Author: David Shama

As a recruiter Davis will focus on offensive linemen.  He will recruit nationally and be assigned selected Minnesota high schools including Cretin-Derham Hall where offensive tackle Seantrell Henderson, a senior next fall, is a highly sought player.

Brewster expects all his players to be healthy for the bowl game.  This includes wide receiver David Pittman, who has played minimally because of a hamstring injury.

Brewster was scheduled to fly back from New York this morning where he attended the College Football Hall of Fame awards dinner last night.  Among those honored was former Gopher coach Lou Holtz, an inductee into the 2008 hall of fame.

The 10 finalists for the prep Mr. Football Award are quarterbacks James Peterson, Blaine High School; Anders Lee, Edina; and Tydan Storrusten, Pelican Rapids;  running backs Jake Gibbons, Becker; Kurtis Huisman, Atwater Cosmos Grove; and Colby Ring, Brainerd; offensive tackle Casey Dehn, Owatonna; linebackers Cole Jirik, Northfield, and Brett Skoog, Orono; and defensive back Varmah Sonie, Apple Valley. The winner will be announced on Sunday at the Mr. Football banquet at the Doubletree Hotel in St. Louis Park.  The Mr. Football program is sponsored by the Minnesota Football Coaches Association and the Minnesota Vikings.

Bad timing: the Gophers Insight Bowl game starts at 5 p.m. on December 31, the same day and time as Minnesota’s Big Ten home basketball opener with Michigan State.

The Gopher basketball team, 8-0, is off to its best start since the 1976-77 season when Minnesota won its first 11 games.  Coach Tubby Smith was asked after Saturday’s comeback 71-54 win over Cornell if the progress has exceeded expectations.  He answered by talking about not being satisfied with execution of the team’s offense.  “I expect more but it’s efficient enough right now,” he said.

The Gophers have four nonconference games remaining including tonight against South Dakota State.  The one anticipated game is December 20 against No. 9 ranked (AP poll) Louisville.  The game will be played in Glendale, Arizona as part of the Stadium Shootout doubleheader.  “I wish the game were tomorrow,” Gopher guard Lawrence Westbrook said on Saturday.

Detroit quarterback Daunte Culpepper talking about his search for employment during the last off-season and whether he spoke with his former team, the Vikings: “Yes, I did talk to somebody up there but the conversations didn’t really go too far.”

Four MIAC players have been named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America® Football Team, as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America.  Concordia’s Levi DeVries was a first team selection while Saint John’s Jeff Schnobrich, Bethel’s David Benjamin, and Gustavus’ T.J. Ridley were named to the second team.

Randy Wittman is coaching for his job and he knows it.  After coaching the Wolves to a 22-60 record last season, the team is 4-15 this fall, having lost five straight and seven of the last 10 games.  As bad (perhaps worse), the Wolves last two losses have been by scores of 113-84 and 107-84.

Wittman was asked by Sports Headliners on Saturday afternoon if his termination is imminent.  “You know what, I don’t know,” he said.  “Obviously if we don’t win, those kinds of things happen.  I mean it’s already happened three times in our league already. …”

Coaching changes in the NBA occur, even early in the season, as P.J. Carlesimo in Oklahoma City, Eddie Jordan in Washington and Sam Mitchell in Toronto learned this fall.  Media and fans have asked for Wittman’s dismissal.

Wittman, a likeable guy and effective with media relations, said he’s accepting of the local criticism.  “That’s our business and I know that better than anybody,” he said.  “We’re here to win games.  We’re struggling right now so that kind of talk is always going to come up.

“I don’t worry myself with that.  I really don’t because there aren’t very many Jerry Sloans (Utah coach) that stay around for 21 years in the NBA left, and so all I can do is make sure our team is prepared every night.  That we’re doing our job as coaches to make them prepared and have an opportunity to win games in the fourth quarter.  For the most part we’ve done that. …”

Kevin McHale, the team’s vice president of basketball operations, was on the team’s three game road trip that concluded Friday.  When asked, Wittman speculated that McHale made the trip to evaluate the coaching and the players.

Wittman said the Wolves, who collectively looked discouraged and shaken after Saturday night’s loss to a Clippers team that had a 3-16 record, need to regain confidence.  “Losing those games early in the season that we had won hurt our team’s confidence,” he said.  “Now it’s my job to try to get that confidence back to these guys.  That’s where we’re struggling a little bit.  I think that really put us behind the eight ball.  If we could have won three or four of those games that we had won, that we let get away early in the season, we wouldn’t be talking about this right now. “

The Wolves decision makers need to take a serious look at themselves before doing anything about Wittman who has played and coached in the NBA for most of the last three decades.  The team’s personnel fits about as well as a jigsaw puzzle missing a few pieces.

It was suggested that the Wolves are still without quality players at two of basketball’s most important positions, point guard and center, although the search has been on for years.  “Those are the things that we have to look at as an organization,” Wittman said.  “As a coach I’ve got to coach who I’ve got.  That’s all I can do.  Obviously, I think there are some things that we have to look at and try to get to help complement this team with the players that we have, and we’re not there yet. …”

The poor taste award for the weekend goes to the Gopher student section that let out a chant of “Fire Wittman! on Saturday at Williams Arena.”  Randy sat a few seats away from the students while he watched his son Ryan, a former Eden Prairie player, score 21 points for Cornell in the team’s 71-54 loss to the Gophers.

The Gophers, 8-0, owe their success to several players including freshmen centers Colton Iverson and Ralph Sampson III.  After Saturday’s game coach Tubby Smith described the development of the two as “pleasant” of a surprise as he’s experienced in coaching.

Wolves basketball boss Kevin McHale turns 51 on December 19.  His legendary teammate with the Celtics, Larry Bird, was 52 yesterday.

Former Minnetonka player Anthony Tucker, now a freshman at Iowa (7-2), is leading the team in scoring average at 13.2 points per game.

Vikings kicker Ryan Longwell expects his friend Brett Favre, 39, to play next season for the New York Jets.

Jared Allen said he’s been doing his simulated calf roping celebration after sacks for about two and one-half seasons.  The Vikings’ defensive end was named NFC Defensive Player of the Week last week for his three sacks and nine tackles performance against Chicago on November 30.  Yesterday against Detroit he had two more sacks to increase his season total to 12.5.

Allen said he won’t evaluate his 2008 performance until after the season.  His goal is to lead the NFL in sacks, something he did last year playing with Kansas City when he had 15.5.  The Chiefs were 4-12 last season, while the Vikings are now 8-5 and in first place in the NFC North.  Last week before the Detroit game he said it’s a “blast” to be on a team making a run for the playoffs.  “Each year is its own year,” he said.  “I just have a blast playing football.”

Vikings sales and marketing executive Steve LaCroix reported via e-mail late Friday that over 4,000 tickets remain for the Atlanta game here on December 21 and over 3,000 for the New York Giants game a week later.

Vikings linebacker Ben Leber has GOP presidential signage on his Winter Park locker and was asked if he spoke publicly in support of the John McCain–Sarah Palin ticket.  “No, I just got involved with politics a little bit more just from watching TV and the whole thing, getting caught up just like everybody else,” he said.  “I missed the RNC. Decided to stay home with the family and watch it on TV.”

What about Palin and her future?  “I think she’s obviously learned a lot just from the campaign and probably what to say and what not to say,” Leber said. “And maybe how to be prepared for interviews and stuff.  But she’s going to be around politics for a long time, and we’re going to be hearing a lot from her in the next three years.”