I’ve never been known as a sports writing prophet with a shiny crystal ball resting next to the keyboard. Shama the Seer, the great purveyor of the future? Nope, not me.
I make this confession knowing I put at risk my prediction the University of Minnesota men’s hockey team will win its two games in this week’s Frozen Four in Tampa and come home with the national championship trophy.
My history, though, is that of a dysfunctional prophet. Consider the following.
I could have been the guy who bet his retirement nest egg on the 19.5 point favorite Timberwolves to cover the spread on Sunday. They made national news by losing 107-105 to the Trail Blazers.
I once worried the world would end with Y2 K. A computer bug didn’t spin the world into chaos, but Armageddon remains top of mind. I keep Nostradamus on speed-dial.
Remember Rocky-like punching bag Chuck Wepner? I might have predicted he was going to knock out Muhammad Ali back on my birthday of March 24, 1975. Before you snicker, remember Wepner did go 15 rounds with the heavyweight champ before losing on a technical knockout.
Thomas Dewey? Wouldn’t be surprised if someone in my family wagered cold cash on Dewey winning the 1948 presidential election instead of Harry Truman. Heck, the Chicago Tribune even got it wrong, printing this headline the day after the election: “Dewey Defeats Truman.”
On my mother’s side, we had family who fought in the Revolutionary War. They might have held rifles in one hand while wagering on the British Redcoats.
So more than 200 years of bad family luck predicting outcomes doesn’t deter me from writing with confidence that the No. 1 seeded Gophers will not only win Thursday night against No. 4 Boston University but emerge Saturday evening with the 2023 NCAA Division I championship. I am overdue and so are the Gophers.
Minnesota hasn’t won the national title since 2003. That’s 20 years ago and a good omen.
The Gophers lost in the Frozen Four semi-finals a year ago. Coach Bob Motzko and the players benefit from that experience.
The Gophers, 28-9-1, are the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament and have been considered the nation’s best team in 2023 boasting a 26-man roster with 14 of those players NHL draft choices.
Minnesota is loaded with talent including goal tending and perhaps the best scoring line in school history with Logan Cooley, Matthew Knies and Jimmy Snuggerud. Gopher goalie Justen Close is third in the nation in shutouts with six and has a 2.08 goals against average versus top 10 teams.
Cooley and Knies are two of the three finalists for the Hobey Baker Award recognizing college hockey’s best player. Cooley’s 37+ rating leads all NCAA players, while Knies is a tight moments specialist and has scored seven game winning goals. Snuggerud is fifth in the country in points per game at 1.32, while the third Hobey Baker finalist, Michigan’s Adam Fantilli, is No. 1 at 1.85.
Knies typifies the Gophers’ play in clutch moments, and this team also excels on the power play and defensively. The Gophers rank fourth nationally in power play percentage at 0.264 and that’s better than any other Frozen Four team. The defensive corps of Jackson LaCombe,Ryan Johnson and Brock Faber is special.
Minnesota won three national championships in the 1970s under the peerless direction of the late Herb Brooks. Later Brooks built the St. Cloud State program where Motzko was on his staff. Good connections, great karma. Gotta believe Herbie is watching over things in Tampa this week.
The hockey gods deem not only that the Gophers win the national title but take revenge against Michigan in Saturday night’s championship game. The No. 3 seed Wolverines, who need to beat No. 2 seed Quinnipiac Thursday to set up the retribution, defeated Minnesota 4-3 in Minneapolis last month to win the Big Ten Tournament title.
It’s always triumphant to beat Michigan in anything—from tiddlywinks to robotics to ice hockey as they call it in Tampa. To do so in the national championship game is this soothsayer’s dream.
Kirk Cousins will be 35 years old before next season starts and he is on the last year of his contract. While Cousins might be offered an extension, the clock is ticking on what the future will look like for the Vikings at football’s most important position.
Cousins led Minnesota to eight fourth quarter comeback wins last season during a 13-4 regular season. He has been the starter since 2018, but he has never been considered one of the NFL’s elite quarterbacks. This year—or next for sure—it will be imperative for the Vikings to find Cousins’ successor even if Kirk is around for a couple seasons more. While finding a veteran quarterback via free agency or trade is certainly an option, it’s more likely GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and staff will find their QB of the future via the NFL Draft.
Marc Sessler, writing last month for NFL.com, rated 68 league quarterbacks based on their 2022 performances, regular season and playoffs. The top five rated QB’s were acquired by their teams through the draft.
