Athan Kaliakmanis was marshaling the Rutgers offense toward the Gophers’ student section in the fourth quarter of the Sept. 27 game at Huntington Bank Stadium.
In his return to Minnesota, the former Gophers quarterback had the Knights pointed toward the same group of fans he taunted after throwing a second-quarter touchdown pass.
A perfect scene for revenge was set.
Facing a second and 10 from Minnesota’s 26, fans at Huntington Bank Stadium got louder. Amid the din, Kaliakmanis tried to change the play at the line of scrimmage. Not everyone was got the memo.
The center snapped the ball to an unsuspecting Kaliakmanis. It went between his legs and the senior scrambled to recover it for a 15-yard loss. With field position ruined, a 56-yard field goal attempt with 20 seconds left sailed wide and the Gophers won, 31-28.
“That felt like a night game against the top five team in the country-type atmosphere in terms of how loud it was,” Gophers head coach P.J. Fleck said. “I can’t thank our fans enough. That’s the home-field advantage that you want to create for your team.”
The student section has been the driving force in the stadium’s less-than-capacity crowds. The Gophers have increased the amount of student season tickets sold from under 6,000 in 2017 — Fleck’s first year — to more than 8,000 this season.
“Huge jump,” Mike Wierzbicki, deputy athletics director, told the Pioneer Press. “It’s not just season tickets. Many more students coming on a single-game basis. We can generally get up to about 10,000 in there. For most games, we’re hitting that number or we’re getting very close to it.
“You go back to (2016), ’17, ’18, we were rarely getting anywhere close to that,” he added. “So there’s no doubt: what (Fleck’s) seeing and feeling is accurate in the data.”
The uptick in student attendance really ticked up post-pandemic and fans returned to the venue for the 2021 season.
“I think part of that is just students wanted to come back together,” Wierzbicki said.
Keeping ‘em
Fleck credited Wierzbicki and his staff for boosting the game-day environment. Wierzbicki, in turn, credited Mills Armbruster, the U’s assistant AD for marketing, as well as campus partnerships with the Office of Student Affairs and Fraternity and Sorority Life.
The Gophers want students in the stadium early — which, again, they do better than the general fan base. The U tries to entice students with giveaways such as the rally towel at the Rutgers win and the upcoming “Row” hats for the Nebraska game next Friday.
“We’ve done different things that I think students see value in,” Wierzbicki said. “It leads to attendance. … They’re still 18- to 22-year-old kids, whether it’s this cool hat or this towel.”
It’s not just coming early that matters, but more so staying late and not heading out to, say, that big Saturday night party.
Before the pandemic, the Gophers, with the help of an autonomous donor, started a Row The Boat scholarship giveaway. The first 5,000 students at each home game receive a cardboard oar and two $1,000 scholarships are given away in the fourth quarter.
“It’s not just coming to games,” Wierzbicki said. “It’s staying for games, staying engaged.”
‘Letting it rip’
The night before each home game, the Gophers stay in a suburban hotel and travel to the stadium via coach busses. Along University Avenue, they pass the frat row.
“I really, really love our student body,” Fleck said. “I mean, our student section has improved so much since Day One. I can’t thank them enough. This is what college is all about. It’s what the student experience is all about, coming to football games in the fall. It’s tailgating.”
Hours before the Gophers’ 11 a.m. kickoff against Rutgers, Fleck and players could see fans’ pregame routines on the frat’s front lawns and porches.
“They are lettin’ it rip; that’s for sure,” Fleck said. “This was eight in the morning. I can’t imagine what they were like at night.”
The Gophers hope everyone in attendance Saturday is tuned up the homecoming game against Purdue kicking off 6:30 p.m. The U is encouraging fans to “stripe out” the stadium in maroon and gold.
12th man
Gophers defensive coordinator Danny Collins called the crowd at the Rutgers game “a major factor” in the thrilling win. Wierzbicki said they didn’t have an official decibel level to gauge how loud they truly got.
“They are a part of us,” Collins said Wednesday. “They are a part of that defense. I know the (players) love it and they feed off that energy, as well. They were huge in that moment (versus Rutgers) and (we) can’t thank our crowd enough. That is tremendous.”
During pregame warmups, Gophers starting linebacker Maverick Baranowski likes to engage with two fans in particular in the student section.
“They’re always like, ‘Hey, what up, Mav?’ ” Baranowski relayed. “I squirt ‘em with a water bottle. They’re always juiced up, fired up. It gets us juiced up, as well. A fun little tradition.”
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