Golden Gophers – Page 288 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Gophers Coaches Praise QB Leidner

Posted on August 29, 2015August 29, 2015 by David Shama

Gophers head coach Jerry Kill said quarterback Mitch Leidner is the “best I’ve seen him” during the most recent weeks of practices. Offensive coordinator Matt Limegrover said the redshirt junior starter looks “sharp” as Minnesota counts down the days to the opening game on Thursday night at home against national title contender TCU.

Kill and Limegrover remarked about Leidner’s confidence at a news conference this afternoon. After they spoke, Leidner told Sports Headliners his passing has improved from when he was a part-time starter as a freshman in 2013 and last year as the No. 1 quarterback.

“I feel like I am throwing the football as best as I ever had—accurate, consistent everyday and throwing with more velocity as well,” Leidner said.

Kill said he has noticed a difference in Leidner since preseason camp opened August 7. “Well, I think for the first three or four days of camp Mitch wasn’t as sharp as he wanted to be, but I can tell you the last two weeks he’s been unbelievably sharp,” Kill said. “It’s the best I’ve seen him look since I’ve been here. I mean, he’s done a really, really good job.”

Leidner struggled and so did the entire offense last year in a 30-7 loss to the Horned Frogs in Fort Worth. He passed for 151 yards, with 12 completions in 26 attempts while throwing three interceptions. Backup quarterback Chris Streveler produced the only Minnesota score, throwing a touchdown pass to tight end Maxx Williams.

Leidner had a troublesome knee prior to the TCU game and there was some question about his availability. He played much of the game, though, and he certainly wasn’t pleased with his performance or an offense that came up with just 14 first downs and 99 yards rushing.

Limegrover said it “eats” at his quarterback when he and the team struggle. “I know that’s been something he’s wanted to rectify (the TCU loss)—the way he played, regardless of whether he was injured up or not,” Limegrover said. “He didn’t feel very good about his performance and the way things went. He is feeling good (now). He’s been looking sharp.”

Limegrover acknowledged that how Leidner performs has everything to do with the success of the offense this season. The quarterback is aware of the questions continually asked about his passing skills last season, in the spring and even now as the team prepares for the 12 games ahead. He said it would be “huge” if he excels on Thursday night and the Gophers win. “I am just hoping all this preparation will payoff,” he said.

Worth Noting

As of today, approximately 200 tickets remained on sale for Thursday night’s game. When those tickets are gone, standing-room only will be sold and will contribute to an attendance that will be the largest for a Gophers game in TCF Bank Stadium history.

The University of Minnesota’s decision to give men’s basketball coach Richard Pitino a $400,000 increase is certainly controversial. The increase was the decision earlier this year of the now departed athletic director Norwood Teague. Defenders of Teague’s decision will say Minnesota needed to boost Pitino’s compensation because of Alabama’s interest in hiring the second-year Gophers coach. But after Pitino coached a 6-12 season in the Big Ten and didn’t qualify his team for postseason play, the increase is difficult to accept under any circumstances.

Pitino could have achieved a public relations coup by turning down the $400,000 while noting this is a challenging time for the University because of the Teague scandal. Further, he might have said the money was better directed toward the school’s $190 million athletics facilities project that will include a new basketball practice facility benefitting him.

Among Pitino’s contract bonus incentives is one paying him $25,000 for an annual cumulative team GPA of 3.0 or higher. His players had a GPA of 2.73 (low B range) for spring semester.

The Vikings play tonight in Arlington, Texas against the Cowboys in another preseason game expected to draw a large TV audience in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. The Vikings had a 35 average share for preseason games last year and in the first three exhibition games this summer the shares have been 38, 35 and 34.5. A share is the percentage of households watching a specific program at a specific time.

AT&T Stadium in Arlington was designed by HKS, the same company providing much of the vision for U.S. Bank Stadium that opens in Minneapolis next summer. The retractable roof stadium is among the most acclaimed sports venues anywhere, and a facility with similar features to the Vikings new home.