No. 1 ranked Patrick Mahomes was acquired by the Chiefs because of a deal they made with the Bills prior to the 2017 draft. Kansas City sent the No. 27 and 91 selections, and their No. 1 for 2018, to Buffalo to secure the No. 10 overall pick in 2017. Mahomes later admitted he was given some inside information for a pre-draft meeting that impressed coach Andy Reid.
No. 2 Jalen Hurts of the Super Bowl champion Eagles wasn’t selected until the second round of the 2020 draft. Quarterbacks Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert, TuaTagovailoa and Jordan Love all heard their names called in the first round but concerns about Hurts’ arm strength and other perceived weaknesses dropped the Oklahoma star deep into the second round. But GM Howie Roseman thought it was imperative to draft a young QB and develop him. He was clairvoyant about Hurts.
The Bengals played bad football in 2019, finishing the season with a 2-14 record and having the No. 1 overall pick in the 2020 draft fall to them. Burrow, No. 3 on Sessler’s list, was not a difficult decision after playing like a video game character in leading LSU to the national championship and winning the Heisman Trophy.
In 2018 the Bills weren’t deterred in drafting Josh Allen (No. 4 on the Sessler rankings) despite some controversial tweets surfacing at the time. The Bills moved up from No. 12 to No. 7 in the 2018 draft by completing a trade with the Bucs that sent two second round Buffalo selections and their No. 12 choice to Tampa Bay. Allen hasn’t been a behavior distraction in Buffalo and has led the Bills to a place among the NFL’s best teams..
Justin Herbert, No. 5 on the list, was selected No. 6 overall by the Chargers in that 2020 draft. He had made a mistake in a pre-draft meeting challenging his knowledge and thought the error might cost him the opportunity to land where he did in the draft, per an April 23, 2020 story in the Los Angeles Times. The Chargers, who had declined offers to give up their No. 6 pick, stuck with Herbert who became the team’s starter in the second game of his rookie season.
A few things stand out from reviewing these quarterbacks. All joined their teams at young ages and earned a place among the NFL’s best while positioning their teams to win for a long time. Only Hurts wasn’t a top 10 first round choice. Timely and strategic trades can get your team into a better draft position. Past character issues can be difficult to evaluate. The judgment of overall skills of prospects can differ from team to team.
The Athletics’ recent Mock Draft has the Vikings moving up from No. 23 to No. 7 by making a trade with the Raiders. Minnesota would select Kentucky QB Will Levis who doesn’t figure to last even close to No. 23. Levis, at about 6-4 and 229-pounds, has a strong arm and is physically tough. He played through injuries last season at Kentucky and fairly or not that may have contributed to flaws scouts see.
Lance Zierlein, writing for NFL.Com on Levis’ combine scouting report page, said there are concerns about his ball placement and accuracy. “…Levis’ talent is well worth an investment but could require a talented quarterback coach and a patient plan to tighten up his mechanics, rebuild his confidence and explore an offensive scheme that best suits him.”
Vikings personnel decision makers led by Adofo-Mensah, a little more than a year into the job after succeeding Rick Spielman, will have to figure out their quarterback dilemma. History shows it’s usually a challenging task and not a bad idea to keep a rabbit’s foot nearby.
Worth Noting
Sessler’s list of best quarterbacks has Cousins ranked No. 17, two spots below the 49ers’ Brock Purdy, a rookie last season and the last player selected in the 2022 NFL Draft.
The late Herb Brooks would have been delighted with the scene and outcome of last night’s Fargo Regional Championship at Scheels Arena. The University of Minnesota, the school where Brooks played college hockey and coached to three national championships in the 1970s, defeated St. Cloud State, a program Brooks brought to prominence with his world-class coaching in the 1980s.
Minnesota’s 4-1 win sends the Gophers to Tampa for the Frozen Four starting April 6 against Boston University and an opportunity to emerge as national champions. The Gophers have won five NCAA national titles, with Brooks led teams winning in 1974, 1976 and 1979. The success back then left observers thinking the Gophers would rattle off many more but Don Lucia’s national champs in 2002 and 2003 are the program’s only other Frozen Four winners.
The 2023 team has achieved greatness, maintaining a No. 1 national ranking and winning the Big Ten regular season championship and Fargo Regional. When the Gophers defeated No. 6 ranked St. Cloud State it was an NCAA-best 12th victory over a top 10 team.
