Leslie Frazier – Page 2 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Frazier Knows Vikes but Will It Matter?

Posted on October 20, 2014October 20, 2014 by David Shama

A year ago Leslie Frazier was the Vikings head coach but on Sunday his job will be to help defeat his old team. In his role as the Bucs defensive coordinator, Frazier will not only lead the plan of how to stop the Vikings but he is qualified to provide information to his fellow Tampa Bay coaches about the personnel he had on the Minnesota roster.

“I am sure this is going to be one he wants to win,” Vikings linebacker Audie Cole told Sports Headliners today. “You want to beat your last team. I am sure he’s going to be thinking about it.”

Frazier’s familiarity with players he coached here could help the Bucs. “It always gives a coach the upper hand” knowing his former players, said Vikings long snapper Cullen Loeffler who like other players interviewed voiced respect and fondness for Frazier.

It won’t be Frazier’s intent but he could witness an improvement in the Vikings’ offense on Sunday. The Vikings, 2-5, have managed to score just 45 points in their losses, averaging nine points per game. Frazier has seen his unit give up the most points, 204, of any NFL team so far this season.

The Bucs, 1-5, had a bye yesterday. It had to be welcome after a 48-17 loss to the Ravens a week ago Sunday. In that game Tampa Bay was behind 38-0 in the second quarter. The Bucs are giving up an NFL worst 422.8 yards per game and fans have to wonder if the team’s Tampa 2 defensive alignment is passé.

Frazier and Bucs coach Lovie Smith have long been advocates of the defense but things haven’t gone well in their first season together in Tampa Bay. Results aren’t so good in the points production category, either. The Bucs have scored 120 points and that total ties them with the Vikings for lowest in the NFC.

The Vikings, though, have 120 points in seven games, while the Bucs have only played six games. Minnesota has scored just two touchdowns in the last three games, all losses. Playing with “spare parts,” the Vikings’ offense is without five starters who began the season as regulars including quarterback Matt Cassel, running back Adrian Peterson and tight end Kyle Rudolph.

The Vikings’ offense has to be hoping it’s the same old same old on Sunday for the Bucs’ defense. Both teams are almost desperate in need of a win as the midpoint in the NFL schedule approaches. The Vikings will take that win against anyone including their former coach, Frazier. “We’ll talk to him after the game but I gotta get ready for a win against Tampa Bay,” said defensive end Brian Robison. “That’s all I am concerned about.”

Worth Noting

A bronze statue of Bud Grant will be unveiled outside the Winnipeg Blue Bombers stadium this week. Grant coached the Bombers to four Grey Cup championships. He led the Bombers of the CFL before coaching the Vikings to four Super Bowls.

Troubled wide receiver Percy Harvin, who was traded last week by the Seahawks to the Jets, was dealt by the Vikings to Seattle in 2013 for draft choices that turned out to include defensive back Xavier Rhodes and running back Jerick McKinnon, both contributors to this year’s team.

Here’s how Sports Headliners ranks the Big Ten teams at about halfway through the college football season: 1. Michigan State; 2. Ohio State; 3. Nebraska; 4. Wisconsin; 5. Maryland; 6. Minnesota; 7. Iowa; 8. Penn State; 9. Northwestern; 10. Michigan; 11. Rutgers; 12. Purdue; 13. Illinois; 14. Indiana.

A representative of the Florida Citrus Bowl attended the Gophers-Purdue game on Saturday and later congratulated Minnesota coach Jerry Kill on his team’s win. Located in Orlando, Florida, the bowl was formerly known as the Capital One Bowl and is seeking a new corporate sponsor. The Citrus Bowl is played on January 1 of each year. The Gophers, 6-1 overall and 3-0 in the Big Ten, haven’t played in a January 1 bowl game since 1962.

Kill on coaching this team: “I told them all year, if you listen to us (the coaches), you listen to me, good things will happen.”

The Gophers sold about 9,700 student tickets for the Purdue game with about 9,000 of those tickets used, according to an athletic department source. The announced attendance of 51,241 was a TCF Bank Stadium record for a Gophers game.

Former Iowa All-American quarterback Chuck Long, who was in Minneapolis to provide color commentary on the game, was asked if he will lobby Big Ten Network decision makers to work the telecast of the November 8 Gophers-Hawkeyes game on November 8. “They won’t let me do Iowa games,” he said laughing. “I show too much bias.”

