Our History With Minnesota | Syracusefan.com

Our History With Minnesota

Orangeyes

R.I.P Dan
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1. On September 23, 1995 Syracuse played the Golden Gophers for the very first time.

SU prevailed 27-17 at the Dome and would have a 9-3 record ending the season with a 41-0 trouncing of Clemson in the Gator Bowl.

Minnesota would end up going 3-8 that season.

2. The next year on September 21 we traveled to the Minnesota for a game at the Metrodome.

Donovan McNabb was under center and we looked like the better team. However, a freshman by the name of Tyronne Carter from Florida returned two fumbles for touchdowns and we lost 35-33.

To this day it's still hard for most Syracuse fans to accept this loss.

Here is some game footage for those too young to remember and others who can stomach it. Click

In today's game I think a review would have disallowed the first 63 yard touchdown. To me it appears the football came loose after Malcom Thomas' knees touched the ground.

We dominated just about everywhere but the scoreboard look at these numbers.

Minnesota ended up 4-7 that year we finished 9-3 and beat Houston in the Liberty Bowl 30-17.

3. It would be 13 long years before the Orangemen got a chance to exact some revenge.

Some 48,617 fans jammed the Carrier Dome in new head coach Doug Marrone's debut on September 5, 2009.

It didn't take the Gophers long to score a TD, just 19 seconds to be exact.

Remember Mike Jones?

He ran back the ensuing kickoff 79 yards to the Minnesota 16. We settled for a field goal to make it 3-7.

Later, Greg Paulus, who was also making his debut, hooked up with future NFL'er Mike Williams for a 29 yard TD to pull SU to 10-14. For Williams it was his 10th straight game with a reception.

Just before halftime Delone Carter scored to give SU the led 20-14.

That would be the only scoring for us the rest of the game.

In OT, Paulus threw an interception and the Gophers, after three plays, hit a 35 yard, game winning, field goal .

Eric Decker who now plays for the Broncos had a great game, here are some of his receptions

That Minnesota squad ended up going 6-7 and Syracuse was 4-8

4. Last year on September 22, 2012 we traveled to TCF Stadium in Minneapolis to play in front of 50,805 screaming fans.

On the very first play of the game Ryan Nassib threw a strike to Jarrod West that seemed to hit off his shoulder pad and the Gophers made the interception.

Later while in Minnesota territory Nassib would get hit and fumble the ball to stop a drive.

Ashton Broyld would also fall victim to the turnover bug that plagued us all day coughing up a fumble stopping another drive.

We were 3rd and goal from their 4 yard line when Nassib coughed up the ball up on a blitz.

We would end up dropping this contest one 17-10. Highlights

Another in a series of heart-breaking losses to Minnesota who finished the season 6-7 with a 34-31 loss to Texas Tech in the Texas Bowl.

On December 27th in Houston, Texas the home of Nick Chestnut, SU has a chance to get some revenge.

LGO

Factoid:

SU is 1-1 in bowl games in Texas

Our win was on January 1st 1960 for the national championship against Texas which we won 23-14
 
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There are probably a half dozen SU football games from the 90s that continue to haunt my soul to this day, and that 1996 game at Minnesota is near the top of the list. I was there with my Dad, and we had absolutely no business whatsoever not winning that game by 2 or 3 TDs. It was the weirdest and most frustrating SU football loss I've ever experienced.

I was actually at all four of these games.
 
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That 1996 game still hurts.

Actually the 2009 and 2012 games hurt as well.

Let's end this nonsense and win the Texas Bowl trophy!
 
The 1996 game, arrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!

The other games I could see where maybe we deserved to lose. The 1996 game we ought to have won and won BIG. It would do my heart good to see us wearing a gopher fur coat the morning of Dec 28th.
 
The ground caused both of those fumbles in '96. painful What loss from that time period.
 
Nice recap of our history with the Goofers. However, we did lose our first bowl appearance in the state of Texas - 1957 Cotton Bowl TCU 28 SU 27 on a blocked extra point attempt by Jim Brown. Ugh!
 
The ground caused both of those fumbles in '96. painful What loss from that time period.

That season was just maddening. Started out preseason #9 with all this hype of making an outside run at a national title (I remember watching a Playboy preseason show before the start of the season and they had us #3).

We lost to an excellent UNC team, had this inexplicable loss to Minnesota, then completely destroyed everyone in our wake the next 8 games, and all we had to do was beat a underwhelming Miami team in the Dome to go to the Orange Bowl, and we blew it.
 

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