MIAC – Page 21 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Looking for Clues in U AD Process

Posted on December 16, 2015December 16, 2015 by David Shama

While sources have no solid information about who will be the next Gophers athletics director, the educated guess still points to Beth Goetz who has worked in the University of Minnesota athletics department since 2013.

The actions of University president Eric Kaler could be interpreted as pointing to a Goetz appointment. Initially he demonstrated confidence in Goetz by promoting her in early August to the position of interim AD. Kaler has been in no rush to start the search process, and perhaps that indicates a willingness to give Goetz, 41, a lengthy tryout for the permanent job.

In a Star Tribune story last Wednesday Kaler told the newspaper he will begin a search to replace former AD Norwood Teague after the first of the year and hopes to have the new person running the department by July 1. He also told the Star Tribune he might not use a search firm. That could indicate a preference to consider a limited field of candidates for the job, with Goetz at the top of the list.

Maybe Kaler wants to wait until spring to let the school year wrap-up around the country. If he wants to court a sitting AD, or top assistant at another university, perhaps that person will be more willing to make a change when not only the school year is ending but the football and basketball seasons—the highest profile sports at Power Five conferences—will be over too.

It’s interesting that Dan O’Brien, who was a senior administrator in the athletic department, has joined the football coaching staff. O’Brien was a person some U boosters advocated as a candidate to become the next AD. Did O’Brien intuit he wouldn’t be a leading candidate because Goetz or someone from the outside will be hired?

There are boosters, too, that warmed immediately to the idea of Jerry Kill becoming the athletic director after his health caused him to resign as football coach. Multiple sources indicate that neither Kaler nor Kill is interested in pursuing that possibility.

The road ahead could be paved for a Goetz hire. Indications are her performance so far is worthy of consideration, and Kaler, the person who apparently holds most of the cards in naming the next AD, may be very pleased by Goetz’s work. The announcement, if it comes, will stir both supportive and critical responses from the public and probably inside the athletic department, too.

Goetz, although never a previous AD, has years of experience in athletic department administration at Minnesota and other schools. She could become the first woman AD at Minnesota to run a combined men’s and women’s department. Both inside and outside the University there is a Goetz constituency who want her to make history not only at Minnesota, but to become one of the few female athletic directors ever in the Big Ten.

Others have a different vision about the person who should lead the athletics department. Some Gophers fans no doubt want Kaler to hire an established major college AD with an impressive track record of hiring coaches, fundraising and administering—probably minimizing the risk of finding a great leader for the department.

The Gophers have a 25-sport, $100 million-plus budget with over 700 student-athletes. Many of the qualities needed to successfully lead a department like Minnesota’s are often possessed by an accomplished business person. It’s been advocated that such a business woman or man could bring new thinking, entrepreneurship, marketing, hiring and leadership skills to the job. That person might also have a dynamic, even charismatic personality to help win over a sometimes apathetic alumni and fan base.

Jim Hackett, the retired CEO of Steelcase, Inc., is the interim athletic director at Michigan. He seems like a business poster boy for what Minnesota could consider. Since taking over at Michigan about 16 months ago he has hired Jim Harbaugh—perhaps the best football coach in the country, negotiated a rich sponsorship contract with Nike, administered a $151 million department budget, and continued a track record of academic achievement among the school’s student-athletes.

Hackett doesn’t want to continue in the AD job and Michigan’s president announced earlier this month the school is starting an immediate search for a successor. Michigan will use a search firm to assist with the process.

Meanwhile, the hiring of the Gophers next athletic director apparently rests with Kaler, who fumbled the last time when he hired the infamous Teague. It will be very interesting to watch Kaler’s process and ultimate choice.

Worth Noting

The St. Thomas football team that plays for the Division III national championship Friday night in the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl wasn’t even rated in the national top 10 by d3football.com in its preseason poll. Now the Tommies have become the second school in the poll’s history to reach the national title game.

