Gophers seniors have endured tumultuous lows, now hopeful highs
MINNEAPOLIS -- Last alphabetically in a list of 18, Gophers
safety Brock Vereen was the final senior to be introduced this past Saturday
before Minnesota's final home game of the season. As Vereen ran onto the turf
at TCF Bank Stadium in front of 53,090 fans to greet his parents, Venita and
Henry, only then did the reality sink in.
It was the last home game for Vereen and the other seniors.
And with just one regular season game and a bowl game remaining, their college
football careers are also nearing an end. Given everything these seniors have
been through, it is no doubt a bittersweet feeling.
"It wasn't until I saw everybody who I came in with and
everything like that," Vereen said, "that it really did hit me how
much we've been through here and how far this program has come."
You'd be hard-pressed to find a senior class throughout
college football who has endured as much as the one at Minnesota. This group of
18 seniors -- some of them starters, some of them seldom-used reserves -- has
suffered multiple three-win seasons. They underwent a coaching change three
years ago when Tim Brewster, who recruited all of them, was fired and replaced
with Jerry Kill. That meant a new system, a new style, a new playbook and new
responsibilities.
What many of those players didn't know is that their new
coach has epilepsy, a revelation that took many by surprised when he collapsed
on the sideline during his first home game in 2011. It would happen several
more times during their career at Minnesota, yet with each episode this senior
class grew stronger and continued to grow closer to Kill
Then came the untimely death of their former teammate,
linebacker Gary Tinsley, who died from an enlarged heart in April of 2012. To
this day, the loss of their friend and teammate still weighs heavy on those who
play in his honor and will until they hang up their cleats.
Yet for all the hardships Minnesota's seniors have
experienced, they've been at the forefront of some of the program's bright
spots. The Gophers improved to six wins in 2012 to advance to play in a bowl
game, something none of them had yet done. While Minnesota lost to Texas Tech
in the Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas this past December, it helped pave the
way for an even brighter 2013 -- and it set up this year's senior class to lead
the way.
Just like they did a year ago, the Gophers took another big
step forward this season by winning eight games prior to this weekend's
regular-season finale. It's the most wins for a Minnesota team since the
Gophers went 10-3 back in 2003.
For the senior class who stuck it out through the bad times,
leaving on a high note was worth sticking it out.
"We still have a lot to play for, but we've been
through a lot -- with Gary, with Coach, with all the different things that have
happened in the program," said senior kicker Chris Hawthorne, who himself
has been through ups and downs after losing and regaining his starting job.
"I think it's just a testament to what it means to be a Gopher. It means
that you're there, you're someone who's going to be resilient, you're going to
battle.
"We got off to a great start this year and then had
some adversity within the season. It's all about how you come back, and you're
only as good as your last performance. We're looking to make a good statement
here at the end of the year."
Six seniors -- Ed Olson, Mike Henry, Roland Johnson,
Ra'Shede Hageman, Aaron Hill and Vereen -- started for the Gophers this past
Saturday against Wisconsin; it would have been seven if wide receiver Derrick
Engel wasn't out with a knee injury. While those seniors have helped pave the
way on the field, the others have done the same away from it.
Minnesota's senior class can look at the records that
improved each year under their watch and feel good about the progress they
helped make during their four or five years on campus. But they can also see
the way the younger classes have come along and can know that the senior
leadership helped lay the foundation for future years.
"Those guys have been some of the toughest people I've
ever met, and there's a lot of great leaders in that senior class," said
sophomore quarterback Philip Nelson. "Those guys really left a good
impression on the underclassmen to be great leaders through tough times and
really steer the ship and keep going forward with it as opposed to just giving
in to bad times."
The significance of Senior Day wasn't lost on Kill this past
Saturday. Even though he watched the game from the coaches' box, he was down on
the field prior to the game and was in the tunnel with his seniors before they
were introduced and greeted by their families.
Kill made a point to shake every one of their hands before
the sold-out crowd cheered them on. While Kill may receive much of the credit
for turning this program around in three years, he knows he owes a lot of it to
his 18 seniors.
"When you can go out there and they're coming through
that tunnel before the game and you get to shake each one of them's hand, and
when you're down there and what those guys have gone through, and then they go
out that tunnel and there's 53,000 people out there, it don't get any better
than that for a senior," Kill said. "Everywhere we've been, those
kids are a big part of it, too. They bled and sweat. … Winning solves a lot of
problems, so we've got to continue to win some ball games, and that's what
we're going to work at doing."
Winning indeed solves problems, and the Gophers are finally
doing that again. As a result, they're also enjoying the game of football.
After all the ups and downs of the last four years, these
seniors can't help but soak up that feeling.
"We're just having fun out there," Olson said.
"We just treat each day like it's our last. As seniors, we're just having
a great ride. It's just been a blast."
