Recruiting – Page 93 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Vikings: 2014 Super Bowl Possible?

Posted on January 30, 2013January 30, 2013 by David Shama

The Vikings haven’t played in the Super Bowl since 1977 but it’s not a completely Pollyanna approach to think the Purple could be back in the big game next year or in 2015.

Emerging talent—including a list of impact players 27 and younger—led a turnaround season in 2012 when the Vikings finished 10-6 and made the playoffs for the first time in three years. Improving dramatically on their 3-13 record in 2011, the Vikings ditched their “rebuilding” label and gave notice they’re contenders in the NFC North.

But a Super Bowl in 2014? Former Vikings defensive lineman Bob Lurtsema doesn’t scoff at the question.

“If they get a deep threat, they have a great opportunity to definitely get in the playoffs, and then it’s a crapshoot (to the Super Bowl),” said Lurtsema who predicted last summer the Vikings’ 2012 record would be 9-7.

He wants the Vikings to not only acquire a deep threat to loosen up opposing defenses but also add a defensive back. “We could (then) be in great, great shape,” he said.

Lurtsema suggested there is a “70 percent chance” Packers’ wide receiver and free agent Greg Jennings will play for the Vikings next season. The Packers, with a stable of young and productive wide receivers, are believed to have minimal interest in the 29-year-old Jennings who missed games the last two seasons because of injuries and has seen his statistics decline. But Jennings’ age doesn’t bother Lurtsema who said peak years for NFL players are 28 to 33. He believes Jennings, who has 53 career touchdown receptions in seven NFL seasons, is just what the Vikings need.

In the parity-based NFL, the separation in talent is so minimal among at least several teams that a surprise entrant or two can make it all the way to the Super Bowl. The teams most likely to do so, according to Lurtsema, are the ones with outstanding lines, particularly on offense.

Lurtsema said the importance of the offensive line can be measured not only in scoring points but in controlling the clock with consistent play. That kind of performance minimizes “three and outs,” and the number of plays a defense has to be on the field.

“The success of a lot of teams still comes down to the offensive line and quarterback,” Lurtsema said.

He likes the work of left offensive tackle Matt Kalil who minimized mistakes in his rookie season and was rewarded with a Pro Bowl invitation. The drafting of Kalil allowed Charlie Johnson, the 2011 left tackle, to play left guard where he’s more effective. Kalil, Johnson and the other offensive linemen helped Adrian Peterson, 27, rush for 2,097 yards in 2012, the second highest single season total in NFL history.

Second-year quarterback Christian Ponder’s play stabilized during the team’s drive to make the playoffs. “I am happy with Christian Ponder,” Lurtsema said.

If you want to hear excitement in Lurtsema’s voice ask him about second-year tight end Kyle Rudolph. Two years ago Lurtsema described him as “the steal of the draft.” Earlier this week Rudolph’s performance in the Pro Bowl earned him the MVP award.

And Lurtsema could really get excited about the Vikings playing in the 2014 Super Bowl that will be hosted by the Giants at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. He spent part of his NFL career with that franchise and is planning to attend the game where he and other Giants alumni will be hosted by the club. “The Giants really take care of their alumni,” Lurtsema said.

Of course Lurtsema, who remains close to the Vikings and has lived in the Minneapolis area for years, will be excited to see the Purple in any Super Bowl in the near future. The franchise is 0-4 historically in the big game. “Sometimes I wonder if the good Lord doesn’t want the Vikings to bring the Lombardi Trophy to Minnesota,” said Lurtsema who played for the Vikings in their Super Bowls of 1973 and 1975.

Worth Noting

Lurtsema also said “I love the kid” but he expects much talked about Vikings’ receiver-kick returner Percy Harvin to be traded.

Vikings fans will closely watch 49ers wide receiver Randy Moss in the Super Bowl on Sunday. At 35, Moss doesn’t have scary speed anymore but Lurtsema said the former Viking is a “tremendous student” of the game.

Often quoted pro football writer Peter King said on SI.com video last Thursday the only for sure hall of famer playing in Sunday’s Super Bowl is Ravens’ linebacker Ray Lewis. That leaves doubt about hall of fame chances for Moss and Ravens center Matt Birk, another former Viking. Both players could retire after Sunday’s game.

A Monday e-mail from Sports Media News reported the Super Bowl culminates “three years of record-breaking NFL TV viewership.” SMN noted that since September 1, 2010, NFL telecasts have accounted for 55 percent of all TV shows averaging 20 million viewers, 70 percent of programs averaging 30 million viewers and 92 percent of shows averaging 40 million.

It will be 10 years this spring that Delmon Young was the No. 1 overall pick in baseball’s amateur draft. Young is now with the Phillies after the Rays, Twins and Tigers decided not to retain him. His best year in the majors was with the Twins in 2010 when he hit .298 with 21 home runs and 112 RBI.

