Author: David Shama

Decker is not the only Gopher receiving notice.  Senior end Willie VanDeSteeg was named the Walter Camp Foundation national defensive player of the week for his performance against Illinois last Saturday.  He’s also been named co-Big Ten Defensive Player of the week along with defensive end Aaron Maybin of Penn State.  VanDeSteeg had five tackles, including one that set up a touchdown, and broke up a pass play that resulted in a key fourth quarter interception.  He also had three sacks against Illinois.

VanDeSteeg was bothered by a broken bone in his right wrist last season after being named second team all-Big Ten his sophomore year when he tied for the conference lead in sacks with seven.  “He has such a sense of pride in himself and he was so disappointed last season,” Brewster said.   He also said VanDeSteeg, 6-4, 256, can play in the NFL and has drawn interest from scouts.

Marcus Sherels, the Gopher cornerback who missed the Illinois game with a right shoulder injury, is expected back for the Purdue game on October 25.  The Gophers have a bye on the schedule this week and it’s most welcome with all the “nicks” the team has, Brewster said.  Players will be given some time off during the week and coaches will be nationally recruiting this weekend, Brewster said.

The Vikings have tickets available for all five remaining home games, Steve LaCroix reported via e-mail.  The Vikings vice president of sales and marketing wrote that some games still have $30 tickets.  Tickets can be purchased via www.ticketmaster.com or by calling 651-989-5151.  Fans may also visit the tickets section at www.vikings.com for additional information.

Season two of the Tubby Smith era of Gopher basketball begins with “Tubby’s Tipoff” at Williams Arena on Friday.  Doors open for the free event beginning at 8:30 p.m. and activities will include a three-point shooting contest, slam dunk competition and scrimmage.

The Twins announced on Monday the installation of a Target Field Webcam located on the roof of the Ford Centre, directly across Fifth Street from the new ballpark opening in 2010.  Fans can view construction progress from a new, closer angle looking directly into the field of the ballpark, www.twinsbaseball.com.

Pat Neshek writes on his web site that he continues to make progress in rehabbing his right elbow after pitching in only 15 games last season.   He expects to be in Florida until November.

There are eight former Gopher players on NHL season opening rosters including Minnesota’s leading scorer from last year, Blake Wheeler, now a rookie with Boston. Phil Kessel is beginning his third season in Boston. Kyle Okposo, who played in Minnesota’s first 18 games of 2007-08 before departing for the New York Islanders, is back with New York.  Alex Goligoski is in his second season with Pittsburgh.

Keith Ballard is with Florida after playing his first three seasons with Phoenix.  Thomas Vanek is back with Buffalo for a fourth year following his 2007-08 season when he had 36 goals and 28 assists for 64 points in 82 games.  Paul Martin is in his fifth season with New Jersey and Jordan Leopold his third with Colorado. A ninth former Gopher, Erik Johnson, played in 69 games as a rookie with St. Louis last season, but will miss the 2008-09 season with a knee injury.

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.