The Tommies, who were ranked No. 14 in the d3football.com preseason poll, also had no preseason All-Americans, nor any returning players from 2014 who earned that honor. But UST, of course, has talented players including running back Jordan Roberts, who had 32 rushing touchdowns this fall—the most of any college football player. The d3football.com All-American team will be announced on Friday, but earlier this week St. Thomas offensive tackle David Simmet was named to the American Football Coaches of America All-American team.

The Tommies’ perfect 14-0 season has resulted from more than exceptional players and superior coaching. There is a collective sense by players of knowing what to do in games and how to adjust. Coach Glenn Caruso said in most games this season things fell into place for the Tommies but there were four when things didn’t click so well.

“We’re a very intuitive group and we do a really good job of figuring out what we need to do…during the game,” Caruso said. “I’ve never, in 20 years of coaching, been around a team that is as dynamic as this one. …Dynamic means you can find different ways to win games, and this team has it because they’re tremendously adjustable.”

Mount Union, the St. Thomas opponent on Friday, is also 14-0 and a gold standard for Division III football. Mount union (Alliance, Ohio) has won 11 Stagg Bowls since 1993 and played in all but one of those bowls since 2000.

UST and Mount Union are the only teams among 660 in college football averaging over 50 points per game on offense while holding opponents to under 10 points defensively. Kickoff from Salem, Virginia on Friday night is at 7:05 p.m. with ESPNU televising.

Condolences to family and friends of Glen Sonmor who died earlier this week. Sonmor, 86, will be remembered for coaching the Gophers, North Stars and Fighting Saints but those who knew him well cherish his friendly manner and passion for life. I can never remember a time when Sonmor wasn’t helpful and available to talk hockey.

Two of the most prominent sports in women’s college sports are hockey and volleyball. The Gophers won the national title in hockey earlier this year and could add another NCAA women’s championship in volleyball this week in Omaha.

Coach Hugh McCutcheon’s Gophers, the No. 2 seed, meet No. 3 seed Texas starting at 6 p.m. Thursday in a nationally televised match on ESPN2. No. 4 Nebraska plays No. 9 Kansas in the other Final Four match, scheduled to begin at 8:30 p.m.

McCutcheon became the Gophers volleyball coach after leading men’s and women’s teams in international competition including coaching the U.S. men to the 2008 Olympic gold medal. His first season at Minnesota was 2012 and it’s turned out to be a superb hire by then athletics director Joel Maturi. McCutcheon’s winning teams have drawn capacity crowds at Williams Arena. Players apparently enjoy playing for him and are exposed to a continual learning experience.

The Gophers (30-4) have 12 Minnesotans on the 16-players roster. Senior Daly Santana is from Puerto Rico and is the team’s MVP, but there are a lot of other contributors too including the Tapp twins, Hannah and Paige from Stewartville, Minnesota.

The national championship match will be on Saturday night and televised by ESPN2.

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Vikings Answer Skeptics in Defeat

Posted on December 11, 2015December 11, 2015 by David Shama

The Vikings and their fans can feel additional confidence after last night’s 23-20 loss to the Cardinals in Arizona. Predictions earlier this week were the Vikings would not only lose but by a big score.

It was known during the week the Vikings would play without three of their best defensive players and that unit would be reshuffled with lesser personnel. Teddy Bridgewater was coming off a disappointing performance last Sunday in a 38-7 loss against the Seahawks, and Seattle linebacker Bruce Ervin said the second-year quarterback played scared.

The Vikings showed a character check last night, playing the Cardinals to a 10-10 halftime tie before losing by a field goal in the fourth quarter. With the win the Cardinals, now 11-2, further positioned themselves among elite teams in the NFL. The Vikings, 8-5, are no longer in first place in the NFC North but still are having a season that is surprising critics who didn’t see them as a serious threat to unseat the Packers as division champions, and thought even less of Minnesota after an opening game 20-3 loss to the mediocre 49ers.

Teddy Bridgewater (photo courtesy of Minnesota Vikings.)

