Head coach P.J. Fleck said the final decision will come from Athletics Director Mark Coyle and the team’s players, but the perspective he stated on a potential game to come during the Christmas and New Year’s Eve holidays amid the COVID-19 pandemic was put in an empathetic light.
“One, I think every football player wants to play,” Fleck said. “Everybody wants to compete. Everybody wants to go to a bowl game. … I think you have to look at a lot of different factors. We are talking about when does it happen? … Our whole state is shut down. … Let’s say that your children are away at school, everything is shut down, can’t go anywhere and the thought of your son on Christmas morning having a box lunch sitting in their room because they can’t go anywhere. That’s Christmas?
“School is done,” Fleck continued. “Nothing to do. Nowhere to go. Think about your son if that’s what’s best for your family. … You are talking about 11 days of doing what? Sitting there, doing nothing. Like doing nothing besides football in the hours we are allowed. Then also have boxed lunches. Boxed breakfasts. Boxed diners. And that’s going to be memorable?”
After suffering a overtime defeat in the Battle for Paul Bunyan’s Axe, Fleck also talked about next year on multiple occasions in his postgame video conference.
Because of shortened schedules due to the coronavirus pandemic, the NCAA has abandoned the traditional bowl requirement. A dozen bowl games have been canceled and four programs have declared their seasons over. That appeared to grow to five on Saturday night with reports USC will bow out.
Others are hinting they might pass on a bowl invitation, as well. After the Cornhuskers’ 28-21 win over Rutgers on Friday, coach Scott Frost said something similar to Fleck.
“Some of our guys haven’t seen their families since March or April,” he told reporters after the game. “It’s been a long haul. …I’m going to let the kids decide what they want to do.”
The bowl lineup is expected to come out Sunday, after the College Football Playoff is determined in the morning, so the U’s fate and its willingness to be involved is just around the corner.
Gophers quarterback Tanner Morgan didn’t state his preference on a bowl. “Our Athletic Director Mark Coyle has shown time and time again that he’s going to do what’s right for us throughout this pandemic and before that. We trust our administration. We trust our coaching staff. We are ready for whatever happens.”
Going into Saturday’s game in Madison, the Gophers’ most likely berth was the Music City Bowl on Dec. 30 in Nashville. The Music City Bowl is a matchup between the Big Ten and SEC, and the Gophers have been projected to play Kentucky or Tennessee.
The U was also not included in a few bowl projections over the last week.
If the U declines a bowl berth, it would be the second absence in Fleck’s tenure. They weren’t eligible after the 2017 season, beat Georgia Tech in the Quick Lane Bowl in 2018 and topped Auburn in the the Outback Bowl after the 2019 season.
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December 20, 2020 at 10:00AM
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Gophers sound likely to decline a bowl game, if invitation is offered - Duluth News Tribune
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