Author: David Shama

Brewster’s boss before coming here, Mike Shanahan, was fired last month after the Broncos missed the playoffs for a third consecutive season.  “He’s the best coach I’ve been around,” Brewster said.

Shanahan, who was once a Gopher assistant, wants to coach again, according to Brewster.  The 56-year-old Shanahan will be paid $21 million for the next three years by the Broncos if he doesn’t take another job and he won’t have to “rush” into another position, Brewster said.

Although the Gophers wore maroon jerseys and pants for their home uniforms late in the year, Brewster doesn’t consider that the team’s primary home uniform for next season.  Instead, the Gophers will mix maroon jerseys with gold pants.

The Big Ten Conference finished 1-6 in bowl games with Iowa the only winner, defeating South Carolina in the Outback Bowl.

Adrian Peterson is a goal setter.  He wanted to lead the NFL in rushing last season and did with 1,760 yards.  In the Sporting News issue of January 5, Peterson admitted to thinking about the rushing title during the season, but the No. 1 goal is to help the Vikings to the Super Bowl.  Peterson’s teams never won a state championship in high school or national title in college.

While other storylines received more attention immediately after Sunday’s playoff loss to Philadelphia, the Vikings’ special teams drew notice by close observers.  Eagles’ punt returner DeSean Jackson had 109 yards on five punt returns.  This included a 62 yard run that set up a field goal in the first half.  A second half return of 30 yards didn’t lead to any points but the almost complete absence of initial tacklers near the sideline and Jackson was glaring.

Reggie Bush of New Orleans returned two punts for touchdowns in a Monday night game against the Vikings and almost had a third.

The Vikings were 11^th among 16 NFC teams in kickoff return average during the regular season at 22.4 and 12^th in punt return average at eight yards per return.  Peterson, replacing Maurice Hicks, was sent out to return the last kickoff of the day against the Eagles in the 26-14 loss.

Cal Clutterbuck, 21, leads all NHL rookies in hits with 132.  The 5-11, 195-pound wing joined the Wild in November and has played in 35 games.

Wild general manager Doug Risebrough said on WCCO Radio’s Sports Huddle on Sunday that he thinks both of the team’s goalies, Niklas Backstrom and Josh Harding, will have to contribute for the team to make the playoffs.  Backstrom is fourth in the league in wins with 19 and tied for first in shutouts with five.  Harding has played in eight games, Backstrom, 33.

Former Wild goalie Manny Fernandez is second in the NHL in goals against average at 1.96 and lost to Minnesota last night 1-0.

Six MIAC schools are ranked in the top 100 of the fall Division III Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup Standings. Carleton leads in the standings among MIAC schools with 165 points (22nd place nationally).  St. Thomas in 45th place with 98 points is followed by Saint Benedict (67th place, 73 points), Augsburg and Concordia (both 72nd with 64 points each), and Saint John’s (83rd place, 55 points).  Points are based on performances in various men’s and women’s sports.

Common theory before yesterday’s playoff game was that if the Vikings could avoid turnovers, a win was likely against Philadelphia.  Among those holding that thought was coach Brad Childress who said on the KFAN pre-game show that the most important aspect for his team was not “to turn the ball over.”

The Vikings made good on minimizing mistakes, with only one interception and also a bad snap from center recovered by the Eagles.  The interception, though, was turned into a 44-yard touchdown by the Eagles’ Asante Samuel in the second quarter.  That score was Philadelphia’s only touchdown in the first half but the Eagles had three field goals and led 16-14 at halftime.

The result of the game came down to this: the Vikings offense, as so often true in the past, wasn’t good enough to win a game.  Two touchdowns won’t advance many teams in the playoffs, not unless the defense creates scores, too, and yesterday the Vikings’ defense, among the best in football, didn’t generate points in the 26-14 loss.

The pre-game concern about turnovers, at least among fans and media, focused on quarterback Tarvaris Jackson.  Although he only had the one official interception, the Eagles were close to having others.  With some frequency, he threw inaccurately and after a first half when third down conversions were consistent, he and the offense became ineffective in the second half keeping Chris Kluwe busy with five punts.

For the game Jackson completed 15 of 35 passes for 164 yards and Childress told a post game KFAN audience that regarding the interception “you can’t excuse the seven that goes the other way.”  To some observers, Jackson looked unsettled late in the game when the Vikings were trying to come back from a 23-14 deficit.  Bothered by pressure in the past, the third year quarterback seemed off in his timing and perhaps locked in on a primary receiver.

For a third consecutive off-season the Vikings’ staff and others are left to ponder the quarterback situation and the effectiveness of the overall offense.  Jackson was a much better quarterback in the last three games of the regular season then he was in the first two.  While his development is clearly too slow for hypercritical Vikings’ fans, he might be progressing enough to be a decent bet for a good season in 2009. Plus, what are the franchise’s other quarterback options?

The Vikings have home work to do in the off-season.  The offense needs help on the right side of the line including where right tackle Ryan Cook seems to have “false start” DNA.  The acquisition of wide receiver Bernard Berrian added juice to a sub-par receiving group, but more explosiveness is welcome.  The Vikings seem likely to try to help themselves in the college draft with offensive linemen and receivers.

Yesterday, they substantiated what didn’t have to be proven. Fourteen points from your offense in a playoff game isn’t the stuff of Super Bowl contenders.

A parking ramp incident angered fans leaving the University of Minnesota’s Oak Street Parking Ramp following Wednesday afternoon’s Gopher-Michigan State basketball game at Williams Arena.  When customers entered the ramp for the 11 a.m. game there were no parking attendants to pay.  Instead, fans had to pay following the game, causing long delays in exiting the ramp.

About 2:15 p.m., more than one hour after the game, vehicles were bumper-to-bumper from the ground level pay booths to the fourth floor.  A frustrated customer cancelled a 3 p.m. dental appointment and instead headed for a nearby restaurant for a late lunch.

Good news. By 3:15 p.m. there was no backup of cars on the fourth level!  But there was parking ramp gridlock starting on level three.

Upon arriving at the pay booth I questioned the common sense of paying for the parking.  The University could have waived all those cars through the exits at no charge, thereby treating their basketball customers with the gratitude they deserve for putting up with the inconvenience.

Instead the parking attendant announced he was charging the usual event parking rate of $8.  Give the young man credit, though, for being courteous and willing to offer an explanation for the problem.

Let me give his answer a bit of dramatic pause before sharing it with you.  It was an explanation only a bureaucrat could love.  “The University can’t charge for event parking in the morning,” the attendant said.

So if events start in the morning, then no one will take parking money from customers entering the ramps, thereby causing long delays in the afternoon.  The possible rationale for this policy is that the University doesn’t want to confuse event parkers with hourly customers.

An empathetic athletic department spokesman, who emphasized his department has no control over parking at the University, told Sports Headliners on Saturday that the policy is specific to Monday through Friday parking, not weekends.  I guess that’s of some comfort to anyone who dares to park at the Oak Street Ramp next fall for morning football games at TCF Bank Stadium.  But all those customers last Wednesday who might have missed dental appointments, or picking up friends at the airport, or arriving home on time to relieve anxious baby sitters will long remember the frustration and inconvenience of December 31, 2008.