School is starting for Gophers!

Gopher freshman moved in yesterday for welcome week, and everyone else will soon be piling in. School for your Minnesota Gophers will start the Tuesday after Labor Day. The staff at the Golden Gophers Blog wishes all Gopher students, and all other students, teachers, and parents, GOOD LUCK with your school year! Don't forget to study, go to football games, and meet a ton of new people. You only get an education ONCE (trust me), so you should appreciate it!

Football Game Day for Gophers!

Sin City baby! With the Gophers probably landing about an hour ago, let's see how they will play tonight! With Jerry Kill as  coach, nobody knows what will happen. 

What do you, the fans, think? Can Minnesota's defense stop the run? We already know that UNLV likely will rely on its running game (which is lookin' pretty tight) as it tries to find the permanent answer at quarterback. The Gophers were 91st in the nation last year in run defense (um, can anyone say embarrassing?), which yielded nearly 187 yards per game. 

The Gophers will probably load the box and force the Rebels to throw deep, something they struggled with last year as the finished 118th in passing with 110 yards per game. But hey, it's a  brand new season!

Aaaand here we go, readers. College football season has began. 

The University of Minnesota at the MN State Fair

Want to see your Golden Gophers in action at the MN state fair? Check out these great events!

Dynamic stage programs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. Discover the rich array of contributions made by students, faculty, and staff.

Hundreds of experts in the building, offering insight on student opportunities, research innovations, and life-changing discoveries at the U of M.

Customized U of M drawstring backpacks will again be available at the University's building but in smaller quantities than previous years. Distribution times are noon and 6 p.m. every day of the fair until supplies last.

Gopher Athletics — Be sure to visit the exciting Gopher sports exhibit featuring memorabilia displays and bleacher seating to watch our Gophers in action. Plus, you might get to see your favorite Gopher athletes on stage!

Maroon and Gold Day — Wear your maroon and gold proudly on Sunday, August 26 and stop by the U's building for trivia, Goldy Gopher appearances, and a chance to see the U of M in the State Fair parade.

Minnesota Gopher Football: By the Numbers

Here it goes, we have all the numbers for you. Want to know how many players on the Golden Gopher football team? How many extra shoes and cleats laying around for backup? And other fun stats?

Read this: 

• 27 practices before the Aug 30th season opener
• 105 players allowed on the fall camp roster
• 4 meals provided to each player each day (one is a take home dinner with a sandwich, chips, and yogurt. Um, okay....)
• 85 footballs on hand for each practice
• 80 extra shoes and cleats kept for back-up
• 400 dinner entrees served each night to the to the 140 Gopher players and staff members (why so many? Oh, some players eat two or three meals.....)
• 120 roles of athletic for each players ankles and wrists

That's a lot of stuff! 

Gophers in the Olympics

Sorry for being so obsessed with the Olympics, but I am. There were 14 Minnesota athletes competing for Team USA this year in the 2012 London Olympics.

Two crowd favorites were Lindsay Berg (who we've talked about previously on our blog) and Kelci Bryant. Both Gopher Alum, these girls made us proud!

Berg helped lead Team USA into the Gold Medal match, but after a long match, USA took silver.

Bryant also won silver medal with her partner, Abby Johnston, in synchronized diving. This earned US their first medal EVER in Synchronized diving.


Congrats, girls! You make USA so proud!


 

Gopher Fans are Not Interested

Wanna see something embarrassing?

Here is a look at current student season-ticket sales at 8 out of the 12 schools in the Big Ten Conference for this years football season:


Minnesota: sold 2,000, capacity 50,805

Illinois: sold 5,000, capacity 60,670

Iowa: sold 9,700, capacity 70,585

Indiana: sold 12,315, capacity 52,929

Wisconsin: sold 13,119, capacity 80,321

Michigan State: sold 13,400, capacity 75,005

Michigan: sold 21,715, capacity 109,901

Ohio State: sold 26,057, capacity 102,329


Yes, we are still early in the season and school hasn't even started yet, but COME ON Gopher fans! Support your favorite school and home state and order your tickets today!

Check out Gopher Alum Lindsey Berg

Gopher alum, Lindsey Berg, has led her Olympic volleyball team to the gold medal match! They are unbeaten, and have advanced to the Olympic final with a straight-set victory over South Korea today! The team will play for the title on the 11th, Saturday, against the winner of a later semifinal between Brazil and Japan.

Listen to this! The U.S. got a boost for their match with the return of captain Lindsey Berg, who was unable to play during the team's quarterfinal victory over the Dominican Republic due to an injury to her lower left leg.

After the match, U.S. coach Hugh McCutcheon made a straight up point of giving Berg a great big hug!

Hugh McCutcheon, who coached the American men to a gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Games, will be the future coach of the University of Minnesota woman's volleyball team.

Go Gophers!

Golden Gopher Football!

Hey remember when...... Tubby Smith offered Jimmy Williams an assistant coaching position shortly after Smith became head coach at Minnesota? Williams then quit as an assistant coach at Oklahoma State University in 2007 because he truly believed that Tubby Smith had hiring authority. Oops, this obviously fell through after Minnesota's athletics director, Joel Maturi, learned that Williams was cited for multiple major NCAA rules violations when he worked as a Golden Gophers assistant coach from 1971 to 1986.

Well, yesterday, on Wednesday, the Minnesota Supreme Court overturned a $1 million award against the University of Minnesota and men's basketball coach Tubby Smith. The court ruled that even though they did treat Williams unfairly, the University of Minnesota shouldn't be held financially responsible for backing out of a job offer that Smith lacked the authority to make.

I mean, one million dollars is kinda a lot of money.

So, watch it, Tubby. You got out of this one easily. Be careful, we don't need you making a mess of things this season.