Brooks, who died in a 2003 car accident, would have appreciated the connections Gophers coach Bob Motzko has to both Minnesota and St. Cloud where the team plays at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center. Motzko, the former Huskies head coach, was an assistant on those last Minnesota national championship teams.
Something else Brooks would have liked was the all-tournament team comprised exclusively of Minnesota and St. Cloud players. Now all that’s left is for the Gophers to achieve what Brooks set as the standard at Minnesota.
Jerome Tang, the first-year basketball coach at Kansas State who led the surprising Wildcats to the Elite Eight, was born in Trinidad and Tobago but as a young man attended North Central Bible College (now North Central University) in Minneapolis. Tang was a superb defensive assistant coach at Baylor before joining Kansas State.
The new group of Gophers boosters who want to raise six-figure money dedicated to NIL for men’s and women’s basketball will work under the umbrella of Dinkytown Athletes. The Gopher athletic department is boosting its commitment to NIL including creation of a new fundraising staff position that will work with Dinkytown Athletes.
BlueGoldNews.com reported new Gophers women’s basketball coach DawnPlitzuweit has a $612,500 buyout owed to her former school, West Virginia. Buyouts are typically paid by the new employer, rather than the individual.
The Pioneer Press lost an elite sports journalist in Chris Tomasson who is now writing for the online only Denver Gazette covering the NFL Broncos. His work ethic and reporting on the Vikings beat is among the best-ever here.
University of Minnesota Director of Athletics Mark Coyle checked the right boxes with the hire of Dawn Plitzuweit as the Gophers new head women’s basketball coach. Plitzuweit (pronounced PLITTS-zoo-white) is an experienced coach with a winning record who has recruiting relationships and cultural ties to this region.
Brian Cosgriff, the girls’ basketball coaching legend who won seven state titles at Hopkins and is now at Minnetonka, told Sports Headliners “it’s an incredible hire.” Plitzuweit and Cosgriff have known each other for years and the new Gopher coach called her friend Saturday morning. “She is really a bright, forward-thinking lady,” Cosgriff said.
In regard to experience, she is in contrast to Lindsay Whalen who as a first-time coach couldn’t make the transition from great player to building a winning program at her alma mater during a five-year trial. Coyle took a chance on Whalen and most everybody else in the state would have done the same with the former Gopher and Lynx legend.
Plitzuweit has 28 years of coaching experience, with 16 as a head coach. She has been the head coach of winning teams at (most recently) West Virginia, South Dakota, Northern Kentucky and Grand Valley State.
As a head coach she has 15 winning seasons including nine 20-win seasons and two 30-win years. Plitzuweit’s teams have participated in the postseason 15 of 16 seasons and been in the last four NCAA Tournaments. Her career coaching record is 356-141 (.721) and she is 201-66 (.752) in league play.
Her resume includes the Big Ten where she was associate head coach at Michigan. The Michigan Tech graduate and West Bend, Wisconsin native has recruited Minnesota over the years.”…I am…looking forward to reconnecting with local high school and club coaches. I can’t wait to get to work,” Plitzuweit said in a statement released by the Gophers.
Plitzuweit, 50, could be the right age to make Minnesota her last career stop and turn the Gophers into a special program. “I honestly think it’s her dream job,” said Cosgriff.
She reportedly earned $550,000 last season at West Virginia. Whalen, who stepped down as Gopher coach in early March, was to be paid $574,761 starting next month. Most recently she earned $547,391. Specific compensation hasn’t been announced for Plitzuweit but she will receive a six-year contract pending approval by the Board of Regents.
Plitzuweit is the 13th head women’s basketball coach at Minnesota, all females. The Gophers will hold a news conference Monday at 12:30 p.m. to introduce their coach. It will be carried live on the Big Ten Network and the Gophers’ YouTube channel.
Worth Noting
Minnesota lost the Big Ten Tournament hockey championship game last night to Michigan, 4-3 , playing in an electric atmosphere at 3M Arena at Mariucci. The game sold out in less than 36 hours and was the team’s ninth home sellout of the season as fans clamored to see a game between the No. 1 nationally ranked Gophers and No. 4 Wolverines and featuring 26 NHL draft choices.
In a home two-game series against Michigan January 20-21, the Gophers had a total attendance of 20,755, the most fans for a weekend series in arena history. Minnesota has been a draw on the road, too, mostly playing in front of sellout crowds.
