P.J. FLECK – Page 72 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Twins to Explore Free Agent Market

Posted on September 12, 2018September 12, 2018 by David Shama

Enjoy a Wednesday notes column on baseball, basketball, football, sports wagering and tennis.

Twins president Dave St. Peter said the club will look at the free agent market this offseason, but that won’t be the main path for improving a team that had Central Division title ambitions last spring but is 12 games under .500 with the schedule ending September 30.

St. Peter said in an interview with Sports Headliners this summer that the roster core in the future will be comprised of players with the club now and in the farm system. He expressed confidence in the personnel already under the franchise’s contractual control.

Although the results and impact weren’t significant from the club’s free agent shopping last winter, St. Peter termed the efforts “aggressive.” He also debunked speculation that for whatever reasons free agents aren’t interested in coming to the state and playing for the Twins.

“I don’t think there is anything that detracts free agents from wanting to come to Minnesota,” St. Peter said. “I think that’s a fallacy. I don’t think it’s accurate. We haven’t played significantly in that space (pursuing free agents) so there really isn’t a lot of track record.

“I can assure you this past offseason we spent a lot of time talking to some very prominent free agents and they were all very willing to come to Minnesota. Normally, it comes down to dollars. That’s ultimately the driver.”

A remarkable half century association with St. Thomas ends next spring when Tommies athletics director Steve Fritz retires. Fritz will end an affiliation of 52 consecutive years with the school that began with being a student-athlete in basketball. He has known various roles at St. Thomas including coaching the men’s basketball team to the 2011 Division III national championship.

St. Paul Saints owner Mike Veeck has his team in the finals of the American Association playoffs against the Kansas City T-Bones. This could be the Saints’ first league playoff championship since 2004. The Kansas City, Kansas based T-Bones were originally the Duluth-Superior Dukes.

Veeck told Sports Headliners yesterday morning he was evacuating his home in Charleston, South Carolina and was headed to Florida because of hurricane Florence.

Before Joe Mauer came to the plate last night with the bases loaded, the Target Field public address system played the theme song from the Rocky movie, “Gonna Fly Now.” Mauer responded with a 416-foot home run to center field and later came out of the dugout for a curtain call. After the sixth inning blast, the Twins went on to defeat the Yankees 10-5, ending an eight game losing streak to New York.

The Vikings’ Mike Zimmer after being asked if he ever feels like he has the wind at his back while coaching in the NFL. “No, I always got the wind in my face. …”

When Mark Coyle was the athletic director at Syracuse he was interested in P.J. Fleck. Coyle was looking for a new head football coach in the fall of 2015 and Fleck was among recommended potential candidates. Fleck was coaching at Western Michigan and Coyle told Sports Headliners that people he trusted suggested contacting the young head coach who was gaining national attention.

Coyle said the two had a brief conversation because Fleck let it be known that coaching in the Big Ten was his dream and he didn’t want to pursue the Syracuse opening that ultimately was filled by Dino Babers. Coyle described the talk as a “really good conversation” and appreciated Fleck’s honesty and career ambitions.

The Broncos’ record was 8-5 in 2015 and then 13-1 the next season. That near undefeated 2016 season certainly got Coyle’s attention and on January 6, 2017 the then 36-year-old Fleck was named Minnesota’s head coach.

If there was a negative about the Gophers’ quality win against Fresno State last Saturday night, it was the home attendance at TCF Bank Stadium. The announced attendance of 38,280 was the lowest for a nonconference game in stadium history. It was also the second smallest crowd since the stadium opened in 2009.

Minnesota had an announced crowd of 41,291 for its first game of the season. That was on a Thursday night instead of a Saturday evening like the Fresno State game. The weekend night figured to pull more customers and so, too, did the opponent because Fresno is much better than New Mexico State who the Gophers opened against on August 30.

The Gophers, 2-0 going into Saturday’s home game against Miami of Ohio, have a number of intriguing freshmen and sophomores. Because Blaise Andries plays in the interior offensive line, he is more difficult to observe than many of the other young players but the redshirt freshman guard from Marshall, Minnesoa has caught Fleck’s attention. The coach refers to the 6-5, 315 pound Andries as someone who is “going to be a really great player.”

Part of Andries’ skillset is his intelligence. Fleck said, “He’s going to be an actuary, right. Remember, I didn’t even know what an actuary even was, and he wants to be that.”

Fleck believes Andries could eventually be moved to tackle. That switch would partially be determined by where he is needed as Minnesota also has promising young offensive linemen like true freshmen Curtis Dunlap Jr. and Daniel Faalale.