Bridgewater threw for a career high 335 yards and had a passer rating of 108 last night. That kind of work will be needed the rest of the season when the Vikings play the Bears and Giants at home, before closing out at Green Bay. No one, including critics, should be surprised if the Vikings win two or three of those games against the Bears and Giants, both with 5-7 records, and the 8-4 Packers.

If the Vikings follow the lead of head coach Mike Zimmer and his staff, good things should continue to develop in their march to the playoffs. After last Sunday afternoon’s game in Minneapolis against the Seahawks, Zimmer let it be known he expected his players to prepare their bodies for a short week of practice and Thursday’s game in Arizona. The majority of them headed for Winter Park before nightfall on Sunday. “We followed suit,” said placekicker Blair Walsh on Tuesday.

Three days of rest and rehab is different than the typical Sunday to Sunday game schedule. “You don’t come in Sunday after the game usually, unless you’re severely hurt or you need treatment,” Walsh said.

Defensive tackle Sharrif Floyd arrived at about 4:30 p.m. and stayed for more than one hour. Massages, foam rollers and cold tubs are used by players to revitalize worn bodies targeted since training camp last summer.

“It’s just hard work,” Floyd said about the rehab. “You can’t complain about it, you just gotta do it…nowadays.”

Key defensive players Anthony Barr, Linval Joseph and Harrison Smith were unable to play last night because of injuries. But Floyd said earlier in the week it does no good for the team to worry about the injured and absent.

“Never worry. If you worry you’re setting yourself up for failure,” he said. “No need to worry. Just come in with a game plan and fight as hard as possible. That’s all we ask for. We’re not asking you to do something out of the ordinary, just come do your job and be prepared to play tough.”

Even the critics can’t knock the Vikings’ effort last night.

Worth Noting

Tom Moore, who turned 77 last month and was an assistant coach for the Gophers in the 1970s and Vikings in the 1990s, is assistant head coach of the Cardinals. This is his 51st season of coaching, 37th in the NFL. Moore attended high school in Rochester, Minnesota and played college football at Iowa.

The Cardinals have sold out every game at University of Phoenix Stadium since the retractable roof facility opened in 2006, and noisy crowds provide the team with a home field advantage. Dating back to 2006 and going into last night’s game against the Vikings, Cardinals’ opponents had 132 false start penalties, the most in any NFL stadium during that period.

Both Sports Illustrated and the National Football League Players Association have ranked the playing surface at University of Phoenix Stadium best in the NFL. The playing surface is natural grass that can be moved outside in one giant tray to grow and be effectively maintained, and then put in place for Cardinals games.

It’s an oddity having the Vikings last night, then the Wild tonight and the Timberwolves on Sunday all playing games in the Phoenix area over a four-day period.

Andy Dalton, the Bengals quarterback who the Vikings could have drafted, has thrown for 3,000 yards in all five of his first NFL seasons. Only Peyton Manning has done that. In the 2011 NFL Draft the Vikings chose Christian Ponder with the No. 12 selection in the first round. The Bengals selected Dalton with the third pick in the second round.

More than half of the St. Thomas football roster could play Division II football, according to Tommies head coach Glenn Caruso. The talented Tommies, 13-0, host 12-0 Linfield tomorrow in a 2:30 p.m. Division III semifinals game. The Tommies have reached the semifinals for the third time in five years.

Caruso said Linfield has been a favorite since week one of the season to win the national title. “They are supremely loaded with talent,” he said.

Linfield will need to not only match the Tommies’ talent but also Caruso’s willingness to take risks. A trick play or surprise move like an onside kick is who the Tommies are. Caruso believes too many coaches are “risk averse.”

Would Caruso welcome moving indoors to U.S. Bank Stadium if the Tommies are playing home December playoff games in future years? “I don’t want to give away home field advantage (outdoors and on campus),” he said.

The Tommies, though, would consider a regular season game in the new Minneapolis stadium—perhaps against legendary rival Saint John’s.

Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor has heard the rumors Prince and Jimmy Jam Harris have interest in buying the team but said no one representing them has approached him.

