Gophers Moved Practice Indoors Last Week Over Concerns that Iowa was Spying on Outdoor Fields

The Minnesota Gophers are back in Dinkytown preparing for their game vs the Michigan State Spartans this weekend, after a season-altering victory vs the Iowa Hawkeyes last Saturday in Iowa City, where they hadn’t won in over 20 years.

Big Ten teams are all playing amidst ongoing investigations into the Michigan Wolverines for what is unfolding as the biggest sign-stealing/scouting scandal in college football history and the biggest in sports since the Houston Astros were banging trash cans all the way to the World Series.

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Gophers moved practice indoors due to Iowa spying concerns

But the Minnesota Gophers moved practice indoors last week, not because of Jim Harbaugh paranoia. According to Darren “Doogie” Wolfson (SKOR North), the Gophers moved practice indoors, under the veil of their giant indoor facility, because they were worried the Hawkeyes had planted a spy in the apartment complex across the street from their outdoor fields.

“The week leading into the Iowa game, it was pretty nice out. The Gophers could have practiced outside. They, by design, moved their practices indoors, because there’s an apartment building that overlooks the practice field. There’s no actual evidence that Iowa has tried to watch practice, you know, grab some notes… whatever; have somebody in that apartment. But I guess the Gophers were spooked enough [to move practice locations]. I had somebody verbalize this to me, ‘hey, we just felt like the right thing to do was to move practice indoors the week of the Iowa game’.”

Darren Wolfson – Mackey & Judd (SKOR North)

I have attended both indoor and outdoor Minnesota Gopher football practices on multiple occasions and, I believe, the apartment complex in question sits directly across the street. But there are at least three complexes and dozens of individual rooms that could watch every outdoor practice the Gophers hold, if they chose to do so.

In all honesty, I’m surprised PJ Fleck hasn’t included the demolition of all apartment buildings surrounding the practice fields or, at least, demand that they house Gopher football players only. Still, these observations are moot, in the conversation about moving practice last week, specifically.

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What could have spooked PJ Fleck enough to move practice?

Those apartments aren’t new. Yet, moving practice indoors to avoid opposing team spies, doesn’t seem like something the Gophers football team does on a regular basis. They say there isn’t any “actual evidence” that Iowa was trying to spy on their outdoor facility, but did not offer details into what spooked Fleck’s staff so much that they would move practice indoors, prior to an outdoor game at Kinnick Stadium.

Is PJ Fleck just paranoid or is Kirk Ferentz sending spies to watch Minnesota’s practices from the apartment units that overlook the fields? Who knows… but the Floyd of Rosedale did make it back to Dinkytown. You can decide if the location of Gopher practices last week had anything to do with that.

Eric Strack | Minnesota Sports Fan