Preps – Page 46 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

ESPN GameDay Odds Heavy for Gophers

Posted on October 12, 2020October 12, 2020 by David Shama

Next Sunday ESPN could announce its prestigious college football GameDay show will originate in Minneapolis on Saturday, October 24 for the Minnesota-Michigan game at TCF Bank Stadium. Sources report the game is under consideration by ESPN.

The odds of Minnesota hosting the show went up when ESPN announced yesterday its crew will be in Tuscaloosa for the Alabama-Georgia game this Saturday. The Alabama game at Tennessee October 24 looks like less competition for the Gophers now that the Volunteers lost to Georgia last weekend—and ESPN will not feature Alabama two weeks in succession.

October 23-24 is the opening weekend for Big Ten football and the conference’s prestige and large TV following will weigh positively on the ESPN decision. The Nebraska-Ohio State game in Columbus October 24 is no longer a rival for the Gophers hosting ESPN because Fox announced its kickoff show will be at Ohio Stadium that day.

A long-shot under consideration for October 24 could be the Cincinnati-SMU game in Dallas. In the latest AP national poll the Bearcats are ranked No. 8 and the Mustangs No. 17. But Minnesota and Michigan are also ranked, with the Gophers at No. 24 and Wolverines at No. 19, and an important American Athletic Conference game doesn’t have the same glitter as a Big Ten offering. On the Big Ten’s opening weekend, this is the conference’s only matchup of top 25 teams.

That’s a compelling factor and so, too, is the historic rivalry between the two programs. Michigan and Minnesota have been playing for possession of the Little Brown Jug since 1909. Considered the most famous of college football rivalry trophies, the Little Brown Jug is a made-for-TV optic with a fascinating storyline. The Gophers haven’t taken possession of the Jug in Minneapolis since 1977, adding extra meaning to the October 24 game.

Right now it looks like the Minnesota-Michigan matchup could be the biggest of the day not only in the Big Ten but across the country. This morning came the announcement the game will land on national TV with ABC offering a prime time 6:30 p.m. kickoff. The game has major ratings appeal starting with the Minneapolis-St. Paul and Detroit TV markets that are among the largest in the country. Expect big ratings numbers in Minnesota and Michigan, and the game will pull solid ratings throughout the nation—particularly in the Midwest.

The three-hour GameDay show, that dates back to 1993, has both the time and interest to take multiple angles on stories. It seems likely that if show producers come here they will report on how the Gophers have confronted the social justice issue since the tragic death of George Floyd. Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck has been outspoken about the need to listen, understand and discuss things since Floyd’s death earlier this year.

GameDay came to Minneapolis for the first time ever in 2019 for the Minnesota-Wisconsin game. Fleck coveted the opportunity to host the show and by all accounts it was a successful partnership between ESPN and the University of Minnesota. Not only does hosting the show add to fan interest in the state, but it also is a valued recruiting tool for Minnesota’s national recruiting.

Worth Noting

In some scheduling alterations, the Big Ten announced today the Gophers will play three Friday games—October 30 at Maryland, and host Iowa and Purdue November 13 and 20 respectively. Those games had been scheduled for Saturdays.

Minnesota Vikings coach Mike Zimmer meets with the media via Zoom at 4:30 p.m. today. The last time the Vikings started a season 1-4 was in 2011 under Leslie Frazier and they went on to a 3-13 finish.

Minnesota native and former Olympic middle distance runner Carrie Tollefson is the latest guest on “Behind the Game,” with co-hosts Patrick Klinger and Bill Robertson. Growing up in small town Dawson, she became one of the state’s great success stories among female athletes. The show is available for viewing on YouTube and on Twin Cities cable TV channels.

If preps Kenny Pohto and Treyton Thompson keep their verbal commitments to join the 2021 Gophers freshman class it looks like they will be part of a roster with six players 6-foot-9 or taller a year from now. Pohto, from Sweden by way of Sunrise Christian Academy in Kansas, and Thompson, a native of Alexandria, Minnesota could join present bigs Sam Freeman, Isaiah Ihnen, Martice Mitchell and Liam Robbins.

That kind of height and wing span presents multiple potential advantages for the coaching staff including use of zone defenses where Minnesota bigs would be difficult to shoot over and could clog passing lanes.

As for the coming 2020-2021 season, coach Richard Pitino’s team won’t find much love from media prognosticators who see Minnesota finishing far down in the Big Ten standings. Frustrating for Gophers fans, too, is that border rivals Iowa and Wisconsin are projected at the top of the league and receiving high national rankings.

Wisconsin, as usual carrying a roster with Minnesota natives, has an All-American favorite in forward Nate Reuvers from Lakeville North.

