Author: David Shama

David Shama is a former sports editor and columnist with local publications. His writing and reporting experiences include covering the Minnesota Vikings, Minnesota Twins, Minnesota Timberwolves and Minnesota Gophers. Shama’s career experiences also include sports marketing. He is the former Marketing Director of the Minnesota North Stars of the NHL. He is also the former Marketing Director of the United States Tennis Association’s Northern Section. A native of Minneapolis, Shama has been part of the community his entire life. He is a graduate of the University of Minnesota where he majored in journalism. He also has a Master’s degree in education from the University of St. Thomas. He was a member of the Governor’s NBA’s Task Force to help create interest in bringing pro basketball to town in the 1980s.

U Boiler Wreckers Back Again

Posted on September 26, 2019September 26, 2019 by David Shama

University of Minnesota running backs Shannon Brooks, Rodney Smith and Mohamed Ibrahim are already names passionate Purdue fans should long remember. And Saturday afternoon in West Lafayette Boiler Nation has another look at the trio when the 3-0 Golden Gophers visit 1-2 Purdue in the opening Big Ten game of the season for both teams.

Injuries have troubled Brooks for much of his career but he has been cleared to play against the Boilermakers Saturday and he could make his season debut in the ESPN2 televised game. “I think there’s that spunk, that look in his eye, that he cannot wait to get back on the field,” Minnesota head coach P.J. Fleck said.

Brooks played in just one game last season and six the year before, but 2016 and 2015 were healthier seasons for the Georgia native known for his exceptional field vision and slashing style. He had a career high 176 yards rushing at Purdue in the 2015 game Minnesota dominated and won, 41-13. His 17 rushes included a 71-yard touchdown run. And although the Gophers lost at Purdue in 2017, Brooks rushed for 116 yards on 18 carries.

Smith, a redshirt senior and Georgia native like Brooks, had one of his best days in 2016 against Purdue in Minneapolis. Smith ran for 153 yards and three touchdowns on 24 carries as the Gophers won, 43-31. The 153 yards was his most ever in a single game until he equaled the total against New Mexico State in 2018. A hard runner who can turn short gains into longer ones, Smith is in the top 10 for most career rushing attempts and yards in Minnesota program history.

With Brooks and Smith injured last season, the Gophers turned to then redshirt freshman Ibrahim to help them to a 41-10 win in Minneapolis. Among the more determined runners in the Big Ten, Ibrahim ran for 155 yards on 18 carries, an impressive 8.6 yards per carry. That was his best as a Gopher until he dominated Georgia Tech with 224 yards rushing in Minnesota’s Quick Lane Bowl win.

Brooks, Smith and Ibrahim have befuddled the Boilermakers in the past and Minnesota will want more of the same Saturday. Minnesota’s offensive game plan every week is to control the football and the clock, with an emphasis on running . The Gophers rank 10th nationally in time of possession at an average per game of 34:36.

Minnesota will want to keep the ball away from a Purdue offense averaging 371 yards passing per game, tops in the Big Ten and fourth nationally. The Boilers, however, are rushing for just 50 yards each game. Purdue is third worst in the conference in rushing defense, giving up 175.3 yards.

Not to be greedy but Brooks, Smith and Ibrahim have to hope at least one of them adds a page or two Saturday to their “Purdue scrapbooks.”

Worth Noting

The Gophers have won five of their last six against the Boilermakers, but the game Saturday looks like a tossup for those who wager. Minnesota is 3-0 in nonconference games but has won by a total of only 13 points, and going into the season was considered a lesser team to Purdue by college football authorities. Purdue has key injuries and has won only one nonconference game, but is playing at home and with an explosive offense could take an early lead and make it difficult for the Gophers to catch up.

Minnesota has won five of its last 18 Big Ten games, but coincidentally holds the nation’s longest nonconference winning streak at 18 straight.

Gophers basketball coach Lindsay Whalen has a five-star commit in Alexia Smith from Ohio. That will help the 2020 recruiting class because three of the top state of Minnesota prospects are headed elsewhere: Paige Bueckers of Hopkins to Connecticut, Lauren Jensen of Lakeville North to Iowa, and Alyssa Ustby of Rochester Lourdes to North Carolina.

