Golden Gophers – Page 352 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

AD Boston: Aggies Can Upset U Again

Posted on September 4, 2013September 4, 2013 by David Shama

New Mexico State upset the Gophers two years ago in Minneapolis, winning 28-21 in the second game of Jerry Kill’s career as Minnesota head coach. McKinley Boston, the former Gophers athletic director who now holds the same position at New Mexico State, believes the Aggies can win again when the two teams meet on Saturday night in Las Cruces, although Minnesota may enter the game as a three touchdown favorite.

The Aggies are 4-20 since their big win in Minneapolis with the most recent loss a 56-7 pounding by Texas last Saturday night. “It’s obvious we’re struggling but (new head coach) Doug Martin has created a lot of enthusiasm,” Boston told Sports Headliners on Monday. “Now you and I know words and hype are one thing. You need a big win. I am very excited about the possibility (of defeating Minnesota).”

Martin was the offensive coordinator two years ago when the Aggies pulled off an upset that was big news in the Big Ten Conference and back in Las Cruces where football glory has been mostly absent through the years. The Aggies are using a no-huddle offense and are likely to fill the hot sky with footballs on Saturday night. Temps in Las Cruces on Saturday, including early evening, are likely to be in the 90s.

New Mexico State had 242 yards passing and only 104 yards rushing last Saturday against Texas in Austin. The Aggies trailed 14-7 at the half before the Longhorns scored 42 unanswered second half points on a field where the temperature was 110 degrees. “I think we just ran out of gas,” Boston said. “I think we’re improved (this season) on both sides of the ball.”

Among the Aggies’ issues in the past has been a defense that gave up over 40 points seven times last season. Against New Mexico State the Longhorns had 715 total yards in offense, 359 rushing and 356 passing.

But Texas has a talented roster and hopes for returning to the elite in college football this fall. The Gophers, who are 10-14 since their loss to the Aggies, are still building their resume.

Hosting the game in New Mexico plays a part in Boston’s optimism and excitement about Saturday. The game is being advertised as the first ever visit to Las Cruces by a Big Ten opponent and from a business perspective a win over the Gophers will mean more future ticket sales and revenues.

Boston said there’s “no ifs, ands or buts” about the total importance of the game. “The fact we beat them before, a lot of people believe we can win,” he said.

Worth Noting

Boston is predicting attendance in the mid-20,000 range for the game, about 5,000 short of capacity at Aggie Memorial Stadium (capacity 30,343). On Friday night and at the game he will entertain friends with Minnesota connections including Leon Trawick and Curt Wilson, both former teammates of Boston with the 1967 Big Ten champion football Gophers.

Boston said September 7 “will be the only Saturday of the year” he’s not cheering for the Gophers.

Twins president Dave St. Peter talking to Sports Headliners about Terry Ryan: “I wouldn’t trade him for any other general manager in the game.”

Ryan is closing in on 24 months since he took over the franchise’s general manager role for a second time in his career. Ryan’s desire for a less demanding lifestyle drove him away from the job in 2007. “I have no indication he won’t come back (for next season),” St. Peter said.

Although Twins phenoms Byron Buxton and Miguel Sano won’t be among the minor leaguers recalled in September, both will be in spring training camp with Minnesota next year, according to St. Peter. He also said Buxton will play in the Arizona Fall League and Sano will participate again in winter baseball in his native Dominican Republic.

Although former Gophers guard Al Nuness is a distant cousin of Tyus Jones, it was coincidence the two were in Waco, Texas last weekend. Nuness arrived last week and is still in Waco celebrating the first birthday (today) of granddaughter Jasmine Nuness. She is the daughter of Jared Nuness who is Al’s son and works as director of player development for the Baylor men’s basketball team that is recruiting Jones.

“I am not involved and have never been involved in Tyus’ recruiting process,” Al said.

Jones, rated by Rivals.com as the No. 2 prospect in the country for the class of 2014, made an official visit to Baylor a few days ago. Joining him in Waco was his friend Jahlil Okafor, the No. 1 rated prospect. It’s almost certain the two players, Jones a point guard from Apple Valley High School, and Okafor, the center from Whitney Young High in Chicago, will attend college together.

The Vikings won’t make the playoffs, according to the September 2 issue of Sports Illustrated. The magazine’s pro football issue predicts the Vikings will have a 9-7 record, finishing second in the NFC North behind the Packers, 10-6. The Vikings are ranked No. 8 among NFC teams, four listings behind the Packers, one ahead of the Bears and seven in front of the Lions.

