Author: David Shama

How could it be any better for Tim Brewster?  The Gophers’ coach celebrates his 48^th birthday today after returning to his alma mater last Saturday and throwing himself a never to be forgotten homecoming party as Minnesota upset Illinois, a 12 point favorite, in Champaign.

A visitor wished the Gophers’ second-year coach happy birthday last Tuesday and Brewster said, “Not yet.”  Well, he can celebrate now as the Gophers go back to work during a bye week where they don’t play again until October 25 at Purdue.

Don’t get the idea that Brewster, staff and players will be partying today and the rest of this week.  No, they’ll be working to build on their 6-1 start, 2-1 in the Big Ten Conference.  On Saturday, the Gophers earned their first Big Ten Conference road victory since November 11, 2006 and Brewster told Sports Headliners yesterday that he’ll be in his office today at work after a birthday celebration with his wife Kathy last night at a local restaurant.

It’s preparation, hard work and better personnel that has the Gophers, so far, reversing last year’s disastrous 1-11 season.  Yes, you better add confidence to that list of success factors, too.

Looking at a 10 game losing streak dating back to 2007, the Gophers had the confidence to try for and score a late fourth quarter touchdown against Northern Illinois to win their opening game of the season.  Instead of the touchdown, the Gophers could have attempted a field goal to tie the game and likely send it into overtime.  That gave the Gophers momentum and helped inspire a second game win over Bowling Green and eventually a 4-0 start to the season.

Brewster had the Gophers believing they could beat Ohio State in Columbus in the Big Ten opener two weeks ago.  They didn’t but the Gophers played with confidence, didn’t quit when they fell far behind, and some players were reportedly in tears in the locker room after the 34-21 loss to the Big Ten pre-season favorite.

Saturday in Champaign, the Gophers were facing an Illinois team that had some of its best players returning after playing in the Rose Bowl in January.  Few people expected a Gopher win, except Brewster, staff and players including defensive lineman Willie VanDeSteeg who caused a fumble that set up a touchdown run by linebacker Simoni Lawrence and VanDeSteeg also made Illinois quarterback Juice Williams throw a late fourth quarter interception that helped end an Illini comeback.

There were plenty of other Gophers who made plays, too, like freshman DeLeon Eskridge who ran 46 yards for a second half touchdown, quarterback Adam Weber who never turned the ball over while completing 18 of 26 passes including a touchdown pass of 25 yards to (who else?) Eric Decker who had a total of nine catches in the game, 59 on the season.

The list of names, including assistant coaches, could be made much longer in tribute to this 27-20 win.  But, hey, lots of contributors are what you would expect when the Gophers did the unexpected in Champaign.  “I just love our team,” said Brewster who is constantly talking up a collective, not individual, approach.

And, one more thing, the Illini had designated the day as their 2008 Homecoming celebration.  Nobody on the planning committee checked first with Brewster.

It will be interesting to see what value Bernard Berrian has for the Vikings next Sunday against the Bears in Chicago.  This will be Berrian’s first game in Chicago since leaving the Bears as a free agent following four seasons as a Bear, and there could be more to his impact than how he performs.

As far as we know, Berrian didn’t sign any papers before leaving Chicago promising not to disclose information about the Bears.  Sports Headliners asked Vikings’ quarterback Tarvaris Jackson about the value of the Berrian-Bears connection.

“For him personally, he’s got insights on different guys as far as weaknesses and stuff like that goes, and maybe certain plays they run on offense,” Jackson said.  “He can help us out on more than just the offensive side of the football.  He can help the guys on defense also.”

The Berrian impact, according to Jackson, can include useful information about schemes, and personnel strengths and weaknesses.  Berrian will know what the Bears tried to use to their advantage against the Vikings in the past.

Has Jackson seen this sort of thing pay off in the past involving other players who have come to Vikingland from other places?  “Yeah, definitely,” he answered.  “I’ve seen it a couple times since I’ve been here.  Guys that play with different teams, (they) know different insights on what they’re trying to do and what they try to get down (on) defense, offense. So it helps.”

