P.J. FLECK – Page 52 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

ESPN GameDay Odds Heavy for Gophers

Posted on October 12, 2020October 12, 2020 by David Shama

Next Sunday ESPN could announce its prestigious college football GameDay show will originate in Minneapolis on Saturday, October 24 for the Minnesota-Michigan game at TCF Bank Stadium. Sources report the game is under consideration by ESPN.

The odds of Minnesota hosting the show went up when ESPN announced yesterday its crew will be in Tuscaloosa for the Alabama-Georgia game this Saturday. The Alabama game at Tennessee October 24 looks like less competition for the Gophers now that the Volunteers lost to Georgia last weekend—and ESPN will not feature Alabama two weeks in succession.

October 23-24 is the opening weekend for Big Ten football and the conference’s prestige and large TV following will weigh positively on the ESPN decision. The Nebraska-Ohio State game in Columbus October 24 is no longer a rival for the Gophers hosting ESPN because Fox announced its kickoff show will be at Ohio Stadium that day.

A long-shot under consideration for October 24 could be the Cincinnati-SMU game in Dallas. In the latest AP national poll the Bearcats are ranked No. 8 and the Mustangs No. 17. But Minnesota and Michigan are also ranked, with the Gophers at No. 24 and Wolverines at No. 19, and an important American Athletic Conference game doesn’t have the same glitter as a Big Ten offering. On the Big Ten’s opening weekend, this is the conference’s only matchup of top 25 teams.

That’s a compelling factor and so, too, is the historic rivalry between the two programs. Michigan and Minnesota have been playing for possession of the Little Brown Jug since 1909. Considered the most famous of college football rivalry trophies, the Little Brown Jug is a made-for-TV optic with a fascinating storyline. The Gophers haven’t taken possession of the Jug in Minneapolis since 1977, adding extra meaning to the October 24 game.

Right now it looks like the Minnesota-Michigan matchup could be the biggest of the day not only in the Big Ten but across the country. This morning came the announcement the game will land on national TV with ABC offering a prime time 6:30 p.m. kickoff. The game has major ratings appeal starting with the Minneapolis-St. Paul and Detroit TV markets that are among the largest in the country. Expect big ratings numbers in Minnesota and Michigan, and the game will pull solid ratings throughout the nation—particularly in the Midwest.

The three-hour GameDay show, that dates back to 1993, has both the time and interest to take multiple angles on stories. It seems likely that if show producers come here they will report on how the Gophers have confronted the social justice issue since the tragic death of George Floyd. Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck has been outspoken about the need to listen, understand and discuss things since Floyd’s death earlier this year.

GameDay came to Minneapolis for the first time ever in 2019 for the Minnesota-Wisconsin game. Fleck coveted the opportunity to host the show and by all accounts it was a successful partnership between ESPN and the University of Minnesota. Not only does hosting the show add to fan interest in the state, but it also is a valued recruiting tool for Minnesota’s national recruiting.

Worth Noting

In some scheduling alterations, the Big Ten announced today the Gophers will play three Friday games—October 30 at Maryland, and host Iowa and Purdue November 13 and 20 respectively. Those games had been scheduled for Saturdays.

Minnesota Vikings coach Mike Zimmer meets with the media via Zoom at 4:30 p.m. today. The last time the Vikings started a season 1-4 was in 2011 under Leslie Frazier and they went on to a 3-13 finish.

Minnesota native and former Olympic middle distance runner Carrie Tollefson is the latest guest on “Behind the Game,” with co-hosts Patrick Klinger and Bill Robertson. Growing up in small town Dawson, she became one of the state’s great success stories among female athletes. The show is available for viewing on YouTube and on Twin Cities cable TV channels.

