Author: David Shama

Gophers marketing leader Jason LaFrenz said ticket sales have increased since Minnesota won the Puerto Rico Tip-Off tournament and broke into the national rankings. Tickets remain for all games including the Big Ten Conference schedule.

The Gophers’ expenditures for the football program during the 2009-10 school year were $17.43 million, ranking Minnesota eighth in the Big Ten Conference, according to FanHouse, the AOL website.  The Gophers were No. 29 nationally, moving up from No. 72 the previous year with an increase of $8 million to the budget, according to the article that obtained figures from the U.S. Department of Education’s Equity in Athletics.

The Big Ten rankings included Nebraska, a school that becomes the league’s 12^th member next year.  Ranking not far ahead of the Gophers were Penn State $19.78 million; Iowa, $18.46 million; Michigan, $18.32 million; Nebraska, $17.93 million; and Michigan State, $17.46 million.

Ohio State’s budget was $31.76 million, the largest among major college football programs in the country.  Wisconsin, $22.04 million, was second in the Big Ten.  Brett McMurphy’s article was posted on the FanHouse website November 16.

Former Gophers football player Mike Sherels told Sports Headliners he plans to ask the new head football coach for a position on the Minnesota staff.  He also said his brother Marcus is learning on the Vikings practice squad and has been mentored by All-Pro cornerback Antoine Winfield.

Wolves forward Kevin Love was featured in the Pop Culture Grid of the November 29 issue of Sports Illustrated.  Asked for a definition of Black Friday, Love said: “When my sister takes my credit card.”

Love is partnering with Comcast and the Salvation Army for a coat drive. Fans can bring new or “gently” used coats to any of eight metro-area drop-off locations, including the Target Center Box Office and Comcast service centers.  The drive ends December 17.

Wolves rookie forward Wes Johnson was Grand Marshall of the Holidazzle Parade Sunday night.

There will be no advance ticket sales for Saturday’s playoff game at O’Shaughnessy Stadium between St. Thomas (12-0) and Bethel (11-1).  Gates open at 10:30 a.m. with kickoff at noon.  Adult tickets are $8, student tickets $4.

The game will be the first time that two MIAC teams have reached the Division III national quarterfinals in the same season.  Coach Glenn Caruso’s Tommies defeated coach Steve Johnson’s Royals, 10-6, in October.

Canterbury Park will have a 62-day thoroughbred and quarter horse race schedule in 2011. The meet will begin Friday, May 20 and run through Monday, September 5 with Thursday and Friday post times at 7 p.m. and weekend and holiday post times of 1:30 p.m.  Attendance this year averaged 5,859, a record since the suburban Minneapolis facility reopened in 1995.

Marc Trestman, the Minneapolis native and former Gophers quarterback, is likely not a candidate for the University of Minnesota head football coaching position.  Trestman, who yesterday coached Montreal to its second Grey Cup title in three years, has his name rumored with the Gophers job but I am almost certain he won’t be on the list of final candidates.

Trestman, 54, might be a favored candidate of at least some past football letter winners at Minnesota but the Gophers search is believed to be concentrating on candidates with college head coaching experience, and University administrators likely aren’t pursuing Trestman.  He was an assistant coach at the University of Miami in the 1980s and spent two seasons as offensive coordinator at North Carolina State (2005 and 2006) before being fired along with head coach Chuck Amato.

But Trestman has been a career assistant in the NFL and for the last three seasons Montreal’s head coach in the Canadian Football League.  He’s known as an offensive innovator and gifted developer of quarterbacks who has worked for coaching gurus Bud Grant, Bill Walsh, George Seifert, Jon Gruden and Sean Payton.  He was offensive coordinator of the 2003 Oakland team that played in the Super Bowl and lost to Tampa Bay.

Not well known is that Trestman interviewed for the Gophers job in 1996 when he was San Francisco’s offensive coordinator.  In his 2010 biography “Perseverance” with local author Ross Bernstein, Trestman writes that he wasn’t expecting to be among the candidates to replace Jim Wacker.

“I was intrigued, so I met with the Gophers athletic director Mark Dienhart on the tarmac of the San Jose airport,” Trestman said in the book.  “It was late at night and completely under the radar.  I was not well prepared and dealing with the exhaustion of the season.  Also, in the back of my mind was the fact I never really saw myself in the position of a college head coach.”

Trestman is a Miami law school graduate but never practiced law and except for a couple of years selling bonds has been a career coach.  His first pro head coaching offer came from Montreal although he writes in his book that several years ago he turned down the top job at Cornell.

Yesterday Montreal defeated Saskatchewan, 21-18, to win Trestman’s second straight Grey Cup championship.

Congratulations to Bob Hughes and other Goal Line Club leaders for yesterday’s outstanding Gopher Football Banquet at TCF Bank Stadium.  The emotion-filled event included a celebration of Minnesota’s 27-24 upset win over Iowa on Saturday. The Floyd of Rosedale trophy was a focus of picture taking along with the Gophers players including the team’s seniors and those honored with awards.  Interim coach Jeff Horton fought back tears when he made a surprise presentation of an honorary M to Connor Cosgrove, the wide receiver who had to leave school this year because of leukemia.

Adam Weber, the Gophers three-year captain and four-year starter at quarterback, was the Bronko Nagurski Award winner, the team’s MVP.  He received a standing ovation from the audience yesterday. Wide receivers MarQueis Gray and Da’Jon McKnight were co-winners of the Bruce Smith Award given to the team’s outstanding offensive player.  The Carl Eller Award for the outstanding defensive player was won by linebacker Gary Tinsley.

Gophers athletic director Joel Maturi was in San Diego last week.  San Diego State coach Brady Hoke has acknowledged that he’s conversed with another school about its football opening.

Sports Headliners believes Maturi might pay over $5 million in salaries to his head coach and new assistants.  He’s determined to make the Gophers very competitive in compensation.

The new Big Ten football title game starting in 2011 is expected to provide each conference school with about $2 million of additional revenue and will certainly help Maturi’s football budget.

In 2007 the Gophers were the first conference school to offer multiyear contracts to coordinators.

Horton and the other assistants hired by ex-coach Tim Brewster will see their contracts end on February 15.  The new coach will be under no obligation to retain any of the coaches.

The Gophers’ season record of 3-9 is the worst in the Big Ten but Horton believes there’s reason for optimism about a better future program.  “It’s not as far away as people think,” he said last week.

The areas where the Gophers need the most upgrade in talent and experience for next season are offensive line, wide receivers and defensive backs.  The new coaching staff is likely to be in pursuit of junior college players.

Gophers running backs DeLeon Eskridge and Duane Bennett will be seniors next fall, plus younger runners Devon Wright, Donnell Kirkwood and Lamonte Edwards will make that position a team strength.  “I think the competition at running backs is going to be off the charts,” Horton said.

Horton talking about Brewster who was 6-21 during three-plus seasons in the Big Ten:  “He’s a good person.  He’s a good football coach.”