The optimistic guess on Gophers running back David Cobb is he will be a midround NFL Draft choice. Cobb, who is fourth among Big Ten rushers with 144.7 yards per game, doesn’t have breakaway speed but he is an extraordinary runner for Minnesota. A senior, the Gophers wish they had redshirted him.

The Gophers Tommy Olson is one of 167 semifinalists for the William V. Campbell Trophy given to the best college football scholar-athlete. Others on the list include Division II players Thomas Obarski, Concordia, St. Paul; Charlie Kem, Southwest Minnesota State; and Ryan Gerts, Winona State; and from Division III Josh Treimer, Bethel; Josh Sinnen, Northwestern, St. Paul; and J.T. Ford, Saint John’s.

Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen was in his second season with the Bulldogs in 2010 when the Gophers were looking to replace head coach Tim Brewster. Mullen, who has Mississippi State No. 1 ranked in the polls, wasn’t interested in the Gophers job, a source told Sports Headliners on Saturday.

The Don Lucia Radio Show will be heard Monday nights from 6 to 6:30 p.m. on 1500 ESPN. The first show of the season is tonight and the Gophers hockey coach is joined by co-hosts Judd Zulgad and Wally Shaver.

Minnesota Wild—the restaurant—is scheduled to open later this month at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport. The hockey-themed restaurant will seat over 200 customers and will be located beyond the Terminal 2-Humphrey security checkpoint. There will be displays of goalie helmets, jerseys from the Wild and also youth players from around the state of Minnesota, and a mosaic made with hockey pucks in the shape of the State of Hockey logo.

WCHA commissioner Bill Robertson meets tomorrow with representatives from Xcel Energy Center and Visit Saint Paul to discuss ideas to make the league’s March 20-21 Final Five Tournament a hospitality success. The agenda will target ways to benefit fans including through the involvement of bars and restaurants.

George Smilanich, 92 and a former Iron Range coach, served in World War II and was a consultant for the new movie “The Fury” starring Brad Pitt. Smilanich drove a Sherman tank during the war.

Highlights of the Gophers’ baseball schedule for next year include a March 4 exhibition game in Fort Myers against the Twins. The Gophers will also play games at Maryland and Rutgers, the two new programs in the Big Ten Conference which now has 13 teams (Wisconsin doesn’t participate in baseball). Minnesota’s home opener is scheduled for March 24 at Siebert Field. The Big Ten Tournament will be at Target Field May 20-23.

Major League Baseball faces a roll of the dice every year with the World Series and the weather gods but 2014 should not be problematic. When the Royals host games 1 and 2 in Kansas City Tuesday and Wednesday evenings temps will be in the 60s and 70s. Giants games in San Francisco figure to be played in mild weather too.

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Vikings Need to Avoid Panic Hire

Posted on January 8, 2014January 8, 2014 by David Shama

Dave Mona was retained as a consultant by the University of Minnesota in 2010 to assist in the search for a new football coach. It was a successful process leading to the hire of Jerry Kill as coach.

Hiring Northern Illinois’ Kill, a low profile coach who didn’t come from a football power conference, wasn’t enthusiastically endorsed by the public. However, Kill has improved the Gophers in each of his three seasons, demonstrating he has a plan and the ability to build a competitive Big Ten Conference program.

Mona, a University of Minnesota alum and now a recently retired business executive, isn’t surprised by Kill’s success. He and then Gophers athletic director Joel Maturi were repeatedly told during the search that Kill was viewed as a special coach by his peers.

Mona learned lessons during the search that apply to the Vikings who are looking for a head coach to replace Leslie Frazier. At some point there will be a candidate or two the Vikings will like a lot before completing their reviews. “There’s a bit of a panic factor that you don’t want to lose your guy,” Mona told Sports Headliners. “The thing (the search) gets compressed. In business, a search might take months, a series of interviews.”

The Vikings fired Frazier in late December. General Manager Rick Spielman wants to have a new coach by January 25, if not sooner. Spielman and Vikings owners Zygi and Mark Wilf face that deadline and the competition of several other NFL teams looking for head coaches while knowing assistant coaches are in demand also.

Mona said if multiple NFL teams make hires before the Vikings, the organization can’t panic. “Can you stand up to the criticism you’re going to get in the media? ‘What’s wrong with the Vikings? Why aren’t they making their move?’

“I think no matter how tough Spielman is, it’s hard to resist that (pressure) when it looks like you’re falling behind the pack (even though) you may be doing it the right way.”

A factor sometimes receiving minimal mention during searches is “chemistry” between the decision-makers who have to work together. “You need to have strong chemistry between the ownership, the general manager and the coach who is hired,” Mona said. “…If there’s not good chemistry and you get off to a bad start, it rarely gets better. I think you’ve got to have people who philosophically are on the same page.”

