Leslie Frazier – Page 10 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Ex-Coach: Vikes Put Ego on ‘Shelf’

Posted on October 8, 2012October 8, 2012 by David Shama

Dean Dalton told Sports Headliners the Vikings, who have already won more games than all of last season, are a “team playing for each other.”

Minnesota, 4-1 and tied for first with the Bears in the NFC North, defeated the Titans 30-7 at Mall of America Field yesterday. During consecutive wins over the 49ers, Lions and Titans the Vikings avoided critical errors and giving up big plays, often playing effectively on offense, defense and special teams.

The Vikings are making use of their talent with consistent and steady play. Dalton, the former Vikings assistant coach, credited head coach Leslie Frazier with creating a “culture of success” with his leadership after confronting difficult past challenges including last season’s 3-13 record.

Dalton, who hosts a weekly NFL show on Sirius Satellite Radio, said the Vikings have come together as a team by leaving “the ego on the shelf.” He also said the Vikings could be a playoff club by season’s end.

Vikings center John Sullivan said after the game that Dalton’s evaluation about “team first” is true. Sullivan added that because Frazier is a former NFL player, the coach relates effectively to the Vikings.

“With a playing background, he really knows what he’s talking about in terms of addressing us from a player’s perspective,” Sullivan said. “I think he’s done an outstanding job. We’re 100 percent behind him.”

Worth Noting

Sullivan, talking about second-year quarterback Christian Ponder, who has thrown only two interceptions this season but six touchdown passes: “We have the utmost confidence in him. He’s our leader. He’s our quarterback. I think we’re going to do big things with him at the helm.”

Vikings receiver-runner Percy Harvin had a remarkable first quarter touchdown run of four yards where he combined speed, cutting ability and power. “I am blessed with a lot of ability. That’s my thing. I just try to get in open space, ever since I was younger. If I can get in open space, I feel like I can make things happen. It was a missed tackle by them.”

Harvin was asked what tacklers say who are almost faked out of their shoes: “A couple of them tell me to slow down, that they can’t catch up. I just look at them and laugh and say that’s my job.”

The Vikings’ only loss was in game No. 2 against the Colts. Vikings defensive end Jared Allen believes the defense is different now. “…Something clicked after that loss to the Colts. We were out of body and out of character for what we do but we’ve gotten back to that. A lot of credit goes to coach (Alan) Williams (defensive coordinator) because he was able to recognize that and listen to some of the vets, take ideas in, and hone in what we do.”

Danielle Kalil, sister of Vikings offensive rookie tackle Matt Kalil, sang the National Anthem before yesterday’s game.

Attendance at yesterday’s game was 57,652. Attendance for the Vikings’ first three regular season home games has yet to reach 60,000 at Mall of America Field (capacity about 64,000).

Vikings owner and president Mark Wilf said it’s likely the team will be playing the 2014 and 2015 seasons at TCF Bank Stadium while the new stadium is being built on the Mall of America Field site.

Roger Goodell, NFL commissioner, attended yesterday’s game and said the Vikings have expressed interest in hosting the Super Bowl in 2018, 2019 or 2020 but no decision has been made about the site for those years.

Tickets for tonight’s Manny’s Celebrity Waiters Night with Chad Greenway and Friends are sold out. The event benefits the Vikings linebacker’s Lead the Way Foundation, helping “critically and chronically ill” children in the metro area. www.chadgreenway.org

Gophers coach Jerry Kill, speaking on WCCO Radio’s Sports Huddle yesterday, was noncommittal on quarterback MarQueis Gray’s availability for next Saturday’s game with Northwestern. “Not saying he can’t be,” Kill said about Gray who has not played since September 15 because of an injured left ankle and knee. But Kill cautioned about Gray being ready for Northwestern based on what he saw from his former starting quarterback last week.

Here are Sports Headliners’ second Big Ten power rankings of the season: Ohio State, Michigan, Nebraska, Michigan State, Penn State, Wisconsin, Purdue, Northwestern, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois and Indiana.

Don Lucia’s Gophers opened their season with a 7-0 exhibition win over Lethbridge Saturday night at Mariucci Arena. The college hockey season begins in the early days of fall and at Minnesota expectations are for the Gophers to be playing in the spring for another national championship.

Lucia, whose Gophers play Michigan State at home on Friday and Saturday night, has won two national titles at Minnesota. He said expectations have always been high at Minnesota during his era but social media has added to the environment.

