MINNEAPOLIS — It felt like Christmas on Thursday morning for Noel Thompson, his gift being the start of another Gopher football season.
“There is nothing like it,” he said at the Ski-U-Mah tailgate lot, hours before the 8 pm. kickoff. “Nothing like a night game.”
Thompson, a contributor to GopherHole.com, had been curious to see the 2022 season opener against New Mexico State for months, ever since the Aggies hired former Minnesota head coach Jerry Kill late last fall.
Following his departure in 2015, Kill publicly criticized the Gopher program and current head coach P.J. Fleck on multiple occasions. Earlier this month, he shared his feelings about returning to Minneapolis with KARE 11’s Randy Shaver.
“No doubt, Jerry Kill did a great job here. You can’t argue that, but his comments after his tenure definitely made an impact,” Thompson said. “It’ll be interesting to see the response at the stadium tonight.”
In the tailgate lots, the Jerry Kill saga hardly registered as a major controversy.
“Too much about nothing,” Rick Davenport said.
“We’re past it,” David Pikus said.
Turns out, the situation resolved itself fairly quickly, about an hour before gametime near midfield at Huntington Bank Stadium. As the Minnesota and New Mexico State players ran through drills in the background, Fleck walked briskly over to Kill, and the two shook hands without issue.
They seemed to enjoy a pleasant conversation for a few minutes before shaking hands again, and then they were off in their separate ways, to prepare their teams for the season opener.
The fans, meanwhile, turned their attention to the chase for a division title, and the Gophers made their claim to be early-season contenders with a 38-0 win in Thursday night's opener.
“High expectations for the Gophers this year,” Thompson said. “It’s a wide-open race in the Big Ten West but I really do think the Gophers have a chance this year.”
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