Tuesday, December 3, 2013
MSU Reporter • 17
Sports
Minnesotans could see a rise in college football throughout the state The state of Minnesota has never been a force to be reckoned with when it comes to college football, but a strong showing in 2013 could change all of that.
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MSU Reporter Archives Finding out-state products like QB Jon Wolf out of Oak Forest, Ill. have helped college football teams in Minnesota become more nationally known, as in-state talent has been on the decline.
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as them returning to their normal state, falling to highly-ranked Wisconsin and Michigan State, but eight wins for the maroon and gold is huge for a program and a state that saw most of its talents head north to Fargo in recent years to play for I-AA powerhouse NDSU. With an 8-4 record at the end of the regular season, Minnesota could see a Jan. 1 bowl game for the first time in a long time and even if it falls short, the Golden Gophers are making a statement for years to come. After St. Cloud State’s narrow defeat of our Mavericks last Saturday afternoon, the Huskies remain as the only DII squad from Minnesota left to play after UMD’s fall to top-ranked Northwest Missouri State. It doesn’t look good for SCSU, but sending three teams to the Division II tournament like this state did is a step-up from the usual UMD-ran side of Division II in the upper
MINNESOTA • Page 18
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When it comes to the state of Minnesota and college football, the last half-century or so has been nothing as the state rarely sees its name in big headlines come December. Aside from Division III, where Minnesota schools that compete in the MIAC (Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference) like the University of St. Thomas, St. Johns University and Bethel University have achieve marginal success in their respective region, schools from Minnesota have rarely been making a name for themselves for a long time now. In fact, even in Division III, SJU has claimed the only national championships won by a Minnesota school in the past 40 years, taking it in 1976 and again in 2003. When you move up a division to the middle-child Division II, only Minnesota-Duluth and its twice-in-three-years stint in the late 2000’s has brought the hard-
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ware back to the land of 10,000 lakes. In similar fashion, the last Division I national championship brought here was in 1960 by the Minnesota Golden Gophers, more than likely the last time they were even near relevancy post World War II. But 2013 has been a different story for Minnesota Universities and Colleges, as the state is finally starting to see some winning ways on the gridiron throughout all facets of collegiate football. Though the Gophers will not bring in the Coaches Trophy this holiday season, they did take a strong step back to significance in the grand scheme of college football. Most of their publicity this season has come in the wake of their almost-dual head coaching stint with HC Jerry Kill stuck in the booth while defensive coordinator Tracy Claeys has been turning out a decent amount of wins. Most still see the last two weeks the Gophers have played
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