Golden Gophers – Page 297 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Vikings Answer Skeptics in Defeat

Posted on December 11, 2015December 11, 2015 by David Shama

The Vikings and their fans can feel additional confidence after last night’s 23-20 loss to the Cardinals in Arizona. Predictions earlier this week were the Vikings would not only lose but by a big score.

It was known during the week the Vikings would play without three of their best defensive players and that unit would be reshuffled with lesser personnel. Teddy Bridgewater was coming off a disappointing performance last Sunday in a 38-7 loss against the Seahawks, and Seattle linebacker Bruce Ervin said the second-year quarterback played scared.

The Vikings showed a character check last night, playing the Cardinals to a 10-10 halftime tie before losing by a field goal in the fourth quarter. With the win the Cardinals, now 11-2, further positioned themselves among elite teams in the NFL. The Vikings, 8-5, are no longer in first place in the NFC North but still are having a season that is surprising critics who didn’t see them as a serious threat to unseat the Packers as division champions, and thought even less of Minnesota after an opening game 20-3 loss to the mediocre 49ers.

Teddy Bridgewater (photo courtesy of Minnesota Vikings.)

Bridgewater threw for a career high 335 yards and had a passer rating of 108 last night. That kind of work will be needed the rest of the season when the Vikings play the Bears and Giants at home, before closing out at Green Bay. No one, including critics, should be surprised if the Vikings win two or three of those games against the Bears and Giants, both with 5-7 records, and the 8-4 Packers.

If the Vikings follow the lead of head coach Mike Zimmer and his staff, good things should continue to develop in their march to the playoffs. After last Sunday afternoon’s game in Minneapolis against the Seahawks, Zimmer let it be known he expected his players to prepare their bodies for a short week of practice and Thursday’s game in Arizona. The majority of them headed for Winter Park before nightfall on Sunday. “We followed suit,” said placekicker Blair Walsh on Tuesday.

Three days of rest and rehab is different than the typical Sunday to Sunday game schedule. “You don’t come in Sunday after the game usually, unless you’re severely hurt or you need treatment,” Walsh said.

Defensive tackle Sharrif Floyd arrived at about 4:30 p.m. and stayed for more than one hour. Massages, foam rollers and cold tubs are used by players to revitalize worn bodies targeted since training camp last summer.

“It’s just hard work,” Floyd said about the rehab. “You can’t complain about it, you just gotta do it…nowadays.”

Key defensive players Anthony Barr, Linval Joseph and Harrison Smith were unable to play last night because of injuries. But Floyd said earlier in the week it does no good for the team to worry about the injured and absent.

“Never worry. If you worry you’re setting yourself up for failure,” he said. “No need to worry. Just come in with a game plan and fight as hard as possible. That’s all we ask for. We’re not asking you to do something out of the ordinary, just come do your job and be prepared to play tough.”

Even the critics can’t knock the Vikings’ effort last night.

Worth Noting

Tom Moore, who turned 77 last month and was an assistant coach for the Gophers in the 1970s and Vikings in the 1990s, is assistant head coach of the Cardinals. This is his 51st season of coaching, 37th in the NFL. Moore attended high school in Rochester, Minnesota and played college football at Iowa.

The Cardinals have sold out every game at University of Phoenix Stadium since the retractable roof facility opened in 2006, and noisy crowds provide the team with a home field advantage. Dating back to 2006 and going into last night’s game against the Vikings, Cardinals’ opponents had 132 false start penalties, the most in any NFL stadium during that period.

Both Sports Illustrated and the National Football League Players Association have ranked the playing surface at University of Phoenix Stadium best in the NFL. The playing surface is natural grass that can be moved outside in one giant tray to grow and be effectively maintained, and then put in place for Cardinals games.

It’s an oddity having the Vikings last night, then the Wild tonight and the Timberwolves on Sunday all playing games in the Phoenix area over a four-day period.

Andy Dalton, the Bengals quarterback who the Vikings could have drafted, has thrown for 3,000 yards in all five of his first NFL seasons. Only Peyton Manning has done that. In the 2011 NFL Draft the Vikings chose Christian Ponder with the No. 12 selection in the first round. The Bengals selected Dalton with the third pick in the second round.

More than half of the St. Thomas football roster could play Division II football, according to Tommies head coach Glenn Caruso. The talented Tommies, 13-0, host 12-0 Linfield tomorrow in a 2:30 p.m. Division III semifinals game. The Tommies have reached the semifinals for the third time in five years.

Caruso said Linfield has been a favorite since week one of the season to win the national title. “They are supremely loaded with talent,” he said.

Linfield will need to not only match the Tommies’ talent but also Caruso’s willingness to take risks. A trick play or surprise move like an onside kick is who the Tommies are. Caruso believes too many coaches are “risk averse.”

