Author: David Shama

T

he Naples, Florida area has become a part-time home to former football coaches in recent years with a roster that includes Brad Childress, Tim Brewster, Mark Mangino and Dave Wannstedt.

Former Gopher Joel Przybilla, traded to Charlotte last week by Portland, made his debut with the Bobcats on Sunday, grabbing six rebounds in 14 minutes.  The 7-1 center’s defense and rebounding would be a plus for the hometown Timberwolves. Przybilla, 31, has only this season remaining on his $7.4 million contract but with his age and salary needs he is probably an unlikely candidate to ever play for the Wolves.

Carleton men’s head basketball coach Guy Kalland is MIAC Coach-of-the-Year after leading the Knights to a share of the regular season conference title with a 17-3 league record and 18-7 overall record.  It’s his second coach-of-the-year honor, with the other coming in 2006.

Twins single game tickets go on sale March 19 and club executive Patrick Klinger told Sports Headliners he anticipates the team’s home opener against Oakland on April 8 will sellout the first day of the sale.  The Oakland series is likely to sellout within several days as will the Red Sox series August 8-10 and Yankees series August 18-21.  The Twins have sold approximately 25,000 season tickets, Klinger said.

The Twins sold out all of their home games during spring training in Fort Myers last year.  They are likely to sellout all 15 home games this year, too, Klinger said.

Klinger also said the organization is having 1,000 sets of bobbleheads made with the likenesses of 1991 Twins World Series players and manager Tom Kelly. The bobbleheads, in celebration of the 20^th anniversary of the organization’s championship, will be auctioned off online this summer to raise money for charity.  A similar effort with the 1987 World Series team raised $300,000 for charity, according to Klinger.

Ingrid Neel, a Rochester seventh grader with pro tennis ambitions, plans to play on the Rochester Mayo High School boys team this spring.

Logan Storley, the Webster, South Dakota wrestler who won a sixth state title last week, is a Gophers recruit for next season.

The Big Ten wrestling tournament is this weekend in Evanston, Illinois and the Gophers are the only school with a wrestler seeded in all 10 weight classes.

A replay of the Big Ten Indoor Track and Field Championships will be aired by the Big Ten Network on March 12 beginning at 1 p.m. Minneapolis time. The Gophers won their third consecutive indoor title last weekend.

Neither quarterback MarQueis Gray nor players at other positions will enter spring practice next month as starters when the Gophers begin formal practices under new coach Jerry Kill and his staff.

The quarterback position will be the most watched by media and fans when the Gophers play their spring game on April 23 at TCF Bank Stadium.  Four-year starter Adam Weber has graduated.  To say the six quarterbacks now on the roster have minimal experience is an understatement.  Only Gray has attempted a pass in a college game and to outside observers he seems like a lopsided favorite to win the job.  His totals were modest last season: eight attempts and two completions for 24 yards.

Gray, a junior next fall, has been the great hope of Gophers fans who demanded playing time for him at quarterback the last two seasons when Minnesota struggled.  He came here from Indianapolis as the most hyped prep player in former coach Tim Brewster’s four recruiting classes.

Labeled among the best run-pass preps in the country and compared to former Texas Longhorns legend Vince Young by the ever positive Brewster, Gray’s time on the field has long been anticipated as a quarterback, not a wide receiver, the position he mostly played last season, finishing second on the team in receptions with 42 for 587 yards and five touchdowns.

But Kill won’t give Gray the quarterback job based on newspaper clips or web reports.  Asked by Sports Headliners if Gray was his No. 1 QB, Kill said: “I can’t answer.  I don’t think that’s fair to anybody.  He will certainly be getting reps there this spring.  I wouldn’t tell you we have anybody that’s No. 1 from offense to defense because I haven’t seen anybody.  Until I see them get repetitions, and those kind of things, I can’t make those statements.”

What challenges does the 6-4, 230 pound Gray face in winning over Kill?  “I think it comes down to learning how to play quarterback,” Kill said.  “He’s played receiver for the last two years.

“It doesn’t matter how great an athlete you are, quarterback is a whole different world, a whole different beast.  So how well can he pick it up?  Can he make that transition from wide receiver and a quarterback in spring ball and can we see that progression? We’re going to have to see.  We have no idea.”

At Northern Illinois the Gophers first-year coach used a multiple offense that gave defenses plenty to ponder.  He and his offensive staff are expected to bring similar imagination to their system at Minnesota when spring practices begin in late March.

Boise State has built a national reputation for winning and it’s partly because of imaginative play calling.  Kill said his staff has visited with Boise coaches in the past. “Always sharing ideas and trying to get better,” Kill said.

This offseason Minnesota offensive coaches will visit TCU, another program that’s gone from no-name to having its brand nationally admired. “I think we just pick the programs out that are achieving at a very high level and you go see what they do,” Kill said.  “You always learn from the best. …It’s all about getting better.  I believe you either get better or you get worse.  We try to gain knowledge each year that we’re coaching.”

For almost 20 years Gophers fans have envied the success of border neighbors Wisconsin and Iowa. Fans have wondered why a long dismal Minnesota program can’t achieve on the field what the Badgers and Hawkeyes have accomplished.

The Badgers tied for the Big Ten title last season and played in the Rose Bowl, the school’s fourth trip to Pasadena since 1994.  The Hawkeyes often are in the mix for a top 25 ranking and BCS bowl game.  The Gophers haven’t been to the Rose Bowl since 1962, have made only two visits to Pasadena and last won a Big Ten title in 1967.  During the last 20 years the Gophers have two winning seasons in conference games.  The Gophers were 3-9 overall last year, 2-6 in the Big Ten.

Kill didn’t hesitate when asked if the Gophers can equal the Wisconsin and Iowa success stories.  “We can but it’s going to take time,” he said.  “They didn’t do it overnight. … What you get out of life is what you invest in it.  We have a lot of investing to do yet before we get to that situation.

“…I think people want to see it changed, but it’s going to take more than me.  It’s going to take a group effort and hopefully we can get everybody to believe in the vision that we’re trying to create and we’ll see how it goes.  Only time will tell.”

At Northern Illinois Kill had a vision to make the Huskies a success year after year.  He will expect no less from the Gophers despite their present lowly place in college football.  In the February issue of Sporting News Magazine the publication previewed 125 college programs prior to spring practices including the Huskies and Gophers.  Capsule comments on Northern Illinois included this: “New coach Dave Doeren should tweak, rather than overhaul the conference’s healthiest program.”  And on Minnesota: “Every aspect of the Gophers program needs an overhaul.”

Kill associates sustained success with Wisconsin and Iowa.  “Our vision is certainly to become one of those programs,” he said. “That was our vision at Northern Illinois that we wanted to become the best team in the MAC conference (Mid-American) and be the most consistent team…year after year after year.  I can promise you I left that program (in good standing) and they’re going to be good for a long time.  They got a lot of talent there.  That’s what we’ll try to do here.

“We have so much to offer here, the Twin Cities, careers after they get done playing.  We just gotta do a good job of selling what we have to offer, and we gotta do a good job of recruiting the right kid to our university.”