The Gopher football team finished the season ranked number ten in the AP writers' final poll of the season.
That's the best final ranking for the University of Minnesota since the football team wound up 10th after the 1962 season when they went 6-2-1.
"Year three is when you usually start to see where the program's headed, somehow, some way," Gopher coach PJ Fleck told Dave Lee on the WCCO Morning News.
Minnesota was 5-7 and 7-6 in its first two seasons under Fleck.
"You can start to see it being built, and you can start to see what it looks like when it's being built," said Fleck. "And I think people around the country have seen how we've been able to restore the traditions of old here."
The Gophers have now finished in the top ten of the AP poll ten different times dating back to their 1936 national championship team.
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It's also their first appearance in the final poll since coming in at number 20 in 2003 following a 10-3 season.
The poll was released after Monday night's College Football Playoff championship game, won by Louisiana State over Clemson:
- LSU
- Clemson
- Ohio State
- Georgia
- Oregon
- Florida
- Oklahoma
- Alabama
- Penn State
- GOPHERS
- Wisconsin
- Notre Dame
- Baylor
- Auburn
- Iowa
- Utah
- Memphis
- Michigan
- Appalachian State
- Navy
- Cincinnati
- Air Force
- Boise State
- UCF
- Texas
The Gophers were surrounded in the poll by a pair of Big Ten rivals, with Penn State finishing ninth and Wisconsin at number 11.
Ironically, the Gophers during the 2019 season beat Penn State but lost to the Badgers.
The only other team to beat the Gophers, Iowa, was ranked 15th in the final AP poll.
The Gophers went 11-2 in 2019, the first time they won 11 games in a season since going 13-0 in 1904.
The win total includes a victory over Auburn in the Outback Bowl.
Auburn came in 14th in the final rankings.
The Associated Press provided information for this item