Would Caruso welcome moving indoors to U.S. Bank Stadium if the Tommies are playing home December playoff games in future years? “I don’t want to give away home field advantage (outdoors and on campus),” he said.

The Tommies, though, would consider a regular season game in the new Minneapolis stadium—perhaps against legendary rival Saint John’s.

Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor has heard the rumors Prince and Jimmy Jam Harris have interest in buying the team but said no one representing them has approached him.

Among the highlights of the Minnesota prep basketball season will be tomorrow’s annual Breakdown Sports Tip Off Classics at Minnetonka High School involving boys and girls teams. Class 4-A boys powers Apple Valley and Hopkins play at 3:45 p.m. in the most anticipated game. The schedule of games throughout the day and into the evening will showcase nationally ranked prep players including two seniors who are Gophers recruits, Amir Coffey from Hopkins and Michael Hurt whose Rochester John Marshall team plays an 8 p.m. game against Shakopee.

Hurt’s brother and teammate Matthew is a Rivals.com five-star recruit in the class of 2019. Other players in the tournament being followed nationally include Tre Jones and Gary Trent Jr. from Apple Valley, and Theo John and McKinley Wright from Champlin Park. Class 4-A Champlin Park plays 3-A DeLaSalle at 7 p.m. in another anticipated game.

Two of the winningest college hockey coaches face each other tonight and tomorrow evening in Ann Arbor. Michigan coach Red Berenson has won 818 games while the Gophers Don Lucia has 680 victories. The two rank second and third for most wins, with Boston College’s Jerry York first with 997.

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Vikings Harris Talks O-Line ‘Pressure’

Posted on December 4, 2015December 4, 2015 by David Shama

It’s no secret the Vikings’ passing offense ranks near the bottom in the 32-team NFL. Even more to the point, improvement could well be the key to whether the team wins the NFC North.

Guard Mike Harris acknowledges expectations that the line must do its part to help quarterback Teddy Bridgewater have time to throw as the team prepares for Sunday’s home game with the Seahawks, and looks toward four more regular season games.

Mike Harris (photo courtesy of Minnesota Vikings.)

“We’re coming along (with pass protection),” Harris said. “We’re not perfect, where we want to be, but each week in practice we’ve been harping on working on stuff that we need to work on…like (defensive) stunts, picking up blitzes. The run game—I feel like that’s our strong ability—because we have big tough guys that like to move guys around.

“If we can have a good balance of run and pass, this team will be able to beat anybody. The team goes as far as we go. I know we have a lot of pressure on us.

“We (the line) didn’t do so well a couple of weeks ago against the Packers but I feel like we’ve grown from that and we ought to continue to play better.”

Bridgewater was sacked six times in a 30-13 loss to the Packers in Minneapolis last month. He has thrown only eight touchdown passes this season and while he sometimes holds on to the ball too long, pass protection is an issue for the division leading 8-3 Vikings who top the NFL in rushing yards.

This Sunday the Vikings’ offense faces a Seahawks defense that is among the NFL’s best against rushing and passing. The defensive unit includes formidable players such as end Michael Bennett and cornerback Richard Sherman. “Playmakers are at every position that we’re going to have matchups with, and (we need to) go out and execute,” Harris said.

The Seahawks aren’t bad on offense either, including quarterback Russell Wilson who threw five touchdown passes in a win over the Steelers last Sunday. His passer rating of 97.4 puts him near the top among NFC quarterbacks. His strong arm and mobility will test the Vikings defense.

Vikings defensive tackle Sharrif Floyd acknowledged the major challenge of keeping Wilson in the pocket. “Him and Aaron Rodgers (Packers) are the only two (quarterbacks) I can truly think of that can throw touchdowns from the 50-yard line on the run,” Floyd said.

The Seahawks played in the last two Super Bowls and despite a 6-5 record now certainly aren’t a team to sleep on. Seattle has dealt with injuries while playing some of the NFL’s best teams and losing three games by a total of 10 points.

Harris is a West Coast guy and has known of Seahawks coach Pete Carroll back when he was coaching USC to powerhouse seasons. He expects Carroll will have the playoff-worried Seahawks ready on Sunday. “Just a players’ coach,” Harris said. “I feel like guys just want to go out and play hard for him because he has a winning history. …”

Worth Noting

With expected temps well above freezing today, the Vikings plan to practice outdoors at Winter Park. The forecast for Sunday in Minneapolis calls for similar temperatures with perhaps a high of 42.

Stefon Diggs, the Vikings rookie wide receiver from the University of Maryland who leads the team in receptions with 40, was asked if there’s a major difference between Big Ten defensive backs versus those in the NFL: “Yeah, it’s a big difference. As far as the NFL, everybody is pretty much good.”

Vikings center John Sullivan, who has missed the entire season because of a problematic back including surgery, said this week he isn’t in pain and expects to be on the field in 2016. Sullivan comes to Winter Park for rehab but watches all the games, home and away, on television at his residence where he and his wife have a four-month old baby, the couple’s first child.

