The Big Ten Network will have a Big Ten Conference Football Signing Day Special beginning at 3:30 p.m. today Minneapolis time. The 90-minute program will feature video highlights of top recruits, university press conferences and interviews with Big Ten coaches. Among those offering comments will be former Gophers’ coach Glen Mason and Scout.com national recruiting authority Allen Trieu. The show re-airs at 10:30 p.m. tonight, and 8 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. on Friday.
Here’s advice about national football recruiting rankings: Don’t dismiss them, nor take them as gospel. Mostly the schools that lead the rankings each year also annually have the better football teams. This doesn’t mean other schools not rating high in the recruiting rankings won’t have powerful teams. Just ask Michigan or Alabama, both of whom lost to the 2008 Utah Utes. Boise State showed its might in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl, upsetting Oklahoma.
Give Denny Green credit for drafting two of the NFL’s most explosive receivers in the modern era. Green was the Vikings’ coach when the franchise chose Randy Moss with the 21st pick in the first round of the 1998 NFL draft. As Arizona coach in 2004, Green and the Cardinals took Minneapolis native Larry Fitzgerald, Jr. with the third pick in the first round.
Illinois coach Bruce Weber talking about the Gophers’ unselfishness said he doesn’t think “they really care who gets theirs (acknowledgements).”
Timberwolves guard-forward Mike Miller told Sports Headliners he misses his wife and two children who remain in Memphis where he played last season. Otherwise, he’s happy to be with the Wolves and in Minneapolis.
The Twins’ TV commercial that aired during Sunday’s Super Bowl can be seen on the team’s website, www.twinsbaseball.com. The commercial is entitled “Trucks” and includes many Twins players such as Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau and Denard Span making deliveries to the Target Field construction site.
Sunday’s game was the most viewed Super Bowl of all time, besting last year’s record setter. The “M-A-S-H” series finale years ago remains the most viewed American TV program ever.
Baseball America has named Hamline’s Dan Kaczrowski, from St. Anthony, the preseason NCAA Division III player of the year, according to the MIAC Website, www.miac-online.org. Baseball America includes him on its preseason All-American team at second base and rates him the No. 2 Division III prospect for the 2009 major league baseball draft. Last season he hit .500 against MIAC opponents with 18 RBI and 24 runs scored.