Former Gophers football player Kim Royston was named athletics director at Southwest High School in Minneapolis earlier this summer. The city school system might be close to naming a replacement for ex-Gopher basketballer Trent Tucker who resigned last winter as AD for all the public high schools in Minneapolis.

Former Gopher football captain Jim Carter is grateful for all the get well wishes this week after being hospitalized and receiving two angiogram procedures. He suffered a heart attack last Saturday with one of his arteries being 90 percent blocked. Now recovering, he texted yesterday that the response from people “has been humbling and somewhat overwhelming!”

Vikings safety Harrison Smith was named NFC Defensive Player of the Week today. In Minnesota’s opening win against the 49ers Sunday he had eight tackles, one interception and one fumble recovery. Smith could become a finalist for NFL Defensive Player of the Year.

Gopher basketball coach Richard Pitino said on WCCO Radio’s “Sports Huddle” show Sunday he is still waiting word from the NCAA whether Pittsburgh transfer and guard Marcus Carr will be eligible this fall. Carr averaged 10 points and four assists as a freshman last season at Pittsburgh.

Playing tennis added an average of 9.7 years to a person’s life, according to a Danish study reported last week by the Dailymail.com.

Shelley Buck, tribal council president for the Prairie Island Indian Community that owns Treasure Island Resort & Casino, said on a recent segment of TV’s “Behind the Game” that legalized sports betting won’t be as profitable for operators as other forms of gambling already in place. She also said casinos like Treasure Island have the experience and infrastructure to handle sports betting if and when it is approved in Minnesota.

A pro football source predicted to Sports Headliners that the approval of legalized sports betting in Minnesota is only a couple of years off.

Comments Welcome

Ex-Captain Opens Up on U Football

Posted on September 7, 2018September 7, 2018 by David Shama

P.J. Fleck has more than a boatload of critics and doubters but the captain of the last Golden Gophers Big Ten championship football team believes Minnesotans should get behind the second-year coach, including filling up TCF Bank Stadium on game days.

Tom Sakal, captain of the 1967 Gophers, is retired now from a career as an insurance executive. Anyone who knew Sakal back in the 1960s isn’t surprised he climbed the corporate ladder. The former All-Big Ten defensive back from Aliquippa, Pennsylvania has long been a leader, and a person with the courage to say and do difficult things including military service in the jungles of Vietnam.

Between 1960 and 1968 the Gophers won one national championship, two Big Ten titles and split two Rose Bowls. During their best stretch, from 1960-1962, Minnesota’s record was 22-6-1. Sakal’s 1967 team tied for the Big Ten title and had an overall record of 8-2. That 1967 bunch, he will tell you, could play with any team in the country.

Minnesota’s title drought of more than 50 years has bugged the hell out of Sakal for a long time. More often than not, Minnesota hasn’t even been good enough to play better than .500 football during a Big Ten season. Since 1990, for example, the Gophers have just five years when they won more conference games than they lost. The Gophers have played in one New Year’s Day bowl game during their drought.

A year ago Sakal was in town for a 50-year reunion of his 1967 championship team. He was invited to breakfast with Fleck, who has been met with criticism and indifference by a lot of Gophers fans and media. Sakal told Fleck about his frustrations with U football for half a century. Sakal talked about how tired he was of losing games over the years, sometimes by large and embarrassing margins.

“I said this has been ridiculous over the years. It’s a disgrace,” Sakal told Sports Headliners in a telephone interview this week.

Sakal said he “pulled no punches” during the breakfast conversation with Fleck. “I said you need to recruit some big-time players. You need to get these facilities built up and continue to increase (them) on this campus.”

Fleck has two recruiting classes in as Gophers head coach after being named to his position in January of 2017. He and his staff had only a couple of weeks to work on the first recruiting class but since then things have become more interesting. The Gophers, in comparison with other major college programs, have drawn higher national rankings from recruiting experts than has historically been true at Minnesota. Another distinction from the past is Minnesota is bringing in more players that other major programs wanted, sometimes even convincing a recruit to say no to a blue-chip team like Georgia.

Sakal knows the importance of gifted talent from his own experiences in college football. He was part of a much publicized 1964 recruiting class at Minnesota that brought players in from football strongholds like Pennsylvania and as seniors they formed much of the 1967 title team’s core.

Now Sakal observes what Fleck is doing in recruiting and expresses some caution but also optimism. “Everything looks good on paper,” he said.

Sakal thinks about Fleck’s personality and sees a coach who can resonate with the teenagers he is trying to recruit. “The guy runs about 10,000 RPMs a second. He just has a different personality, a different approach to things. Enthusiastic. Boy, I haven’t seen anybody like him in a long time. Those are the things that I kind of like about the guy.”