Both stadiums allow the home team to take the field at the 50-yard line adjacent to turf suites (bunkered in AT&T but field-level at U.S. Bank Stadium). The Arlington venue has a retractable window while the new Vikings home features five pivoting doors that at their peak are 95 feet tall. AT&T Stadium houses an art collection and U.S. Bank Stadium will have artwork depicting Vikings and other Minnesota sports history, plus culture of the state.

Vikings second-year quarterback Teddy Bridgewater makes his fourth preseason start tonight. Bridgewater was asked to contrast his first preseason start as a rookie in 2014 with now. “Last year, that preseason game, my head was spinning,” he said. “My head was everywhere. My mind was everywhere. First off, trying to get the play call correctly in the huddle. Then coming to the line of scrimmage, trying to make the right calls at the line of scrimmage. Then post-snap trying to figure out what coverage the defense is running. I think my coaches did a great job last year preparing me for that first game and this year, having a year under my belt playing in this system, I’m even more comfortable.”

Vikings second year head coach Mike Zimmer, who is 7-0 in preseason games in 2014 and 2015, was the Cowboys defensive backfield coach from 1994-1999 and defensive coordinator from 2000-2006. Zimmer remains friends with the Jones family who own and operate the Cowboys. Steve Loney, the former Gophers and Vikings offensive line coach, is the assistant o-line coach for the Cowboys.

The Timberwolves are selling a “3-Pack on a Stick” multi-games ticket package at the Minnesota State Fair. The games are the home opener November 2 against the Trail Blazers, November12 with the NBA champion Warriors and December 9 versus the Lakers. The ticket offer is available exclusively at the Timberwolves’ exhibit at the fair. Buyers also receive an Andrew Wiggins cutout on a stick.

Defending champion Saint John’s is the MIAC football coaches choice to win the league title again. In their annual poll the coaches voted teams in this order following the Johnnies: St. Thomas, Bethel, Concordia, Gustavus Adolphus, Augsburg, Hamline, Carleton and St. Olaf. D3football.com ranks Saint John’s No. 9, St. Thomas 14th and Bethel 20th in its national preseason top 25.

Former Gophers tennis coach Jerry Noyce is a new member of the Evanston (Illinois) Township High School Athletic Hall of Fame. Noyce played on the undefeated Evanston state doubles championship team in 1962. He was part of two state championship tennis teams playing for the suburban Chicago school. He is also a member of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Hall of Fame and the Gophers “M” Club Hall of Fame.

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Bet on Beth Goetz for U AD Position

Posted on August 27, 2015August 27, 2015 by David Shama

Although public speculation regarding candidates for the vacant Gophers athletic director position is a list of almost all males, the prediction here is the next AD will be a woman.

First, some background. Chris Voelz was athletic director of the Gophers women’s program from 1988 to 2002 but since the men’s and women’s sports programs were combined no female has led the Athletic Department. Historically—dating back over the past century when there were sometimes few or no opportunities for females to play sports at the University of Minnesota—no woman ever served as director for the entire Athletic Department.

When Minnesota had separate athletic directors for men’s and women’s sports (one of the few such arrangements in the country), it was seen as a strength by advocates for gender equity, and that commitment to equity remains at the University. After Joel Maturi was hired in 2002 to be AD of a combined department, his priority for the next 10 years was to nurture both the women and men in the school’s 25-sport program (more than many universities offer). Although former athletic director Norwood Teague (2012-2015) is accused of sexual harassment of University employees, it remains to be proven his department was unfair toward women’s athletics.

A gender discrimination investigation at the U began months ago after an anonymous complaint was made to the United States Department of Education Office for Civil Rights. It’s believed at the core of the complaint and investigation is the future location of the school’s track for track and field athletes. Women’s track and field accounts for a large portion of female Gophers athletes.

When University president Eric Kaler named Beth Goetz interim athletic director earlier this month the appointment certainly didn’t go unnoticed by federal investigators and others involved with enforcing gender equity. And appointing Goetz, who served as Teague’s No. 1 assistant, is a reminder the University has been proactive in the past regarding hiring opportunities for women and minorities within the athletic department, and is certain to continue on that path.