Among the highlights of the Minnesota prep basketball season will be tomorrow’s annual Breakdown Sports Tip Off Classics at Minnetonka High School involving boys and girls teams. Class 4-A boys powers Apple Valley and Hopkins play at 3:45 p.m. in the most anticipated game. The schedule of games throughout the day and into the evening will showcase nationally ranked prep players including two seniors who are Gophers recruits, Amir Coffey from Hopkins and Michael Hurt whose Rochester John Marshall team plays an 8 p.m. game against Shakopee.

Hurt’s brother and teammate Matthew is a Rivals.com five-star recruit in the class of 2019. Other players in the tournament being followed nationally include Tre Jones and Gary Trent Jr. from Apple Valley, and Theo John and McKinley Wright from Champlin Park. Class 4-A Champlin Park plays 3-A DeLaSalle at 7 p.m. in another anticipated game.

Two of the winningest college hockey coaches face each other tonight and tomorrow evening in Ann Arbor. Michigan coach Red Berenson has won 818 games while the Gophers Don Lucia has 680 victories. The two rank second and third for most wins, with Boston College’s Jerry York first with 997.

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How Peterson’s World Changes Again

Posted on December 2, 2015December 2, 2015 by David Shama

On the football beat with insights about the Vikings, Gophers and St. Thomas:

Adrian Peterson is in a different place today than he was 12 months ago, and his circumstances are even in contrast to two years ago.

Peterson leads the NFL in rushing and appears all but certain to receive All-Pro recognition as the league’s best running back for 2015. He is the centerpiece of an offense that otherwise is pretty much comprised of inconsistent players including second-year quarterback Teddy Bridgewater. Peterson’s running along with a superb defense are mostly responsible for the Vikings’ surprising 8-3 record and first place position in the NFC North.

Adrian Peterson (photo courtesy of Minnesota Vikings.)

A year ago Peterson was on his way to missing all but one game of the 2014 season. He was barred from football activities by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell for developments involving disciplining of his four-year-old son. In early December of last year it was unknown when he would be allowed to play again, and whether he was going to be a Viking.

Minnesotans, including many Vikings fans, were appalled at details about Peterson using a switch on his child. Twelve months ago there was controversy whether Peterson should be allowed to remain with the team and if the Vikings franchise wanted to be associated with him. It wouldn’t be surprising if there were power brokers within the Vikings organization who wanted Peterson gone in 2015, advocating to separate the controversial superstar from the franchise’s marketing and image-making while plans developed to move into U.S. Bank Stadium in 2016.

A source told Sports Headliners in late April the Vikings were in talks with the Cowboys about a trade involving Peterson. While there may have been interest in determining what assets a Peterson deal would yield, it seems clear that general manager Rick Spielman and coach Mike Zimmer saw the impact their future hall of fame runner could have on the 2015 team.

Peterson is 30 years old—a number that typically puts most NFL runners on the brink of old age or even in it. Two seasons ago the Vikings were slogging through a losing year and there was conjecture it was time to trade a then 28-year-old Peterson. Move him before his legs fell off and get something back in value, maybe a draft choice to land a first-rate quarterback prospect to replace Christian Ponder.

The Vikings finished 6-10 in 2013 and Peterson had an okay season playing in 14 games, rushing for 1,266 yards and 10 touchdowns. This season he already has 1,164 yards and eight touchdowns in 11 games. On Sunday against the Seahawks he could best his 2013 numbers and still have four remaining regular season games.

The man some fans wanted traded two years ago is on a short list of league MVP candidates. After a slow start in game one against the 49ers when Peterson was trying to ditch the rust of not playing in the preseason and even further back, he has often looked like the best back in the NFL. In four of the last five games he has run for over 100 yards including 158 last Sunday in the win over the Falcons.

Did Zimmer expect this kind of performance from Peterson after being sidelined last season? “Yes. I just know he’s a really special player and I just think I figured that he’d be pretty good, yeah.”

