court storm News - MinnesotaSportsFan https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/tag/court-storm/ Minnesota sports, but different Sat, 18 Oct 2025 15:17:54 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9 https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=32,height=32,fit=crop,quality=80,format=auto,onerror=redirect,metadata=none/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/cropped-cropped-MSF-favicon-1.jpg court storm News - MinnesotaSportsFan https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/tag/court-storm/ 32 32 PJ Fleck Addresses Gopher Football Fans Storming Field After Nebraska Win https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/gophers-football/pj-fleck-field-storm-comments-mn-gophers-nebraska/ Sat, 18 Oct 2025 15:04:27 +0000 https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/?p=69831 The Minnesota Gophers went into their Friday night matchup against the #25 ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers as touchdown home underdogs against a team that they had beaten five-straight times and six of their last seven, since PJ Fleck took over as head coach before the 2017 season.

But instead of a high-flying offensive shootout between two of the more talented quarterbacks in the Big Ten, the Gophers went old-school PJ Fleck and grinded out a run-first, clock controlling game plan that relied heavily on a run game that’s struggled all season and a defense that had taken a step back in 2025, going in.

Minnesota Gophers beat Nebraska AGAIN

And it worked. Minnesota took a 7-6 lead into halftime, then put the pedal down in the second half, eventually stretching the lead to 24-6 by the time the clock hit 00:00 in the 4th quarter.

They ran the ball down Nebby’s throat, even when it wasn’t working, and the defense collected a school record 9 sacks on Dylan Raiola. Friday’s win was the Gophers’ first ranked victory of the season and PJ Fleck’s seventh as U of M football coach, also a program record.

It was an absolutely dominating performance by the Golden Gophers, especially on paper where Minnesota outgained the Cornhuskers 339 yards to 213 yards, and completely dominated the ground attack, 186 yards for the Gophers to just 36 from Nebraska.

For a team that had struggled to find its identity through six games of the 2025 season, the Minnesota Gophers looked like a completely different team Friday night, both from a fundamentals + discipline standpoint and from the way they attack on both sides of the football.

In a nutshell, they looked like the hungrier, more aggressive team for the first time this year, an attitude that could pay dividends over the next couple weeks, if they can can hold onto it.

MN Gophers football fans storm field at Huntington Bank Stadium

During such a convincing home victory that you had no business winning, according to oddsmakers and experts across the country, there isn’t a lot of controversy sweeping through campus this morning, as fans wake up to a 5-2 (3-1) Gophers football team.

Except for what happened after the win, when the student section immediately jumped down from the stands and rushed onto the field to celebrate a top 25 victory over a conference rival.

The scene down on the grass was chaotic, as Nebraska players tried to get to the visitor locker room and the FOX Sports crew tried to interview Drake Lindsey and PJ Fleck with Golden Gopher fans and students bearing down on them.

On social media, football fans are arguing over whether or not rushing the field is worth it when your opponent was barely ranked, or if fans at Huntington Bank Stadium should have “acted like they’d been there before” and saved over-the-top celebrations for only the most insane upsets/victories.

PJ Fleck a HUGE field storming advocate

Well, PJ Fleck weighed in on the “controversy” after the game, where he made his stance incredibly clear. He loves it because it creates memories that both the students and the players will never forget. Wins like Friday night, and the celebrations that follow, are what college sports are all about.

“Crowd storming is awesome. It’s so fun to watch your student population — I’m glad we don’t have a rule [against it] — because I’m just an advocate. I love it. I love watching our student body, which cheers the entire game, makes a difference in the game, go down and create a moment and memory that will last in their brain and their hearts forever. I love that. There’s nothing better than that.”

PJ Fleck on Gopher football fans storming field after Nebraska win

Winning makes current players less likely to leave and opens the eyes of outside talent that may be watching. Younger kids or future transfer portal entrants that may not have considered the University of Minnesota as a viable option beforehand.

Because as Fleck pointed out during his press conference. Winning is hard in the Big Ten, especially in spotlight games against highly-ranked opponents. Never take wins for granted in college football, which is why PJ crowd surfs in the locker room after EVERY victory, no matter the opponent. In other words, smoke em when you got em.

]]> Sat, 18 Oct 2025 10:17:54 +0000 Minnesota Gophers Football New Camera Angle Shows Caitlin Clark Was Not Bulldozed, She Flopped https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/gophers-basketball/new-camera-angle-caitlin-clark-flop/ Mon, 22 Jan 2024 22:20:26 +0000 https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/?p=46954 In 2024, it’s difficult to hide the truth, especially in big public events that are televised to a national audience with multiple different camera angles, not to mention venue security cameras and cell phones… etc. But Iowa Hawkeyes women’s basketball star, Caitlin Clark, almost pulled it off the other night.

Related: U of M Plans to Renovate Williams Arena; New Gophers Basketball Venue Unlikely

Iowa was upset on the road at Ohio State and a minor court storm took place afterwards, one that ended with a head-on collision between Clark and a random Buckeyes fan. In the video that originally went viral, Caitlin looks like she is completely bulldozed, a surprise collision that would probably send anyone to the ground.

Looks pretty ugly, right? From this angle, it looks like she got hit by a golf cart she didn’t see coming. Predictably, we immediately saw a segment of fans (and non-fans) calling for a strict ban on court and field storming in college athletics.

In the days that followed, teeth were mashed, articles written, videos made and even a full-length Netflix docuseries in the works (probably). How can we possibly stop this atrocity from happening in the future…

Did Caitlin Clark Flop?

But on Monday, more camera angles of the controversial collision have come to light and (shocker) they paint a much different picture of what happened in the seconds after the buzzer went off in Columbus Saturday afternoon.

Related: Minnesota Gophers Basketball Game Today (M); TV Schedule, Channel and more

Yup, it was a flop. This entire thing, all the outrage, all the attention… for a flop. The above angle makes it undeniably clear that, at the least, Clark was able to brace for contact way earlier than what we had thought. In fact, it was the fan who got the worst part of the collision.

Poor girl was taking a selfie video and didn’t see Clark coming until contact had already been made. She, like Clark, crumpled to the floor. But unlike the Iowa superstar, Ohio State’s court storming fan dusted herself off, got back up and resumed her previous activities. She didn’t lay on the floor rhything in (fake) pain or have a press conference afterwards that got the entire sports world fearing for her safety

I’m not in the camp that thinks a frustrated Caitlin Clark was looking for a court stormer to lay out in frustration. I think it’s undeniable, however, that her fall to the ground and the circus show that followed were… let’s say… over-exaggerated.

]]> Mon, 22 Jan 2024 16:20:31 +0000 Minnesota Gophers Basketball