Fleck is the first to acknowledge that not everyone likes him. His Row the Boat mantra and outspoken promotion about a new culture for the program has been too rah-rah for many in Gopher Nation. More to the point for many fans is that Minnesota won just two Big Ten games in Fleck’s first season after a 5-4 conference record in 2016. The overall record slipped from 9-4 to 5-7.

Fleck’s critics include friends Sakal made at the U while playing for the Gophers. Many were admirers of the Jerry Kill-Tracy Claeys era at Minnesota but are far from on board with Fleck. Those friends say Fleck hasn’t given credit to the foundation and good things from that Kill-Claeys era including the remarkable turn around in academics among players. Kill, known for his straight talk and folksy demeanor, was particularly popular with almost all Gophers fans and he had the program on the rise until health issues drove him out of coaching.

Sakal has watched the negative reaction of his longtime friends to Fleck and he is critical of them. “It started from day one. What the hell is wrong with you guys? He (hadn’t) even stepped on campus yet. You gotta give a guy a chance.”

Sakal receives second-guessing for being open-minded that Fleck can become successful at Minnesota. “I always get blasted. There’s only one thing I know about—winning and losing. All the other side rhetoric shows that go on, I could give a crap about. They were making a big deal out of this Row the Boat, Ski-U-Mah (stuff). …All I want is to look at the (news)paper and see Minnesota 9-1, 10-0, playing in a big bowl game, going for the national championship. I could care less about this stuff.”

Sakal isn’t guaranteeing the Gophers will become a consistent winner under Fleck but he argues everyone should give the 37-year-old coach time and support before making judgments. “I personally think it will take four to five years (to establish the program),” Sakal said. “And I think it needs a thousand percent support by all Minnesotans. There is no reason, no reason whatsoever, that we can’t have a full stadium regardless of what our record is. They need to support the Gophers. …I think we can be a power again.”

The Gophers have 113 players on their roster and 60 of them—or 53.1 percent—are true freshmen or redshirt freshmen. Those are the highest numbers in the country among major college football programs.

Those figures indicate a Gophers breakthrough isn’t coming this year. Sakal agrees with others, including local and national media, that Minnesota’s win total will be around five games. But a conversation with Sakal includes hints he believes the program is going in the right direction.

Some day, Sakal said, the U may have to make Fleck among the best paid coaches in the land. “I think the Gophers are going to find out they’re going to pay for his success in the end. He’s not going to come cheap, that’s for sure.”

If so, Sakal will consider the cost a long overdue debt that was finally paid off.

Comments Welcome

Vikings Kicker Carlson on Spot Thursday

Posted on August 28, 2018August 28, 2018 by David Shama

Enjoy a Tuesday notes column on the Vikings, Gophers and Twins.

No Viking will probably be more closely watched in the team’s Thursday night final preseason game than placekicker Daniel Carlson. The rookie fifth round draft choice missed two field goal attempts in last week’s win against the Seahawks and he prompted the displeasure of coach Mike Zimmer.

Zimmer was upset enough to call for a two-point conversion attempt after a touchdown rather than have Carlson kick the extra point. Carlson’s rough evening against the Seahawks came days after the Vikings released veteran Kai Forbath.

While Zimmer apparently is playing head games with his promising 23-year-old kicker, this might be a moment for a slice (no pun intended) of levity. If the Vikings want to consider options other than Carlson before their September 9 regular season opener against the 49ers, they need look no further than a couple of Purple alums.

Last time we checked, Forbath—the man who struggled to make extra points with Minnesota—was available on the NFL labor market. Blair Walsh, who missed the infamous playoff field goal attempt against the Seahawks in January of 2016, was replaced by Forbath later that year and is also now a free agent.

Retired kicker Ryan Longwell, the third leading scorer in Vikings history, just turned 44 years old this month. The Seahawks employ 40-year-old Sebastian Janikowski, and 45-year-old Adam Vinatieri is still kicking for the Colts. Why not a Longwell comeback even if the Packers, another of his former NFL teams, just inducted him into their Hall of Fame?

Okay, back to reality. Zimmer, burned by kicking failures in past seasons, will turn up the “heat” again on Carlson to determine whether he has a specialist with a long future in Minnesota. Perhaps as soon as Thursday night in Nashville against the Titans.

Kirk Cousins posted on Twitter last Saturday that trying to find parking at the State Fair was such a challenge he had to take a “rain check.” The Vikings quarterback wrote he is still hoping to try a “fried Twinkie.”