The Gophers lost in a semi-finals Frozen Four game to Boston College last spring and anything less than an encore appearance in the finals will be a disappointment to many. The Gophers, returning six of their top seven scorers and all six starting defensemen from last season, are joined by Boston College at the top of the early season national rankings.

Lucia, 54, is starting his 14^th season as Gophers head coach. He had health problems a couple years back but told Sports Headliners he’s fine now. How much longer does he want to coach?

Lucia said a “few more” seasons and quipped he doesn’t plan to be another “Red Berenson,” the 72-year-old Michigan coach now beginning his 29^th season in Ann Arbor.

Wally Shaver starts his 20^th season of broadcasting Gophers hockey on the radio next Friday night, calling the game on 1500 ESPN. His father, legendary former North Stars broadcaster Al Shaver, is retired, living on Vancouver Island in his native Canada and turns 85 on October 25.

Various reports have Apple Valley High School junior point guard Tyus Jones visiting Duke’s Midnight Madness practice on Friday. Meanwhile the Gopher men’s and women’s teams will have their own version of Midnight Madness on Friday at Williams Arena with fans able to watch skills competitions like a dunk contest and team scrimmages. Admission is free and the arena opens at 7 p.m. A trip for two is being given away to watch the Gopher men in their late November basketball tournament in the Bahamas.

Fergus Falls High School football coach Richard Risbrudt now has 201 career wins. In 35 seasons as a head coach Risbrudt’s record is 201-144.

The new release “Trouble with the Curve,” starring Clint Eastwood, is one of the better baseball movies ever made, although not on the level of “Moneyball,” the story of Oakland baseball boss Billy Beane operating on a cheapskate budget running the A’s.

The new movie, “42,” about baseball pioneer Jackie Robinson, debuts next April but is already being promoted in theatres and a film trailer is on YouTube.

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U Markets but Student Sales Dip

Posted on September 7, 2012September 7, 2012 by David Shama

There will be a noon football pep rally today at Coffman Union that will include coach Jerry Kill, athletic director Norwood Teague and University of Minnesota president Eric Kaler. The event is part of a 2012 marketing plan to promote Gophers football to students. From student orientation to the pep rally to an email message from quarterback MarQueis Gray sent to 42,000 students, the athletic department has been reaching out to students in the days leading up to tomorrow’s opening home game against New Hampshire.

“It’s a pretty extensive plan (to reach students),” associate athletics director Jason LaFrenz told Sports Headliners. “We’re selling where they’re at.”

But when fans show up at TCF Bank Stadium tomorrow the most empty seats in the four-year-old facility could be in the bowl end—the student section. That’s sometimes been the reality in past seasons, including 2011 when student season ticket sales dropped to a TCF Bank Stadium low of 5,600.

Student season tickets ($84 for seven games) will be sold for awhile but it seems likely the final total will be 4,500 or less—way below the 10,000 in the stadium’s first season of 2009 that filled up the bowl end. The totals in 2010 and 2011 were 7,800 and 5,600.

This is the first week of classes for fall semester at Minnesota and 3,400 student season tickets had been sold as of this morning. “We all want to sell more season tickets,” LaFrenz said.

To help fill the student section tomorrow, the Gophers have distributed 5,500 free tickets to freshmen. “We’ve never done that before,” LaFrenz said. “We’re curious to see what happens.”

The athletic department is also selling a $25 ticket package to the public for the first two home games that includes a hot dog and coke. Those ticket holders will sit in the stadium’s bowl end.

Critics question the effectiveness of the athletic department’s marketing in selling student tickets. The opinion here is it’s easy to criticize but to market a product there has to be an attractive product and an audience that wants to buy the product.

During the last 20 seasons the Gophers football program has produced 50 wins and 110 losses in Big Ten Conference games. During that period the Gophers were mostly at or near the bottom of the league standings. Minnesota last won a conference championship in 1967. The Gophers haven’t been to a New Year’s Day bowl game since 1962.

Minnesota’s overall record the last two seasons is 6 wins, 18 losses. The Gophers are 19-31 overall and 10-30 in the Big Ten since 2007. The program hasn’t won a bowl game since 2005.

Students at Minnesota—if they grew up following football—are more likely to be Vikings fans than Gophers followers. That’s almost certainly a valid assumption about students who were raised in the state, surrounded by adults and peers who prefer the Vikings and the powerhouse image of the National Football League.