Big Ten followers don’t believe the conference—with the recent additions of Maryland and Rutgers—is done expanding at 14 teams. A 16-team league could be next, with perhaps two of the following joining the Big Ten: Boston College, Duke, Georgia Tech, Kansas, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pittsburgh or Virginia.

With six days until college football’s National Signing Day, Scout.com and Rivals.com have the Gophers last in 2013 Big Ten recruiting. Scout ranks the Gophers’ class at No. 84 nationally based on verbal commitments so far. Rivals ranks Minnesota No. 72.

Supporters of Gophers coach Jerry Kill, though, insist the Minnesota recruiting classes of last year and 2013 are much better than the rankings of national experts.

The Timberwolves—starting tonight against the Clippers—play six consecutive home games. Other games are the Lakers (Feb. 1), Hornets (Feb. 2), Trail Blazers (Feb. 4), Spurs (Feb. 6) and Knicks (Feb. 8).

The Wolves have lost four consecutive games and nine of their last 10. “We keep fighting, even with injuries and everything else,” guard Luke Ridnour said last week. “We’re not going to get down.”

As of Monday, Wolves guard Alexey Shved ranked second among NBA rookies in assists (4.6), and fifth in minutes (288) and scoring (10.7). His Russian teammate, forward Andrei Kirilenko, has seven double-doubles after having a combined five in his most recent NBA seasons of 2009-2010 and 2010-2011.

Tim Larson, who once worked in the Gophers’ sports information office, has resigned his position as Jostens president and CEO.

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ESPN Analyst: U Not Clearing ‘Hurdle’

Posted on January 28, 2013January 28, 2013 by David Shama

ESPN college basketball analyst Dan Dakich told Sports Headliners the slumping Gophers can’t give up on their season but they need to elevate their play against the Big Ten’s best teams.

“You get to a point when making a move from (being) a good team to an upper echelon team, that you gotta expect to win,” Dakich said. “I think that’s the big hurdle for Minnesota to get over. Minnesota has certainly had its chances.”

In the last two weeks the Gophers have lost four consecutive Big Ten games after starting the conference schedule 3-0. Three defeats have been against some of the league’s best teams: Indiana and Michigan, both 6-1, and 5-2 Wisconsin.

How do the Gophers start winning games against the league’s better teams? Dakich said coach Tubby Smith’s team needs to continue “situation work” in practice. That means tasks such as simulating close games in the last few minutes.

With four losses in the first seven games, Dakich believes the Gophers are now an unlikely contender for the league title. But that doesn’t mean they can’t have an extraordinary season including a high finish in the standings and memorable NCAA tournament performance.

“They have enough ability, and (also) leadership from older guys,” said Dakich, a former Indiana Hoosier and head coach at Bowling Green.

Minnesota plays four of its next five games at home after just finishing a portion of the schedule that had the Gophers on the road for four of five games. Nebraska, 2-6, is at Williams Arena to play the Gophers tomorrow night.

Worth Noting

Jerry Kill told Sports Headliners his staff may now have been together longer than any other group in major college football coaching. Kill has the same core of assistants he hired after taking the Gophers job in late 2010.

Many assistants, including offensive coordinator Matt Limegrover and defensive coordinator Tracy Claeys, also worked for Kill at Northern Illinois where he was head coach from 2008-2010. Limegrover and Claeys have worked for Kill since the 1990s.

The longevity of Kill’s staff is impressive in the job-fragile world of head and assistant coaches. It’s not uncommon for head coaches to be dismissed within a couple of years. And dissatisfied head coaches—under extreme pressure to win now—routinely shake up their coaching staffs, including coordinators.

There were 30 FBS head coaching changes made in recent months, according to a January 7 listing by ESPN.com. But the loyalty between Kill and his assistants, and their longevity together, is a signature difference for Gophers’ football. The stability sends a message to potential recruits that it’s likely they will play for the same coaches throughout their careers. Players already in the program benefit from the continuity of not having to learn new systems and adjust to different personalities.

Gophers’ basketball coach Tubby Smith’s name has been rumored with the USC opening after the Trojans dismissed Kevin O’Neill earlier this month. Shaka Smart and Flip Saunders are names that keep coming up if the Gophers basketball job were to open. Smart, the VCU coach who worked for Gophers’ athletic director Norwood Teague when Teague was at that school, has a Midwest connection having lived in Wisconsin.

Saunders, the former Gophers guard, lives in suburban Minneapolis and is thought to be interested in coaching again after being with three NBA clubs including the Timberwolves. Although Saunders hasn’t coached collegiately since the 1980s, he would be a popular choice with Gophers’ basketball alums and donors.

Saunders was fired by the Wizards on January 24, 2012 with a 2-15 record. Today the Wizards have won 11 games so far this season, tied with the Bobcats for the fewest wins in the NBA.

College basketball needs to adopt the NBA approach of discouraging fouls called on offensive players when defenders flop. Bo Ryan’s Badgers use flopping theatrics as displayed in the last minute of Saturday’s Minnesota game in Madison when Gophers’ point guard Andre Hollins was called for charging when he made minimal contact with a Wisconsin defender.

