The Minnesota Golden Gophers and Northwestern Wildcats met for a college football game on Saturday at Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs. Among its many unique features, Wrigley Field is known for its bricks and ivy on the outfield wall.
Matt Millen seemingly didn’t get that memo before calling the game as a color commentator for the Big Ten Network.
In honor of Wrigley Field, the Minnesota helmets featured green ivy for the game.
The fit on deck for Wrigley 😎#RTB #SkiUMah #Gophers pic.twitter.com/v8M8hBX1M7
— Minnesota Football (@GopherFootball) November 21, 2025
As the Big Ten Network broadcast showed Minnesota players in the second quarter, Millen was confused about “all that green” on the Golden Gophers’ helmets.
Matt Millen must not be very familiar with Wrigley Field… where he served as the color commentator for the Minnesota-Northwestern game on BTN.
“Why is all that green on [the Minnesota helmets]?”
That would be ivy. 🏈⚾️🎙️
(h/t: @3RonJohnson) pic.twitter.com/3F3fDLN4Pr
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) November 22, 2025
“Why is all that green on them?” Millen, the former president of the Detroit Lions, asked.
BTN play-by-play announcer Jack Kizer laughed before saying, “Got the ivy growing in.”
“Oh, is that what that is?” Millen responded.
“Looks like it,” Kizer said.
“Yeah, we’ll go with that,” Millen said. “Why not?”
“What is that thing?” Millen asked, continuing to be confused. “It’s like you put little green sparkles on them.”
It shouldn’t be terribly difficult to figure this one out, and it’s also something Minnesota announced in the days before the game.
“Shoutout to the Minnesota equipment crew,” Kizer said. “It should be red for the ivy this time a year.”
Despite going all out to support the venue, Minnesota fell 38-35 to Northwestern in a wild shootout at The Friendly Confines.
About Matt Clapp
Matt is an editor/writer at The Comeback and Awful Announcing.
He can be reached by email at mclapp@thecomeback.com.