Author: David Shama

Vikings placekicker Ryan Longwell, along with Steve Hutchinson and Jared Allen, flew down to Mississippi in August to encourage Brett Favre to play another season.  Longwell talked about the 41-year-old quarterback who rallied the Vikings to an overtime win on Sunday after trailing by two touchdowns late in the fourth quarter. “It’s exactly why you get on a plane and go try to talk him back into coming (here), because with him at quarterback you always have a chance to win a game no matter what the scoreboard says,” Longwell said.

Vikings rookie running back Toby Gerhart said he couldn’t explain why he fell to the turf last Sunday when no tackler was between him and a short run to the end zone.  Gerhart talked about playing against the Bears and Chester Taylor this Sunday, the man he replaced as the backup to Adrian Peterson, and admitted there might be a “little added pressure.”

The Vikings haven’t won in Chicago since 2007.  The Bears, 5-3, already have NFC North wins over Detroit and Green Bay.  The Vikings, 3-5, have lost to Green Bay and defeated Detroit.

Former Vikings head coach Mike Tice, now coaching Chicago’s offensive line, would enjoy a Bears win on Sunday. Tice, who was fired shortly after Red McCombs sold the team to Zygi Wilf and partners, is considered one of the NFL’s best offensive line coaches.

Gophers interim coach Jeff Horton was asked about the talent gap between the Gophers, winless in the Big Ten, versus teams just ahead of them that have won about half their conference games.  “I don’t think it’s as big as some people think,” he said.  “I think there’s some key areas that need to be filled in here that you can do.  I don’t know if it will happen overnight. …

Horton said the Gophers have some “good young players” but not much depth.  The 2011 freshman class will be important for filling needs.

Horton, who has yet to win a game at Minnesota, talking about a 19-game losing streak for him that dates back to when he was head coach at UNLV: “I think we need to win for them (the 1-9 Gophers).  Who cares about me?… Coaches come and go.  They (Gophers players) need something good to happen to them.”

Horton expects MarQueis Gray to receive increased playing time at quarterback in the team’s final two games starting tomorrow at Illinois.

GOP governor candidate Tom Emmer played hockey at Alaska Fairbanks when Gophers coach Don Lucia was coaching there.

The latest issue of the The Fischler Report says former Gopher Paul Martin is still adjusting offensively with his new team, Pittsburgh.  The publication also says Edina native and Toronto general manager Brian Burke challenges the media covering his Maple Leafs to be more critical of the players and less so of coach Ron Wilson.

New Wild assistant coach Rick Wilson is earning compliments for his impact so far this season.  He’s a leader and his calm approach has won praise for upgrading the team’s defensive performance.

Wild draft picks Erik Haula (seventh round, 182^nd overall, 2009 draft) and Jason Zucker (second round, 59^th overall, 2010 draft) are being noticed in their freshmen WCHA seasons.  At Minnesota Haula is second among WCHA freshmen and fifth overall in assists (nine), while Denver’s Zucker is second among league frosh and fifth overall in goals (seven).

Augsburg sophomore Chad Gilmer is the MIAC Men’s Soccer Player-of-the-Year and his head coach, Greg Holker, is Coach-of-the-Year.  Carleton junior forward Niki Tomita is the Women’s Soccer Player-of-the-Year and her head coach, Keren Gudeman, is Coach-of-the-Year.  All winners were determined by a vote of league coaches.

Including candidates of color in the football coaching search for Tim Brewster’s replacement will be a priority for University of Minnesota officials. Gophers athletic director Joel Maturi emailed the following to Sports Headliners this week:

“The University of Minnesota is committed to diversity and we in athletics have demonstrated that commitment.  We are in contact with the Black Coaches Association, have asked the search firm (Parker Executive Search) to look into minority candidates and value the input of coaches like Tony Dungy.”

Not only will University officials vigorously support that mandate, but also important is the school’s record of hiring for high profile positions in the athletic department during the last 20 years.

The present football staff includes six African-Americans in prominent positions, the most in school history and more than many other BCS programs.  Among the six are associate head coach Tim Cross, co-offensive coordinator Thomas Hammock, co-defensive coordinator Ronnie Lee and head strength & conditioning coach Mark Hill.

McKinley Boston, the Gophers athletic director during the early 1990s, is one of the few African-Americans ever to hold the position of athletic director at a Big Ten school.  And two of Minnesota’s last three men’s basketball coaches have been African-Americans, Clem Haskins and Tubby Smith.

Minnesota’s hiring of those three for high profile positions exceeds the diversity record for athletic directors and head football and basketball coaches at most Big Ten schools during the last 20 years including Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan State, Penn State, Purdue and Wisconsin.  The Gophers almost had a fourth African-American hire when then Florida defensive coordinator Charlie Strong was a finalist for the Gophers job before Brewster was hired.

The push to hire African-American head football coaches at FBS programs has become vocal and aggressive in recent years.  But the issue certainly went beyond talk after the 2009 season when African-Americans filled seven of 22 coaching vacancies based on Sports Headliners research using Athlon’s 2010 college football magazine.

Among the coaches taking over big time programs were Turner Gill at Kansas, Joker Phillips at Kentucky and Mike London at Virginia.  They joined African-American head coaches already working at high profile schools including Houston’s Kevin Sumlin, Miami’s Randy Shannon and New Mexico’s Mike Locksley.

Sumlin was an assistant at Minnesota in the 1990s, working for Jim Wacker and later Glen Mason.  After that he was Bob Stoops’ offensive coordinator at Oklahoma.  In three plus seasons at Houston his teams have made a national reputation for scoring points, quickly and often while compiling a 23-13 record. The Cougars rank 10^th in the country in points per game, 40.67.  Rumors persist that Sumlin is of interest to Minnesota officials.

We see a red flag with Sumlin’s work, though.  Defense was been an ongoing problem during his two-plus seasons at Houston.  The Cougars now rank 82^nd in the country in scoring defense, giving up 29.33 points per game.

Despite having almost three years to get the defense stout, despite playing in a mediocre conference, and despite being located in a wonderful recruiting area, the Cougars’ defensive performances are unsettling.  The 5-4 Cougars of 2010 have given up 30 points or more in four games.  In 2009 Houston yielded 35 points or more in eight of 13 games.  During 2008 the Cougars gave up 35 or more five times.

An intriguing potential candidate for the Gophers job is Ken Niumatalolo, the 45-year-old Navy coach with a 24-13 record.  He’s of Polynesian descent and in his third season as head coach of the Midshipmen.  His record this season is 6-3 including a second straight win over Notre Dame.

Niumatalolo didn’t resurrect an awful Navy program but he’s kept it winning.  He was an assistant on coach Paul Johnson’s staff before Johnson left for Georgia Tech.  Since then Niumatalolo has kept the Navy offense ground oriented running the triple-option.  That’s an unorthodox offense which could be troublesome for Gophers opponents if Niumatalolo used it here.

Navy is not an easy place to win, and neither is Minnesota.  A coach who has proven he can win without the best of resources needs to be a must in the Gophers’ hiring criteria.

What University officials are hoping for is the largest pool of qualified candidates possible, black, brown or white.  Right now they pretty much have the hiring landscape to themselves but jobs might open up at attractive programs like Arizona State, Georgia, Michigan, Penn State, Texas A&M and Washington State.

The Gophers’ monopoly on their coaching opening won’t continue.  Colorado fired coach Dan Hawkins earlier this week.