The publication’s article on the Vikings (no surprise) focuses on quarterback Christian Ponder. “Ponder, 25, must prove he’s the club’s unquestioned No. 1 quarterback,” writes Don Banks.

The Patriots will defeat the Seahawks, 30-23, in the Super Bowl, according to Peter King who leaves the Vikings’ Adrian Peterson off his list of predicted NFL individual award winners. The Patriots’ Tom Brady is the pick for MVP, the Titans’ Chris Johnson Offensive Player of the Year and the Packers’ Eddie Lacy Offensive Rookie of the Year.

The Vikings open the regular season in Detroit on Sunday against a franchise Minnesota has dominated historically and in more recent years. The Vikings are 68-33-2 all-time against Detroit. The Lions have only six wins versus the Vikings dating back to 1998.

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Hageman Draws Comparisons with Suh

Posted on August 30, 2013August 30, 2013 by David Shama

When Darrell Thompson talks about Gophers defensive tackle Ra’Shede Hageman he mentions Ndamukong Suh. Playing at Nebraska a few years ago, Suh earned a reputation as one of college football’s most dominant defensive tackles ever.

Suh was a much more developed player going into this senior season at Nebraska than Hageman is now but Thompson sees similarities in skill sets and physical size. “I feel like they’re fairly similar,” Thompson told Sports Headliners. “He (Hageman) is not as compact (as Suh), but he’s rangier and might even be a hair more athletic.”

How dominant can Hageman be as a senior? “As dominant as he wants to be,” answered Thompson, the former Gophers record setting running back and now the game analyst on Minnesota radio broadcasts. “The only person that can hold him back is himself. He can do it. If he plays with leverage and comes off the ball the way he can, he can be an extremely disruptive force. You can’t ask for anything more than a disruptive force right in the middle of your defense.”

UNLV was introduced to Hageman last night including when the former Washburn High School all-state tight end not only blocked a field goal attempt but pushed the ball forward helping Minnesota’s Martez Shabazz scoop it up and run 51 yards for a touchdown. That score was among the biggest plays of the evening as Minnesota increased its third quarter lead to 30-13 before going on to win the opening game 51-23.

Thompson thought Hageman started slowly but became more effective as the game continued. Inconsistency has characterized Hageman’s career with the Gophers but Thompson said it’s understandable given the position switch to defense at Minnesota after being a tight end in high school and early in his college career.

Suh, by contrast, was a defensive tackle and a beast in that role back in high school in his hometown of Portland. Playing at Nebraska, his size, 6-4, 300 pounds, strength and agility made him a dreaded player for offensive linemen to block.

Hageman is 6-6 and 311 pounds. Thompson describes Hageman as a player with a vertical jump in the “mid-30’s” able to bench press over 400 pounds who is explosive and can run while playing with a “little bit of a mean streak in him.”

Thompson said the Gophers’ tackle is still in the “middle of the learning process.” Maximizing technique and learning all the ways of playing his position takes time. “But even this year if he takes the throttle off of himself and plays hard and plays smart and plays with leverage and runs to the ball I think he can be special,” Thompson said. “He can get away without actually having great technique when you’re bigger and stronger than everyone. …There’s not many people like him playing college football.”

Worth Noting

Sources told Sports Headliners this week that Roger Schipper will not return as Gophers athletic trainer. Schipper completed his 28^th season last March as the Minnesota trainer.

David Benedict, deputy athletic director for the Gophers, said last week that the public season ticket sale for football was about 29,000 including 1,800 new tickets. He also said student season tickets may total 5,000.

Gophers freshman Donohvan Jones, the quarterback turned wide receiver, has a 40 inch vertical jump.

Gophers athletic director Norwood Teague speaks to the C.O.R.E.S. group on Thursday, September 12 at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Bloomington. Reservations for the luncheon and program should be made by Monday, September 9. For more information contact Jim Dotseth, dotsethj@comcast.net.

Stillwater-based Creative Charters has sold-out its fan trips to New Mexico State for the Gophers and to London for the Vikings. Working with the University of Minnesota Alumni Association, Creative Charters has a discount price through next Wednesday on travel to the Gophers game at Northwestern on October 19.