The Lakers have now won 17 world championships, including five in Minneapolis, and are tied with the Boston Celtics for most ever. The Minneapolis Lakers won championships in 1949, 1950, 1952, 1953 and 1955 before moving to Los Angeles for the 1960-61 season.

Comments Welcome

U Regent Hsu Voting No on Sports Cuts

Posted on October 7, 2020October 7, 2020 by David Shama

Regent Michael Hsu told Sports Headliners he will vote no on the University of Minnesota proposal to cut four men’s sports at the Board of Regents meeting Friday. The Star Tribune reported last week the U Athletic Department is also seeking approval for reducing 41 roster spots on Gopher women’s teams as part of its cost savings plan for the next school year. Hsu is opposed to that initiative as well.

“I am opposed to the (total) proposal because I think it’s the wrong proposal at the wrong time,” Hsu said. “I think it’s premature. I think the fact we’re playing football, we don’t really know what our financial picture is like. If it (the proposal) includes reducing women, it’s not something we should be doing until the office of civil rights comes knocking on our door and tells us we need to cut men and women from our programs.”

Athletic director Mark Coyle came to the regents at their last meeting proposing the elimination of men’s golf, tennis, and indoor and outdoor track. The department is in a financial crisis because of the pandemic’s impact on the revenue producing sports, led by football, that support 25 men’s and women’s programs. At the time of the September meeting the Gophers and other members of the Big Ten Conference had no plans to play a football schedule, but that has since changed with Minnesota and other league teams beginning eight-game schedules later this month. The resumption of football guarantees TV revenues that presumably were not available if there was no season.

At the last regents meeting Coyle described the proposal to cut sports as painful but was definitive in the need to do so and offered no alternative. Since then campus protest has surfaced (anticipate one today) and alumni of the impacted sports have spoken out including those who will raise money for continuation of the programs.

“We should give them (community organizers) a chance to try and figure this out,” Hsu said. “We should work with them, but right now it’s not happening. It’s basically, ‘Hey, this is what we’re going to do, and you don’t have a chance, and you’re never going to raise enough money so we’re not going to give you time.’

“I mean you heard what Coyle said. I just think that’s a bad way to handle it. I think the community should have a chance, 30 days is not enough. It’s not like these sports just started in 2001.”

Hsu believes the vote at Friday’s meeting could be close. “I’ve heard from some (regents) that they agree with me,” he said.

Seven affirmative votes among 12 are needed to pass the proposal. A 6-6 vote will defeat it.

Those interested in following the Thursday-Friday regents meeting can do so via live streaming and later on video.

Worth Noting

Mike Boone of the Vikings is NFC Special Teams Player of the Week for forcing a timely first quarter fumble against Houston Texans punt returner DeAndre Carter last Sunday that changed momentum of the game, and Minnesota went on to earn its first win of the season.

As the Gophers football team goes through its protocols in managing safety with COVID-19, it could learn from the Vikings who have managed to keep their players healthy. Fox reported during Sunday’s Vikings game that the team used 10 buses in Houston to distance players in transporting them from the hotel to stadium.

247Sports released its latest bowl projections this week including the Gophers in the January 2 Gator Bowl in Jacksonville against Mississippi State. If so, that’s a rematch with the “Pirate.” Bulldogs coach Mike Leach lost in an upset to Minnesota and coach Tracy Claeys in the 2016 Holiday Bowl in San Diego when he was leading the Washington State program.

Whew! It’s believed former LSU coach Les Miles wanted the Gophers job before Minnesota hired P.J. Fleck in 2017. Miles is in his second season now at Kansas and the Jayhawks might be the worst Power Five program there is.

Former Gophers head coach Tim Brewster now coaches tight ends at Florida where his starter, Kyle Pitts, has six touchdown receptions in two games and looks like the favorite to win the John Mackey Award honoring the nation’s best collegian at that position. Pitts is also an early Heisman Trophy favorite, recognizing college football’s best player.

Minnesota Wild scouting authority Judd Brackett talking about center Marco Rossi who the team selected ninth overall in last night’s NHL Draft: “Marco is a two-way center with incredible vision, skill and compete level. We are very excited to add his playmaking ability to our organization.”

Still unknown is when WCCO Radio’s “Sports Huddle” program, off the air for most of this year because of the pandemic, will return. The show has been a Sunday morning listening favorite since 1979.

“Sports Huddle” co-host Dave Mona is finishing up the 49^th book he has read this year. At the top of his list is Erik Larson’s new book on Winston Churchill.

Although it’s a late start, a lot of communities across the state are celebrating the return of prep football this month. The Minnesota Football Coaches Association points out the first high school game in the state occurred in 1891 between Minneapolis Central and Duluth.

