Author: David Shama

Ryan Longwell is 34 years old and has been in the NFL for 12 seasons.  Still, he felt the pressure before making a 50 yard field goal yesterday that gave the Vikings a 20-19 win over the New York Giants and sent the Purple to the playoffs for the first time since 2004.

When Longwell took the field with nine seconds remaining a lot of people in the Metrodome and elsewhere didn’t know whether Chicago would win or lose against Houston.  A Chicago victory and Vikings loss would have meant Longwell’s team missed the playoffs.  As it turned out the Vikings still could have made the playoffs with a loss to the Giants because the Bears lost to Houston but at the time it was an “all or nothing” situation in Longwell’s head.

Longwell responded with humor after the game when asked how much confidence he had because of his NFL experience and success including this season when he had made 28 of 33 field goal attempts, including five of five from over 50 yards.  “Oh, probably zero,” he said.  “You’re as nervous for that one as you are for the first one of your career.

“But like Tiger Woods says, once you’ve won one, you can rely on that for the next one.  You just rely on yourself, and the good Lord has blessed me with a mind that kind of stays even keel through the whole game and through every situation.

“So you approach it as calm as you can and just do what you do.  Don’t try to be super human and hit it harder, or hit it any different.  Do the same thing that has worked.”

Well, it worked and the Vikings walked away with their first division championship since 2000.  In an elated locker room after the game owner Zygi Wilf talked about how “it doesn’t get any better than this” and forecast more success for his franchise.

“I know that this is the beginning of many things to come,” he said.  “…We look forward to many seasons ahead of great football.  …I am very proud of everybody and what they did.”

Even if they have to do it like they did against the Giants in a pressure situation with time running out, the Vikings hope to make their owner proud next Sunday in their playoff game at home against Philadelphia.

In a week that could put the Gophers on the high road in the Big Ten Conference title chase, Minnesota plays Michigan State on Wednesday morning and then Ohio State on Saturday in league opening games at Williams Arena.  Last night at home the Gophers moved their nonconference record to 12-0 with an easy 82-56 win over High Point, Minnesota coach Tubby Smith’s North Carolina based alma mater.

With an undefeated record and No. 23 national ranking, the Gophers haven’t had to rebound from defeat so far this season. But rebounding, as in effective board work, figures to be important this week against Michigan State, a favorite to win the conference title, and Ohio State, a threat to finish in the first division and possibly push Minnesota back in the final standings.  In the always physical Big Ten the Gophers hope to do better than they did in nonconference play when opponents have gathered almost as many rebounds as Minnesota (402 versus 431).  Last night against High Point the Gophers had a 36-35 rebounding edge, but the Panthers had 15 offensive rebounds, the Gophers 12.

Smith acknowledged that Michigan State deserves its reputation for annually being an outstanding rebounding team and talked about that aspect for the Gophers.  “Well, that’s been a big concern of ours all year long,” he said. “We only won by what, one on the boards today?  Michigan State is much more physical, much more gifted athletically, and they’re always one of the top rebounding teams in the country. So we’ll spend some time working on rebounding the next couple of days.  That’s for sure.”

Much of the rebounding responsibility is likely to belong to freshmen big men Colton Iverson and Ralph Sampson.  They both started the High Point game and seem probable to be in the opening lineup again along with Damian Johnson, Lawrence Westbrook and Al Nolen.  The 6-10 Iverson and 6-11 Sampson have progressed quickly in their transition from high school to college and Smith is pleased with how “coachable” and responsive they have been.

Iverson leads the team in rebounds at 4.3 per game.  Sampson and the 6-1 Nolen are second at 4.0.

No doubt the Gophers and their fans are excited for Wednesday and the beginning of the Big Ten season.  “We can’t wait for it to start,” Gopher junior Devron Bostick said last night.

The nonconference schedule was soft but did include a neutral court win over then No. 9 ranked Louisville.  The schedule helped develop confidence in a young Gopher team and was a coach’s dream.  With its lengthy list of unappealing opponents, the schedule was more like a fan’s nightmare but it will be remembered with a lot more fondness if the Gophers start 2-0 this week in the Big Ten.

The Gopher football team that takes the field against Kansas Wednesday night for the Insight Bowl is likely to be highly motivated.  The season ending 55-0 loss to Iowa was humiliating and is a five star stimulus to prepare for the bowl game.  The consensus of the college football world, though, is that Kansas will win and the Jayhawks are favored by about 10 points.

Kansas is led by Mark Mangino who some will argue is the best coach in school history.  He’s created attention for his success like last year’s 12-1 season (7-5 this season) at a school long known for basketball championships and a suffering football program.  Mangino is also the fattest major college coach in memory, probably weighing north of 350 pounds and for years the subject of jokes (“our coach beat anorexia”).

The Jayhawks’ star receiver is Kerry Meier who 18 months ago was competing for the starting quarterback job, according to a story last week on LJworld.com.  The Lawrence, Kansas newspaper Web site told the success story of Meier who has become a Sports Illustrated cover boy and one of the Big 12’s best receivers.  Meier, from the small town of Pittsburgh, Kansas, has older brothers who played for Kansas State.

Jason LaFrenz, Gophers’ assistant athletics director for marketing and ticketing sales, reported via e-mail on Saturday that he’s expecting more than 10,000 Minnesota fans at the Insight Bowl.  He also reported that about 1,000 tickets remain for Wednesday’s Minnesota-Michigan State basketball game at Williams Arena.

Former Bloomington Jefferson center Cole Aldrich is leading the Kansas basketball team in rebounds, 9.9 per game, and is second in scoring at 13.6 points.  The 6-11 sophomore, along with former Minneapolis North guard Khalid El-Amin, who led Connecticut to a national championship, could be remembered as one of the two best Minnesotans ever to leave the state and play elsewhere.

The Giants scored 12 of their 19 points against the Vikings yesterday on field goals by 44 year old John Carney.  The team’s punter is 42 year old Jeff Feagles.

Third year linebacker Chad Greenway hasn’t received a lot of publicity but his improvement has been noticed by many observers including teammate and fellow linebacker Ben Leber.  Greenway said he believes his performance has been consistent during the season.

Vikings’ defensive end Ray Edwards finished the regular season yesterday with five total sacks in 15 games.  That’s a long way from the goal he set before the season of breaking Michael Strahan’s NFL single season record of 22.5.  Earlier this month Sports Headliners asked Edwards if he had regrets about going public with his goal.  “Who me? Nah.  I don’t have no regrets at all.  I mean I set goals high for myself.  Sometimes you fall short of your goals but you keep on moving.  You don’t let that stop you.”

Edwards, in his third season as a pro, had to adjust to playing on the left side after being a right defensive end.  I missed a lot of sacks I should have had,” he said.  “Once I get there I gotta cash the check, as they say.”

Vikings’ rookie offensive lineman John Sullivan might be the successor to center Matt Birk but this season was a time for learning.  “I can just ask Matt about anything…(for example) why he used a certain technique in certain situations,” he told Sports Headliners earlier this month.  “He’s always eager to share that information with me and try to help me to become a better player.”

As a reserve, Sullivan prepared to play either center or guard if needed but had no game starts.