That was former Gophers football coach Jerry Kill and wife Rebecca having dinner at Murray’s Restaurant earlier this week with WCCO Radio friends Sid Hartman, Dave Lee (with wife Julie), and Mike Max.

With the signing of Korean slugger Byung Ho Park, the Twins have yet another player on the 40-man roster who has experience playing first base. Joe Mauer apparently will be given most of the time at first next season with Park as the team’s likely designated hitter. But others on the roster also have experience at first including Trevor Plouffe, the team’s regular third baseman, and Miguel Sano (an infielder headed to the outfield), and Kennys Vargas, Max Kepler and Adam Walker.

Vargas impressed in 2014 with his hitting but not last year when he fell off from .274 to .240—with home runs and RBI declining from 9 and 38, to 5 and 17. He looks like a player who perhaps isn’t in the Twins future, partially because he doesn’t fit well in the field except first base. A switch hitter, Vargas might complement the right-handed hitting Park as a DH. Kepler and Walker are likely to play in the outfield in the minors next year.

The 5-2 Gophers basketball team earned its most impressive win of the season on Monday night against Clemson, and plays South Dakota tomorrow at Williams Arena. Expectations this season are minimal for Minnesota but the Gophers could be a surprise team if they continue to score like they did in the 89-83 victory over Clemson.

Freshman forward Jordan Murphy led all scorers with 24 points and had a team high 10 rebounds. The 6-6, 230-pound Jordan once scored 44 points for Brennan High School in San Antonio.

Former Gophers coach Jim Dutcher praised Murphy’s advanced fundamentals for a freshman. “He’s got a good basketball I.Q.,” Dutcher told Sports Headliners.

College basketball has new rules to speed up play, but deliberate fouling in the closing minutes can still be agonizing to watch. ESPN2 viewers saw Illinois State drag out the end of its game against Kentucky on Monday night when it took about 10 minutes to use up almost two minutes on the game clock. The Gophers-Clemson game was joined in progress on ESPN2 because of the slow finish with Illinois State and Kentucky.

Don Lucia’s Gophers hockey team hopes to have continued outstanding performances from sophomore forward Leon Bristedt tonight and tomorrow evening against Ohio State at Mariucci Arena. Bristedt has at least a point in seven of the last eight games and leads the team with 12 points (seven goals, five assists) in 11 games this season. His seven goals have already surpassed his freshman total of five in 35 games last season.

Bristedt, from Sweden, is one of only four non-North Americans ever to play for the Gophers, a program whose rosters have been dominated by Minnesotans. The others are Bristedt’s Swedish teammate Robin Hoglund, and NHLers Erik Haula (Finland) and Thomas Vanek (Austria).

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How Peterson’s World Changes Again

Posted on December 2, 2015December 2, 2015 by David Shama

On the football beat with insights about the Vikings, Gophers and St. Thomas:

Adrian Peterson is in a different place today than he was 12 months ago, and his circumstances are even in contrast to two years ago.

Peterson leads the NFL in rushing and appears all but certain to receive All-Pro recognition as the league’s best running back for 2015. He is the centerpiece of an offense that otherwise is pretty much comprised of inconsistent players including second-year quarterback Teddy Bridgewater. Peterson’s running along with a superb defense are mostly responsible for the Vikings’ surprising 8-3 record and first place position in the NFC North.

Adrian Peterson (photo courtesy of Minnesota Vikings.)

A year ago Peterson was on his way to missing all but one game of the 2014 season. He was barred from football activities by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell for developments involving disciplining of his four-year-old son. In early December of last year it was unknown when he would be allowed to play again, and whether he was going to be a Viking.

Minnesotans, including many Vikings fans, were appalled at details about Peterson using a switch on his child. Twelve months ago there was controversy whether Peterson should be allowed to remain with the team and if the Vikings franchise wanted to be associated with him. It wouldn’t be surprising if there were power brokers within the Vikings organization who wanted Peterson gone in 2015, advocating to separate the controversial superstar from the franchise’s marketing and image-making while plans developed to move into U.S. Bank Stadium in 2016.

A source told Sports Headliners in late April the Vikings were in talks with the Cowboys about a trade involving Peterson. While there may have been interest in determining what assets a Peterson deal would yield, it seems clear that general manager Rick Spielman and coach Mike Zimmer saw the impact their future hall of fame runner could have on the 2015 team.

Peterson is 30 years old—a number that typically puts most NFL runners on the brink of old age or even in it. Two seasons ago the Vikings were slogging through a losing year and there was conjecture it was time to trade a then 28-year-old Peterson. Move him before his legs fell off and get something back in value, maybe a draft choice to land a first-rate quarterback prospect to replace Christian Ponder.