Look for the Vikings, who since last year are annually scheduling Friday night prep football games at TCO Stadium in Eagan, to arrange for future matchups involving Minneapolis and St. Paul teams. Among schools under consideration should be Washburn, the first big school state champion when the Minnesota High School League created the football playoffs in the 1970s.

Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins wowed business and other community leaders while speaking at Tuesday’s Twin Cities Dunkers meeting at the Minikahda Club. Cousins was inspiring and informative in his remarks including when he talked about the power of free enterprise and how much business does for society.

Cousins is a Murray’s patron and enjoys the downtown restaurant that opened in 1946, and is still a city favorite.

This year the Vikings are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the 1969 team that had a 12-2 regular season record and played in the 1970 Super Bowl. One of the team’s two losses came in the opening game against the New York Giants whose roster included Bob Lurtsema. He was awarded the game ball by the Giants for his performance in the 24-23 win. After joining the Vikings in 1971 he later became Benchwarmer Bob, backing up one of the great NFL defensive lines in history.

Lurtsema, 77, regularly walks about four miles at Orchard Lake near his home in Lakeville.

The 3M Open, scheduled next year for July 20-26, avoids the busy July 4 holiday that the PGA Tour Event faced in 2019. There is a seven-year commitment to hold the tournament at TPC Twin Cities in Blaine. Sports Headliners is told that only in 2023 might dates conflict with the Fourth of July period.

Gophers basketball coach Richard Pitino expects that redshirt junior forward Eric Curry, who missed much of last season because of injuries, will be ready when the schedule starts in November. Curry, who has shown skill but been slowed by injuries during his Minnesota career, will be a key player on a team reorganizing after the departures last spring of the two best players, forward-guard Amir Coffey and forward Jordan Murphy.

With the team in early practices for the 125th season of Gophers basketball, Pitino isn’t sure about many things with his team but believes a strength could be outside shooting. Now starting his seventh season, Pitino has coached two of his last three teams to the NCAA Tournament. “I think we’re building stability,” he said.

Dave Wright, sports information director at Hamline, announced on Facebook Monday he is retiring from his position in October. His varied experiences in communications include working for the St. Paul Saints in their early years under Mike Veeck.

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Jerry Kill: NDSU Bison FBS Program

Posted on September 24, 2019September 25, 2019 by David Shama

How impressive is the North Dakota State football program that has won seven FCS national titles in eight years and is riding a 25-game win streak? Impressive enough to earn the praise and admiration of former University of Minnesota head coach Jerry Kill who has coached at both the FBS (Division I-A) and FCS (Division I-AA) levels.

Kill spent much of his head coaching career at the FCS level including seven seasons at Southern Illinois. In his last five years, from 2003-2007, the Salukis were 50-14 and made five consecutive FCS playoff appearances. Although Kill went back into coaching last week as an assistant at Virginia Tech, he was recently the athletic director at Southern Illinois where the Salukis and the other teams in the Missouri Valley Conference annually try to figure out a way to compete with the Bison, who several years ago had a 33-game win streak.

In Kill’s first season as Minnesota coach in 2011, NDSU defeated the Gophers 37-24 in Minneapolis. The coach saw talent he envied and knew those players could compete in the Big Ten. “There were about five of them, six of them—when we played them—I ’d have taken in a heartbeat,” Kill said in a telephone interview. “Shoot, the year we played them I might have taken the whole damn team.”

The Gophers haven’t played the Bison since 2011 but did take on another Valley power in their opening game on August 29 in Minneapolis. No. 4 ranked South Dakota State gave Minnesota fits before losing 28-21 in the fourth quarter.

Kill was asked how the Bison might perform playing in the Big Ten.

“Jumping from that league and jumping all the way to the Big Ten is a huge jump,” Kill said. “(But) North Dakota State is a Division I (FBS) program.”

College football authorities raise the question of whether an FCS power like NDSU has enough quality depth to survive the physical pounding of a nine-game schedule in a conference like the Big Ten. “I don’t know,” Kill said. “I am not ever going to say North Dakota State can’t do anything because they beat K-State. They beat Minnesota when I was there. Shoot, they beat just about everybody they played.”

That’s for sure. Power Five Conference teams think twice about playing NDSU after the Bison have defeated Iowa, Kansas State and Minnesota (also in 2007) on their home fields. No wonder Bison fans have circled dates on future calendars when their team plays at Oregon next year and visits Arizona in 2022.

