The Gopher football team left Minnesota on Christmas Day and arrived in New York City after nightfall. It’s not Florida. Or California. Or Arizona. Or, thank goodness, not Detroit.
But the players and staff have been taking advantage of lots of down time to visit the greatest city in the world.
And, of course, tweeting about it, too.
The Gophers have been practicing for the game at Fordham University's Jack Coffee field in the Bronx.
It's not far away from Yankee Stadium, which has its baselines exchanged for goal lines for Thursday afternoon's game between the Gophers and Syracuse.
Thursday's game is the 12th edition of the Pinstripe Bowl, and 20th college football game held in the new Yankee Stadium, which opened in 2009.
Since 2014, the Big Ten and Atlantic Coast Conference have had tie-ins with the Pinstripe Bowl, with the Big Ten going 6-1 and winning the last five contests.
Syracuse (7-5, 4-4 ACC) and the Gophers are meeting for the sixth time, with Minnesota holding a 3-2 advantage so far, although the last meeting was way back in 2013, a 21-17 win by the Orange in the Texas Bowl.
This is the 23rd all-time bowl game appearance for the Gophers (8-4, 5-4 Big Ten) and the fourth in six years for head coach P.J. Fleck.
The Gophers have won five straight bowl games, the nation's second longest bowl game winning streak (Alabama has won seven straight not counting national championship appearances, which technically aren’t bowl games).
The Golden Gophers are 10-12 all-time in bowl games.
Minnesota is a 10-point favorite going into the game which kicks off at 1:00 p.m.
Syracuse had a tough end to the season with a defense decimated by injuries.
They’ll also be missing one of their key offensive pieces with running back Sean Tucker out of the game.
The Gophers are loaded with experience even if sixth year senior quarterback Tanner Morgan sits out.
He’s missed most of the last five games with what Coach P.J. Fleck has called an “upper body injury”.
Freshman QB Athan Kaliakmanis has stepped in and gone 3-2 including a win over Wisconsin.
But it’s been the tremendous play of the offensive line and senior running back Mohamed Ibrahim that the Gophers will once again lean on to move the ball.
On the defensive side, the Gophers have been one of the best in the nation this season. They rank fifth in the country by allowing 279.5 total yards per contest. They also have the fourth ranked defense in terms of scoring (13.3 ppg), No. 8 in passing yards allowed (173.7) and the No. 15 rush defense (105.8).
Minnesota, Air Force, Illinois, and Iowa are the only teams in the FBS that rank in the top 20 in each of those categories.
Fleck has had no issue getting his Gopher teams up for bowl games since coming to Minnesota.
They are 3-0 in postseason games under Fleck, beating Georgia Tech in the 2018 Quick Lane Bowl, Auburn in the 2020 Outback Bowl, and West Virginia in the 2021 Guaranteed Rate Bowl.
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