The CORES group that normally starts its guest speakers programs in September has postponed meetings indefinitely because of COVID-19. CORES is an acronym for coaches, officials, reporters, educators and sports fans.

The pandemic has prompted the Bolder Options nonprofit, headed by former Gopher Darrell Thompson, to plan its annual celebration and fundraiser online with an October 28 date from 7 to 7:30 p.m.

Comments Welcome

Football Likely Topic Now for U Regents

Posted on September 10, 2020September 10, 2020 by David Shama

The University of Minnesota Board of Regents meets today and tomorrow, and discussion will certainly include the Big Ten’s decision to cancel or postpone the 2020 football season. The group has not had a regularly scheduled meeting with school president Joan Gabel since the league announced last month the season would not start with scheduled games in September.

There has been a firestorm of criticism not only about the decision but also the absence of details that led to it. It’s believed that even governing bodies such as the regents at Minnesota and other boards throughout the 14-member Big Ten haven’t been privy to what’s going on.

“I haven’t been told anything about how the decision was made, or if there was a vote,” Minnesota regent Michael Hsu told Sports Headliners. “I don’t know. I don’t know anything.”

Hsu said he has listened to contradictory information from Gabel. “So president Gabel told media that there was no vote per se in terms of the Big Ten decision to postpone or cancel football for the fall. However, some weeks after she said that, the Big Ten…put out the news that the vote was 11-3. I don’t understand how if you didn’t have a vote, how you have an 11-3 vote.”

A spokesman for Gabel declined an interview opportunity yesterday, citing her busy schedule including preparation for the regents meeting and the opening of school this week. The agenda for the two-day regents meeting includes a “report of the president” Friday morning.

The opinion here is the Big Ten rushed its decision in halting football and other fall sports, and made the call without enough transparency. The August 11 announcement came when there was still time to see how COVID-19 protocols would play out and what medical advances could make things safer. In late August a new $5 test that gives fast results regarding COVID was announced, and news like that bolsters the decision of the ACC, Big-12 and SEC to play football and not sideline the sport like the Pac-12 and Big Ten.

Rumors are numerous the Big Ten will have a football restart including speculation last weekend that conference presidents were taking a vote. Nothing has been documented regarding an approved plan to play again in the fall, winter or spring, but in the meantime there are a lot of players who want to play, coaches who want to coach and fans who want to watch.

Things have heated up politically, too, with Midwest Republican legislators, including from Minnesota, calling on the Big Ten to play football. That could come up at the regents meeting this week as should discussion of the financial hit to Minnesota’s athletic department with no revenue from football. Collectively, Big Ten athletic departments are projected to see red ink in the billions of dollars. Minnesota and other athletic departments face the possibility of cutting programs and turning to the outside for loans.

The U regents gathering this week is part of a regular schedule of meetings during the calendar year. Some regents are expected to attend in-person at the McNamara Alumni Center, while others will participate via Zoom.

Worth Noting

With no verbal commits of late, and with other programs adding quality players, the Gophers have fallen to No. 27 in the class of 2021 football recruiting rankings by 247Sports. Minnesota has been in the top 20 for most of the year.

Condolences to friend and former Gophers linebacker Pete Najarian whose father John recently passed away. Pete’s mother Mignette died last year and he lost his brother Paul in 2014.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic the NFL is allowing teams to have practice squad players available on game days. Dan Bailey is the only kicker on the Vikings’ regular roster but if he was unable to play, coach Mike Zimmer could promote Chase McLaughlin from the practice squad.

The team doesn’t have a punter on the practice squad but Bailey has some experience in that role. Regular punter Britton Colquitt, by the way, is the oldest Viking at 35. Rookie wide receiver Justin Jefferson is the youngest, turning 21 in June.

Greg Jennings, the former Viking and Green Bay receiver, will be part of the Fox TV crew describing Sunday’s game between Minnesota and the Packers at U.S. Bank Stadium.

The Minnesota Twins had an off day yesterday and while their schedule doesn’t resume until Friday manager Rocco Baldelli said the team will have a “light workout” today.

With 15 games remaining on the regular schedule for the Twins, the three-game series with the Cleveland Indians that starts tomorrow night at Target Field will be pivotal in deciding who wins the AL Central Division. Minnesota is 18-5 at home, while the Indians are 14-7 on the road. This will be the last series between the two division contenders during the regular season.

That’s Alex Tuch, the former Minnesota Wild forward who Vegas acquired in the 2017 expansion draft, leading the Golden Knights in playoff goals with eight in 17 games. Vegas and the Dallas Stars (originally the Minnesota North Stars) are tied at 1-1 in the Western Conference finals.

The Golden Knights, who have already played in one Stanley Cup final, are the most successful expansion franchise in modern sports history.

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