The Vikings’ new headquarters and practice facility in Eagan has opened this year with raves from not only the organization and media but also fans of Minnesota’s NFL team who attended training camp. Since the franchise’s inception in 1961, the organization has done business, including its training camps, in various places in the Twin Cities and state.

Minneapolis attorney Marshall Tanick, writing an August 7 article on Hometownsource.com, recalled the Vikings once looked at a site in Golden Valley before choosing Eden Prairie and developing Winter Park where the team made its football headquarters for more than three decades before moving to Eagan.

“In the late 1970s, the Vikings were looking for a new consolidated business operations and practice site,” Tanick wrote. “By then, it had outgrown its meager corporate facility on France Avenue in Edina and sought to build its own indoor field in order to shed its nomadic ways of practicing at different venues around the Twin Cities with no dedicated practice facility.

“The campus of what was then Golden Valley High School, immediately east of Highway 100 to the north of Glenwood Avenue, became available. The school district had closed due to declining enrollment, merging in 1981 with the Hopkins District. The Vikings closely eyed the facility for its business offices, along with its already existing adjacent football field, which could be converted easily into a covered site.”

The Vikings, though, couldn’t close a deal with Golden Valley authorities. Instead, they moved on to Eden Prairie and left behind their practice facility at Midway Stadium in St. Paul. As for the Golden Valley site, it became and still remains the home of Breck High School.

The New Mexico State team the Gophers open against at TCF Bank Stadium on Thursday night looked awful offensively in its August 25 game with Wyoming. The Aggies had one first down in the first half on their way to a 29-7 loss to Wyoming, a team with an outstanding defense.

Although the Aggies were coming off their first bowl game last season since 1960, there were lots of empty seats for their home game in Las Cruces. Yet some tickets were priced as low as $3 each.

The Minnesota Athletic Department has been selling tickets starting at $1 for Lindsay Whalen’s first game as Gopher women’s basketball coach on November 9 against New Hampshire.

Minnesota’s roster of four quarterbacks consists of one true freshman and three redshirt freshmen. The Gophers are the least experienced team in the country at quarterback.

Zack Annexstad wil start Thursday night, the first time the Gophers have begun the season with a true freshman quarterback since Tim Salem in 1980. Salem completed 13 of 16 passes and threw one touchdown pass in Minnesota’s 38-14 over Ohio.

It looks like Gophers special team headliners will include kickoff returner Rodney Smith, punt returner Antoine Winfield Jr., placekicker Emmitt Carpenter and punter Jacob Herbers.

Punting could be a concern for Minnesota. The now departed Ryan Santoso punted 66 times last season, while Herbers punted once. Head coach P.J. Fleck said SMU transfer Alex Melvin will also have opportunities in games.

The Gophers were No. 1 nationally in both fewest total penalties and yards penalized last season. The year before Minnesota ranked 91st in fewest penalty yards and 86th in yards penalized.

Barry Mayer, who is a former running back for the Gophers and three-year letter winner from 1968-70, is a certified paid trainer with the Positive Coaching Alliance in Minnesota. The organization provides various resources, including workshops, to help youth and high school athletes enjoy positive experiences in athletics. PCA’s motto is “Making Better Athletes Better People.”

Mayer’s son Adam was a wide receiver for the Gophers in 2015 and 2016. After lettering in 2016, he gave up football because of chronic hamstring injuries but is still in school and plans to graduate from Minnesota next spring with a degree in business.

“…When Adam told me he was thinking about stepping away from football, he knew it was going to disappoint me,” Barry said in an email. “I told him that sports are a means to an end, never the end in itself. My goal for him participating was to gain and understand the many life lessons sports offers and carry those on into one’s adult life. I truly believed he had done that, and apparently it was time to move on to his life’s next chapter. I couldn’t be more proud of the young man he is becoming.”

The Twins were a Wild Card team last year and expectations this spring were they could qualify for the postseason in 2018. Instead, the Twins are a good bet to finish under .500 and not even come close to earning a Central Division title, or Wild Card entry.

Twins president Dave St. Peter, who often talks about playing “meaningful games” late in the season, was asked if expectations were too high for his club. “I think we had realistic expectations based on what took place last season. Second half of last season we were the best team offensively in the American League, one of the better teams offensively in baseball. Unfortunately, sometimes it doesn’t play out that way. We never really had our entire lineup on the field. …”

The suspension for about three months of shortstop Jorge Polanco and serious injuries to other frontline players impacted the club. Players have also underperformed. St. Peter, though, likes the “young core” of players on the roster and is optimistic about the talent in the club’s farm system.

The great Ted Williams, who played for the minor league Minneapolis Millers before his MLB career with the Red Sox, would be 100 years old tomorrow if still alive.

Comments Welcome