The Bison’s phenomenal success (not even duplicated by Alabama or Clemson on the FBS level) is built on shrewd recruiting and player development. NDSU benefits (as do North Dakota, SDSU and South Dakota) from there being no FBS programs in the Dakotas, and one FBS program in Minnesota. The Bison roster this season lists 36 Minnesotans including new star quarterback, Trey Lance.

“I think it started with (coach) Craig Bohl,” Kill said about the success in recruiting Minnesota. “Craig Bohl was real good at taking those in between kids that may not be quite ready to be in a Power Five (program). They did a great job of developing players.”

Bohl left for Wyoming after the 2013 regular season. His successor, Chris Klieman, departed for Kansas State following last January’s seventh national title. But the program rolls on under new head coach Matt Entz, with the latest triumph last Saturday’s 27-16 win over No. 4 national ranked UC Davis. The week prior the Bison played on the road at No. 18 Delaware and won 47-22.

The Bison and South Dakota State have byes this week before starting Missouri Valley schedules October 5. After the Minnesota loss, SDSU has won games by scores of 38-7, 38-10 and 43-7. The Bison and Jackrabbits play October 26 in Brookings. Call it a Valley showdown or matchup of two teams that could play in a FBS league like the Mid-American Conference, or just know it will be a special football game.

Worth Noting

Kill said he missed football when I asked him earlier this month how he was doing. Then came last week’s announcement he joined the Virginia Tech staff as an assistant coach and gave up the AD position at Southern Illinois.

Tracy Claeys, Kill’s defensive coordinator at Minnesota, is one of the best defensive minds in the country but he must be having nightmares after UCLA’s 67-63 win last Saturday over Washington State, the program whose defense he leads now.

Are the Purdue Boilermakers, who host the Gophers Saturday, overdue for a rebound? Dating back to the end of last season, Purdue has lost five of its last seven games. Minnesota has won six of its last seven.

The Vikings’ Dalvin Cook is the fifth player in NFL history with at least 110 rushing yards in each of his team’s first three games of a season. The others are Pro Football Hall of Famers Jim Brown, Curtin Martin, O.J. Simpson and Emmitt Smith.

Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, with 342 NFL career touchdown passes, is tied with Vikings legend Fran Tarkenton for the ninth-most in league history.

Los Angeles Stadium at Hollywood Park will cost about $5 billion and have a transparent plastic roof like that on U.S. Bank Stadium. The new privately funded facility opens next season as the home of the Chargers and Rams. U.S. Bank Stadium, a public-private partnership, opened in 2016 at a cost of $1.1 billion.

Twins total home attendance for the 2019 regular season was 2,294,152, including 12 sellouts. The franchise finished its 81 home dates with the largest season attendance since drawing 2,477,644 fans in 2013.

The Twins will finish about in the middle for home attendance among the 30 MLB clubs when all regular season schedules end next weekend. Per figures from Espn.com, the Los Angeles Dodgers will lead all franchises in attendance averaging 49,075 per game. The Miami Marlins, having finished their home dates like the Dodgers and Twins, averaged a pathetic 10,016.

The Capital Club will hear from Minnesota Timberwolves CEO Ethan Casson October 4 at Town & Country Club, and listen to new Minnesota Wild GM Bill Guerin October 22 at Xcel Energy Center. More information about the club is available from Patrick Klinger, patrickklinger@klingercompany.com.

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Vikings Face No Ordinary Sunday

Posted on September 22, 2019September 22, 2019 by David Shama

Today’s Vikings-Raiders game at U.S. Bank Stadium has more drama surrounding it for the Purple than was predicted a couple of weeks ago. The 1-1 Vikings not only need a win to maintain their status as one of the NFL’s better teams, but quarterback Kirk Cousins badly needs redemption after last Sunday’s 14 of 32 passing performance in the team’s 21-16 loss to the Packers in Green Bay.

Cousins, the team’s $84 million man, didn’t do enough to justify his big contract in year one last year as the Vikings finished 8-7-1 and missed the playoffs after going 13-3 the previous season. In two games this season he hasn’t significantly impacted the outcomes, including a two interceptions performance in Green Bay. With a reputation for not being at his best under pressure dating back to his days playing with the Washington Redskins, it’s high time for Cousins to deliver today and on future Sundays.

