P.J. FLECK – Page 34 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Even in Winter Iowa a Gopher Target

Posted on February 22, 2022 by David Shama

The game won’t be played until late November, about nine months from now. Yet even in the dead of winter the importance of it casts a shadow over the 2022 University of Minnesota football schedule.

P.J. Fleck will be in his sixth season as Golden Gophers head coach next fall. Fleck’s overall record at Minnesota is 35-23 and he is 23-10 the last three seasons (16-9 in Big Ten games). His overall winning percentage of .603 is third best among Gopher coaches who coached in 45 games or more. The Gophers are 3-0 in bowl games under Fleck and have won two of the last three against that rival school to the east.

But no Big Ten West Division championships yet.

What will it take for Minnesota to win the West and advance to the Big Ten championship game against the East Division champ?

“Get over the Kirk Ferentz hump.”

Those words come from Gopher Illustrated and 247Sports authority Ryan Burns who tracks U football year round. He told Sports Headliners that in talent Minnesota has pulled even with coach Ferentz’s Iowa Hawkeyes and the Wisconsin Badgers. But Iowa is 5-0 against Fleck and the 2021 West Division champion Hawkeyes stand in the way of a Minnesota breakthrough.

The Hawkeyes will be in town Saturday, November 19. Right now the offseason expectations are high for both Iowa and Minnesota. Count the two programs among early favorites to win the West. If that holds, the late season game in Minneapolis will have national focus and plenty of hype. And even if it doesn’t, Minnesota players and coaches will be hot to face the Hawks.

“To get Iowa at home on Senior Day, I can assure you there is no other game—outside of maybe Wisconsin—that these guys want to win (so much) because they’re sick and tired of losing to Kirk Ferentz,” Burns said.

The last time Minnesota defeated Iowa was in 2014. Ferentz is 17-6 all-time against the Gophers. His tenure as Iowa head coach dates back to 1999. His teams are almost always competitive and frequently among the elite in the Big Ten. The Ferentz way is to run a developmental program built around a firewall defense that some years is among the best in the country. The offense, though, often looks like an after thought, tasked as much with not losing games as scoring points.

Burns expects another lights-out defense in Iowa City in 2022. “…”But that offense is still dreadful,” he said. “If Minnesota can find a way to put up 20 points at home against Iowa this year I think they should be in pretty good shape. To me if you want to win the West, you have to finally get over that Iowa hurdle, especially when you get them at home and especially when it’s going to be on Senior Day.”

Gophers Newcomer Notes

The Gophers are rebuilding the offensive and defensive lines, with most starters not returning in 2022. Candidates to fill in are veteran reserves from 2021 along with transfers Quinn Carroll and Chuck Filiaga on offense, and Darnell Jefferies, Chris Smith and Lorenza Surgers on defense.

Fleck and his staff worked the transfer portal aggressively in past months, also adding cornerbacks Shannon Bishop and Ryan Stapp. Minnesota’s transfer class ranks No. 4 in the Big Ten, according to a February 247Sports story by Brandon Marcello.

Carroll, the former Notre Dame and Edina lineman, could play at tackle if his footwork is reliable. If not? “You just slide him into guard,” Burns said.

Filiaga projects as a guard at Minnesota and started four games last year for Big Ten champion Michigan. He was a 247Sports four-star prospect coming out of high school in Texas.

Jefferies, who turns 23 in July, saw his total snaps go down each of the last three seasons at Clemson. He is expected to at least provide depth at defensive tackle.

Smith, who made All-Ivy League at Harvard while studying human evolutionary biology, might make a big impression at that position for Minnesota. Burns predicts the impact could be similar to what the Gophers received from 2021 Clemson transfer Nyles Pinckney.

Burns said Surgers, a defensive end transfer from Vanderbilt, has impressed in winter conditioning. Getting noticed, too, are Bishop and Sapp, who both were all-conference corners at Western Kentucky and Abilene Christian.

Although potential All-Big Ten cornerback Justin Walley returns, the Gophers lose two corners in Coney Durr and Justus Harris who played significant snaps in the past. Veteran safeties Jordan Howden and Tyler Nubin are back after impressing with their improvement in 2021. Burns believes they could be the best safety duo in the West Division. He also thinks the mix of returnees, including corner Terel Smith and promising transfers, makes the secondary the strength of the defense.

