CHULA VISTA, CALIF. – By Southern California standards, Saturday's weather was cold and windy.
But judging from the shorts and shirtsleeves being worn by the Gophers football players, the weather seemed downright balmy.
The Gophers held a two-hour practice Saturday at Southwestern College, south of San Diego in suburban Chula Vista. It was the first workout for the team since arriving on Friday for Tuesday's Holiday Bowl game.
"When we left Minnesota, we had a little mix of rain and snow," coach Tracy Claeys said. "And when we arrived here we had all this rain. It's nice to see a little sun today."
Although the temperature in San Diego is not hovering around freezing as it has been in the Twin Cities, it has been wet. A series of rainstorms over the past 10 days has drenched the area and soaked the Poinsettia Bowl, which was played at Qualcomm Stadium on Wednesday.
The Gophers' practice on Saturday was briefly pelted by a hailstorm, giving the team perhaps the closest brush with snow it will have during its stay in San Diego.
"I don't remember it being this cold and windy here," said senior wide receiver Drew Wolitarsky, who knows a little something of SoCal weather, having grown up and played his high school football in Santa Clarita, 35 miles north of Los Angeles. "It was a sigh of relief when we flew in, came out of the clouds and saw the sun."
Wolitarsky admitted that he and his teammates were happy to be practicing for a bowl game after the cloud of a player boycott hovered over the team last week and threatened to detour the Gophers' first bowl trip to California since the 1962 Rose Bowl. Wolitarsky, who was named to the all-Big Ten third team following the regular season, became a de facto face of the Gophers when he represented the players during their brief boycott, which stemmed from the suspension of 10 players.