If preps Kenny Pohto and Treyton Thompson keep their verbal commitments to join the 2021 Gophers freshman class it looks like they will be part of a roster with six players 6-foot-9 or taller a year from now. Pohto, from Sweden by way of Sunrise Christian Academy in Kansas, and Thompson, a native of Alexandria, Minnesota could join present bigs Sam Freeman, Isaiah Ihnen, Martice Mitchell and Liam Robbins.

That kind of height and wing span presents multiple potential advantages for the coaching staff including use of zone defenses where Minnesota bigs would be difficult to shoot over and could clog passing lanes.

As for the coming 2020-2021 season, coach Richard Pitino’s team won’t find much love from media prognosticators who see Minnesota finishing far down in the Big Ten standings. Frustrating for Gophers fans, too, is that border rivals Iowa and Wisconsin are projected at the top of the league and receiving high national rankings.

Wisconsin, as usual carrying a roster with Minnesota natives, has an All-American favorite in forward Nate Reuvers from Lakeville North.

The Lakers have now won 17 world championships, including five in Minneapolis, and are tied with the Boston Celtics for most ever. The Minneapolis Lakers won championships in 1949, 1950, 1952, 1953 and 1955 before moving to Los Angeles for the 1960-61 season.

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U Regent Hsu Voting No on Sports Cuts

Posted on October 7, 2020October 7, 2020 by David Shama

Regent Michael Hsu told Sports Headliners he will vote no on the University of Minnesota proposal to cut four men’s sports at the Board of Regents meeting Friday. The Star Tribune reported last week the U Athletic Department is also seeking approval for reducing 41 roster spots on Gopher women’s teams as part of its cost savings plan for the next school year. Hsu is opposed to that initiative as well.

“I am opposed to the (total) proposal because I think it’s the wrong proposal at the wrong time,” Hsu said. “I think it’s premature. I think the fact we’re playing football, we don’t really know what our financial picture is like. If it (the proposal) includes reducing women, it’s not something we should be doing until the office of civil rights comes knocking on our door and tells us we need to cut men and women from our programs.”

Athletic director Mark Coyle came to the regents at their last meeting proposing the elimination of men’s golf, tennis, and indoor and outdoor track. The department is in a financial crisis because of the pandemic’s impact on the revenue producing sports, led by football, that support 25 men’s and women’s programs. At the time of the September meeting the Gophers and other members of the Big Ten Conference had no plans to play a football schedule, but that has since changed with Minnesota and other league teams beginning eight-game schedules later this month. The resumption of football guarantees TV revenues that presumably were not available if there was no season.

At the last regents meeting Coyle described the proposal to cut sports as painful but was definitive in the need to do so and offered no alternative. Since then campus protest has surfaced (anticipate one today) and alumni of the impacted sports have spoken out including those who will raise money for continuation of the programs.

“We should give them (community organizers) a chance to try and figure this out,” Hsu said. “We should work with them, but right now it’s not happening. It’s basically, ‘Hey, this is what we’re going to do, and you don’t have a chance, and you’re never going to raise enough money so we’re not going to give you time.’

“I mean you heard what Coyle said. I just think that’s a bad way to handle it. I think the community should have a chance, 30 days is not enough. It’s not like these sports just started in 2001.”

Hsu believes the vote at Friday’s meeting could be close. “I’ve heard from some (regents) that they agree with me,” he said.

Seven affirmative votes among 12 are needed to pass the proposal. A 6-6 vote will defeat it.

Those interested in following the Thursday-Friday regents meeting can do so via live streaming and later on video.

Worth Noting

Mike Boone of the Vikings is NFC Special Teams Player of the Week for forcing a timely first quarter fumble against Houston Texans punt returner DeAndre Carter last Sunday that changed momentum of the game, and Minnesota went on to earn its first win of the season.

As the Gophers football team goes through its protocols in managing safety with COVID-19, it could learn from the Vikings who have managed to keep their players healthy. Fox reported during Sunday’s Vikings game that the team used 10 buses in Houston to distance players in transporting them from the hotel to stadium.

