DETROIT – ESPN's broadcast of the Gophers' appearance in the Quick Lane Bowl on Tuesday gave a feel for the Kansas City Chiefs games in one sense.
The cameras often show Katie Miller — U's quarterback Cole Kramer's fiancée — in the stands at Ford Field, similar to how NFL telecasts give plenty of airtime to Taylor Swift, the pop star girlfriend of Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.
The talk Tuesday was that Kramer had planned to hang up his No. 12 jersey after the regular season to prepare for his wedding to Miller in early February in Rochester, Minnesota.
But head coach PJ Fleck called for the backup QB to return to the bowl game as U.S. starter Athan Kaliakmanis and third-stringer Drew Viotto both entered the transfer portal after the loss to Wisconsin in late November. Without Kramer, the U would have had to turn to all-freshman Max Shikenjanski of Stillwater for Tuesday's game.
“I told him thank you for coming back,” Fleck said Tuesday after the game. “Now get ready for your wedding. (Wife) Heather and I thanked Katie for allowing him to come back. Katie made it very clear: “I was the one who told him to come back straight away.”
“So we know who wears the pants in this family.”
Kramer, who accounted for three touchdowns in the Gophers' 30-24 win, was clearly busy during the broadcast and said he didn't immediately notice after the game how much attention was paid to Miller, a registered nurse in Arizona.
“I haven’t looked (at his phone) yet, but we’ll see soon,” Kramer said.
Some Gopher fans bristled at the routine attention, not unlike die-hard NFL fans when Swift is regularly shown watching games from a suite between games in her spot.
While Kramer, an Eden Prairie native, was ready to move on to the next stages of his life, including looking for a sales job in Arizona, he said Tuesday it was “amazing” to come back for one more game at his five-year college to round off his football career.
“Going out with a win means everything,” he said.