Clem Haskins was chosen as men’s basketball coach in the 1980s when it was rare for African-Americans to head a major college program. When McKinley Boston was made athletic director in 1991, he was the first African-American AD in Big Ten Conference history. The minority hiring record at the U also includes the appointment of African-Americans Cheryl Littlejohn as women’s basketball coach in 1997 and men’s coach Tubby Smith in 2007.

Filling high profile coaching and administrative vacancies with minorities and women is still unusual in the Big Ten and other major conferences. There are two minority head football coaches in the Big Ten, Penn State’s James Franklin and Purdue’s Darrell Hazell, and Eddie Jordan from Rutgers is the only minority head men’s basketball coach. The conference has two female athletic directors among the league’s 14 schools, Sandy Barbour at Penn State and Julie Hermann from Rutgers. Merrily Dean Baker, the former AD at Michigan State, is the third woman ever to lead a combined men’s and women’s athletic department in the Big Ten. She was Minnesota’s women’s athletic director from 1982-1988.

It’s a good bet Kaler sees the Gophers vacancy as an opportunity to write more history at Minnesota and in the Big Ten. He’s given Goetz, 41, a chance to lead the athletic department for awhile, and perhaps permanently. He told MPR on August 19 he doesn’t anticipate “ramping up” the search for a new AD until late next winter or early spring, with the goal of having a permanent person in the role by July 1. That timeline would certainly provide lengthy evaluation of Goetz who has been at Minnesota since March of 2013.

Goetz worked in high level athletic administrative positions at Butler and Missouri-St. Louis before coming to Minnesota. Her varied administrative background includes areas such as budgeting, gender equity and NCAA policy. Indications are she’s probably interested in moving into the AD job at Minnesota full time. She is already reaching out to those in the community who can help with fundraising, relationships and knowledge about how to run the department. Tomorrow she will meet the committee of volunteers involved with the athletic department’s $190 million fundraising campaign for new and improved facilities.

Goetz likely leads an internal candidate pool for the job because of her experience and responsibilities at Minnesota and other schools. Internal candidates might also include senior associate athletic director Dan O’Brien and baseball coach John Anderson. O’Brien is close to football coach Jerry Kill who should have a voice in the AD selection process. Anderson has been in the department for more than three decades, is highly respected by colleagues and has relationships in the Minneapolis business community.

The question no Sports Headliners source has answered is who Kaler will trust to advise him on the AD hire. It’s likely to be a small inner circle—with the assistance of a search firm—and the decision figures to have strong input from Board of Regents chair Dean Johnson who has become much more visible since Teague’s resignation. The new AD will certainly be well vetted, providing Kaler and Johnson with a high level of confidence there will be no embarrassing personal incidents.

Letting Goetz head the department for close to one year will provide an evaluation period not always present when making an important hire. Will she be the person Kaler wants? It seems likely she will satisfy him during the trial period because of her previous experience, intelligence, work ethic and support both in the department and from the president’s office.

But could something derail the push of Goetz supporters to break the “glass ceiling” in athletics at the U?

Well, it’s not likely she will set off any red flags during the coming months but if Kaler listens to voices that have already surfaced he could go in another direction. Those voices are varied and include advocates of hiring an AD from outside the school with a business background to run the $100 million department and put some steam into the fundraising project that appears stalled at $70 million. An alum like Wall Street and TV personality Pete Najarian puts a charge into those who long have advocated for a charismatic leader who has business relationships and can build more of them. (At the top of attributes needed by any Big Ten AD are the abilities to generate revenues—including by fundraising—and the skill to hire the right coaches in the high profile sports of football and basketball.)

Another voice argues for a hire with an existing and impressive track record as an athletic director. Northwestern athletic director Jim Phillips was described by a Sports Headliners source as a potential “home run” hire if the Gophers could bring him to Dinkytown. Phillips was Kill’s AD at Northern Illinois and the Gophers coach could be president of the man’s fan club.

