The Gophers are working their way through 15 spring practices but one of the team’s potentially most explosive playmakers won’t arrive until summer. Freshman running back Berkley Edwards, 5-9, 190 pounds from Novi, Michigan, is already on the minds of head coach Jerry Kill and offensive coordinator Matt Limegrover.
Edwards has game changing speed, the kind of attribute otherwise absent on the Gophers’ running backs roster. “He’s one of (the) top 10, 12 sprinters in the country,” Kill said in February when he announced Edwards will play for Minnesota. “Those things we need. And he’s a great fit for us at running back because we got some big backs, but we’d like to have one just to hand it off and it’s over. Goodnight. And he can do that because he’s got that kind of speed.”
The longest run from scrimmage by a Gophers’ running back last season was 38 yards by Donnell Kirkwood. In some games the Gophers didn’t have a running back with a run longer than 15 yards.
Limegrover is diplomatic about the running backs he has now and said he’s “very excited” about what they can do but he knows Edwards will complement the punishing style of Kirkwood and Rodrick Williams, the team’s two leading rushers from last year after now departed quarterback MarQueis Gray.
“I think the great thing about Berkley is that he truly can bring that change of pace over what we have right now,” Limegrover said. “The more weapons you have…the better off you’re going to be because every time you do that, it makes defensive coaches stand up and take notice, and be aware of, ‘Okay, they have a tailback in but which one is it?’
“So having a guy like Berkley with his speed and the things he can do getting the ball to the perimeter I think is going to be just a fantastic complement to what we already have in place.”
Limegrover won’t have to be envious of a team like Wisconsin if Edwards comes through for the Gophers. The famed Badgers’ running game pounds away for yards over and over…and then a speedy Wisconsin back darts through a hole, or jets outside for a long run.
Limegrover said it’s difficult for an offense to just rely on long drives for touchdowns. “Every once in a while you need to have that two play, 80-yard drive. …That’s what we’re working towards and that’s what we need, and Berkley is that kind of kid.”
Worth Noting
Limegrover said he isn’t set on naming the starting quarterback after spring practice ends later this month. “Not really. I think that what it comes down to is I think the offense is kind of bigger than who the starting quarterback is going to be.”
Kill emphasizes competition at all positions. “I think it shows up every day with the way kids compete,” Limegrover said.
Two of the three finalists for the Hobey Baker Award are Minnesotans for the first time in the award’s history, spokesman Wally Shaver told Sports Headliners. The winner of the 33rd annual award will be announced tonight with coverage beginning at 5 p.m. CDT on the NHL Network.
Finalists are Boston College sophomore Johnny Gaudreau from Carneys Point, New Jersey; Quinnipiac senior goalie Eric Hartzell from White Bear Lake; and St. Cloud State senior forward Drew LeBlanc from Hermantown.
A Minnesotan, UMD’s Jack Connolly who attended Duluth’s Marshall High School, won the award last year. The last Gopher to win was Jordan Leopold in 2002.
With recent announcements that five juniors will be leaving school early, plus the end of eligibility for senior Seth Helgeson, the Gophers’ hockey program has lost more than 25 percent of its roster.
Two football games will be played at sites within walking distance of one another on Thursday, August 29. That evening the Gophers host UNLV in a nonconference game at TCF Bank Stadium while the Vikings play their final preseason game against the Titans at Mall of America Field.
The Vikings’ other home preseason game will be August 9 against the Texans.
Last Sunday in Atlanta Lewis Garrison, the former Gophers football player, officiated the Division II men’s college basketball championship game for a second consecutive season.
This is a big weekend for the Carol Fitzgerald Memorial Fund with a benefit tonight at the Metropolitan in Golden Valley, and a community celebration tomorrow at the Martin Luther King Center in Minneapolis. Pro Bowl wide receiver and Minneapolis native Larry Fitzgerald Jr. will be at both events and sign autographs at a fundraising session on Saturday. Other guests at the Metropolitan event will include Jamecia Bennett, Cris Carter, and Big Sy Huff. The fund supports multiple causes and honors Carol Fitzgerald who passed away from breast cancer in 2003.
A local source told Sports Headliners assistant basketball coach Ben Johnson interviewed on Monday for a position on Minnesota coach Richard Pitino’s new staff. Johnson, a former Gopher player, joined the Nebraska staff last year.
The 2013 Division I men’s basketball tournament, televised on four networks, was the most-watched NCAA tourney in 19 years, according to a Wednesday story by Sportsmedianews.com, attributing viewership statistics to Nielsen. “The tournament averaged 10.7 million total viewers, up 11% from last year’s 9.6 million total viewers, and is the highest average for the NCAA Tournament in 19 years (11.2 million, 1994),” Sportsmedia.com reported.
The story also said Monday night’s title game between Louisville and Michigan had 23.4 million viewers, an increase of 12 percent from the 2012 game.
The Timberwolves FastBreak Foundation will host a jersey auction after tomorrow night’s game against the Suns at Target Center. Fans can bid on jerseys worn by Timberwolves players during the game. The winning bidders will have jerseys signed and photos taken with players.
St. Thomas men’s basketball coach John Tauer, who led the Tommies to a 30-2 record and the NCAA tournament semifinals, is the Basketball Times Division III Coach of the Year.
Vance Worley (0-1, 5.73 ERA), acquired in the offseason from the Phillies, makes his third start of the season tonight for the Twins against the Mets and Jonathon Niese (1-0, 2.13 ERA) at Target Field. Worley has a 3-3 career record with a 5.17 ERA against the Mets.
Yesterday was the 52nd anniversary of the first Twins’ regular season game ever, a 6-0 win in New York against the Yankees. Pedro Ramos was the winning pitcher, Whitey Ford the loser in that 1961 game.
Oswaldo Arcia, the Twins Minor League Player of the Year in 2012, is hitting .458 with three home runs and eight RBI in 24 at bats for Triple-A Rochester.