Category: Leslie Frazier

Football, basketball and baseball notes: 

Vikings coach Leslie Frazier described the potential of Cordarrelle Patterson as “very special” today and offered a review of injured players including All-Pro Adrian Peterson at his afternoon news conference.

Patterson, the rookie wide receiver and kickoff returner, was superb yesterday in the 29-26 loss to the Ravens.  He caught five passes for 141 yards including a late fourth quarter touchdown reception of 79 yards.  Can Patterson become an elite NFL player?

“Oh, there’s no question about it,” Frazier answered.  “…He’s showing that in some of the things he does when the ball is in his hands.  He has a chance to be very special for a long time.”

The Vikings’ offense is making more use of the rookie now than earlier in the season but Frazier doesn’t regret the team’s cautious approach.  “We had a plan from… the day we drafted him and how we wanted to bring him along, and it’s worked out beautifully.

“You see the things he’s done now but I don’t know if those things would have occurred in September or October if we didn’t take the approach that we took.  I think we did it the right way to get the results we wanted to be able to get at this time of the year.”

Peterson sustained a foot injury in yesterday’s game.  Frazier said the team is awaiting test results later today and consultation from a “foot doctor.”  The coach isn’t sure of Peterson’s availability for Sunday’s home game against the Eagles, nor is Frazier sure he will have second unit running back Toby Gerhart who has a hamstring injury.

Frazier hoped to have tight end Kyle Rudolph back by now from his foot injury but instead the Vikings will place him on injured reserve and his 2013 season is finished.  Frazier said quarterback Christian Ponder, who missed yesterday’s game because of concussion concerns, will be available for the Eagles.  The staff will meet today to discuss the quarterback starter for Sunday’s game.

Vikings fan Steve Nestor predicts the team will have the sixth pick in the first round of next spring’s NFL Draft and select Fresno State quarterback Derek Carr who has thrown 48 touchdown passes this season and averaged 405.5 yards per game passing.

Jeff Jones, the Washburn running back who won the state’s Mr. Football Award yesterday, wants to visit Iowa State, Michigan State and Missouri before making his college choice.  Those trips haven’t been scheduled but Jones took his first official college visit over the weekend to Minnesota, and pronounced it an “honest” look at the Gophers where he heard from players already in the program.

What would Jones decide if he chose a college yesterday?  “If I had to commit this afternoon, yeah, it would be the University of Minnesota,” he said on Sunday.

The Gophers, with a bowl game remaining, have an 8-4 record, and the most wins since the 2003 team won 10 games.  Winning in college is important to Jones.

“I grew up here in Minnesota.  I watched Minnesota lose a lot of games,” Jones said.  “Just to be from here and to see that they’re doing better, it puts a smile on my face because there are a lot of good players that came out of Minnesota that chose different colleges because they were losing.  I feel like it gives us incentive to stay home now.”

Gophers coach Jerry Kill has made the right impression with Jones.  “He changed that program around.  They really believe in the brick-by-brick foundation.”

Jones will play in the prestigious Under Armour Game, a national all-star prep game to be held on January 2 in Orlando.  He may announce his college choice around the first of the year.  “If I get a couple more visits in before the Under Armour Game there is a good possibility,” he said.  “If I don’t get any visits in I think I am going to have to wait until the signing day.”

High school players can sign National Letters of Intent binding them to a school on February 5, 2014.  If Minnesota is Jones’ choice he will be competing for playing time next year against all the Gophers top running backs who are in the program now including starter David Cobb who has rushed for 1,111 yards this season and Berkley Edwards, a speedy freshman who is being redshirted.  “I feel like it will be good competition with the running backs over there,” Jones said.  “It’s going to be a dogfight next year between four or five of us there.”

Jones, a four year starter who ran for 4,668 yards at Washburn while also being a slot receiver and safety, is the only Rivals.com four-star player among those who have made verbal commitments so far to the Gophers in the class of 2014.  A two-time City MVP and all-state player, Jones said winning the Mr. Football Award is a “great cherry on top of the ice cream.”

Jones was one of 10 finalists for the award, one of the projects by the Minnesota Football Coaches Association and Vikings to promote prep football.  The award banquet was held yesterday at the DoubleTree Hotel in St. Louis Park .