Coaching searches often result in hires who are the opposite of the leaders they replace. A coach with a reputation for being offensive oriented is replaced by a defensive authority. A rah-rah leader is hired to take over for a coach who was quiet on and off the field.

Mona was warned by human resources experts about hiring opposites. “You have to be careful not to go too far because in solving one problem, you might create another,” he said.

The co-host for years of the Sunday morning WCCO Radio “Sports Huddle” program, Mona has followed the Vikings since the franchise began in 1961. How does he describe the type of coach the club should hire?

“Ideally, I think this person is going to have to identify and develop a quarterback that can lead the team for the next decade. Someone with proven experience recognizing and developing skill in quarterbacks.

“I (also) think a good evaluator of people and the ability to put out a team that reflects what’s happening in a changing league. We’ve been a solid 4-3 team. There’s a lot of success out there with 3-4 defenses. There are offensive schemes we’ve probably stayed away from.”

Worth Noting

Expect a high school quarterback and junior college linebacker to enroll at the University of Minnesota later this month. Both would take part in spring football, with the quarterback having four years of eligibility and the linebacker three.

Gophers offensive tackle Ben Lauer has been named to the Football Writers Association Freshman All-America Team. He was a first team selection.

Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski will visit Rice Lake, Wisconsin later this month to see highly recruited prep star Henry Ellenson, brother of Gophers sophomore forward Wally Ellenson.

The Gophers basketball team plays at Penn State tonight against a Nittany Lions roster that includes freshman guard Graham Woodward from Edina. Woodward has played in 12 games, averaging 2.6 points per game.

The Gophers avoided a 0-2 start in the Big Ten season by defeating Purdue, 82-79, on Sunday at Williams Arena. Coach Richard Pitino’s Gophers lost their first conference game last Thursday against Michigan at Williams Arena.

“Coach said it wasn’t really a must-win (Sunday) but we felt it was a must-win as a team,” said Minnesota guard DeAndre Mathieu. “…0-2 in the Big Ten wouldn’t have been what we expected. We expected to be 2-0 and we came out 1-1. We’ll just have to be satisfied (with) 1-1.”

The Gophers wore gold home uniforms for the Michigan game and then brought out their home whites on Sunday. Are they superstitious about uniforms? “I think so because we won every game in the whites so far,” Mathieu said. “Even the big game over Florida State we wore the whites.”

The Gophers led Purdue by 19 points multiple times but the game was close in the final minutes. Pitino said the first 35 minutes of the game’s 40 minutes “absolutely” were his team’s best of the season.

A look at the most immediate games ahead on the schedule indicates how important the Purdue win was. Although PennState is 0-2 in the Big Ten with 16 and 20 point losses to Michigan State and Illinois, Minnesota knows road wins don’t come easy (last season the Gophers lost eight of nine away from home). After Penn State the Gophers have consecutive games with top 25 ranked teams—at Michigan State, home against Ohio State, at Iowa and home with Wisconsin. OSU, MSU and Wisconsin are ranked among the top five teams in the nation.

Gophers forward Oto Osenieks was inspired as a teenager in his native Latvia when he watched American basketball on TV. He came to the United States where he first played AAU basketball followed by one year of high school competition. He has become a starter for the Gophers as a redshirt junior and turns 23 in March. “I am old,” he said.

There is an extraordinary new sports book on Ted Williams that reports on his life including the 1938 season with the Minneapolis Millers. There are other Minnesota references including to Bob Short who moved the Lakers from Minneapolis to Los Angeles before buying baseball’s Washington Senators and making Williams his manager. The Kid The Immortal Life of Ted Williams is written by investigative journalist Ben Bradlee, Jr. and is 855 pages.

Right wing Eriah Hayes, a La Crescent, Minnesota native, has played in two games for the NHL Sharks since being recalled from Worcester of the AHL. The former Minnesota State, Mankato player had eight points in 29 games for Worcester, his first full season of pro hockey. During the 2012-13 college season he led the nation in shots on goal with 186.

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Reports Heat Up on Leslie Frazier

Posted on December 29, 2013December 29, 2013 by David Shama

Decisions about the Vikings coaching staff — including head coach Leslie Frazier’s future — will be made now that the 2013 season is over but there will be a lot of disappointed players if Frazier doesn’t return next year.

Speculation increased today that Frazier will not return as coach. Commanding the most attention this afternoon was a report by Jay Glazer of Fox Sports that Frazier will be dismissed tomorrow.

