Author: David Shama

Limegrover said the Gophers showed about 40 percent of the playbook in Saturday’s spring game that was actually a controlled scrimmage with no score kept.  Defensive coordinator Tracy Claeys said his unit used about 25 percent of its playbook.

College football teams typically hold back in spring games, reluctant to show opening game opponents too much of their tendencies.

Student tickets for the Gophers’ seven game home schedule went on sale Saturday. Students purchasing tickets prior to May 6 will be entered in a drawing for an all expense paid trip for two to the season-opener against USC in Los Angeles. Student tickets are priced at $84 with a $7 handling fee.

The Gophers athletic department will send out 53,000 emails to students this week promoting football tickets.

The rescheduled and free Gopher Football Youth Clinic will be Saturday at TCF Bank Stadium.  Registration will be from 1 to 1:30 p.m., then drills and skills work with the Gopher football players and coaches from 1:30-2:30.  The clinic ends with an autograph session from 2:30 to 3 p.m.

Next up on the Twins parade of creative TV commercials is one with manager Tom Kelly and his successor, Ron Gardenhire.  Twins vice president of marketing Patrick Klinger said the commercial is amusing and will be released in the “next couple of weeks.”

Ticket availability for Twins games may be better than many fans believe, Klinger said.  Tickets that were on hold from sources such as players can become available, so his advice is for fans to keep “checking back” on inventory.

Matt Capps earned the save yesterday in the Twins’ 4-3 win over Cleveland, Minnesota’s third straight victory.  Capps has made good on each of his four save opportunities this season, allowing three hits in four innings.

Gardenhire said during his post-game news conference on Fox Sports North that shortstop Alexi Casilla didn’t run hard enough on a play where Casilla was out at home plate.

Twins’ outfielder Jason Kubel has hit safely in his last eight games, in 12 of his previous 13 and 18 of his 21 games overall.

Franciso Liriano, 1-3 with a 7.40 ERA, is expected to start for the Twins tomorrow night at home against Tampa Bay’s Wade Davis, 2-2 and 2.73 ERA.

MLB all-star voting begins tomorrow online and at ballparks across the country including Target Field.

Bert Blyleven came in at No. 4 on the “Sports’ Most Dubious Records” list in the April 25 issue of the Sporting News Magazine.  The former Twins pitcher gave up 50 home runs in 1986.  No. 1 on the list is Tampa Bay’s 26 consecutive losses starting out as an NFL expansion franchise.

The same issue includes a profile on Minnesota native and Wisconsin Badger Jon Leuer who says his bucket list consists of “skydiving, attend the Masters and play Augusta, win an NBA championship.”

Chris Halvorsen, the Gophers’ basketball walk-on from Henry Sibley High School, is the nephew of former Gophers’ starting forward Larry Overskei.  Halvorsen played his college freshman year at Valparaiso before coming home and sitting out last season as a Gopher transfer.  An engineering major, he will have three seasons of eligibility with the Gophers.

Halvorsen played at Henry Sibley with Badgers’ forward Mike Brusewitz.  Halvorsen, 6-8, 190, was second team all-state as a high school senior and one of the best defensive players in Minnesota.

St. Thomas softball coach John Tschida, who coached his 500^th game for the Tommies last week, is a cousin of major league umpire Tim Tschida.  His record at St. Thomas is 436-65.

The Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference announced Augustana’s Matt Braithwaite as the 27^th annual Dr. William Britton Scholar-Athlete Award winner and Minnesota Duluth’s Rebecca Anderson as the 25^th annual Willis R. Kelly Scholar-Athlete Award recipient.  Award winners are determined by vote of NSIC faculty representatives.

Jerry Kill, who has the humbleness of a park and recreation department coach, will be the center of attention tomorrow at the Minnesota spring game.

The coach will command the attention of fans for more reasons than because he’s the Gophers new football boss.  Although labeled a game, tomorrow’s event at TCF Bank Stadium will be more like a practice.  There will be no keeping score or formatting by quarters or halves so the attraction for a lot of fans will be a Kill watch.

Fans will see a blocking and tackling scrimmage, with the fiery Kill perhaps unexpectedly announcing, “Field goal unit!”  The coach is demanding and likes to create pressure situations for his players.

Watch him on a YouTube video from spring practice earlier this year and get a vivid look at Kill.  There’s the coach moving around, eyeballing a blocking drill and yelling something about a “dance contest.”  (See YouTube March 29).

Kill is the guy who Gopher Nation turns its lonely eyes to right now.  He takes over a 3-9 football team from last fall and a program that was going nowhere fast.  Emotionally invested audiences like high school football coaches and the most loyal of Gophers fans are predicting much better days ahead.

The reason is not only Kill but a group of staff assistants who have been teaching with him for years.  They are a polite group to outsiders, humble in manners and also about their accomplishments at previous stops with Northern Illinois and Southern Illinois where winning became a habit.

This is no flashy GQ group.  Just a bunch of ordinary looking guys who might be mistaken for Minnesota dairy farmers or Kansas wheat growers.  But they have impressed observers at other schools and here during spring practice which ends with tomorrow’s game.

Kill talks about instilling the “Minnesota way” including this tweet from the coach: “Play hard.  Learn to finish.  Be consistent.  Play smart.  Be mentally tough.”

Kill and coaches like offensive coordinator Matt Limegrover and defensive coordinator Tracy Clays have no interest in hype about themselves or the team.  They’re about finding players that want to play hard and attend class.   Who will play as hard in the fourth quarter as in the first?  Who can play with discipline?

Already it seems like this coaching staff will maximize whatever opportunities there are to win games.  Whether it’s finding new positions for players, attracting transfers or upgrading special teams, this staff is looking for an edge.

Take note, for instance, of the success Kill’s teams had blocking punts at Northern Illinois and Southern Illinois.  In three seasons coaching at Northern Illinois, his teams blocked 12 punts.  In seven years at Southern Illinois the total was 28.

That’s the kind of stuff which makes national observers like Dave Curtis pay attention.  Earlier this spring he wrote this in the Sporting News Magazine: “Of the 21 schools that hired coaches for 2011, none will be more pleased than Minnesota.  Jerry Kill can make the Gophers Big Ten contenders.