The Seahawks, including Vikings alums Percy Harvin, Sidney Rice and Antoine Winfield, are among the most mentioned teams to win the NFC and the Super Bowl.

The Big Ten’s biggest game of the opening weekend is tomorrow night when Northwestern, an underdog pick to win the Legends Division, plays at California where pass-happy Golden Bears head coach Sonny Dykes makes his debut in Berkley.

Minneapolis attorney Bob Stein, the former Timberwolves president and ex-football player with the Gophers and NFL Chiefs, is part of the legal team representing retired NFL players who have filed a lawsuit against NFL Films regarding their publicity rights.

Twins president Dave St. Peter told Sports Headliners this morning not to expect phenoms Miguel Sano and Byron Buxton to be part of the team’s September 1 call ups of minor league players. Both will be in spring training, though, with the Twins next year.

Circle it date for prep football: Wayzata at Eden Prairie, 7 p.m. on October 11.

With the MIAC starting another school year, the conference hopes to build on its success in athletics that includes 43 NCAA team national championships and 243 individual national titles.

The Wild will introduce a new white road jersey at the Minnesota State Fair’s FAN Central building on Sunday at 11:30 a.m. The building is located at the intersection of Dan Patch Avenue and Underwood Street.

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Stakes High in U Facilities Future

Posted on August 28, 2013August 28, 2013 by David Shama

When athletic director Norwood Teague announced his $190 million plan to upgrade Gophers athletic facilities earlier this summer few people ever thought about Minnesota’s future as a member of the Big Ten Conference.

Perhaps they should have.

There might come a time when the Big Ten decides schools that aren’t investing in their athletic programs are also not worthy of membership in the historic conference. “I think that’s a possibility,” Mark Sheffert told Sports Headliners.

Sheffert is a University of Minnesota alum, Gophers fan and supporter, former president of First Bank System and now CEO of Minneapolis-based Manchester Companies, a company providing strategic and financial planning to businesses. He’s also a personable guy with a modest manner who has the respect of local leaders in the business community and at the University of Minnesota.

The Gophers have fallen far behind in athletic facilities compared with schools in the Big Ten and elsewhere. The needs list includes the often publicized absence of a basketball practice facility for men’s and women’s teams but goes way deeper. A football complex, academic center, training table, women’s gymnastics facility, wrestling training facility, Olympic sport indoor practice facility and outdoor Olympic sport track were all in the details Teague announced last month.

“There was a report a couple of years ago that showed Minnesota was second to last (in the Big Ten) in re-investing (in facilities),” Sheffert said. “Purdue was last. We were also second to last in donations to the athletic department.”

That’s the kind of stuff that one day might lead to head scratching in the Big Ten office in Chicago about Minnesota’s future. The Gophers not only are behind in facilities but the football program has mostly been in free fall for decades. Every conference school has been to the Rose Bowl more recently than the Gophers who last visited Pasadena in 1962. Minnesota hasn’t won a Big Ten football championship since 1967.

In basketball, the record the last four decades is better but doesn’t exactly glitter. During the past 15 years the Gophers have mostly been second division finishers in the Big Ten. Before that period there was the embarrassing and expensive academic scandal of the coach Clem Haskins era that wiped out a Big Ten championship and NCAA Final Four appearance. Even further back in Gophers basketball history there were other sanctions by the NCAA.

The high profile sports of football and men’s basketball are what drive the big revenues in college sports today. The profits made are sometimes stunning. Texas, for example, had about a $71 million football profit for school year 2010-11, according to a December 28, 2011 article by Businessofcollegesports.com. The Gophers’ football profit of approximately $13.5 million ranked No. 30 in the nation (down from No. 25 the year before). The profit in basketball of about $9.5 million ranked No. 47 in the country among football and basketball programs. The potential to grow profits at Minnesota is considerable in both sports.

Minnesota’s annual share of the Big Ten TV income pot is over $21 million and without it the Gophers athletic department would operate in the red, likely unable to sustain a 23 sport program that includes 12 women’s teams and 11 men’s teams. “If we don’t make investments in our sports, I think the Big Ten Conference will look for teams that are investing and will be competitive,” Sheffert said. “You don’t watch two teams (on TV) not investing in their programs and who are battling for last place in the standings. If you’re an advertiser, you don’t buy time with two teams last in the conference.”

