Author: David Shama

“To be quite honest with you, every time I walk into that stadium I see a new detail,” Gophers coach Tim Brewster told Sports Headliners.  “I see something that catches my eye.  Something that makes you reflect upon the history. … Reconnecting with the championship history of the University of Minnesota.  And I truly believe that the missing link (in the program) is the stadium.”

Details? A visitor saw block M’s embedded in the stadium’s water fountains.  In the premium seating areas cloth-covered chairs have the words to the school’s fight song, the “Minnesota Rouser.”   On field level workmen are placing the last bricks along the retaining walls.  A Hall of Fame and memorabilia elsewhere will preserve Minnesota’s football past.

Fans will be able to move around in a concourse four times bigger than the Metrodome’s, according to Dan O’Brien, Brewster’s director of football operations.  And fans can spend their money on more than food and drink when they make their way into the stadium’s merchandise store, Goldy’s Locker Room.

O’Brien said upper deck seats are only about 30 yards from the field and fans will watch one of the largest videoboards in college football.  It is located in the stadium’s open west end and looking that direction provides views of the downtown skyline.

From the stadium’s higher levels the view of both downtown and campus is impressive.  Those views and the stadium’s beauty are expected to attract activities on non-game days including wedding events.

Most of the Big Ten stadiums were built more than 80 years ago.  Indiana’s Memorial Stadium opened in 1960 and was the conference’s newest on-campus facility until TCF Bank Stadium came along.

How does Brewster believe the stadium will impact the branding of Gopher football? “It makes a loud statement that we’re committed at the University of Minnesota to playing great football, to having a great football program and it’s our responsibility as coaches and players to go out and do a great job of honoring who we are,” he answered.

The Gophers’ locker room is shaped like a football. It measures 62 yards long and 32 yards wide.  O’Brien said the lighting system has 1,600 possible combinations, indicating the Gophers’ post-game celebrations will be colorful and special.

“We have without a doubt the finest home team locker room in America today,” Brewster said.  “Period.  I really believe that.”

Among the features that he most appreciates is that there’s no physical separation in the vast room.  No real corners, or partially obscured areas.  “We are out in the open and that’s how I want it,” Brewster said.  “Compartments within a locker room create cliques…We want no cliques. We want team.”

More than 10 years ago I visited an athletic department official who vaguely talked about building an outdoor football stadium across from Williams and Mariucci arenas.  I dismissed the thought.  Brewster is grateful others didn’t and built this stadium where once it was only a passing thought.

While Brewster’s goals are to win a Big Ten title and connect with Minnesota’s storied football past that includes five national championship teams, he’s not thinking about how TCF Bank Stadium impacts the dream of better days ahead.   “It’s not what it does for the dream,” he said. “It is the dream, and now it’s reality.  And that’s so exciting for the state of Minnesota.  For all our fans, for our players that the dream of football being back on campus in a beautiful venue has been realized. … Very few times in life does a dream, a vision, a thought, exceed your expectations.  This without question exceeds any and all expectations you could have had for it. It is amazing what they accomplished in building the stadium in taking every minute detail into consideration and making it happen.”

Brewster was asked what he can envision saying to his players about the stadium in the days ahead.  The Gophers open practice on Monday.  A public scrimmage on August 22 for season ticket holders only will provide a TCF Bank Stadium preview before the grand opening on September 12, the first game in the facility and an event that will draw national coverage.

Brewster said: “You know what? And it just jumps right out of my mouth. It’s such an honor and it’s such a privilege for us as coaches and for this football team to play in a stadium (like this), and understanding the magnitude of what it means. …Honor every minute that we’re in that stadium.  And make certain that we do a great job of paying homage to those that were before us.”

Could 2009 be the best season Adrian Peterson will have during his NFL career?  As the Vikings open training camp this week, there’s reason to wonder if Peterson won’t make this a special season.

The longevity and peak performance of NFL running backs is partially defined by the physical beating endured annually by 16 game seasons.  At 24, Peterson enters his third season in the league presumably healthy and still blessed with the physical gifts of youth including the acceleration and speed that’s already made him All-Pro.

Emmitt Smith and Walter Payton are the NFL’s all-time career leading rushers.  Their third seasons were impressive.  Smith rushed for 1,713 yards in 1992, within 60 yards of his best one season total of 1,773 in 1995.  Payton gained 1,852 in 1977, a single season career best.

Last season Peterson followed up on his rookie total in 2007 of 1,341 yards, with 1,760 to lead the NFL.  In a July ESPN The Magazine article about 2009 Fantasy Football, the publication projected Peterson’s career lasting through the 2019 season and predicted 2009 will be his best for rushing attempts (373) and yards (1,837).

The magazine projected five more seasons of 1,000 yards or more for Peterson.  Using ESPN’s numbers, Peterson will finish his career with 14,829 rushing yards.  That total would place him fourth on the all-time NFL list behind Smith (18,355), Payton (16,726) and Barry Sanders (15,269).

Only three other players have rushed for more yards in their first two NFL seasons than Peterson (3,101 yards).  Eric Dickerson (3,913), Edgerrin James (3,262) and Earl Campbell (3,147) bettered Peterson.

One NFL record Peterson already has is his 296 yards rushing against San Diego in 2007, the single game league high.  As a rookie he only started nine games while playing in 14.  Last year he played in all 16 games and started 15 while leading the league in rushing.  Among his honors was winning the Maxwell Club’s Bert Bell award as NFL Player of the Year, being named All-Pro and starting in the Pro Bowl for a second consecutive year.

It’s not a bad forecast that 2009 will bring even more “hardware” to the Peterson vault.