Golden Valley-based Buffalo Wild Wings, sponsor of the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl in Tempe, Arizona, was probably lobbied by the Gophers as a bowl game destination.  With large numbers of Minnesotans in the Phoenix area, the Gophers figured to have strong support at the game.  But it will be Michigan and Kansas State in the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl on December 28 while the Gophers will play Syracuse on December 27 in the Texas Bowl in Houston.

The St.   Thomas football program is looking for an offensive coordinator, a full-time 12 month position.  Three years of college coaching experience is required.  The school posted the opening last week.

The Gophers basketball team, 8-2, plays South Dakota State, 4-6, tomorrow night at Williams Arena.  The two programs have played nonconference games against one another for eight consecutive years.  The Gophers are 16-0 in the series that dates back to 1930.

The Gophers are averaging 77.4 points per game, the most for Minnesota since the 83.3 points average in 1989-90.  The Gophers’ offense often looked stagnant under former coach Tubby Smith but this season players appear more comfortable.

Senior guard Maverick Ahanmisi said the offense is less structured now with new coach Richard Pitino encouraging players to move the ball up court quickly and often take a shot.  “Coach tells us he wants us to run the show,” Ahanmisi said.

Playing fast offense and full court defense takes energy.  Pitino and strength and conditioning coach Shaun Brown have “transformed everybody’s body,” according to Ahanmisi.  He said his body fat has changed from 8.8 percent to 7.9.  Mo Walker said his declined from 18 percent to “11 or 12.”

Michigan State coach Tom Izzo will be in Rice Lake, Wisconsin tomorrow night to watch Rice Lake High School center Henry Ellenson, brother of Gophers forward Wally Ellenson.

Security was tight for those involved with last week’s scheduled game in Mexico City involving the Spurs and Timberwolves that ended up being postponed because of a fire in the arena.  Even staff members from the two organizations weren’t allowed to leave the hotel without an NBA security person accompanying them in the streets of Mexico City.

Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor said on WCCO Radio yesterday morning the Spurs-Wolves game might be rescheduled for April 8 at Target Center.

Matt Thornton, the new owner of Jay Buckley’s Baseball Tours, e-mailed that the LaCrosse, Wisconsin-based company has 30 trips scheduled for 2014 including to spring training sites, the College World Series, MLB’s All-Star Game and MLB regular season games.  More at Jaybuckley.com.

Next Monday the Gophers are hoping to learn Tracy Claeys is among the five finalists for the 2013 Frank Broyles Award recognizing the best college assistant football coach in the country.

Claeys took over as acting head coach this fall when Jerry Kill had to focus on his epilepsy struggles.  With Kill either absent or coaching in the press box, and Claeys on the sideline with the players, the Gophers have won a surprising four of their last six Big Ten games including defeating nationally-ranked Nebraska for the first time since 1960.  “He is very deserving (of the award),” Kill said.

Claeys, the team’s defensive coordinator, has impressed with his calm demeanor, leadership and knowledge.  “Yeah, I’d vote (for) him.  He would be a good choice,” Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez told Sports Headliners.

The five finalists represent “almost 1,500 assistant coaches” from 117 Division I programs, according to the award’s website.  Each head coach can nominate one assistant from his staff.

The finalists are chosen by a committee of former head coaches including Arkansas coaching legend Frank Broyles.  Others on the nine-man committee include coaching greats like Bobby Bowden, Vince Dooley, Hayden Fry and Barry Switzer.  The 2013 winner will be announced in Little Rock at the awards banquet on December 10.

The Gophers, 8-3, have one remaining regular season game, at Michigan State on Saturday.  Their eight wins have exceeded all but the most optimistic preseason predictions.  The Gophers have four conference wins for the first time since 2005 and haven’t won eight games or more in a season since 2003.

Kill said “off-the-record” last summer he thought eight or nine wins were possible.  “Our kids worked their tail ends off,” Kill said this week.  “They showed commitment in the offseason and put a lot of time in.  (I) felt like we were getting stronger.  I am not one of those guys to predict but I knew we were going to be better.  We are better than we were a year ago.  I expect us to be better next year.”

Worth Noting

Kill has worked this season with a mostly inexperienced group of receivers and is pleased with their progress.  He said wide receiver KJ Maye has been “slowed” by a groin pull and tight end Drew Goodger hasn’t been appreciated by outsiders.

“Nobody ever talks about Drew Goodger.  He’s a pretty good tight end, too, and he’s made some critical catches for us.”

