Golden Gophers – Page 402 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Gophers Recruiting? Let’s Be Honest.

Posted on November 2, 2011November 27, 2011 by David Shama

Rivals.com ranks the Gophers 2012 football recruiting class last in the Big Ten. Is that a precursor of more losing seasons in Dinkytown? Well, that depends on whether your beer stein is half empty or half full.

Rivals lists 22 verbal commitments for the Gophers and only six of those players had offers from other BCS schools, according to local Rivals expert Zach Johnson. “They have a lot of solid commitments right now, but no one I think on paper that would excite a lot of people,” he told Sports Headliners.

The Gophers have nearly a full recruiting class already and more commitments than 10 other Big Ten schools, according to the Rivals website. That means there’s not much remaining potential for the Gophers to bolster their rankings by Rivals and others who evaluate college recruiting.

But Johnson, whose byline is seen on GopherIllustrated.com, pointed out that because many of the Gophers recruits committed early they didn’t position themselves to collect multiple offers from BCS schools. Mankato West quarterback Phil Nelson is an example of a player who could certainly have had more than the one offer from Minnesota. “I would want to count a kid like that,” Johnson said.

What Gophers fans can count on with Kill and his staff is a recruiting approach that won’t shoot for the moon trying to lure high profile four and five-star prospects. Kill and his assistants will trust their evaluation skills to identify talent they can develop into Big Ten winners.

“That’s what he’s going to have to do to build this program because right now ─ with the current status of the program ─ you’re not going to be able to lure in a lot of four-star recruits that have offers from the top teams in BCS conferences,” Johnson said.

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Worth Noting

Posted on November 2, 2011November 27, 2011 by David Shama

Lindy’s Sports College Basketball Magazine’s choice for “Most Entertaining” player in the Big Ten is Minnesota’s Rodney Williams. The 6-7 junior forward hasn’t approached his potential but his athleticism is eye-catching. In practice Williams has not only been in his usual role of small forward, but he has also played power forward.

Senior forward Trevor Mbakwe played like an All-Big Ten player last night in Minnesota’s opening exhibition game, a 71-58 win over Bemidji State. Mbakwe played hard and was an inside force scoring and rebounding for the Gophers, finishing with a double-double of 17 points and 11 rebounds.

Prep basketball authority Ken Lien emailed news that 6-foot-7 forward C.J. Neumann from Cretin-Derham Hall has committed to Wofford.

Wonder if anyone who sent a wedding gift last August is asking for a return after this week’s announcement that former Gophers ball hog Kris Humphries and Kim Kardashian plan to divorce?

When the WNBA draft lottery is held Thursday, November 10, the Lynx have the second best odds of winning the No. 1 pick. The lottery is for teams who didn’t make the playoffs but the WNBA champion Lynx have Washington’s draft pick ─ currently slotted at No. 2 ─ because of a trade earlier this year. The lottery determines the first four picks in the draft.

Iowa athletic director Gary Barta compared his 2010 hire of basketball coach Fran McCaffery with Minnesota’s decision to choose Jerry Kill as the new Gophers coach. Both coaches were program builders at lower level schools before coming to the Big Ten and Barta said it’s not always the “sexy hire” who is the best person for the job.

Barta, who played high school football for Burnsville, describes Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz as the “best” football coach in the country. Under Ferentz Iowa has only two losing seasons in the Big Ten since 2000.

Wherever Kill has coached, he’s made special teams a priority. The Gophers’ two wins this season have turned on a few big plays including a blocked punt returned for the decisive touchdown against Miami (Ohio) in September and an onside kickoff that set up the winning drive in last Saturday’s win over Iowa.

Talkative Vikings punter Chris Kluwe hosts the “Know Your Vikings” segment on the Mall of America Field video screen during home games. He includes a question for the interviewee like this: If a tree falls in the forest does it make a sound?

Rookie tight end Kyle Rudolph didn’t hesitate with an “of course not” correct answer to that question.

Christian Ponder said in the October 31 issue of Sports Illustrated that Green Bay’s Clay Mathews told him during the Vikings-Packers game in Minneapolis last month to stop running because he “wasn’t Tim Tebow.”

In the preseason MIAC women’s hockey coaches poll, Gustavus received nine of 10 first place votes. A 2012 Gusties league title would be the program’s eighth in a row.

The men’s hockey poll resulted in considerably more difference of opinion, with St. Thomas picked to finish first in the conference race. The Tommies received 60 points followed by Gustavus (52), Concordia (51) and Hamline (49).

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Iowa AD: U Football Potential ‘Special’

Posted on October 31, 2011December 27, 2011 by David Shama

Gophers football notes:

Iowa athletic director Gary Barta is familiar with Gophers coach Jerry Kill’s program building history and he talked about the task at Minnesota prior to his Hawkeyes 22-21 loss on Saturday. “I think very highly of Jerry ─ his background,” Barta told Sports Headliners. “They (Kill and his staff) start a program that is struggling, and they brought it up to success each step of the way if you look at their history.

“The other thing they have is continuity. They have stayed together as a coaching staff. That builds trust.”

Barta, who is a Minnesota native, said the Gophers have a proud football tradition, a new facility (TCF Bank Stadium) and a new coach in Kill. “You have all the ingredients to create that (program building) foundation and do something special,” he said.

Barta said Iowa home football games generate about $100 million in economic activity each year in the greater Iowa City area.”

Iowa defensive coordinator Norm Parker, who was on the Gophers staff in the 1970s, was using a walker to get around in the press box on Saturday at TCF Bank Stadium. Parker had his right foot amputated last year.

Here are Sports Headliners’ weekly rankings of Big Ten Football teams: Nebraska, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, Illinois, Iowa, Purdue, Northwestern, Minnesota and Indiana.

Businessofcollegesports.com reports that for school year 2009-10 the Gophers football program produced a profit of $14,888,989, finishing No. 25 nationally on a list ranking the profitability of major college football and basketball programs. The Gophers basketball program is among the more profitable in the country and placed No. 49 in the combined football-basketball rankings at $8,041,167.

The basketball programs at Louisville, Duke, North Carolina, Arizona, Ohio State, Syracuse, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Arkansas ranked ahead of the Gophers, according to the article posted in June of this year.

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