The Vikings finished 6-10 in 2013 and Peterson had an okay season playing in 14 games, rushing for 1,266 yards and 10 touchdowns. This season he already has 1,164 yards and eight touchdowns in 11 games. On Sunday against the Seahawks he could best his 2013 numbers and still have four remaining regular season games.

The man some fans wanted traded two years ago is on a short list of league MVP candidates. After a slow start in game one against the 49ers when Peterson was trying to ditch the rust of not playing in the preseason and even further back, he has often looked like the best back in the NFL. In four of the last five games he has run for over 100 yards including 158 last Sunday in the win over the Falcons.

Did Zimmer expect this kind of performance from Peterson after being sidelined last season? “Yes. I just know he’s a really special player and I just think I figured that he’d be pretty good, yeah.”

Peterson and the Vikings have sometimes faced challenging competition. The Falcons had the league’s best rushing defense before the Vikings gained 191 yards against them. That Falcons team is ranked No. 8 in the Profootballfocus.com power rankings. The Vikings, who are ranked No. 6, have also defeated the No. 10 Raiders. Minnesota has lost to the No. 5 Broncos and No.7 Packers who ranked behind the Panthers, Patriots, Bengals and Cardinals. …

After five years of the Jerry Kill revival, the Gophers football program is much improved but doesn’t match more famous turnarounds in Big Ten history—at least not yet.

The coach Tim Brewster era prior to the 2011 season and Kill’s arrival produced annual records of 1-11, 7-6, 6-7 and 3-9. Kill created a success story by reviving a program on life support academically and on the field, with his best work in 2013 and 2014. Those were eight win seasons and the 2014 team earned an invitation to Minnesota’s first January 1 bowl game since 1962.

The Gophers took a step back this season, misfiring because of a difficult schedule, numerous and serious injuries, and Kill’s resignation to save his health. With Tracy Claeys elevated to head coach, Minnesota struggled late in the season winning only once in five games. The team’s final 5-7 record, including 2-6 in the Big Ten after last season’s 5-3, added up to the most disappointing year in the Kill era.

Minnesota’s 12-game schedule included six major college opponents who won nine games or more in 2015. Next season the schedule will be softer because Michigan, Ohio State and TCU get swapped out for Maryland, Oregon State and Rutgers. It’s also hard to believe the Gophers will be so devastated again by injuries that forced players to the sidelines for long stretches.

The Gophers will have some talented and experienced players returning next season as they try to restart the program turnaround. Gophers fans have waited for decades to see results similar to well-known turnarounds at Iowa, Wisconsin, Northwestern, Purdue and Michigan State. All except Purdue established success that continues to this day.

Those turnarounds were led by Hayden Fry at Iowa, Barry Alvarez at Wisconsin, Gary Barnett at Northwestern, Joe Tiller at Purdue and Mark Dantonio at Michigan State. Each one of those coaches had a nine win season or better in his first five years on the job, and all but Dantonio took a team to the Rose Bowl in that time period, according to statistics from Sports-reference.com. Dantonio reached Pasadena in his seventh season with a team that won the Rose Bowl and finished with a 13-1 record. …

St. Thomas hosts Wabash (Indiana) on Saturday in a quarterfinal Division III playoff game involving two 12-0 football teams. The Tommies figure to be prepared including with clock management—something head coach Glenn Caruso started perfecting 30 years ago as a kid playing video games.

Caruso told Sports Headliners he played “every conceivable football video game I could” and credits the experience with helping him to best use the clock in various situations. Even on the professional level, clock management is a skill that sometimes escapes coaches. “It boggles the mind how people don’t pay more attention,” he said.

Caruso, 85-13 in eight seasons at St. Thomas, coached the 2012 Tommies to the national championship game. He believes this year’s team might not have “all the high-end talent” of the 2012 group but is deeper, healthier and even more focused. There are 140 players on the team and Caruso said they understand and execute their roles.

Not that the Tommies don’t have talent this year, including star running back Jordan Roberts who had three touchdowns in last Saturday’s 38-19 win against Saint John’s. Roberts is a 6-2, 220-pound junior from Sheridan, Wyoming who played two years at South Dakota. Caruso said he’s the best back he’s coached at St. Thomas and if Roberts keeps improving he could one day receive an NFL tryout.

The Tommies, who have 12 coaches including Caruso, will practice outdoors this week unless the weather makes it impossible. Caruso is a believer in working out the team in conditions similar to game day. The Tommies are 16-0 in rain games under him.

Attendance for Saturday’s game at O’Shaughnessy Stadium might be somewhere between 2,000 and 8,000. A week ago last Saturday, for the Tommies first playoff game against La Verne, attendance was 1,832 at O’Shaughnessy. Last Saturday in a second round playoff game at home against legendary rival Saint John’s, the announced crowd was 8,025.

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