After spring practice ends in April the coaches might look for more transfers. That could be prompted by two developments. First, some players on the current roster, after they see their ranking on the depth charts, may choose to enter the transfer portal.

The other “wild card” is Minnesota’s running back roster. Veterans Mo Ibrahim, Trey Potts and Bryce Williams are coming off significant injuries last season. The team’s leading rusher, Ky Thomas, transferred to Kansas.

“I wouldn’t be surprised to see them take a transfer running back after the spring because I think we’re going to learn a lot more about how the injuries are going in that room,“ Burns said.

A development to watch, too, is whether true freshman Zach Evans is part of the running back rotation next fall. Burns expects Evans and Alexandria’s Kristen Hoskins to be at the front among freshmen who could see significant playing time in 2022.

Hoskins, a potential electrifying 5-9, 160-pound wide receiver, might not be targeted for passes next September but he may emerge as a regular punt or kickoff returner. Burns said Hoskins could well be the fastest of the wide receivers.

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Rams’ Way a Potential Path for Vikings

Posted on February 8, 2022 by David Shama

The Rams play in the Super Bowl Sunday and are 55-26 during the last five seasons. Their front office uses an approach that could help the Vikings build their roster and elevate out of the mediocrity of recent seasons.

The Rams haven’t drafted in the first round since 2016. Their next first rounder, as of now, is scheduled for 2024. Put the word scheduled in bold face if you like because with the Rams things happen with personnel acquisition—before the season, during training camp and even close to Super Bowl time.

This is an aggressive front office with a philosophy that believes it’s better to acquire proven impact players (like quarterback Matthew Stafford, wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. and linebacker Von Miller) than gamble on first round prospects. The roster has been constructed with key personnel who came via trades, free agency and draft picks beyond round one.

By not drafting in the first round, the Rams avoid the big salaries such players command. The savings is used to pay a bevy of stars on the roster that includes those mentioned above and others like defensive tackle Aaron Donald, cornerback Jalen Ramsey and offensive tackle Andrew Whitworth.

Superior scouting can pay off big with draft choices beyond the first and second rounds. The Rams’ poster boy for that is wide receiver Cooper Kupp, an NFL MVP candidate selected on the third round out of Eastern Washington.

Don’t get the idea the Rams trade away most of their draft choices in their wheeling and dealing. They often receive draft picks in return, and they also are awarded compensatory picks from the NFL for letting their free agents walk away. Part of the Rams’ successful roster construction approach is stockpiling draft choices.

Rams GM Les Snead isn’t afraid to make mistakes in the draft, or with free agents or via trades. Sometimes he and his front office colleagues are working on deadlines in crisis situations—drawing some similarity to the pressures of Wall Street where new Vikings GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah worked before building a career in the NFL.

It will be interesting to see if he uses a versatile and comprehensive approach like the Rams in the days ahead. Rick Spielman, his predecessor, was aggressive in stockpiling draft choices, too. He was spot on with some draft selections after the first round, taking Dalvin Cook and Brain O’Neill in the second round, Danielle Hunter in the third and Stefon Diggs and Ezra Cleveland in the fifth. But the Vikings haven’t done much over the years with mega free agent signings or trades. It’s been a long time since a Brett Favre or Jared Allen walked through the front door of the practice facility.

Worth Noting

Coach Jim Dutcher expects most of his players from the 1982 Golden Gophers’ Big Ten title team to participate in their 40-year celebration February 22, 23 and 24. It looks like 10 of the 12 will get together, including all the starters except for guard Tommy Davis who likely will be in France.

That starting group had just one native Minnesotan, center Randy Breuer. When Dutcher coached in the 1970s and 1980s at Minnesota, there were years when the state high school programs didn’t have a single Division I prospect. That’s in sharp contrast to the new millennium with the state now having a national reputation for producing quality D-I talent—sometimes the best in the country in Chet Holmgren, Jalen Suggs and Tyus Jones. “It’s worlds different,” Dutcher told Sports Headliners.

The 1982 group has been invited by Gopher head coach Ben Johnson to watch practice February 22 and then have dinner with the team. At halftime of the February 23 game against Wisconsin, Dutcher and his players will be honored. The next day the coach will host brunch at an Edina restaurant.