Frazier said at his post game press conference today he “doesn’t get concerned about reports about my job.” He also said he hasn’t been told about a meeting with ownership tomorrow.

Vikings owner Zygi Wilf watched today’s Vikings-Lions game at Mall of America Field. He declined to talk with media about Frazier’s future.

“I think the guys in this locker room all support coach Frazier,” Vikings tight end Kyle Rudolph told Sports Headliners on Friday.

Frazier was a defensive back on the 1985 Bears Super Bowl champions and Rudolph said the Vikings appreciate the playing experience of their coach. “There’s nothing worse than a coach that’s never played the game; (someone) that kind of expects things from you that are not realistic.

“He knows what it’s like to be in our shoes. He has realistic expectations from us. It’s out of our control what happens in the next couple weeks but I think he definitely has the support of the guys in this locker room.”

The Vikings, who were 10-6 last season and made the playoffs, finished their year with a 14-13 win over the Lions. The 2013 season record was 5-10-1. Asked if the team psyche could be described as shocked, Rudolph answered: “Definitely.”

The Vikings lost four games by four points or less, plus a tie with the Packers. If those games had been wins, the Vikings would have won the NFC North and made the playoffs again.

Rudolph said before the season expectations were for a deep playoff run. “If your expectations weren’t to win the Super Bowl this year, then I don’t know why you would have been here,” he said.

Instead, Frazier has finished up his second losing season in the last three (3-13 in 2011). The disappointment of 2013 hasn’t changed the admiration Rudolph and others have of Frazier, though.

“I don’t think you can find a better person,” Rudolph said. “You may find other people as good as him in that (coaching) profession, but you won’t find anyone that’s a better person than he is.”

Worth Noting

The outside temperature at kickoff for today’s game was about minus four. The Vikings are likely to play in that kind of cold next year at outdoor TCF Bank Stadium. Spokesman Jeff Anderson said the club expects to soon choose a state-of-the-art heating system for the stadium field that will be installed for next season. Without such a system, the playing surface would be too hard and unsafe for December and January games.

Vikings running back Toby Gerhart joking after being asked about the team playing outdoors next season: “A lot of Minnesotans think we’re soft playing at the dome.”

Gerhart, a free agent for 2014, is not sure where he wants to play next season but when asked said he could be interested in joining his ex-college coach Jim Harbaugh with the 49ers. “I had a good relationship with him,” Gerhart said. “It would be fun to reunite.”

Former Viking Robert Smith addressed the Mall of America Field crowd today at the final game ever in the Metrodome, a facility that opened in 1982. He quoted Dr. Seuss: “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”

Joe Webb, another Vikings free agent, has finished his first NFL season as a wide receiver but admitted quarterback is still in his “heart” after playing the position “all my life.” Has he considered Canadian pro football where running quarterbacks are valued? “I’ve never been in Canada a day in my life,” he said. “God’s will. Whatever he has in store for me, that’s what I’ll take.”

Quarterback Josh Freeman was acquired by the Vikings in October but except for one game didn’t play. Webb, who played quarterback for the Vikings from 2010-2012, said it can “take a year” before a quarterback masters a team’s offensive system.

Former Vikings Pro Bowl running back Dave Osborn, who played in three Super Bowls, will be the CORES luncheon speaker on Thursday, January 9 at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Bloomington. A social period from 11:15 a.m. to noon will precede the lunch and talk by Osborn. More information, including reservations, is available from Jim Dotseth, dotsethj@comcast.net. CORES is an acronym for coaches, officials, reporters, educators and sports fans.

Gophers radio analyst and all-time leading rusher Darrell Thompson after being asked how many times Minnesota would beat Syracuse if the two teams played 10 games on a neutral field: “They are (Syracuse) better than they look on film. Gophers probably win six of 10 times.”

Gophers coach Jerry Kill said this morning on WCCO Radio star tight end Maxx Williams will not need knee surgery after being hurt in the Texas Bowl loss to Syracuse Friday night.

Washburn running back Jeff Jones plays in the Under Armour All-America High School Football Game in St. Petersburg on Thursday. Jones hasn’t made all his official visits to colleges that interest him so it’s unlikely he will announce his choice at the prestigious prep all-star game that will be televised on ESPN beginning at 3 p.m. Minneapolis time.

Marv Wolfenson, the original Timberwolves owner who died earlier this month, once told me he thought about naming his NBA expansion club the Polars. Wolfenson attended North High School and played basketball for the Polars.

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