Gophers are headed to the Duke’s Mayo Bowl to play Virginia Tech

If things go right for the Gophers football team on the evening of Jan. 3, coach P.J. Fleck will have a bucket of mayonnaise dumped on his head.

The Gophers on Sunday found out their bowl destination, and it’s the Duke’s Mayo Bowl in Charlotte at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 3 at Bank of America Stadium. Minnesota (7-5) will play Virginia Tech (6-6), the representative from the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Per the bowl’s quirky postgame tradition, the winning coach sits in a chair while being doused with a large cooler of Duke’s Mayo. Fleck welcomes the opportunity should it come.

“If we’re lucky enough and fortunate enough to win the football game, absolutely,” Fleck said Sunday. “Make it double.”

Should Fleck be cleaning the mixture of egg yolks, water, distilled cider vinegar, soybean oil and oleoresin paprika from his head and clothes, it’ll mean the Gophers have extended their bowl winning streak to eight games overall and six games since Fleck became Minnesota’s coach.

“It’s a celebration of the season, a celebration of our players, and we’re definitely going to do that,” Fleck said of the bowl game. “So, I can’t wait to get out there.”

The Gophers will appear in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl for the first time and will face Virginia Tech for the first time. The Big Ten sent four teams to the College Football Playoff — Oregon, Penn State, Ohio State and Indiana. The Citrus Bowl picked Illinois, the ReliaQuest took Michigan, the Music City grabbed Iowa, and the Pinstripe took Nebraska. After Duke’s Mayo selected the Gophers, Rutgers landed in the Rate Bowl. First-year Big Ten members USC and Washington still are under the Pac-12 bowl alignment, and the Trojans landed in the Las Vegas Bowl and the Huskies in the Sun Bowl.

Last week, Danny Morrison, executive director of the Charlotte Sports Foundation, which runs the Duke’s Mayo Bowl, complimented the Gophers.

“We’d be excited to have Minnesota,” he said. “… If you just look at Minnesota, they’re a hair away from being 11-1 or 10-2.”

Morrison also sees the Gophers fan base as one that will flock to the bowl game.

“Minnesota has really traveled well the past few years,” he said. “… That message has been carried through the bowl community.”

On the field, the Gophers will face a Virginia Tech team that finished in an eighth-place tie in the ACC with a 4-4 conference record. The Hokies played in five games decided by seven points or fewer and lost all five. Their highlights include a 42-21 win over Boston College, a 21-6 win over Georgia Tech and a 37-17 triumph over Virginia in the regular-season finale. Virginia Tech and Minnesota had one common opponent: Rutgers, which beat the Hokies 26-23 and the Gophers 26-19.

“You look at all the close games they lost, and they easily could be 10-2,” Fleck said.

Fleck didn’t have an immediate scouting report on the Hokies, but he’s impressed with their coach, Brent Pry, who worked under Penn State coach James Franklin as defensive coordinator at both Vanderbilt and Penn State.

“He’s a really good defensive mind,” Fleck said. “Does a really good job. And coming from the James Franklin tree, you’re gonna be incredibly organized. You’re gonna have a really good team that plays incredibly hard.”