Johnson has faced the most difficult rebuild in memory at Minnesota. The first-year coach started the schedule with one returning player from last season and a roster of newcomers put together in hurry up fashion last spring. The Gophers, 11-9 overall and 2-9 in the Big Ten, have impressed with their competitiveness after going into the fall with the lowest of media and fan expectations. “He’s done an amazingly good job for his first year,” said Dutcher whose 1982 team was the last at Minnesota to win the league title.

Dutcher, 88, will attend granddaughter Liza’s wedding in San Diego next October. Father Brian Dutcher is head men’s basketball coach at San Diego State where assistant coach Mark Fisher coaches from a wheel chair after being diagnosed with ALS in 2013.

Bill Fitch only coached two seasons at the University of Minnesota, 1968-69 and 1969-70. He bolted for an NBA career that began with the expansion Cavaliers. If he had remained at Minnesota, he could have made the Golden Gophers Big Ten champs and a force on the national scene.

The Hall of Fame coach died earlier this month and I mourn his loss. I covered him during his Gophers days and we talked a few times by phone in recent years. Bill had a sharp tongue for his players and a quick wit for the media.

The Gophers had a shoot-first guard named Ollie Shannon who Fitch inherited after taking over the program. Ollie thought his shooting range was pretty much anywhere on the court. After a game in which Shannon almost cast a shot from mid-court the sarcastic coach told the media, “There goes Ollie running one of our options (from the playbook).”

Lou Nanne will provide TV analysis for the 58th year at the state hockey tournament next month. He is also doing four TV games this season for the Wild.

Nanne was captain of the 1968 US Olympic hockey team. Do the Americans have a chance of winning a medal this winter? “I definitely think they have,” he said.

Gopher athletic director Mark Coyle’s expected contract extension through 2028 is welcome news for fans “rowing the boat” because it helps assure a tight relationship with head football coach P.J. Fleck.

Surging Tom Hoge from Fargo, who finished second last month at the American Express in La Quinta and won Sunday’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, will be a headliner at this summer’s 3M Open in Blaine. “We fully expect him to play the 3M,” said Hollis Cavner who runs the Minnesota PGA Tour event.

Celebrity players at the AT&T included Bill Murray, the comedian, star of Caddyshack and St. Paul Saints investor. The showman wowed the crowd with a no-look putt.

Senior PGA rules official Mark Dusbabek, the former Gopher football player from Faribault, worked the tournament.

The Tapemark Minnesota PGA Pro-Am is set for June 10-12 at Southview Country Club. The event was successfully run for decades by the Klas family and this year will be the 51st annual.

With the ongoing pandemic, CORES program organizers are uncertain about a March gathering in Bloomington. CORES is an acronym for coaches, officials, reporters, educators and sports fans.

The dual meet between top-ranked Penn State and No. 2 Iowa last month averaged 363,000 viewers, making it the most-watched wrestling broadcast in Big Ten Network history. The previous record was 343,000 viewers, also set by the two wrestling powerhouses in January of 2020.

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‘Way too Early’ Script on Fleck’s Gophers

Posted on January 28, 2022January 28, 2022 by David Shama

It’s become popular for internet media sites to issue “way too early” top 25 college football rankings in January. Read later in this space whether Minnesota is drawing national attention, but right now Sports Headliners offers much more detail about the Golden Gophers than a ranking.

Here then is a “crystal skull” script on how Minnesota will do in 2022. The schedule is not daunting. Talent and experience are in place. The coaching staff, led by P.J. Fleck, Joe Rossi and Kirk Ciarrocca, is impressive. The outlook is upbeat with the prediction that Minnesota can reach 10 wins with a bowl game victory. This is how the season could go:

The season opener with New Mexico State will draw more interest because of the two head coaches than the players on the field. The Aggies’ Jerry Kill isn’t a Fleck admirer. In a 2019 satellite radio interview Kill criticized Fleck’s ego and suggested the Minnesota coach is more about himself than the players. This fall Kill will be back on the sidelines as a head coach for the first time since he was Minnesota’s head man in 2015.

The game is a “damned if you do and a damned if you don’t” matchup for Fleck and the Gophers against a New Mexico State team that figures to be about a three touchdown underdog. Minnesota, coming off a 9-4 season, is seen nationally as a program on the rise. The Aggies were 2-10 last season and traditionally rank among the 10 worst major college teams. Embarrassments in 2021 included 59-3 and 56-16 losses to Alabama and Kentucky.