Most of Minnesota’s 50,000 students don’t reside on campus. That means a less captive audience for football games and other on-campus activities. And that’s been a problem for decades in drawing students to athletic events.

TCF Bank Stadium wasn’t sold out for a single game last season, despite the presence of an unusually attractive home schedule that included Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota State and Wisconsin. Those schools are box office attractions to many Minnesotans, including students, and the four programs brought thousands of rival fans to town.

Last season the Gophers averaged 47,714 in their 50,805 seat stadium—a facility that is among the newest and best in college football. Unless the Gophers contradict predictions of another unproductive season on the field, attendance is almost certain to be less than in 2011.

LaFrenz said public season tickets ($275 for seven games) renewed at 90 percent and new season buyers are being added. The public total as of this morning is 29,977, according to LaFrenz. Combine the near 30,000 with (maybe) 4,000 student season tickets, and (maybe) an average of 6,000 from single game attendees (including freebies) and the Gophers might average 40,000 fans in 2012.

That would be the lowest home average since 39,996 in 1993. Not so good, but remember part of the adult population in this town and state is as apathetic about Gophers football as the young academics in Dinkytown.

And not so bad when compared with the 16,013 who showed up in Henderson, Nevada to watch Minnesota defeat UNLV last week. That attendance was interesting and so too were the crowds involving some other Big Ten teams. Illinois, Indiana and Purdue—all programs that have produced plenty of heartache and indigestion for their fans during recent autumns—drew home crowds last Saturday of 43,441, 41,882 and 40,572.

If Kill turns the Gophers into Big Ten winners, the athletic department won’t have any problem besting those crowds.

Football & Other Notes:

New Hampshire receives $375,000 for tomorrow’s game at TCF Bank Stadium. Oregon head coach Chip Kelly was New Hampshire’s offensive coordinator before joining the Ducks in 2007. The Wildcats run a spread offense with a 4-2-5 defensive alignment.

“They’re going to snap it 90 to 100 times a game,” Kill said. “They’re no‑huddle offense. They’re going to get up, boom, boom, boom, boom.”

New Hampshire receives a smaller financial payout from the Gophers because the Wildcats are an FCS school. Western Michigan, an FBS school that will play at TCF Bank Stadium a week from Saturday, will receive $750,000. Syracuse, the Gophers’ final 2012 nonconference opponent, will earn $250,000 for playing here. That amount is based on a home-and-home arrangement where Minnesota played at Syracuse in 2009.

New athletic director Norwood Teague talking about future football scheduling: “I think with scheduling, the way I feel about it is that I want Jerry and his staff to do it. I’ll monitor it. …I don’t micromanage that.”

Last month, before the Gophers opened their season, KFAN’s Dan Barreiro predicted Minnesota will start the season with a record 7-1.

In its initial NFL power rankings, espn.com has the Vikings No. 30 among 32 league teams. The Jaguars, the team that opens the season against the Vikings on Sunday at Mall of America Field, is ranked No. 29. The top five: Packers, Patriots, Giants, 49ers and Texans.

Vikings fan and supporter Larry Spooner will sound the Gjallarhorn before the game. He will represent fans and supporters who backed legislation for the new downtown stadium.

Ex-Vikings tight end Mike Mullarkey, now in his first season as head coach of the Jaguars, began his coaching career as an assistant at Concordia University, St. Paul. Mullarkey was head coach of the Bills from 2004-2005, compiling a 14-18 record.

The three Vikings quarterbacks have a total of 13 starts in NFL regular season games. Starter Christian Ponder, now in his second season, has 10 starts while third-year and No. 2 QB Joe Webb has three. McLeod-Bethel Thompson, signed as a free agent in January, has never played in an NFL regular season game.

Coach Leslie Frazier talking about Thompson: “I like his arm strength that shows up. He has accuracy, but his command is one thing that really got all of our attention. Going all the way back to OTAs and doing the things that we did back in April, he has some confidence and some swagger about him. And you like to see that in (a) young guy and he has some talent to go along with that. He has some things that you’d like to try to develop over time and see where he ends up going.”

St. Thomas and Saint John’s, both winners in their non-conference games last Saturday, have games against UW-RiverFalls and UW-Eau Claire tomorrow. Then on September 15 the Tommies play at Saint John’s in a much anticipated MIAC opener. (St. Thomas defeated UW-Eau Claire 27-24 last Saturday.)