Kill had nine recruits at his house over the weekend with three visiting on Saturday night and six on Sunday.

Mike Cannon from Hutchinson, Minnesota was the referee in last week’s Gophers-Badgers game at TCF Bank Stadium.  He is a regular with Big Ten officiating crews.

Ex-Vikings linebacker Ben Leber expects coaching changes with his former team (2-8-1) after the season.  “I like and respect a lot of coaches on the staff but I don’t know how you can bring the whole staff back, or keep some of them,” Leber told Sports Headliners.

Leber doesn’t have a candidate to replace head coach Leslie Frazier but he mentioned Colts offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton.  He has almost 16 years of NFL and college experience including working with quarterback Andrew Luck at Stanford and with the Colts.

Leber found it “baffling” that less than two weeks after the Vikings acquired Josh Freeman they started him at quarterback in their October 21 game against the Giants.  He described the situation as “bizarre” that the Vikings could expect Freeman to be successful having to learn about new receivers, plays and terminology in such a short time during the season.

Leber doesn’t consider Christian Ponder a potentially elite quarterback. “I think if you’re looking for a franchise quarterback, I don’t think he is the guy who is going to lead the Vikings,” Leber said.  “He could remain a No. 2.”

Leber will work for Fox 1 on a high school football game telecast in New Jersey on Thanksgiving Day.  On Saturday he will be part of the Fox Sports Net crew for the Tulsa-North Texas game in Tulsa.

The record crowd of 53,090 for last Saturday’s Gophers-Badgers game included standing room only sales.  That’s about maximum capacity for TCF Bank stadium unless there is expansion such as the 2,000 seat west end bleachers likely to be used for Vikings games next year.

KSTC-TV Ch. 45 will telecast all seven games of the Prep Bowl from the Metrodome on Friday and Saturday.  Mahnomen (Class A), Hutchinson (Class 4A) and Eden Prairie (Class 6A) are hoping to defend their state championships.  Eden Prairie (11-0) will be trying to win a third consecutive title when the Eagles play Rosemount (11-1) starting at 7 p.m. on Friday night.

With the Metrodome being torn down early next year, Brainerd and Owatonna, both 12-0 teams from Class 5A, will play the last Prep Bowl game ever in the building starting at 4 p.m. on Saturday.  Seems appropriate with Brainerd’s Ron Stolski the winningest coach in Minnesota prep football history.

Linebacker Blake Weber from Prior Lake High School saw his team lose to both Eden Prairie and Rosemount this season.  Who does he think will win that game?

“Eden Prairie is the better team,” Weber told Sports Headliners.  “Our team would be the only team that would have a chance to give Eden Prairie a run for the money.  Eden Prairie’s offensive line is by far the best I’ve seen in three years of varsity (football).  They know their assignments.  They’re big and strong, and get after you.”

Weber is the South Suburban Conference defensive player of the year.  He is also on the Minnesota Vikings all-state team and one of 10 finalists for the state’s Mr. Football award sponsored by the Vikings and Minnesota Football Coaches Association.

Weber made an unofficial visit last week to the University of Minnesota and the Gophers want him to be part of their walk-on group for 2014.  The Gophers have labeled their invitation as a “preferred walk-on” with his understanding that playing at a high level could eventually mean a scholarship.  “The U is probably not going to offer me (a scholarship now),” he said.  “I am pretty set on the U.”

In addition to the 30-member all-state team announced yesterday, Eden Prairie’s Mike Grant was named prep football Coach of the Year by the Vikings.

Vern Mikkelsen, 85, passed away last week and he will be fondly remembered for his Hall of Fame career, contributions to four world championship teams of the Minneapolis Lakers, and his kind heart.  Mikkelsen, often referred to as the NBA’s first power forward, played for the Lakers from 1949-1959.

When owner Bob Short decided to move the Lakers to Los Angeles after the 1959-1960 season, he tried to persuade Mikkelsen to play for him in California.  Short, in fact, offered Mikkelsen 25 percent of the franchise.  Mikkelsen turned down the offer and mentioned the decision in his book, The Vern Mikkelsen Story.

“I talked it over with Johnny (ex-Lakers coach John Kundla) and we both kind of figured that basketball would not have much of a chance there,” Mikkelsen said in the book.

Several years after moving the team to Los Angeles, Short sold the Lakers for $5.2 million. Mikkelsen said his wife Jean always remembered that.