Minnesota players take Iowa rivalry personally

CHICAGO - Mitch Leidner wanted to play quarterback at Iowa.

On consecutive weekends, Leidner attended Iowa camps in 2011. He wanted to show he was capable of playing quarterback for the Hawkeyes. Both times, the Minnesota junior said, he was rebuffed.

'I went to camp there the summer going into my senior year. It was the first weekend in June,” Leidner recalled at Big Ten Media Days last week. 'I went to camp there and they were like, ‘Oh yeah, we'll see how the next week's camp goes and we'll let you know.' I was like, ‘Screw it, I'm going back there because Minnesota already had a quarterback committed.' So I went back down there the next week.

'I thought I did really well and they were like, ‘We want to wait until you're into your senior year. I was like, ‘Oh man, OK.'”

Iowa never offered. Minnesota eventually did, and Leidner bludgeoned the Hawkeyes last year with four touchdown passes in a 51-14 rout.

Leidner's snub from Iowa continues to motivate him. Teammate Briean Boddy-Calhoun has another experience in Iowa City that still upsets him.

Kinnick Stadium's sidelines are notoriously close to the opponent's bench, and in 2012 Boddy-Calhoun discovered how intense Iowa fans lob insults at opposing players. During the Hawkeyes' 31-13 win, Boddy-Calhoun heard the fans poking fun at his name. He still takes the fans' chants personally.

'They talked bad about me when I was a sophomore,” Boddy-Calhoun said. 'They made fun of my name. They kept calling me ‘Booty.' I wasn't playing, and they were like ‘Put Booty in.' So I had some fire underneath me right away. I think that kind of sparked something in me.

'It was at Kinnick. Of course Minnesota fans aren't going to be rude to me. I hope our fans would not let that happen in TCF Bank Stadium. They were blowing us out really bad and they were like, ‘Put Booty in the game, put Booty in the game.' It was like, ‘Coach put me in the game,' but it was already over at that time.”

The Minnesota-Iowa rivalry dates to 1891 and owns some of college football's most infamous moments. A governor's quote in 1935 led to a near disintegration of the series. Ultimately, the hard feelings were smoothed over when the teams first competed for a live pig, then the Floyd of Rosedale traveling trophy. Other moments in the fierce rivalry include Iowa fans tearing down goal posts at Minnesota after a win in 2002, and the Gophers converting onside kicks in consecutive years to score upset victories.

The rivals have played annually since 1931, but four of the last five were staged in Minneapolis. This year - for only the second time since 2009 - the teams meet at Kinnick. It's a night game, and Boddy-Calhoun recognizes what's in store for him.

'I could turn around and shake a fan's hand,” Boddy-Calhoun said. 'That's how close they are. You've definitely got to block them out. You'd think the fans aren't that big into the game, they really do affect the game if you let them into your head.”

Last year, Boddy-Calhoun was named first-team all-Big Ten and recorded five interceptions. One of his most important picks came late in the first quarter against Iowa when he picked off a pass near midfield. That helped break open a tie game into Minnesota's blowout victory.

Boddy-Calhoun called the Iowa game the 'biggest rivalry to me.”

'Specifically because the fans were mean to me my sophomore year,” he said. 'I just wanted those fans to know who 'Booty” was. So just being able to get Floyd, that was a big deal to me.”

Minnesota boasts three historic traveling trophies including Floyd of Rosedale. The Gophers face Wisconsin annually for Paul Bunyan's Axe and meet Michigan regularly for The Little Brown Jug. Last year, Minnesota claimed The Little Brown Jug for the first time since 2005 but hasn't won the Axe since 2003.

Leidner's dislike for Iowa is palpable. But the Gophers' recent success against the Hawkeyes - Minnesota has won three of the last five - makes him hate Iowa just a tad less.

'My personal thing is, you hate them both,” Leidner said. 'But I want that Axe back so badly, so Wisconsin's in the lead for me right now.”

All of the Gophers' rivalries are special, but defensive end Theiren Cockran said the physical nature of the Iowa battle tops the list for him.

'Iowa is more personal with the history of it,” he said. 'I believe there's a lot more hatred in that rivalry. Even when we're playing another team in the Big Ten you'll hear the crowd say, ‘We Hate Iowa.' They're always talking about the Iowa game, so that's a big one. We have to win the pig. That's like a must in our state.”

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