Author: David Shama

The NFL’s personal conduct policy that can result in suspensions like that of the Vikings’ Bryant McKinney is applauded by those who are weary of misdeeds by football players and other athletes.

ESPN reported on its telecast of last week’s South Carolina-North Carolina State football game that Mike Davis, a running back for the Gamecocks, was seen on a campus security monitor breaking into a team refrigerator last month.  Davis played in the game, although ESPN speculated he might be suspended for the Wofford game.  His college major?  Criminal justice.

Gopher football coach Tim Brewster awarded one year scholarships last week to walk-on players including true freshman linebacker Mike Rallis of Edina who was impressive on kickoff coverage in Saturday night’s win over Northern Illinois.  Brewster said his son Nolan, a true freshman at Texas, played on special teams in the Longhorns’ 52-10 win over Florida Atlantic on Saturday.  The Gophers play the Owls on September 20 and Brewster will have insights on that team from his son and also his former boss at Texas, head coach Mack Brown.

MIAC football teams begin play this week.  In the preseason coaches’ poll Saint John’s is the favorite to win the MIAC title with Bethel receiving the second most votes, followed by Concordia, St. Thomas, St. Olaf, Augsburg, Gustavus Adolphus, Carleton and Hamline.

Saint John’s coach John Gagliardi has more MIAC coaching experience than all other conference coaches combined. Gagliardi, 81, has been coaching in the MIAC for 55 years while all the other coaches have a combined total of 46 years.

Schools from the conference have advanced to at least the second round of the NCAA playoffs for the past 12 seasons.  Augsburg played in the second round in 1997, Concordia advanced to the second round in 2004 and 2005, Saint John’s in 1996, 1998-2003, 2005-2007 and Bethel in 2007.

The Wild will participate in the 2008 NHL Centre I.C.E. Prospects Tournament in Traverse City, Michigan, September 13-17.  The Wild’s roster features 10 draft picks, including the team’s most recent first round draft choices, defenseman Tyler Cuma (2008, 23^rd overall) and center Colton Gillies (2007, 16^th overall).  Fans can visit www.wild.com for tournament updates from assistant general manager/player personnel Tom Thompson.

With a year of experience learning the plays and offensive terminology, Vikings running back Adrian Peterson, second in the NFL in rushing yards as a rookie, might be even better.  Certainly he will be able to play with even more instinct because of his first year experience.

Vikings fullback Thomas Tapeh, who has played four previous years in the NFL, talked about the difference between first and second seasons.  “When you first come in it’s like you’re hearing Chinese,” he said.  “But after you’ve heard Chinese for awhile, okay, this means go there.  Blue means I gotta go right.  Red I go left. …”

It’s not that Peterson, last year’s NFL rookie of the year, can’t increase his knowledge base in year two.  Tapeh has been willing to help.

“He’s eager to learn,” Tapeh said.  “He’s got the whole book thrown at him.  He’s taking his time.  When I am out there I communicate with him.  I just remind him, ‘You got this over here.’   ‘Okay, okay.’  Because he’s got a lot of things going through his head.   He’s doing a great job.  He’s holding everything in.  He’s being a professional.”

Peterson ran for 1,341 yards last year.  He missed two games last season because of a knee injury and that probably cost him the NFL rushing title.   LaDainian Tomlinson led the league with 1,474 yards.

Peterson is a popular choice as no worse than the NFL’s second best running back after Tomlinson.  Sports Illustrated gave him the No. 2 spot in its Fantasy Football rankings of running backs.  The Sporting News lists him as the No. 9 best player in the league and sort of apologizes for not having him higher.  The publication also published a recent story headlined: “ ‘He’s a Freakin’ Beast.’ ”

Tapeh recognizes that Peterson, at 23, is right there with the best in pro football.  “You put on film, you see the man is gifted,” Tapeh said.  “The man do things that you just can’t coach or teach. …”

Tapeh only had five rushing attempts last season for Philadelphia.  His ball carrying will be minimal here, too.  His job is to block for the running backs, starting with Peterson.

Fun guy to block for?  “Oh, yeah,” Tapeh answered.  “It’s a different guy to block for.  I don’t do too much. Put a body on (defenders) and (he) do the rest.”

Twins starting pitchers Glen Perkins and Scott Baker expressed extraordinary praise for pitching coach Rick Anderson during interviews with Sports Headliners earlier this month.  No aspect of the Twins’ performance this season has been as surprising as the team’s starting pitching.

Forced through trades, free agency and ineffectiveness to rebuild from last year’s staff, the Twins have used a starting group most of the season consisting of Scott Baker, 26, Nick Blackburn, 26, Kevin Slowey, 24, and Glen Perkins, 23, who collectively had won 21 total games prior to 2008 (17 by Baker).  Early on and now again in August Francisco Liriano, 24, has been part of the rotation, too.  Collectively this group of five has won 42 of the team’s 75 victories that have the Twins in second place in the Central Division and chasing a playoff position.

Perkins was asked how much credit Anderson deserves for the success of the pitching staff, particularly the young starters who have been winning games all season.  “He deserves as much as you can give him, other than us going out there and doing it,” he answered.  “I think he’s the one that if we have a good outing, he doesn’t let us get too excited about it.  And if we have a bad outing, he’s not going to let us get too far down about it.  He always tries to find the positives out of outings. …”

Perkins was asked if there is a better pitching coach?  “Absolutely not. …The things he does, you look forward to throwing bullpen (practice) because you want to talk to him and you want to learn more from him.  I can’t even imagine anyone even being able to do what he does with our guys.”

Baker said Anderson “doesn’t get a lot of the credit he deserves” and he, too, admires his coach’s approach with the pitchers.  “He’s unbelievable,” Baker said. “He really, truly is.  He knows how to handle the young guys very, very well.  He knows when to say something, and when to kind of let us work through things on our own.  He’s very good at what he does. …”

Perkins described Anderson as having an “innate ability” to see what a pitcher needs to correct.  “If your pitches aren’t acting how they’re supposed to, he’s got an ability to see that and pick out what you may need to do. …”

Baker said sometimes a pitcher’s problems are mechanical and other times they’re not.  Anderson knows how to approach either situation.  Anderson will watch a pitcher and sometimes won’t even say anything, and that can be what’s needed, Baker said.