Gophers suddenly have a path to challenge for Big Ten West title

Forty hours later, P.J. Fleck allowed himself a little time to bask in the glow of his first victory over Iowa as Gophers football coach.

Floyd of Rosedale, the bronze statue of a prized hog that goes to the winner, took the 300-mile ride north on a team bus, carefully belted into his seat and under police supervision after Minnesota's 12-10 win over the No. 24-ranked Hawkeyes on Saturday in Iowa City.

On Sunday, Floyd took up residence in his new home after spending the past eight years in Iowa City.

"We're really excited to bring Floyd home,'' Fleck said Monday during his weekly news conference. "Our players put him in his 'pen' yesterday, and it was really cool to watch them do that.''

On Monday night, Floyd and some Gophers players were scheduled to appear at U.S. Bank Stadium for the Vikings-San Francisco 49ers game.

Fleck celebrated with his wife, Heather, upon arrival at home early Sunday morning. A collector of bourbons, he grabbed a bottle that he'd set aside just for this occasion.

"Heather and I shared just a teeny bit of what it tastes like,'' Fleck said. "It tasted just as good as I thought.''

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Fleck has other bourbons in his collection targeted for big moments, and for him to get a chance to sample those, the Gophers must keep winning. Saturday's victory came after they erased a 10-3 halftime deficit and held on when the Hawkeyes appeared to make just the kind of play that seems to sink the Gophers.

With 1:40 left in the fourth quarter, the Gophers' Mark Crawford punted from the Minnesota 17-yard line. Hawkeyes return ace Cooper DeJean pointed at the ball with his right hand and motioned with his left in a back-and-forth motion, seemingly telling teammates to stay away from the ball. DeJean then fielded the ball at the Hawkeyes 46, spun out of a tackle, cut across the field and raced to the end zone for an apparent 16-12 Hawkeyes lead with 1:21 to play. The Kinnick Stadium crowd erupted for what looked to be another great escape by the Hawkeyes.

The celebration was short-lived, though, because the play went to replay review, and officials deemed that DeJean had given an invalid fair catch signal. Instead of the return for the TD, the Hawkeyes got the ball where DeJean grabbed it, at the Iowa 46 with 1:32 to play.

The Iowans' joy turned to anger as water bottles and beverage cans peppered the field. When play resumed, Gophers defensive end Danny Striggow sacked Iowa quarterback Deacon Hill on first down, and Justin Walley intercepted a Hill pass on third down. Ballgame, Gophers.

Fleck was eager to give his opinion on the replay review.

"There's nothing controversial about it. Offsides is offsides, a false start is a false start, a hold is a hold, an invalid fair catch signal is an invalid fair catch signal,'' he said. "It should have been just blown dead right there. Don't even let that play happen because it doesn't exist.''

With the victory, the Gophers improved to 4-3 overall and 2-2 in the Big Ten. They're one game behind West Division-leading Wisconsin (3-1 Big Ten) and a half-game back of second-place Iowa (3-2). There is a path for Minnesota to win the West in its final year before conference expansion eliminates division play. To do so, the Gophers most likely would need to win at least four of their final five games and receive some help.

Minnesota finishes with home games against Michigan State (2-5) on Saturday and Illinois (3-5) and trips to Purdue (2-5) and Ohio State (7-0). Then comes the home finale against Wisconsin (5-2).

If the Gophers go 5-0 the rest of the way, they would win the West because they would own the head-to-head tiebreaker over any two-loss team.

Should the Gophers go 4-1, to win the West they would need Iowa, Wisconsin and Nebraska to each lose a third Big Ten game and Northwestern to lose a fourth. A 4-1 Gophers finish would mean they own head-to-head tiebreakers over Iowa, Nebraska and Wisconsin. In addition, there are scenarios in which the West champ could have a 5-4 record.

Fleck isn't looking that far ahead — just to Saturday's game against Michigan State.

"We're 0-0 again,'' he said. "It's Monday.''