Gameday Hawkeyes Reading Room -- Gopher fans come to Floyd (Floyd, Iowa)

Two busload of Minnesota Gophers football fans visited Floyd Friday.

No, not Floyd of Rosedale, who presumably is under lock and key in the Iowa football complex tonight. Rather, the Floyd in northern Iowa.

While on a dinner break in Charles City, one of their fans did some big talking to the Mason City Globe Gazette.

Gophers fan Steve Erban, who helped organize the charter, said the group would make a “sidetrack” to Floyd's namesake, the nearby city of Floyd.

“We hope the bar in Floyd is open,” he said, “because we're coming back with the pig.”

I looked. I always look. But no one in the world of respectable guessing (other than Steve Erban) s forecasting a Minnesota football victory at Iowa today. Which should scare Hawkeye fans, actually.

However, Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News says you should take Minnesota and the 10 points. Wilner writes:

MINNESOTA (plus-10) at IOWA: The Hawkeyes should be in letdown mode after losing in overtime in Columbus - and losing the Rose Bowl in the process. Plus, it's not  like they dominated at home back when they were playing for the conference title. Gimme: Minnesota

Adam Rittenberg of ESPN.com likes Iowa, 21-10. Says Adam:

Iowa's defense regains its swagger and intercepts Adam Weber two times, while James Vandenberg tosses two second-half touchdowns in the win.

Phil Steele, the man behind the curtain at Philsteele.com, sees the Hawkeyes winning by just one score, 27-20.

Did you know Iowa has used 20 different starters on offense this year? Phil did.

Something called Vegas Sports-Odds has fun facts for you about Minnesota-Iowa. Like:

The Gophers are 2-8 ATS (against the spread) in their last 10 games when playing Iowa

Minnesota is 1-4 ATS in their last 5 games on the road

Iowa is 8-1 (straight-up) in their last 9 games at home

The Hawkeyes are 7-1 SU in their last 8 games when playing Minnesota

Minnesota can do one thing to make its season a suceess, according to quarterback Adam Weber in this St. Paul Pioneer Press story:

The Gophers could have won seven or eight games at this point if they hadn't let

potential wins slip away against Cal, Wisconsin and Illinois, the latter two by three points each.

"But if we go down there and we beat (Iowa), our season is still a success," junior quarterback Adam Weber said. "That's how I view it right now. When you look back on it, we had an opportunity for a couple more wins. I'm just glad our season isn't over."

This is a little eerie. Iowa defensive tackle Karl Klug and Minnesota State linebacker Kevin Klug of Caledonia, Minn., are twins. Iowa won its first nine games this season. Minnesota State won its first 10. It began the season a week sooner than Iowa.

On Nov. 7, as this Minnesota State schedule will tell you, the Mavericks lost their first game of the season. Iowa did the same thing that day.

Last Saturday, Iowa lost in overtime at Ohio State, 27-24. The same day, Minnesota State lost in overtime to Hillsdale in the first-round of the NCAA Division II playoffs.

The score? 27-24.

Finally, you may have heard that Stefanie Spielman died of breast cancer Thursday at age 42. Stefanie was the wife of ESPN college football analyst Chris Spielman. Stefanie was a television sports reporter herself.

Something about Chris: When ESPN's crew was in northern Iowa in late August to televise Aplington-Parkersburg's season-opening football game against Dike-New Hartford, Spielman was part of the three-man broadcast team. He got to know Todd Thomas, one of the sons of the late Ed Thomas, the Aplington-Parkersburg football coach who was killed this summer in Parkersburg.

Friday I talked to Aaron Thomas, Ed's other son and the athletic director at A-P. Aaron said Todd called Spielman last week to see if Spielman knew of four tickets for sale to the Iowa-Ohio State game last week. Spielman gave him his own seats at Ohio Stadium. Spielman is a former Buckeyes player who co-hosts a daily radio show in Columbus.

The Thomases didn't want freebies, but Chris insisted. So Todd and his brother Aaron (the athletic director at Aplington-Parkersburg) were among 12 people who rode from Parkersburg to Columbus and back in a former airport shuttle bus owned by an A-P assistant football coach. They got back to Parkersburg Sunday at 7 a.m.

Chris took a year off from his NFL career when Stefanie was diagnosed with breast cancer 11 years ago. He is involved in fundraising through the Stefanie Spielman Fund for Breast Cancer Research.

All the best to Chris and his four children, ages 7 through 15.