New Year's date brings genuine bowl buzz for U

The work preparing for Minnesota's biggest bowl game in 53 years was still in front of them, but this night let the Gophers savor the accomplishment of getting there.

It was halftime at Monday's men's basketball game against North Dakota, and to no one's surprise, the Gophers had cruised to a 17-point lead.

There had been a plan to honor the football team at halftime. Few expected the noise to cascade the way it did when Mitch Leidner and Cameron Botticelli hoisted Floyd of Rosedale.

Donnell Kirkwood had the Little Brown Jug. Damien Wilson had the Governor's Victory Bell. David Cobb and KJ Maye had T-shirts to throw into the stands, and it turned into a love fest, with everyone celebrating the team's trip to the Citrus Bowl on Jan. 1 against Missouri.

Botticelli said he's heard congratulations going into restaurants, or just getting on and off the campus connector buses.

Meanwhile, fans are making plans to be in Orlando for the team's first New Year's Day bowl game since 1962. The Gophers have sold 5,500 seats, according to senior associate athletics director Chris Werle, and the school is putting student travel packages on sale Friday.

Players know those fans don't want to travel all that way to see another postseason loss. The Gophers are 0-6 in bowl games since the 2004 Music City Bowl.

"For our program it's huge," tight end Maxx Williams said. "I mean this bowl game means everything. It would be our ninth win. We missed out on a Big Ten championship, so now we have to win this bowl game to have momentum going into next season."

The Gophers (8-4) are six-point underdogs against Missouri (10-3), which lost the SEC title game to Alabama on Saturday.

Defensively, the Gophers know they must contend with Missouri quarterback Maty Mauk, who averaged 255 yards passing in the Tigers' last four games, against Texas A&M, Tennessee, Arkansas and Alabama.

"He's made an awful lot of big plays scrambling," defensive coordinator Tracy Claeys said. "And for us, scrambling quarterbacks have given us some problems, so that'll be our biggest challenge. Some plays when he's back there at quarterback last nine, 10, 11 seconds because of his scrambling ability, where most plays are over in four or five."

Offensively, the Gophers' biggest task will be handling Missouri's front four, which includes Shane Ray, the SEC defensive player of the year. Ray, a junior defensive end, set a Missouri record with 14 sacks. He got ejected from Saturday's game with a targeting penalty but won't have to miss any part of the bowl game, since the ejection came in the first half.

"We've been watching some tape, and have a pretty good feel for their defense so far," Leidner said. "They've got a pretty good D-line, which is going to be a good challenge for us. We really just need to go out and execute and play our game, and we feel we can play with anybody in the country."

Teams can hold up to 15 practices before a bowl game, and the Gophers used the first one to knock off rust after being idle since their Nov. 29 loss at Wisconsin. They'll hold another light practice Friday before raising the intensity Sunday.

The Gophers will travel to Orlando on Dec. 25 and practice at Freedom High School. According to Accuweather.com, the average high temperature there, the final week of December, is 70 degrees.

Claeys ran Thursday's practice with coach Jerry Kill in Orlando for a press conference with Missouri coach Gary Pinkel. Claeys thought the Gophers looked refreshed from the 11-day break. Safeties Antonio Johnson and Damarius Travis had been banged up but both practiced, as did Cobb, who was questionable with a hamstring injury heading into the Wisconsin game.

Wide receiver Drew Wolitarsky, who missed the past four games because of a sprained ankle, did not practice but the team expects him back for the bowl game, Claeys said.

"You'd like to have everybody healthy just like your first ballgame of the year, especially going against a team from the Southeast Conference," Claeys said.

And especially when it's a day a half-century in the making.