Saturday morning StubHub, the Gophers’ secondary ticket partner, was listing tickets ranging from $135 each to $666. The public is starved for a Minnesota winner and this Gopher team has a chance to win the school’s first national championship since 2002.
The foundation is built on both defense and goal scoring. Defenseman Brock Faber and goalie Justen Close are names that surface quickly when talking about shutting down opponents, while the nationally publicized line of Logan Cooley, MatthewKnies and Jimmy Snuggerud is talked about as among the best in school history. Cooley and Knies are among 10 finalists for the Hobey Baker Award, and one of them could win the honor of being named the nation’s best college hockey player, and the first Gopher to do that since Jordan Leopold in 2002.
Coach Bob Motzko has been true to program tradition in assembling a 26-man roster dominated by Minnesotans with 20 players from the state. But he’s kept up with the times bringing key personnel from beyond the border. Cooley is from Pittsburgh, Knies from Phoenix and Close from Saskatchewan.
If the Gophers qualify, Stillwater-based Creative Charters is offering a fan trip, April 6 to 9, to the Frozen Four in Tampa. The trip is part of a creative list of 2023 travel experiences planned by Steve and Dorothy Erban including what they’re billing as “the trip of a lifetime” to North Carolina in September.
The football Gophers play in Chapel Hill Saturday, September 16 against North Carolina and Heisman Trophy quarterback candidate Drake Maye. In addition to football entertainment, the goal of the September 13-17 trip is to “provide a true North Carolina experience.”
Travelers will visit the Charlotte Speedway and get an inside look at NASCAR racing. Not only that, but some Minnesotans will be able to ride in a high-speed Ford Mustang performance car driven by a professional driver. There will also be a visit to learn about the famous North Carolina furniture industry, opportunity to play golf and tour the historic North Carolina and Duke campuses.
Among the many prospects working out in front of professional scouts at Minnesota Pro Day last week were decorated players like Gophers All-Americans Mo Ibrahim and John Michael Schmitz. But there were also many players much more uncertain about their professional football futures including former St. Thomas center Matt Weimann.
The former Hill-Murray player told Sports Headliners his hope is to be signed as a free agent and gain an NFL tryout but he “would love to play anywhere.” In his mind the USFL or Canadian Football League could be options.
Weimann, about 6-3 and 300 plus-pounds, was All-Pioneer League last season. He has lost some weight and was pleased with his 28-inch vertical jump at the U Pro Day. He said his strength is as a run blocker and he is training to play guard and center at the next level, knowing versatility in skills is valuable.
Weimann raves about the coaching he received at St. Thomas including from head coach Glenn Caruso who he refers to as “phenomenal.” He said Caruso treats his players like family and that his leadership is unlike any he’s seen in coaching.
An All-District player in high school, Weimann didn’t receive attention from the Gophers. “The U didn’t recruit me at all. I tried to reach out. Definitely would have been interested in walking on, or at least looking and seeing what the program was about. But I never got any responses from any sort of recruiting from the U of M.”
Schmitz, one of college football’s premier centers last season, is expected to be drafted in the early rounds. Ibrahim, cornerback Terell Smith, safety JordanHowden and quarterback Tanner Morgan are candidates for later rounds.
Vikings co-owner Mark Wilf paid tribute to the late Bud Grant and spoke on other subjects Friday as the guest speaker at the Minnesota Breakfast gathering in Naples, Florida. Wilf also referenced a survey of NFL players that ranked the Vikings No. 1 among 32 teams in off the field satisfaction with the organization. He said the team will seek offensive linemen in the NFL Draft and through free agency to provide better pass protection and promised an improved defense in 2023.
Wilf also told breakfast attendees ownership rarely gets involved with decision making for the NFL Draft, except for concerns about player character. He added that “60 to 70” draft prospects are disqualified each year by the Vikings because of character issues.
Archives quote from Bud Grant about dancing: “Not only am I not good, I’ve never danced in my life. I always was very shy (as a youth) and I never learned to dance. I was too self-conscious and I was taller than most of the girls so I never learned how to dance—much to the chagrin of my wife.”
A former NFL executive talking anonymously about departed Vikings wide receiver Adam Thielen: “…I think Adam Thielen will find a good opportunity, perhaps with the Jets if Aaron Rodgers ends up there. Because they have a tight relationship.”