Category: Golden Gophers

Coach Jerry Kill and his staff had three junior college defensive backs on campus last weekend, according to GopherIllustrated.com. Minnesota is recruiting Jeremy Baltazar from Blinn College in Brenham, Texas, and two players from Trinity Community College in Athens, Texas, Martez Shabazz and Clifford Stokes.

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

The Vikings practice for road games with intentional noise in the background so the raucous crowd at Lambeau Field won’t be the communications challenge it might have been, according to wide receiver Greg Camarillo. “We have the most annoying speakers ever for our practices and actually when it comes to game time it’s not as bad as that speaker,” he said.

The Packers are off to the franchise’s first 8-0 start since 1962 and prompting speculation they could go 16-0 during the regular season. Vikings defensive end Jared Allen, playing in his eighth NFL season, was asked if Green Bay is the best team he’s seen.

“You know what? That’s for historians,” Allen anwered. “I just take it week by week. You know, obviously they’re the best team in the league right now. They’re the reigning (Super Bowl) champs and they’re undefeated. We have the upper hand on most teams that are playing them ─ we played them already once and we gave them a pretty good shot. Everybody is beatable. …We gotta go up there and give them their first loss and get after them.”

The Gophers basketball team plays South Dakota State at home tonight. The Jackrabbits are a Division I team and lost 85-73 to Minnesota last year in Williams Arena. South Dakota State opened its regular season on Saturday with an 82-76 win over Western Michigan. Nate Wolters, who played for St. Cloud Tech, had 32 points, 11 assists and no turnovers for the Jackrabbits Saturday.

The Gophers have struggled to open up big leads in two exhibitions and one regular season game but rallied late to close out games. Friday night in the regular season opener Minnesota and Bucknell were tied at 53 with about four minutes remaining. Encouraging for the Gophers was the late minute play of guards Austin Hollins and Julian Welch.

Hamline will honor Don Meyer tomorrow night at a ceremony prior to its game with Northwestern College (St. Paul). He is the men’s college basketball all-time winningest coach with 923 wins, and the first 37 came at Hamline in the early 1970s. Now retired from coaching, Meyer is included in Hamline’s “Ring of Honor,” recognizing the school’s basketball greats.

The Wild will hold a pregame tribute to the late Derek Boogaard on Sunday, November 27. Parents Len and Joanne along with siblings Aaron, Krysten and Ryan are scheduled to attend. The Wild will play Calgary that night.

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There was less than seven minutes to play in the game last fall and Wisconsin scored against the Gophers, pushing their lead to a more than safe 25 points. Badgers coach Bret Bielema called for a two-point conversion, trying to increase the score to 43-16.

The conversion attempt failed and to Gophers fans so did Bielema’s post-game explanation that his play card called for a two-point conversion rather than kicking the extra point. Minnesotans, already aware of the testy relationship between Bielema and Gophers coach Tim Brewster, saw the drama as an attempt to run up the score, even if only by a couple more points.

The incident is remembered by the Gophers who tomorrow play Wisconsin at TCF Bank Stadium. “It did sting,” sophomore cornerback Brock Vereen said. “The game as a whole stung the most, but that added to it a little bit. I know that guys on the team are going to use that to bring with them Saturday.”

The 2-7 Gophers will not lack for motivation against the 7-2 nationally ranked Badgers. Wisconsin-Minnesota is the most played rivalry in the FBS, with the series dating back to 1890. The Gophers have lost seven consecutive games to Wisconsin and would like to regain Paul Bunyan’s Axe.

Wisconsin is more than a 25 point favorite to win but predictions the Gophers will lose is nothing new to a team that is 1-4 in the Big Ten and has mostly been an underdog all season. “I think going into every game we’ve seen ourselves as underdogs and that’s helped us,” Vereen said. “We always play with nothing to lose and that helps us play loose, and helps us play fast.”

With three games remaining on their schedule the Gophers can’t qualify for the necessary six wins to be bowl eligible. A win over the Badgers would take some pain out of a season that includes a 58-0 loss to Michigan and 45-17 loss to a mediocre Purdue team.

“It would be huge (a win tomorrow),” Vereen said. “This is the biggest rivalry in college football. This is a game that is always circled on our schedule. The city is going to be going wild and I am sure they’re (the Badgers) going to bring a lot of their people with them. It’s just a moment that you want to relish and you can’t wait to get to it.”

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