Author: David Shama

Brad Childress is a solid guy with admirable values, but right now he’s about as popular in these parts as someone selling unleaded regular for $4.25 a gallon.  Yesterday’s 30-17 loss to Tennessee and a disappointing 1-3 start to the season follow the head coach’s first two non-playoff seasons in 2006 and 2007 when the Vikings’ records were 6-10 and 8-8.

Scrutiny about his coaching future will likely be more intense than ever with this being his third year leading the team.  Even before Sunday’s game there was speculation that former Pittsburgh coach Bill Cowher might become the Vikings next head coach.  Radio talk show host Dark Star, who was out front a few years back on the Vikings’ trading Randy Moss, said last week on TV (The Sports Show) that owner Zygi Wilf has talked to Cowher.

Cowher is only 51 and stopped coaching in 2006.  He’s considered a coaching prize and his name is tied to speculation with not only the Vikings but Cleveland and Detroit, too.  He coached for 15 NFL seasons, all with Pittsburgh.  His record includes eight division titles and one Super Bowl championship.

If Wilf were to make a coaching change during the season, or after, it makes sense he would favor an experienced coach.  He and his advisors hired Childress who had been an assistant with Philadelphia but never an NFL head coach.

Wilf’s willingness to spend money on players and his statements about winning leave no doubt the Vikings’ owner is in pursuit of championships.  A losing team doesn’t enhance the organization’s drive for a new stadium, either.

The Vikings’ losing start has been the result of a struggling offense and a defense that has a big reputation but hasn’t been that difficult to score on inside the 20 yard line.  Yesterday, for example, two Vikings’ fumbles and an interception led to three touchdowns by the Titans.

The Vikings have many talented players but the organization’s acquisition of personnel to enhance the play at quarterback and among the receivers has been unsuccessful so far.  Player performance and the organization’s personnel decisions aren’t just the responsibility of a head coach.  But you know who usually receives the most blame.

Sources told Sports Headliners late last week that Carleton, Macalester and St. Olaf are studying whether they want to remain members of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.  Conference commissioner Dan McKane confirmed that MIAC presidents have been informed of the possibility.

McKane characterized the action of the three schools as part of a self examination that institutions periodically conduct.  The process can include where athletics fits in the educational process.

While two sources said they don’t think the three schools will leave the MIAC, there is a possibility.  The motivation, according to someone who spoke anonymously, is to “partner” with “high academic institutions” in possibly a new conference.

But aren’t other MIAC schools high academic institutions?  “I think there are some (MIAC presidents) that it’s tweaked their ears and are a little bit offended, but everybody has to take a look at where they’re at,” a source said.

There presently is an academic consortium of schools called the Associated Colleges of the Midwest.  It consists of Beloit, Coe, Colorado College, Cornell, Grinnell, Lake Forest, Lawrence, Monmouth and Ripon, plus Carleton, Macalester and St. Olaf.  There’s speculation that members may form an athletic conference.

The same source said that while no definite date has been given to the MIAC presidents as to when a decision to stay or leave the conference will be made, he expects the issue to be resolved by next spring.  Sources told Sports Headliners they don’t believe the schools will leave the MIAC to form a new league with members from various states because the result will be increased travel costs and student-athletes will miss more class time.

The MIAC is one of the largest Division III conferences in the country with 13 members.  McKane said the conference has had a moratorium on new membership since 1997.  The bylaws require that all members be private institutions within the state of Minnesota.

John Gagliardi, the legendary Saint John’s football coach, was named the 2009 recipient of the American Football Coaches’ Association’s Amos Alonzo Stagg Award last week. The award honors those “whose services have been outstanding in the advancement of the best interests of football” and will be presented to Gagliardi in January at the AFCA Convention in Nashville.  Previous winners include Paul “Bear” Bryant (1983), Woody Hayes (1986) and Joe Paterno(2002).

Gagliardi broke former Grambling State head coach Eddie Robinson’s NCAA record for the most games coached (588) on September 20 against Concordia College-Moorhead in Collegeville. Gagliardi’s 60 years of collegiate coaching is the most in college football history, surpassing the prior record of 57 years held by Stagg.

John Vadnais, a former Saint John’s player, works with other Gagliardi alums at a company in Minneapolis.  Vadnais wrote the following edited e-mail: “They (we) all have the same reaction to having been a player of the master.  He has a certain magic about him that makes a player do things above and beyond the normal.  My sense during our conversations…are that they have an extreme reverence for him. …”

Vikings’ quarterback Gus Frerotte, 37, talking earlier this month about his decision to return for another season, his 13^th, in the NFL:  “It’s the game.  I had a long talk with coach (Brad Childress).  I said, ‘You know it’s the game that keeps you coming back.’  It’s not necessarily practicing and doing all this stuff with the media.  It’s playing on Sundays, getting those emotions built up in you, making the throw and guys high-fiving.  Every time you go out and start, you feel pretty darn lucky.  You’re one of 32 people (starting quarterbacks in the NFL).  I’m just going to go out and have fun and really enjoy myself.”

Scott Baker, who kept the Twins in first place by winning yesterday’s game against Kansas City, had a 4-0 record with a 2.37 ERA in his last six starts.

The Timberwolves open training camp tomorrow and will have daily practices through Friday at Bresnan Arena in the Taylor Center on the Minnesota State University campus in Mankato. The team will conclude camp on Saturday with a scrimmage beginning at 7 p.m. at the Bresnan Arena. The scrimmage is free and open to the public but a ticket is required for admission.  Tickets are available at the U.S. Bank locations at 204 S. 2nd St. and 312 Raintree Road in Mankato from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday. There is a limit of four tickets per person.

The Gopher men’s hockey team is ranked ninth in the preseason national poll by USA Today and USA Hockey Magazine. The Gophers begin the season in the top 10 for the seventh consecutive year.  Minnesota was 12th in the final 2007-08 poll and has 12 new players on the roster.  Defending national champion Boston College, which eliminated the Gophers in the 2008 NCAA tournament, is the nation’s top-ranked team.  Minnesota opens its regular season at No. 15 ranked St. Cloud State on October 17 and then hosts the Huskies at Mariucci Arena on October 18.

The Sports Show, with Dark Star, Mike Max, Patrick Reusse and Sid Hartman, is still on the CW Twin Cities, Ch. 23, but has a new starting time on Sundays, 9:30 p.m.