If the Gophers win big, observers will yawn. If the game is close, a Minnesota victory will have the critics talking about how Fleck was out coached. A New Mexico State win? Start negotiating with Kill about returning to Dinkytown.

The Gophers begin the season with three home nonconference games: the Aggies, Western Illinois and Colorado. That should result in a 3-0 start but this comes with a warning label.

Fleck’s teams are often sluggish early in the season. The coaches appear to take a conservative approach with the offensive playbook. In 2021 the implausible happened when the 31 points favored Gophers, playing at home, lost to Bowling Green. But in non-erasable ink let’s put the Gophers down for a 3-0 start to the 2022 season and knocking on the door of a top 25 national ranking.

The original schedule for this year had the Gophers opening the season with five consecutive home games including Big Ten matchups against Iowa and Purdue. But earlier this month the Big Ten football office modified the league schedules and the Gophers will now play Iowa at home November 19. The prior September 24 date with Iowa now has Minnesota at Michigan State.

It looks like Sparty goes into the season as a top 15 team nationally coming off last year’s impressive 11-2 finish. Home field will be the difference as the Gophers lose in East Lansing after the unbeaten non-conference start.

The next week the Purdue Boilermakers spoil Minnesota’s homecoming, with their first win over the Gophers since 2017. Dinkytown is in a panic!

Coach Ciarrocca, quarterback Tanner Morgan and the rest of the offense are imitating the struggles of 2021 instead of doing a 2019 encore. The defense is leaky after having to replace top play-makers like Boye Mafe and Jack Gibbens.

The media jackals are howling. Gopher loyalists are feeling sorry for themselves after a 0-2 Big Ten start. But during a bye week, coaches make adjustments and players vow to flip the script.

Look out because here come the Gophers who this year must play five conference road games, with four at home. Morgan brings back memories of 2019, with slant passes and long throws to wide receivers Chris Autman-Bell and emerging star Dylan Wright who in 2022 becomes a more disciplined route runner.

The running game remains dominant as it has been in Fleck’s previous five seasons at Minnesota. Mo Ibrahim, a 2020 All-American, could be among the Big Ten’s most productive tailbacks, but the Gophers will ease his workload with significant carries from Bucky Irving whose breakaway style complements Ibrahim’s power.

The offensive line with four new starters doesn’t hit its stride until mid-season but is anchored from the start by center John Michael Schmitz. He will be a top candidate for the Dave Rimington Trophy, last won by a Gopher in 2005 when Greg Eslinger was honored as the nation’s best center.

The defensive line, like its offensive counterpart, is likely to have early issues as it fills in with new players including at least three transfers from other programs. It will be interesting to see if leading play makers include highly hyped freshman defensive end Anthony Smith from Shippensburg, Pennsylvania.

The secondary, led by potential all Big-10 cornerback Justin Walley and veteran safeties Jordan Howden and Tyler Nubin, could be among the best in school history. Linebacker Mariano Sori-Marin, considered a coach on the field, is back to lead and inspire the defense.

Coach Rossi has earned the guru label from his players. His success dates back to his appointment as defensive coordinator in November of 2018 following an embarrassing 55-31 loss to Illinois. Since then the Gophers’ record is 26-11.

The defense will have help in dictating field position from punter Mark Crawford. The Aussie is skilled in dropping punts inside the 20 yard line of opponents.

Starting with an October 15 victory over Illinois, Crawford and his mates run off six consecutive league wins. Worthy of a state fair blue ribbon is the return of Floyd of Rosedale to Minneapolis. Before a raucous crowd at Huntington Bank Stadium, veteran kicker Matthew Trickett boots a last minute field goal to give Minnesota the bronze pig and its first win over the hated Iowa Hawkeyes since 2014.

The next week in Madison the Badgers stop the Minnesota win parade. Respect Badgers head coach Paul Chryst. Fear defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard who finds a way to control Ciarrocca and the Minnesota offense. Pray Leonhard doesn’t eventually become the big boss in Madison.

The Gophers finish the regular season at 9-3. For part of the year Minnesota is a top 25 team, maybe cracking the top 15 list in the polls. The Gophers could finish in that company, too, with an impressive bowl game victory.

That’s certainly higher than “the way to early” rankings in January from ESPN, CBS, Sporting News and Yahoo, who all leave Minnesota out of their top 25 teams. Stewart Mandel from The Athletic—and yours truly–believe the boys from Dinkytown deserve top 25 billing right now.

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