Cousins acknowledged several days ago he won’t continue to hold his spot as the team’s starting quarterback if he doesn’t play better. The passionate Vikings fan base read that statement and could lose faith in the seven-year veteran before head coach Mike Zimmer does. A bad day for both Cousins and the Vikings against a mediocre 1-1 Raiders team known for their leaky pass defense will turn the Purple faithful into the unfaithful.

Cousins appeared shaken in the second half against the Packers after making an awful judgment on an attempted end zone touchdown pass that resulted in an interception, and was a turning point in the game. It might have been that kind of play Zimmer had in mind when he issued this vote of confidence for his quarterback last week:

“Kirk had an up and down game last week. He’s going to be fine. We have the utmost confidence in him. He’s in a good place where he’s going to play good this week and continue to play good for the rest of the year.”

If Cousins is fine today and during the remainder of the season it will certainly help Zimmer’s job security. Expectations are high in 2019 for the Vikings with an ownership group that wants a Super Bowl. The Wilf family has provided all the resources including a supportive payroll, new practice home and perhaps the NFL’s best stadium. Success is expected from Zimmer and GM Rick Spielman, both of whom surely promoted the Cousins signing to the owners.

If a quarterback change is made, presumably an opportunity will be given to backup Sean Mannion, the only other QB on the active roster. Acquired in a free agent signing during the offseason, Mannion is in his fifth NFL season but has minimal game day experience—10 games and one start. He has yet to see the field with the Vikings in a regular season game, and in four previous seasons with the St. Louis-L.A. Rams he attempted 53 passes, with 33 completions, one interception and no touchdowns.

The 6-foot-6, 230-pound former Oregon State quarterback throws a harder pass than Cousins who has more touch, according to Vikings cornerback Mike Hughes. “Yeah, he does have a pretty good fastball,” Hughes told Sports Headliners, while adding the extra zip can deliver the football in tight spaces.

Mannion has a one year contract with the Vikings and while he admitted everyone wants to start in the NFL, he is happy with his role. He is also a Cousins admirer. He even studied the throwing mechanics of his older peer while with the Rams, watching how Cousins used his feet to maximize timing with receivers.

“Kirk is great…with his feet and playing on time,” Mannion said. “That’s something that I’ve tried to really do as part of my game as well. Trying not to get behind the timing of the play and force a bad decision, really lifting my feet.”

After Mannion arrived at the Vikings practice facility, he learned what others already knew about Cousins as a person. “He’s just an awesome dude. Just the way he treats people, everybody in the building…he treats with total respect.”

Worth Noting

Hughes, who missed most of last season with a torn ACL, could make his 2019 debut today. As of Thursday, he was undecided whether to wear a brace when he does return.

With a win today against the Raiders, the Vikings will have their 500th victory in franchise history dating back to 1961.

Brent Musburger, the 80-year-old famous sports broadcaster who graduated in 1957 from Shattuck-St. Mary’s in Faribault, is in his second season as the Raiders play-by-play man.

WCCO Radio change: The Sports Huddle program, a Sunday ratings leader for decades, has been moved from a 9:30 a.m. start to 10 a.m. Purple Sunday Pregame airs from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m.

Minneapolis native Larry Fitzgerald (1,316) needs 10 receptions today against the Carolina Panthers to surpass Pro Football Hall of Famer Tony Gonzalez for second on the NFL’s all-time list of career receptions. The Arizona Cardinals receiver has the league’s longest active streak of games with a reception (229).

A friend living in Athens, Georgia texted that interest in last night’s Georgia-Notre Dame football game was so intense that locals were asking and receiving rent of $4,000 to $6,000 per night with a two night minimum for their houses.

Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor acknowledging earlier this month that season ticket sales are down: “I would just say they (the sales force) have goals that they haven’t achieved yet.”

Tyus Jones, the former Timberwolf point guard now with the Memphis Grizzlies, will play a mentoring role to point guard Ja Morant, the team’s 2019 No. 1 draft choice.

Minnesota United, competing to make the playoffs for the first time in franchise history, plays at Providence Park in Portland this afternoon. The stadium is 95 years old, one of the iconic facilities in American sports, and home to the Portland Timbers.

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