Where, O Where, have my little students gone?

That is the question that Gophers AD Joel Maturi has been asking over the last two weeks. It was first brought up in this article after the big L to last place Illinois. What did Maturi expect to happen, is the question that I want answered...

Did he think that just because you build a new stadium and conventional wisdom says that there is a new stadium hangover effect (which means that people will go to games based on the awe factor) that people will come regardless? Has he watched this Gopher team this season? They do everything they can to drive off their fan base with the way they play. They are the worst team in the Big Ten in terms of 3rd down conversions on offense and defense. In layman's terms, they can't stay on the field on offense and they can't get off the field on defense. Couple that with the fact that they are the most penalized team in the conference and no Eric Decker leaves you with a fan base chanting for a quarterback who has thrown less then 10 passes in his collegiate career.

So, what is to blame for the empty seats in the student section? It's quite simple and it is something that nobody talks about. History. The Ohio State Buckeye's have it. The Michigan Wolverines have it. Hell, even the dumb Wisconsin Badgers have it. The University of Minnesota Golden Gophers have none. Zip. Zero. Oh sure they won a national championship in 1960, but both of my parents were swimming around as mindless cells with tails at that time. They haven't been to a January bowl in who knows how long and we just got this brand new stadium and nothing to cheer about. It's like I said to a few friends after the game, the students knew that Illinois was going to win that football game. It's what we are used to and come to expect out of Gopher athletics. Why do we want to go see our team choke and let us down? What is the point?

The Gophers have been disappointing to say the least and it all started when this happened, then this happened, and we can't forget about this either. Quoting a fan from the South Dakota State game, "This is why we don't come to football games. You suck Maturi."