Author: David Shama

TCF Bank Stadium is opening to applause and the new facility almost makes Minnesota unique compared to other college football programs and their old facilities, yet short term the stadium is a challenge to the Gophers’ on field performance.

Coach Tim Brewster has been saying all summer the focus of his team is on one goal: prepare for the opening game at Syracuse on September 5.  There’s so much anticipation about the first game in TCF Bank Stadium on September 12 with Air Force, that Brewster welcomed last Saturday’s scrimmage and public open house in the new facility.  Those were “butterflies” of the figurative kind floating out of the stadium and across campus on Saturday.

Still, the build-up to the first game ever in the stadium presents a challenge of focus for team and staff.  The Gophers, 7-6 last season and 1-11 the year before, aren’t good enough to perform without their collective heads attached to their bodies.  The return to playing home games on campus should mean more student interest and attendance, a potential temporary distraction for players.  Then, too, there will be so much media and public conversation during game week that the players can’t help but notice.

Brewster told Sports Headliners earlier this summer that the focus challenge includes practice and the game on September 12.  He and his staff have to help ready the players so they’re not so excited to play that they can’t execute properly—not understanding plays, overthrowing receivers, jumping off side, taking poor angles on tackles and other similar problems.

Quarterback Adam Weber acknowledged at last Saturday’s news conference that opening stadium week will be a challenge.  He said the players will look to the coaches for help in staying on task.

Before kickoff on September 12, pre-game festivities (including fly-over jets and fireworks) will have the crowd rocking and players will be more nervous than usual.  Who wants to be known as the team that lost the first ever game at TCF Bank Stadium?

Brewster isn’t interested in that scene right now.  All that matters is preparing for Syracuse on September 5.  He’s encouraging competition for playing time among his players and that provides day-to-day focus.  He’s even told the Gophers the Wally Pipp tale, the New York Yankees first baseman that supposedly took a day off because of a headache and never got back in the line-up after Lou Gehrig won the job.

Today for the Gophers there’s likely no dwelling on the festive atmosphere that will surround the September 12 opener, or even the opening game at Syracuse.  The messages to the players: stay in the moment, learn your practice lessons, take a calm approach and carry the preparation over to game days, September 5, 12 and beyond.  The mantra is clear and the results will come soon enough.

Former Gopher Ben Coleman told Sports Headliners he has the local rights to operate an American Basketball Association franchise and plans for his team to begin play in 2010.

Coleman, who attended North High School and played one season for the Gophers and then transferred to Maryland, will hold a tryout for players on September 19 at a site to be determined.  Players selected will form a barnstorming team that will play games in various parts of the state against local amateur teams.  The games will help promote the new ABA franchise, according to Coleman who played pro basketball in the states and Europe, and is now a local businessman.

The players from the tryout may form part of the roster for next year’s team.  For certain, Coleman said, players on the 2010 roster will have Minnesota connections.

The team doesn’t have a name or a home, although Coleman said Blizzards is a potential nickname.  While a location at the old Minneapolis Central High School gym is a possibility, other metro area buildings, or even a facility in St. Cloud or Rochester, are being considered.

Minnesota had an ABA team based in St. Paul but that team, the Ripknees, is no longer in operation.  Coleman hopes to make his team more popular than the Ripknees and intends to emphasize community marketing, admiring the “model” of baseball’s St. Paul Saints.

According to its Web site, the ABA has 60 teams, plays a schedule from late fall through early spring and emphasizes high scoring basketball.  The site also said that 60 percent of its franchises are owned by African-Americans, Hispanics, Asians and women.  Coleman, who is African-American, said he will be the new franchise’s owner.

The league plans to have 11 games on the VERSUS Network during the 2009-10 season, according to the Web site, https://abalive.com/headlines/index.html?article_id=241

Profootballtalk.com reported that Vikings’ vice president of player personnel Rick Spielman may not have been enthusiastic about restructuring the team’s quarterback roster by adding Brett Favre.  https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2009/08/19/is-spielman-on-board-with-favre-acquisition/

Friday night’s preseason game was the debut of Favre, but on the street a ticket seller reported minimal interest.  He said $100 tickets were available for about half that price.

Outside the stadium a man was selling Favre Viking jerseys for $100 and said a nearby competitor was charging $175.

Favre, despite being in the NFL since 1991, admitted he was nervous before the game.  Why?  “That’s a good question,” Favre said on Friday night. “Maybe (only having) two-and-a-half days of practice. (It was) live bullets; no red jersey. Of course all of the attention has been focused on this. The guys have been great. I talked to numerous guys on the sideline tonight, as well as during the week. They all said, ‘we just want you to come in and be the leader you have always been.  Don’t feel like you have to do everything.’ And they are right. …”

First round draft choice Percy Harvin, who made his preseason debut on Friday night catching passes and returning kickoffs, was listed on the third team last week as a wide receiver.  Meanwhile, No. 2 draft choice Phil Loadholt, has started two games at right offensive tackle and looks like a for sure regular all season.

Nick Urban, a free agent guard from Winona State, played in the game and is trying to make the team.  He was signed earlier this year after a free agent tryout, but kept his job as a Target cashier out of loyalty to the company.

Depending on results in earlier tournament games, the Gophers could face Long Beach State and former coach Dan Monson in the 76 Classic in Anaheim during late November.

Ken Lien, the chair of the Mr. Basketball committee, considers Cretin-Derham Hall’s Seantrel Henderson one of the top 100 prep basketball seniors in the state.  Henderson’s college future is in football where he’s considered the No. 1 prospect in the country.  The 6-foot-8 Henderson plays center in basketball and tackle in football.