Vikings’ place-kicker Ryan Longwell is playing in his ninth NFL season and he knows, too, that there is value to insider knowledge. “It could always help but I don’t know how much,” he said.

There’s a trap door aspect to the insider knowledge approach, though.  “It’s all kind of we know what they know, but they know what we know so we gotta change what we know so that they don’t know what we know type of thing,” he said.

Sounds like in the work-ethic, analyze everything NFL, it’s easy to over think things including game preparation.  “Oh, without question,” Longwell said.  “There’s definitely a lot of that that goes on.  Sometimes you guess right and sometimes obviously you out think and kind of hurt yourself.  It’s a game that’s built on tendencies, and if you switch up your tendencies you can really throw a team off for awhile.”

It takes more than insight, knowledge and preparation before the game to make for a successful outcome, Longwell said.  He emphasized the need for and importance to make changes during the game and at halftime.  A challenge is that time is so limited during the game, including the short 15 minute halftime.  But during the week the Vikings and Berrian himself can figure out what in his background can be helpful to him and his new teammates.

Berrian scored his second touchdown of the season yesterday on an 86-yard pass from quarterback Gus Frerotte in a 12-10 win over Detroit.

Vikings’ cornerback Antoine Winfield, who has scored two touchdowns in six games and been spectacular with his physical play, could be a consensus all-pro pick after the season.  Last week Detroit quarterback John Kitna said Winfield is the “defensive player of the year” in the NFL so far.  Yesterday Winfield had two tackles, while defensive tackle Kevin Williams grabbed attention with four sacks.

The Gophers face Purdue coach Joe Tiller for the last time a week from Saturday.  The Boilermakers have been consistent winners under Tiller, who is retiring after this season, but he really hit the big time just once when the 2000 team won the Big Ten Conference championship and went to the Rose Bowl.  Tiller is in his last season and the program has stalled out.  A mediocre Purdue team is 2-4 on the season, 0-2 in the Big Ten Conference.

The Sporting News 2008-09 College Basketball Yearbook selects the Gophers’ Damian Johnson as the best shot blocker in the Big Ten Conference.  Last season the Louisiana junior led the Gophers with 46 blocks.

The Wild’s Derek Boogaard ranks No. 3 among the top five “puglists” in the NFL, according to Sports Illustrated’s October 13 issue.  The 6-7, 258 pound Boogey Man is one of the league’s biggest fighters.  Ranked No. 1 is Georges Laraque of Montreal, with Zdeno Chara of Boston No. 2.

The Twins Web site, which listed Michael Cuddyer as an infielder right after the season, now has him again among the outfielders on the team roster. There’s been speculation about a Cuddyer trial at third base before next season, a position he played in both the minors and majors.  His most extensive playing time at third in the minors came in 2000 when in 138 games he committed 34 errors playing for New Britain, according to baseball-reference.com  In 2004 with the Twins he had seven errors in 43 games while playing third base.

Third basemen with other teams that might have their names linked to the Twins during the off season may include Seattle’s Adrian Beltre, Los Angeles’ Casey Blake and Colorado’s Garrett Aitkins.

Sid Hartman’s Great Minnesota Sports Moments, published two years ago, is now in paperback.  Hartman, 88, has been covering local sports since the 1940s.

The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame announced that Saint Johns senior Jeff Schnobrich and Concordia senor Levi DeVries have been selected as semifinalists for the 2008 Draddy Trophy, presented by HealthSouth.  Semifinalists for the award are also candidates for the NFF 2008 National Scholar-Athlete Awards. The Draddy Trophy is one of the top honors in college football, exemplifying a player’s on field accomplishments as well as success in the classroom and community activities.

Schnobrich is a political science major with a 3.90 grade-point average and a two-year starter at running back for the Johnnies. DeVries, a defensive back, is a physics and mathematics double major who carries a 3.97 grade point average.  On the field he is a four-year starter and one of the team’s four co-captains this season.