Athletic departments have to “think like a business” and “take stock” of weaknesses, Sheffert said. In a visit he made to Lincoln, Nebraska to study the Cornhuskers athletic facilities he saw what the better programs are doing.

The Gophers have one practice field for football. At Nebraska Sheffert saw three fields, creating opportunities for the offense, defense and special teams to each have their own space.

The Gibson-Nagurski football complex where the Gophers practice is about 30 years old and Sheffert said it has a leaky roof. The building is sometimes shared with the softball and golf teams because of the minimal indoor facilities for Gophers teams.

Passionate college football fans know that schools like Ohio State, Michigan and Nebraska have far superior facilities to Minnesota’s. The comparisons are striking, even when it comes to meal time. “The (Gophers) football team eats dinner in the hallway (at Gibson-Nagurski),” Sheffert said.

At Nebraska there is a large dining room. Sheffert said football players and other athletes see food offerings that are color coded at the training table, helping to guide selections depending on whether athletes are preparing for game days or practice days. “You don’t even have to think what you should eat,” he said.

At Minnesota a donor stepped forward to buy more computers to help athletes with academics and close a small gap between what the Gophers have in technology compared with other schools. Those same athletes sometimes receive tutoring in open settings while at other schools there are private rooms. Places like Michigan and Nebraska have elaborate programs to track and tutor athletes, creating more likelihood athletes will perform better academically.

Sheffert said at those schools the athletic departments have their own orthopedic doctors and pharmacies on-site. Such resources can influence parents and recruits who at a place like Nebraska will even be impressed by the setting for the coach’s office. Bo Pelini’s office doubles as a suite and looks out over Memorial Stadium.

Ask Gophers coach Jerry Kill if he can lose recruits because of facilities and he will say yes. He has a new stadium that opened in 2009 but there’s so much more to the facilities picture than where a school plays seven or eight home games each year.

All of this doesn’t even address basketball where the Gophers and Northwestern are the only Big Ten schools without designated practice facilities other than their gameday arenas. At Nebraska, Sheffert was impressed with the Cornhuskers’ facilities including the technology. The Huskers not only have multiple practice courts but players can sit at their lockers and swipe a card to study game action of themselves on computers. In the showers they can swipe cards to hear favorite music.

Sheffert said at Nebraska, unlike Minnesota, there are separate weight rooms for football, basketball and wrestling. And this fall the basketball team will be competing in a new $180 million arena.

It’s not just Nebraska, Michigan and a few others that are investing in their programs. Google searches quickly show $55 million projects either completed or in motion for other Big Ten schools. Oregon has opened a $68 million football complex that is so lavish it commanded a photo spread in Sports Illustrated this summer.

The August 5 issue of the Businessofcollegesports.com reported that Utah has opened a $32 million football facility. Duke is working “in earnest” on a $100 million facilities plan, according to the website. The Air Force Academy is considering a $50 million-plus renovation of its football stadium.

“We continue to fall behind…teams that are competitive,” Sheffert said. “We have to start with the idea that football, basketball and hockey are the entertainment business. They are (played by) student athletes and we owe it to them to provide the best facilities (for academics and athletics) that we can. We are at a competitive disadvantage when recruiting the best players in the country.”

The disadvantage goes beyond facilities. Kill has been at the bottom of the Big Ten’s salaries for head football coaches since he came to Minnesota in 2010. Presuming Kill continues to improve the Gophers football product, Minnesota will become increasingly at risk for losing a popular coach who is admired around the country not only for his football IQ but also his moral values and concern for the community.

So far Kill has been able to hold on to his assistant coaches although it’s a group that is far from the best paid in the Big Ten. Gophers offensive coordinator Matt Limegrover and defensive coordinator Tracy Claeys don’t rank among the top 10 paid coordinators in the league, according to a May 4 Espn.com story by Adam Wittenberg. In a league where only 18 assistants make less than $200,000 per year, 15 of them work for Minnesota, Illinois, Purdue and Indiana, according to Wittenberg.

Sheffert assesses the financial landscape at Minnesota and voices optimism. “I view it as a great opportunity,” he said. He is part of a group that has dialogued with Teague and University of Minnesota president Eric Kaler.

Sheffert knows more than a little about money and he said there are different ways to finance facilities improvements. Those options can include fundraising but also borrowing money in a responsible way while taking advantage of favorable construction rates as the economy continues to recover. “We may have to take a risk but we take a risk by not doing anything,” Sheffert said.

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