247Sports released its latest bowl projections this week including the Gophers in the January 2 Gator Bowl in Jacksonville against Mississippi State. If so, that’s a rematch with the “Pirate.” Bulldogs coach Mike Leach lost in an upset to Minnesota and coach Tracy Claeys in the 2016 Holiday Bowl in San Diego when he was leading the Washington State program.

Whew! It’s believed former LSU coach Les Miles wanted the Gophers job before Minnesota hired P.J. Fleck in 2017. Miles is in his second season now at Kansas and the Jayhawks might be the worst Power Five program there is.

Former Gophers head coach Tim Brewster now coaches tight ends at Florida where his starter, Kyle Pitts, has six touchdown receptions in two games and looks like the favorite to win the John Mackey Award honoring the nation’s best collegian at that position. Pitts is also an early Heisman Trophy favorite, recognizing college football’s best player.

Minnesota Wild scouting authority Judd Brackett talking about center Marco Rossi who the team selected ninth overall in last night’s NHL Draft: “Marco is a two-way center with incredible vision, skill and compete level. We are very excited to add his playmaking ability to our organization.”

Still unknown is when WCCO Radio’s “Sports Huddle” program, off the air for most of this year because of the pandemic, will return. The show has been a Sunday morning listening favorite since 1979.

“Sports Huddle” co-host Dave Mona is finishing up the 49^th book he has read this year. At the top of his list is Erik Larson’s new book on Winston Churchill.

Although it’s a late start, a lot of communities across the state are celebrating the return of prep football this month. The Minnesota Football Coaches Association points out the first high school game in the state occurred in 1891 between Minneapolis Central and Duluth.

The CORES group that normally starts its guest speakers programs in September has postponed meetings indefinitely because of COVID-19. CORES is an acronym for coaches, officials, reporters, educators and sports fans.

The pandemic has prompted the Bolder Options nonprofit, headed by former Gopher Darrell Thompson, to plan its annual celebration and fundraiser online with an October 28 date from 7 to 7:30 p.m.

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U Loses WR, More Opt Outs Possible

Posted on October 5, 2020October 5, 2020 by David Shama

Welcome to a Monday notes column on the Gophers, Vikings, Twins and Wild:

Golden Gophers redshirt junior wide receiver Demetrius Douglas announced this afternoon on Twitter he is leaving the team. The tweet said little about future plans, but he expects to graduate from the University of Minnesota in December with a degree in Communications Studies, and he expressed admiration for the Gopher program.

Douglas, expected to play major minutes this fall for the Gophers, caught 14 passes for 157 yards last season and also returned kickoffs and punts. His absence would have been a bigger loss if All-American wide receiver Rashod Bateman hadn’t decided recently to rejoin the team.

Because of the uncertainty caused by the pandemic, players at major college programs have been opting out and back in. The Gophers play Michigan in less than weeks for their season opener and the Minnesota roster remains unsettled.

“There will be a time that I tell you who is in, who is out,” Fleck said today during a media press conference. “That’s why the updated roster, I haven’t given that yet. I am still waiting on a few more…of a decision they make. I don’t want to give you names and all of a sudden they opt in tomorrow, but I told you they opted out today, or opted out yesterday, and opted back in. I don’t want that pressure on those student-athletes. …. I want them to do it for all the right reasons, and the reasons that they have with their families.”

Fleck talking about junior linebacker Mariano Sori-Marin, who is expected to play a big role for a defense that will be featuring a number of new starters including him:

“He is one of the most intelligent, if not the most intelligent player we have on our football team.”

It wouldn’t be surprising if news comes this week that Vikings defensive end Danielle Hunter, who has been inactive through the first four games, will have surgery on the disc herniation in his neck. Apparently rest and presumably meds and physical therapy aren’t allowing Hunter, who missed much of preseason camp, to play again.

Former NFL quarterback great Peyton Manning had multiple surgeries on his neck for a herniated disc and missed an entire season before resuming his career.