MIAC football teams were 7-0 in nonconference openers last weekend.

Last week Becker High School coach Dwight Lundeen won his 300^th career game, while Adrian’s Randy Strand coached his 200^th win and Springfield’s Paul Dunn got career win No. 100.

The announcement about Rochester manager Gene Glynn joining the Twins in September prompts speculation about changes for next season. While it will be stunning if manager Ron Gardenhire doesn’t return, a shake-up in the coaching staff wouldn’t be surprising given the Twins’ on-field performance the last two years.

Glynn, the Waseca native, impressed at Rochester. So, too, did hitting coach Tom Brunansky, the former Twins outfielder.

While releasing its conference schedule last week, the Big Ten office noted that six league teams were included in the early preseason national top 25 ranking by Andy Katz from espn.com: No. 1 Indiana, No. 5 Michigan, No. 8 Ohio State, No. 9 Michigan State, No. 22 Wisconsin and No. 25 Minnesota.

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Worth Noting

Posted on August 27, 2012August 27, 2012 by David Shama

Ted Mondale, Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority executive director, will be the speaker on Thursday, March 14 at the C.O.R.E.S. luncheon in Bloomington. NBA referee and Minnesota native Ken Mauer Jr. will speak at C.O.R.E.S. on Thursday, September 13. Anyone interested in more information can email Jim Dotseth at dotsethj@comcast.net. C.O.R.E.S. is an acronym for coaches, officials, reporters, educators and sports fans.

The Vikings and Gophers will give local football fans a rare local football TV doubleheader on Thursday night. The Vikings play at Houston in their final preseason game starting at 6 p.m. and KARE 11 will televise. The Gophers open their nonconference season on the road in a 10 p.m. start against UNLV broadcast on CBS Sports Network.

Vikings rookie offensive tackle Matt Kalil is relieved to have experience now in preseason games. He told Sports Headliners it was “nerve-racking” prior to the preseason opener against the 49ers but he was comfortable after the first play.

The Vikings offense is similar to what Kalil played in at USC but more sophisticated, he said. The Trojans, Kalil predicted, will probably win the national championship.

Vikings linebacker Chad Greenway, 29, acknowledged he’s in his prime years after leading the team in tackles last season with 174 and playing in his first Pro Bowl.

Vikings coach Leslie Frazier recalled how substandard the secondary performed on last season’s 3-13 team. He said an opposing secondary coach even called to tell him “you guys have to address your secondary.”

“…It’s not a lot of fun, but I think we have addressed some of those issues this offseason and now if we can keep our guys healthy it should help us to answer some questions when we play opposing offenses,” Frazier said.

John Gagliardi is preparing for his 60^th season as Saint John’s head football coach. He needs 16 wins to reach 500 career victories (484-133-11). The Johnnies open their season on Saturday at home against Northwestern College.

Saint John’s will finish fourth in the MIAC, according to a conference coaches poll. St. Thomas is picked to win the title followed by Bethel, St. Olaf, Saint John’s, Concordia, Gustavus Adolphus, Augsburg, Carleton and Hamline.

Former Gophers captain and Roosevelt High School alum Mike Svendsen will be among those inducted into the Minnesota Old Timers Football Association Hall of Fame on September 18 at the Prom Center in Oakdale. Others being induced that evening are Bob Meslow, Tom Turk, Frank Seidel and Dick Walker, according to www.tommiesports.com.

Phil Esten, University of Minnesota Alumni Association president and CEO, will leave his position in October to become executive associate athletic director for advancement at the University of California, Berkeley. Prior to his alumni assignment, Esten was associate athletics director for the Gophers.

Based on sales at wnbastore.com, the Lynx’s Maya Moore jersey is the best seller in the WNBA. Teammate Lindsay Whalen’s jersey ranks No. 10 among league players. The Lynx are No. 1 in team merchandise sales.

Pearl Park Field No. 1 in the Washburn High School district has been renamed Harmon Killebrew Field. Improvements to the field have been made including new dugouts and a scoreboard featuring Killebrew’s name and No. 3 uniform number. Funding of $300,000 was provided by the Hennepin Youth Sports Program, and Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board. Washburn has historically fielded some of the state’s better baseball teams.

Wild coach Mike Yeo and college coaches will speak at the first Herb Brooks Foundation Leadership Conference on September 15 at the National Sports Center in Blaine. The conference goal is to share with coaches from all levels of hockey what motivates players.

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