It would be historical if the Gophers hired Phillips away from Northwestern because the Big Ten has an unwritten policy about member schools not pursuing each other’s athletic directors and coaches. Years ago two football coaches swapped jobs at Big Ten schools, and it’s believed there is no precedent for a Big Ten AD to take the same job at another league university.

The other problem with a Phillips’ candidacy is he reportedly has turned down programs with better reputations than Minnesota to stay at Northwestern. Yet the believers in pursuing Phillips will tell you he is well worth placing Kaler, Kill and a couple of big time athletic department donors on a private jet and flying them to Evanston. It might take nearly a $1 million salary to bring Philips to Minnesota but don’t think the University couldn’t pay that compensation.

Kaler, though, is already embroiled in controversy because of the mess left behind by Teague, and a bold move by the president causing criticism around the Big Ten seems highly unlikely. A safer path would be listening to voices advocating for someone like Gene Taylor who spent 13 years at North Dakota Sate as AD while helping turn Bison football into the best FCS program in the country. Taylor became Iowa’s deputy director in the Athletic Department last year with the goal of better qualifying himself to be an AD at a major school.

Taylor is 57 and he has work experiences at both North Dakota State and Iowa. He’s an upper Midwest guy with an understanding of the culture and people in this part of the country. That alone distinguishes him from Teague, an East Coast native who came here with no relationships and wasn’t that good at developing them.

Taylor’s success in helping build the Bison football program is one of the attributes that should make him attractive to Minnesota. The next AD shouldn’t be a “yes person” to Kill, but he or she should be an ally working effectively with the Gophers coach who is the face of the athletic department. Kill’s success is vital to the future of the department whose finances depend on revenues from football and men’s basketball and men’s hockey. It’s not taxpayer dollars but revenues from the big three sports that mostly pay the bills in the department.

Kaler knows he’s got a good thing in Kill and while he’s likely to listen to the coach’s input, the decision as to the next AD will probably be mostly his and a couple of astute advisers (hopefully with expertise in business and athletics). Unless something unusual happens with Goetz, I doubt he will turn to Taylor or some other outside candidate. The hope of Kaler will be that Goetz and Kill forge a solid working relationship in the months ahead. That will be an important factor on the path to what could be a permanent Goetz hire.

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Seniority Ends for Vikings Cullen Loeffler

Posted on August 24, 2015August 26, 2015 by David Shama

The Vikings released the longest-tenured player on their roster today. Cullen Loeffler, who had played in 171 career games dating back to 2004, was let go because competing long snapper Kevin McDermott performed better as the Vikings prepare this month for the 2015 season.

“He (McDermott) was faster with his snaps,” head coach Mike Zimmer said. “He was more accurate with his snaps. We charted every one.”

The Vikings have two more preseason games to play before the regular season begins on September 14. Zimmer wants to use the coming days and weeks to get the “timing down” between McDermott and other specialists involved with placekicking and punting. The coach indicated the Vikings are committed to McDermott who was signed in the offseason as a free agent, and they don’t plan to fill the roster with a second long snapper. He also said a disappointing performance by placekicker Blair Walsh last Saturday night (see Worth Noting section below) had nothing to do with releasing Loeffler.

McDermott, 25, was a teammate of Vikings punter Jeff Locke for five years at UCLA. He snapped the ball to Locke for the Bruins during the 2011 and 2012 seasons. The 49ers signed McDermott as a rookie free agent in 2013 and he played in 16 regular season games and three playoff games that season. Last season he played in seven games with the Ravens.

Loeffler, 34, played in all 16 regular season games during 10 of his 11 seasons with the Vikings. He has been a popular player with teammates and off the field with fans where his volunteer focus has sometimes been on military veterans.

Vikings general manager Rick Spielman admires Loeffler. “These types of decisions are the hardest part of our jobs. Cullen was outstanding in the community and on the field for the Vikings. He handled his business with class, and his impact in the locker room and on the franchise were second to none. We wish him the best in the future.”