The Vikings’ vulnerable cornerbacks face an extraordinary quarterback challenge Sunday night in Seattle. Russell Wilson of the Seahawks has 16 touchdown passes through the first four games of the season. That ties him with Manning (16 touchdown passes in 2013) for the most by a player in his team’s first four games of an NFL season.

Seattle is 4-0 for the first time since 2013. That Seahawks went on to win Super Bowl XLVIII.

With Midwest pandemic numbers remaining a high concern, don’t expect any change on the policy not allowing fans to attend the next Vikings home game, October 18 against the Falcons. The organization remains hopeful of hosting a limited number of fans later in the season.

Credentialed news media are covering Vikings games at U.S. Bank Stadium’s press box. Dave Mona, with over 40 years in the role, is back as the press box voice providing information to reporters.

That was former Gopher Jack Brewer seen in a commercial for president Donald Trump during Sunday’s Vikings-Houston Texans game.

North Dakota State stars and Minnesota natives Trey Lance (Marshall) and Dillon Radunz (Becker) are expected to be early round NFL Draft choices next year. Lance, an underclassman but eligible for the draft, is a top quarterback prospect and likely first rounder. Radunz, an offensive tackle, projects as an early rounds prospect.

Athlonsports.com points out the Bison, with six draftees since 2014, have the most players among FCS programs chosen in the NFL Draft. In a story Sunday, the website reports there are 11 ex-Bison players on NFL rosters and practice squads.

What grade do you give the 2020 Minnesota Twins? Mine? C.

That evaluation includes the 60-game regular season and the Wild Card series. The Twins were preseason favorites to win the AL Central Division and did so. Without that achievement, the C grade would be lower because the Twins were a complete flop in losing their best of three series to the Houston Astros.

F is the grade Minnesota deserves for losing consecutive games to the Astros, managing a total of seven hits and two runs. The Twins extended their postseason consecutive loss streak to 18 dating back to 2004. Asked about a then 16-game streak before the series started, manager Rocco Baldelli suggested his players might not be aware of the historic futility. Maybe all of them should have been informed of the embarrassment—and they might have played better.

What to do now? Sign to another contract 40-year-old DH Nelson Cruz, who drove in both runs in the Wild Card series and during the season was an AL MVP candidate. After seeing his club stumble in playoff losses last season and this, Cruz might decide he wants to go where he has more support.

The Bomba-hyped Twins need a couple of veteran position players who cannot only be leaders but guys who put the ball in play and get on base instead of focusing on launch angles. It will also be interesting to see what the organization’s evaluation is of the overall hitting philosophy, and support of Rudy Hernandez following his first season as hitting coach.

Third baseman Josh Donaldson and management have to figure out if there are ways to keep him healthier. Signed in the offseason to a free agent $92 million deal, he was a bust after being hurt much of the year and unavailable for the playoffs. On the to-do list also is find a talented starting pitcher talent to replace Jake Odorizzi if he doesn’t re-sign—and settle on a quality closer, maybe Tyler Duffey in the ninth innings. Taylor Rogers and Sergio Romo were too undependable.

In the messaging department, suggest Twins’ bosses deliver this offseason memo: Every job is open. No guarantees.

The Minnesota Wild today announced it has acquired a third-round selection in the 2021 NHL Entry Draft from the San Jose Sharks in exchange for forward Ryan Donato. Minnesota owns six picks in the draft, including the ninth overall selection. The draft will be held virtually on Tuesday and Wednesday, with the first round beginning at 6 p.m. tomorrow.

The club has re-signed forward Nico Sturm to a two-year, $1.45 million contract. The 25-year-old was a rookie last year and he had two assists in six regular season games. Also re-signed is defenseman Carson Soucy to a three-year, $8.25 million contract that goes through the 2022-23 season. He scored 14 points for the Wild last season.

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