P.J. Fleck is dedicating game ball to thousands of fans who attended win over UCLA

Minnesota Golden Gophers head coach P.J. Fleck felt like channeling his inner Kevin O'Connell on Saturday night, announcing that the swarm of fans who showed up to the Rose Bowl would be getting a game ball for their role in the team's 21-17 victory over UCLA on Saturday night.

Fleck stopped short of going full O'Connell – a wise move considering that the Vikings head coach has to pay for his game balls to give his team after a victory – but he did say the roughly 15,000 fans who attended Saturday's game would be recognized with a singular game ball at the team facility.

"I don't know if they'll ever get this, but I hope they do and we make it a big deal," Fleck said during his postgame press conference. "We're not giving out 15,000 game balls, but whoever is at that game today, we gave them a game ball."

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Gopher fans turned out en masse to the win over the Bruins with the S tar Tribune 's Randy Johnson reporting that the university estimated that 12,000-15,000 fans traveled to see Minnesota's first game at the Rose Bowl since 1962.

The sea of maroon and gold wasn't just reserved for Saturday's game either. The Pioneer Press 's Andy Greder reported that a group of Gopher fans traveled to Laguna Beach on Friday night to see four-star Gophers commit Jackson Kollock.

But while Gophers fans were all over Southern California, the biggest impact was in Pasadena on Saturday night, which wasn't lost on Fleck after the Gophers fell behind 10-0 in the first half and rebounded in the second half to win the game on Max Brosmer's touchdown pass to Darius Taylor with 27 seconds to play and Koi Perich's interception as time expired.

"We heard you. We felt you," Fleck said. "We knew it wasn't a great first half and you continued to cheer us. I didn't hear any negativity and they're right by us. You heard them when UCLA had the ball, our fans were going nuts."

Fleck went on to say he would have a game ball labeled "The Fans" in the team facility for their efforts in the game.

The Gophers are 4-3 overall and 2-2 in conference play after Saturday's win and will host Maryland (3-3, 0-3) on Oct. 26.