December 10, 2020 Going into the 2020 season, I had my suspicions that Minnesota might struggle to match their 2019 success. It might have been the Gophers’ stumbles in their non-conference games, or the fact that they never beat anyone last season who had a returning starter. It might also have had to do with the fact that the Gophers only had four returning starters on defense. But Minnesota throttled Nebraska and Auburn, so I pretty much had to accept “scoreboard” as a reason that boat rowing was now a very real factor in the Big Ten’s West division. But all of that started to unravel when the Big Ten’s season began in October. In game one, Michigan stomped the Gophers 49-24, giving everyone an early misread on Michigan’s strength. The next week, Minnesota missed an extra point in overtime as Maryland won 45-44. Against Illinois’ fourth-string quarterback, Minnesota looked like they had the boat afloat again in a 41-14 victory. But then the Iowa Hawkeyes capsized the Gophers in a 35-7 thrashing that wasn’t nearly as close as the score indicated. Minnesota was the benefactor of one of the biggest officiating mistakes of the season, where the side judge hallucinated a vision of offensive pass interference, wiping out Purdue’s last minute game-winning touchdown pass.