Worth Noting

Walsh, who missed three field goals and one extra point on Saturday night in the preseason win over the Raiders, also struggled at times last season—his third in the NFL. Walsh made a career worst 74.3 percent of his field goals in 2014. An Associated Press All-Pro as a rookie in 2012, Walsh had a big junior year in college at Georgia, but missed 14 of 35 field goal attempts as a senior.

Chase Ford had a touchdown catch on Saturday evening but Zimmer wouldn’t say today how many tight ends the team plans to keep on its final 53-man roster. “I am just out there trying to get better everyday. That’s up to them (the coaches) and Rick (Spielman) who they want to keep on the squad,” said Ford who during both the 2013 and 2014 seasons has been promoted to the roster from the Vikings practice squad.

Christian Ponder anticipated being booed and he was when the former Vikings quarterback played on Saturday night for the Raiders at TCF Bank Stadium. He had thought about taking a bow but said he “wimped out.”

PGA Tour Golf Course Properties is promoting discounts at golf courses when Vikings fans travel to games in California and Arizona this year. More at TPC.com/football.

Gophers coach Jerry Kill had several interesting observations about his team and its August practices while talking yesterday on WCCO Radio’s Sports Huddle. He said 6-10 redshirt sophomore tight end Nate Wozniak is “maybe the most improved” player on the roster, and redshirt sophomore linebacker Cody Poock is having an “unbelievable” preseason camp. Kill identified true freshmen who will not redshirt including running back Shannon Brooks, defensive lineman Colton Beebe and offensive lineman Tyler Moore. As Kill did earlier this month, he raised the possibility of gifted runner Chris Streveler playing at a position or two other than quarterback this season.

Today is Kill’s 54th birthday.

The Gophers-TCU game on September 3 will be televised nationally on ESPN with Dave Pasch providing play-by-play and Brian Griese doing analysis.

Mike Grant is now the fifth coach in Minnesota high school football history to achieve 300 career wins. Grant’s record in 33 seasons is 300 wins and 66 losses after Eden Prairie defeated Totino-Grace on Saturday night. Other members of the 300 club are Ron Stolski (Brainerd), Mike Mahlen (Verndale), Dwight Lundeen (Becker) and George Larson (Cambridge).

Zach Zenner, from Eagan High School and South Dakota State, is an undrafted rookie running back with the Lions who is making news. Zenner rushed four times for 22 yards and caught five passes for 59 yards and a touchdown in a preseason game last Thursday against the Redskins. In two exhibition games he has rushed for a team-best 77 yards on 17 carries.

Saints owner and “fun is good” specialist Mike Veeck will speak at the next CORES luncheon on September 10 at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Bloomington, 1114 American Blvd. Reservations must be made by September 7 or sooner. More information about CORES is available by contacting Jim Dotseth, dotsethj@comcast.net. CORES is an acronym for coaches, officials, reporters, educators and sports fans.

It looks almost certain 2015 will be remembered as the season the Twins’ highly-hyped minor league prospects began to change the franchise. Coming into this season Baseball America’s top 10 Twins prospects included No. 1 Byron Buxton, No. 2 Miguel Sano, No. 9 Trevor May and No. 10 Eddie Rosario. All four are making a difference for the Twins including run producers Buxton, Sano and Rosario, and the relief pitching of former starter May. Right-handed pitcher Jose Berrios, ranked No. 3 in the listings, seems likely to join the Twins from Triple-A Rochester on September 1 when major league rosters can be expanded.

Twins right fielder Torii Hunter, who turned 40 on Saturday, is hitting .174 in his last 30 games. Hunter’s season average is .235, or 42 points lower than his career average. Despite his locker room leadership, it’s questionable whether he, or the Twins, will want a return year in 2016 unless his hitting picks up between now and season’s end.

Amanda Zahui B., the former Gopher who left school with two seasons of eligibility remaining, is averaging nine minutes per game as a rookie for the WNBA’s Shock. The 6-5, 250-pound native of Sweden is scoring 3.3 points and 2.5 rebounds per game.

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