed a PAT kick later to make the final score 20-20. Garrett ran for about 145 yards, which seemed like a mile at that time. John Hankinson passed for 200 yards for the Gophers that night, which also seemed like a great feat. Most of the catches were made by Aaron Brown (a great 2-way player), Bloomington's Ken Last and a tight end from LA named Kent Kramer. The tie seemed to suggest big things for that Minnesota team but they suffered a deflating loss at home to Washington State the next week, 14-13. They did go on to beat Iowa, Michigan and Wisconsin, but those trophy victories didn't seem to mean as much then, maybe because the Gophers enjoyed more success vs. those rivals at that time.
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Thanks for the memory. I like hearing these in person experiences.
 





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