If the Gopher football team needs additional motivation beyond playing for the school’s first New Year’s Day bowl game since 1962, they can crank themselves into a higher frenzy in anticipation of the last three games of the regular season, all of them trophy games against Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa.
The 7-2 Gophers are hoping to win out the rest of the way and be invited either to the Capital One Bowl or Outback Bowl, both January 1 games in Florida. If they sweep their last three games it will be the first time since 1967 the Gophers have defeated the Wolverines, Badgers and Hawkeyes in the same season.
Those schools haven’t been the last three opponents on the schedule since 2002. Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa have been the closing three schools on the Gopher schedule only 12 times in Minnesota football history.
So starting Saturday at the Metrodome the Gophers pursue the Little Brown Jug (originated in 1903), Paul Bunyan’s Axe (1948) and Floyd of Rosedale (1935). Gopher senior defensive end and captain Willie VanDeSteeg said trophy games are “awesome.”
VanDeSteeg was a freshman on the 2005 Gopher team that won at Michigan for the first time since 1986. It was only the third time in 28 years the Gophers had won the jug. “We want to get it back in Minnesota hands because that’s something very special to us,” VanDeSteeg said.
In the last 10 years the Gophers have won the axe only two times. The pig has been in the Gophers’ trophy case three times since 1998.
After last Saturday’s disappointing last minute loss to Northwestern, the Gophers are looking forward to Michigan. “I think something with a lot of emotion will really help us,” senior tight end Jack Simmons said. “I think I am really disappointed with the way we came out and played Northwestern. …We weren’t really ready to play…at the level we needed to win the game. So a rivalry game will really be something we’re up for.”
Michigan is 2-7 overall, 0-4 in the Big Ten. Wisconsin is 4-5 and 1-5, while Iowa is 5-4 and 2-3. The Gophers may not win these games, but they certainly have motivation and they know there’s not a super team in the bunch.