2:00The Gophers kicked off their annual coaches' "Road Trip" bus tour around Minnesota on Monday morning with a send-off at TCF Bank Stadium, before heading on a 14-city journey.
Football coach P.J. Fleck said he was looking forward to exploring the state. This is the first time he's been part of a caravan like this, as his other coaching jobs haven't been at schools with the only Division-I programs in their respective states.
"We didn't have that at Western Michigan," he said. "You have Michigan, Michigan State, Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Grand Valley -- there were so many schools. And I'm sure Michigan and Michigan State did some things like that, but in the Mid-American Conference, you don't own the state like that.
"But that's what's really different about the state of Minnesota and the University of Minnesota. Everybody here, for the most part, is a Gopher fan, and we've got to collect them all and put them in that facility [TCF Bank Stadium] over the next however many years."
Fleck, Richard Pitino and the other coaches are scheduled to hit Winona and Rochester today. Here's the full list:
City
Date / Time
Event Location
