Things will change in the PJ Fleck Era.
But first, let's look at the historic rivalry between Iowa and Minnesota. In 128 years (1891-2018) Minnesota leads the series 62-48-2. Minnesota dominated the series until about 1982.
In 50 years (1968-2018) Iowa leads the series 28-21-1. In that time span, the game was played in Iowa City 24 times. Iowa won 16 times. The Gophers won in Iowa City 1969, '71, '73, '75, '79, '81, '89, '99.
So, there is a 20-year drought in Iowa City. A difficult place for the Gophers recently. Overall in the last 20 years (1999-2018), Iowa won 14 times. The Gophers won only once in Iowa City (1999). Even more disturbing, Iowa won the last 4 games (2015-2018).
IMHO, the reason why the Hawkeyes were so dominant in their home turf is because of the twelve man - the fans. It didn't help that Gophers football was also in decline. Heck, when the Metrodome was built, Iowa fans dominated the home crowd because we made a large nice indoor stadium for the Hawkeye fans to come up to the cities and watch their team dominate, and then they go shopping and take in the entertainment they don't have down in Iowa. At TCF, the fans hardly ever filled the stadium. Wisconsin and Iowa fans more often than not overpower Gopher fans. If PJ Fleck turns the program around, we will see more fans coming to the game with PJ's marketing and branding promotions. The Sleeping Giant may be awakening.
The biggest contributor to Iowa's dominance is coaching stability from the 1970s up to the present. Iowa had only two coaches in 41 years: Hayden Fry 1979-1998 (20 years) and Kirk Ferentz 1999-Present. They have a solid program and system.
Meanwhile, the Gophers went through 8 coaches in the same time frame: Joe Salem 1979-1983 (5 years); Lou Holtz 1984-1985 (2); John Gutekunst 1986-1991 (6); Tim Brewster 2007-2010 (4); Jeff Horton 2010 (1); Jerry Kill 2011-2015 (5); Tracy Claeys 2015-2016 (2); PJ Fleck 2017-Present.
One of the Gopher's agenda should be to break Iowa's and Wisconsin's dominance. Also the home court advantage at Iowa City must change. The Gophers should turn the table and make it difficult for any team to win at TCF Bank Stadium.
We sure hope that PJ Fleck is committed to Minnesota for the long haul like he said this last weekend in the press conference. This program stability is exactly what the Gophers need. They will take many recruiting advantages away from rivals schools in the Big Ten West.
http://www.winsipedia.com/iowa/vs/minnesota
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iowa–Minnesota_football_rivalry