Gophers football players sat down for a team meeting inside the Larson Football Performance Center last Sunday.

Coming off a 27-0 win over Nevada, they were shown elements of four more-contentious college football games, including two rivalries: the Apple Cup (Washington vs. Washington State) and the Backyard Brawl (West Virginia vs. Pittsburgh).

“Just want to be able to get that rivalry mentality in their head very quickly,” head coach P.J. Fleck said Monday.

It was an attempt to get the juices flowing before the Battle for Floyd of Rosedale against Iowa on Saturday night at Huntington Bank Stadium.

The footage of those games was also a reminder on how to win or lose close games. Both of those other rivalries came down to one score — just like the U’s past three games against Iowa, the Hawkeyes’ 27-22 win in 2021 and their 13-10 win in 2022 or the Gophers’ 12-10 win in Iowa City last October.

Last year’s Floyd game was shrouded in controversy, at least according to the Iowa program and its fans, who felt wronged by the invalid fair catch signal that negated Cooper DeJean’s long, go-ahead punt return touchdown.

Starting almost immediately, Fleck has fended off questions and any calls to put any sort of asterisk next to last year’s win. Nothing controversial about it, he has said repeatedly.

And the Gophers’ name, image and likeness (NIL) collective, Dinkytown Athletes, came to the coach’s behalf and had T-shirts printed with a verbatim 207-word explanation from the rule book and how that explanation shows, in no uncertain terms, the call was fair and square.

Fleck said Monday the topic has not come up in meetings between Big Ten coaches. “Not once,” he said.

But Fleck said the timing of the call — on a review of a potentially game-changing play late the fourth quarter — certainly added to the drama.

“That particular game and how that game was going and what happened during that play made (complaints) worse,” Fleck said.

In the end, it was the Gophers’ first win against Iowa in eight straight tries, including six under Fleck.

“I think one big misconception is it’s about the head coaches getting wins; I look at a complete opposite,” Fleck said. “I work for the state of Minnesota. I work for the University of Minnesota. I work for our fan base. I work for our donors. I work for our players. I work for our administration. You want that for all of them. And I think that’s what was the exciting piece of last year.”

Fleck and Co. were able to have success sooner in the Paul Bunyan’s Axe rivalry with Wisconsin — with a win in his second season at the U in 2018. Fleck’s Gophers are now 3-4 against the Badgers, while he improved to 1-6 against the Hawkeyes.

“That’s why I think it was such a fulfilling win,” Fleck said of last October, “because it’s the first one we’ve had in seven years.”

Minnesota players hoist the Floyd of Rosedale trophy to the fans after their 12-10 win over Iowa in a NCAA college football game, Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023, in Iowa City, Iowa. (AP Photo/Matthew Putney)

Fleck is well aware that the status of the Gophers’ program can come with negativity and naysayers.

“You want to have people really, really caring and want them to be excited,” Fleck said. “You want them to have pride in where they went to school and be able to talk positively.”

Fleck then brought up how Minnesota had lost 14 straight to Wisconsin before the victory in Madison in 2018, and how until last year, Minnesota hadn’t won in Kinnick Stadium since 1999.

Fleck has heard it: “ ‘When are we ever going to get that done?’ ” he said. “That’s what you want to relieve from fan bases.”

The Gophers last beat the Hawkeyes in consecutive years in 2010-11. When are they going to relieve that back-to-back drought? Saturday?

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