Gophers’ turnaround started in Michigan’s locker room – InForum

The Gophers football team had good reason to be angry — even bitter — in the visiting locker room at Michigan Stadium on September 28.

Minnesota’s late, upset push of then-No. 12 Michigan had just been thwarted by an offside penalty that was too close after an offside. That decision — which was recognized as incorrect by the Big Ten two days later — was still raw as U players prepared to go home after a 27-24 loss.

With a rivalry game loss to Iowa the Saturday before, the Gophers had fallen to 2-3 overall and 0-2 in the conference. The season was going sideways, and it wasn’t even October yet.

But something happened that day in the Gophers’ smaller space in the Big House. Staring down the barrel of a losing season, the veteran-led team rallied around each other. Instead of fighting, breaking, or just falling apart, the scene was heartfelt.

Since then, the Gophers have won four straight games and are 6-3 and 4-2 in conference play. The immediate U-turn makes the U bowl eligible with three regular season games remaining.

The streak started with a 24–17 home victory over then No. 11 Southern California on October 5 and continued with a 21–17 win over UCLA on October 12. With the Bruins trailing 10-0 at halftime, the scene in the Gophers locker room at Rose Bowl Stadium wasn’t as, uh, mellow as the postgame display in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

After the bye week, Minnesota defeated Maryland 48-23 at home on Oct. 26, and the streak reached four with a 25-17 win over then-No. 24 Illinois on Saturday.

Fifth-year defensive end Danny Striggow said the atmosphere in Michigan’s locker room was “one of those moments that will stay with me for a long time.”

Striggow, who has played 48 games at the U, said it wasn’t just a postgame. The turnaround started at halftime, when they faced a 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. “When you walk into that locker room and see how everyone reacted to that, it just swells inside you. I honestly can’t find the words for it, but you just had to have been there to feel how this team came together after that game.

Coach PJ Fleck was struck by what he saw that day in Michigan. He watched it while standing next to athletic director Mark Coyle, assistant AD general manager Gerrit Chernoff and his wife Heather.

“There was no division,” Fleck said. “Everyone hugged each other when I walked in and told them how much they loved each other and how proud they were of how hard we fought to the end. And this is it.”

The Gophers tried to seize the connecting moment and the line drawn in the sand. One of the areas for improvement concerned the team’s confidence in itself. So heading into USC week, they created “capsules of confidence,” little kegs for players to drink from as they prepared to face the Trojans.

It was just Sprite, a placebo to show that what was needed to turn the season around was already within the players. Since then, cans of Sprite have shown up at the victorious postgame news conferences.

“This team just brought (positivity) and encouragement, and that was one of the best weeks of practice we had that USC week — when everyone thought we didn’t have a chance,” Fleck said Saturday. “This is not about one match. Like: ‘We’re going to show them!’ We’re not showing anything to anyone, we’re just proving to ourselves that we are exactly who we say we are.”

Fleck said the scene in Ann Arbor reminded him of his time in Kalamazoo when he coached at Western Michigan in 2014. He’s brought up this story before, but it’s especially relevant to the current locker room story.

After a 1-11 record in Fleck’s first season, Western Michigan trailed Ball State 31-14 at halftime. In that locker room, Fleck asked his Broncos, “When are you officially tired of being average?” They rallied for a 42-38 victory to finish the season 8-5. Western Michigan was again above average in 2015 and excellent 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 have to say much, if anything, to his players.

“There are certain locker rooms,” he said, “that you will remember forever.”