Gophers’ turnaround started in Michigan locker room
"One of those moments that will stick with me for a really long time," senior Danny Striggow said.
The Gophers football team had good reason to be mad — even bitter — in the visiting locker room at Michigan Stadium on Sept. 28.
Minnesota’s late upset push of then-No. 12 Michigan had just been thwarted by a too-close-to-call offside penalty on an onside kick. That call — which two days later was acknowledged to be incorrect by the Big Ten — was still raw as U players got ready to go home after a 27-24 loss.
With a rivalry game loss to Iowa the previous Saturday, the Gophers had fallen to 2-3 overall and 0-2 in conference. The season was going sideways, and it wasn’t even October.
But something happened in the Gophers’ smaller space in the Big House that day. Staring down the barrel of a losing season, the veteran-led team rallied around each other. Instead of in-fighting, fracturing or just falling apart, the scene was heartfelt.
Since then, the Gophers have won four straight games to reach 6-3 and 4-2 in conference play. The immediate U-turn has the U bowl eligible with three regular-season games to go.
The streak started with a 24-17 home win over then-No. 11 Southern California on Oct. 5 and continued with a 21-17 road victory over UCLA on Oct. 12. Trailing the Bruins 10-0 at halftime, the scene inside the Gophers locker room at the Rose Bowl Stadium wasn’t as, uh, tender as the postgame display in Ann Arbor, Mich.
After the bye week, Minnesota blew out Maryland 48-23 at home Oct. 26, and the streak hit four with a 25-17 win over then-No. 24 Illinois on Saturday.
Fifth-year defensive end Danny Striggow said the vibe in Michigan locker room was “one of those moments that will stick with me for a really long time.”
Striggow, who has played 48 games at the U, said it wasn’t just postgame. The turnaround began at halftime, when they faced 21-3 hole before outscoring the Wolverines, 21-6, in the second half.
“It was seeing everyone in the locker room, seeing how close we can be, how gritty we played in that second half and just falling short,” Striggow said. “Coming into that locker room and seeing how everyone responded to that, it just swells up in you. I honestly can’t put words to it, but you just kind of had to be in there to feel how this team came together after that game.”
Coach P.J. Fleck was struck by what he saw that day at Michigan. He watched it while standing next to athletics director Mark Coyle, assistant AD-General Manager Gerrit Chernoff and his wife, Heather.
“There wasn’t division,” Fleck said. “Everyone was embracing each other when I walked in, telling how much they loved each other and how much they were proud of how hard we fought to the very end. And this is it.”
The Gophers tried to seize on the bonding moment and line drawn in the sand. One of the areas for improvement centered on the team’s faith in itself. So, going into the USC week, they concocted “capsules of confidence,” little vessels for players to drink from as they prepared for the Trojans.
It was just Sprite, a placebo to show that what was necessary to turn the season around was already inside the players. Since then, cans of Sprite have popped up at the victorious postgame news conferences.
“This team only brought (positivity) and encouragement, and that was one of the best weeks of practice that we had in that USC week — when everybody didn’t think we had a chance,” Fleck said Saturday. “This isn’t about a one-game thing. Like, ‘We are going to show them!’ We aren’t showing anybody anything, we are just proving to ourselves we are exactly who we say we are.”
Fleck said the scene in Ann Arbor reminded him of his time down the road in Kalamazoo, when he was coaching at Western Michigan in 2014. He has brought up this story before, but it’s especially relevant to the current locker room tale.
Coming off a 1-11 record in Fleck’s first season, Western Michigan was down 31-14 to Ball State at the half. In that dressing room, Fleck asked his Broncos: “When are you officially tired of being average?” They rallied for a 42-38 victory, and finished the season 8-5. Western Michigan was above average again in 2015, and outstanding in 2016, going 13-1. In early 2017, Fleck was on his way to Minnesota.
After the Wolverines loss five weeks ago, Fleck said he didn’t need to say much, if anything, to his players.
“There are certain locker rooms,” he said, “that you remember forever.”
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