For those of us old enough to remember the days of Gopher football before Glen Mason but not old enough to have experienced the glory days before Cal Stoll, the Rose Bowl has been the dream.
The 18 seasons under Joe Salem-Lou Holtz-John Gutekunst-Jim Wacker saw just 5 winning seasons and an overall win percentage of 0.370. This is the era that has put Gopher football into the category of a truly terrible program in the minds of the general Big Ten / college football fan.
Since the 1997 season, Glen Mason’s first year, up through the most recent historic season (an era that even includes the Tim Brewster years), the program has really risen to the level of mediocrity.