Peterson and the Vikings have sometimes faced challenging competition. The Falcons had the league’s best rushing defense before the Vikings gained 191 yards against them. That Falcons team is ranked No. 8 in the Profootballfocus.com power rankings. The Vikings, who are ranked No. 6, have also defeated the No. 10 Raiders. Minnesota has lost to the No. 5 Broncos and No.7 Packers who ranked behind the Panthers, Patriots, Bengals and Cardinals. …

After five years of the Jerry Kill revival, the Gophers football program is much improved but doesn’t match more famous turnarounds in Big Ten history—at least not yet.

The coach Tim Brewster era prior to the 2011 season and Kill’s arrival produced annual records of 1-11, 7-6, 6-7 and 3-9. Kill created a success story by reviving a program on life support academically and on the field, with his best work in 2013 and 2014. Those were eight win seasons and the 2014 team earned an invitation to Minnesota’s first January 1 bowl game since 1962.

The Gophers took a step back this season, misfiring because of a difficult schedule, numerous and serious injuries, and Kill’s resignation to save his health. With Tracy Claeys elevated to head coach, Minnesota struggled late in the season winning only once in five games. The team’s final 5-7 record, including 2-6 in the Big Ten after last season’s 5-3, added up to the most disappointing year in the Kill era.

Minnesota’s 12-game schedule included six major college opponents who won nine games or more in 2015. Next season the schedule will be softer because Michigan, Ohio State and TCU get swapped out for Maryland, Oregon State and Rutgers. It’s also hard to believe the Gophers will be so devastated again by injuries that forced players to the sidelines for long stretches.

The Gophers will have some talented and experienced players returning next season as they try to restart the program turnaround. Gophers fans have waited for decades to see results similar to well-known turnarounds at Iowa, Wisconsin, Northwestern, Purdue and Michigan State. All except Purdue established success that continues to this day.

Those turnarounds were led by Hayden Fry at Iowa, Barry Alvarez at Wisconsin, Gary Barnett at Northwestern, Joe Tiller at Purdue and Mark Dantonio at Michigan State. Each one of those coaches had a nine win season or better in his first five years on the job, and all but Dantonio took a team to the Rose Bowl in that time period, according to statistics from Sports-reference.com. Dantonio reached Pasadena in his seventh season with a team that won the Rose Bowl and finished with a 13-1 record. …

St. Thomas hosts Wabash (Indiana) on Saturday in a quarterfinal Division III playoff game involving two 12-0 football teams. The Tommies figure to be prepared including with clock management—something head coach Glenn Caruso started perfecting 30 years ago as a kid playing video games.

Caruso told Sports Headliners he played “every conceivable football video game I could” and credits the experience with helping him to best use the clock in various situations. Even on the professional level, clock management is a skill that sometimes escapes coaches. “It boggles the mind how people don’t pay more attention,” he said.

Caruso, 85-13 in eight seasons at St. Thomas, coached the 2012 Tommies to the national championship game. He believes this year’s team might not have “all the high-end talent” of the 2012 group but is deeper, healthier and even more focused. There are 140 players on the team and Caruso said they understand and execute their roles.

Not that the Tommies don’t have talent this year, including star running back Jordan Roberts who had three touchdowns in last Saturday’s 38-19 win against Saint John’s. Roberts is a 6-2, 220-pound junior from Sheridan, Wyoming who played two years at South Dakota. Caruso said he’s the best back he’s coached at St. Thomas and if Roberts keeps improving he could one day receive an NFL tryout.

The Tommies, who have 12 coaches including Caruso, will practice outdoors this week unless the weather makes it impossible. Caruso is a believer in working out the team in conditions similar to game day. The Tommies are 16-0 in rain games under him.

Attendance for Saturday’s game at O’Shaughnessy Stadium might be somewhere between 2,000 and 8,000. A week ago last Saturday, for the Tommies first playoff game against La Verne, attendance was 1,832 at O’Shaughnessy. Last Saturday in a second round playoff game at home against legendary rival Saint John’s, the announced crowd was 8,025.

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