At Sports Headliners’ request, prep basketball authority Ken Lien sent his rankings of state boys’ teams listed below.

Class 4A: Park Center, Apple Valley, Hopkins, Osseo, Minnetonka, Lakeville North, Roseville, Eden Prairie.

Class 3A: DeLaSalle, Austin, Delano, Waconia, Grand Rapids, Blake, Holy Angels, Hemantown.

Class 2A: Melrose, Hawley, Byron, St. Peter, Pelican Rapids, Litchfield, St. Cloud Cathedral, Hayfield.

Class 1A: Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa, Upsala, Southwest Minnesota Christian, Heritage Christian, Maranatha, Rushford-Peterson, West Lutheran, Browerville.

Lien e-mailed that Osseo’s Bridge Tusler, who had been interested in Northern Iowa, has committed to South Dakota State. He helped lead Osseo to the Class 4A state title last March.

Tyus Jones continues to have a bothersome back. The Apple Valley junior point guard is noncommittal about his college choice but it wouldn’t be surprising if a decision comes before next fall.

Word is national football power USC is very interested in DeLaSalle junior quarterback Reid Travis. He is also highly recruited in basketball.

Larry Fitzgerald Sr., the local newspaper and radio personality, is covering his 35^th Super Bowl in New Orleans this week.

Meaningless statistic for 2013 Super Bowl: the 49ers are 5-0 in previous games.

Ravens’ assistant head coach Jerry Rosburg was the secondary coach for the Gophers in 1996 under head coach Jim Wacker.

The Vikings had seven players selected for yesterday’s Pro Bowl including tight end Kyle Rudolph who won the MVP award playing for the victorious NFC team. Rudolph, Matt Kalil, and Blair Walsh are all 23 years old. The other Vikings selected were Jared Allen, 30; Jerome Felton, 26; Chad Greenway, 30; and Adrian Peterson, 27.

TwinsFest, the three day fan festival that ended yesterday, boosts the Twins’ image and showcases the personalities of the players. The roster has a lot of nice guys, from 2012 newcomers Scott Diamond and Josh Willingham to veterans Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau.

The Twins go to spring training next month with Morneau in the last year of his contract. At 31 and with a history of injuries, don’t expect to hear much about contract extensions for awhile.

The Twins will keep the advertising revenue on new radio home KTWN, 96.3 FM. The station has the same ownership as the Twins. The hope is that Twins broadcasts will improve KTWN’s minimal ratings, and FM broadcasts will provide a clear sound.

If the Twins are in contention for the AL Central title late in the season, that could drive attendance to near 3 million at Target Field. With a last place division team in 2012, the Twins drew 2,776,354, according to MLB attendance figures from ESPN.com. That was 12^th best among 30 franchises but poor performance on the field is reducing ticket buying interest including for season tickets.

Former reliever Eddie Guardado and ex-public relations director Tom Mee will be inducted into the Twins Hall of Fame during a pregame ceremony on June 14 at Target Field.

The MIAC had a record number of fall academic all-conference selections. The 329 total exceeded the 305 in 2009 and 2010.

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Big Ten Bowl Woes Roll on

Posted on January 7, 2013January 7, 2013 by David Shama

Although he doesn’t think the Big Ten is “that far away,” former Gophers athletic director Joel Maturi feels the disappointment of conference fans when reviewing bowl results.

The latest bowl season is over for Big Ten teams who won two games and lost five. Not that the results surprised close observers who for years have seen the Big Ten—once regarded as the king of college football—turn in season after season of mediocre and poor results.

Among the losses this bowl season was Stanford’s 20-14 win over Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl. The Badgers have now lost three consecutive Rose Bowls and Big Ten teams are 1-9 in their last 10 games played in the Granddaddy of the bowls.

Big Ten teams are 28-47 in bowl games the last 10 years, including 17-28 in early January games like the Rose Bowl, according to a story posted last Thursday by Bleacherreport.com.

“The fact of the matter is the Big Ten hasn’t been quite as good as it once was, and everyone wants it to be,” Maturi said.

The conference football product has been slipping for years and the Big Ten has gone from head of the class in the 1950s and 1960s, to among the best in later decades, to its present inferiority compared to at least three other conferences—the SEC, Big 12 and Pac-12. Maturi, who has followed the league for more than five decades and retired as Gophers athletic director last summer, acknowledges the Big Ten is struggling more than any time he can remember.

The Big Ten has Hollywood like football tradition and rivalries. The Big Ten Network, with football as the lead product, is a money machine for the 12 conference schools. More than half the stadiums in the league seat 70,000 or more fans and are routinely packed for games.

So what’s the problem? The best guess is shifting demographics. While the Rust Belt and Midwest states are generally stagnant or declining in population, the South and West are growing. More population means a deeper talent pool of young football players targeting college careers.

The SEC has won the last six national titles. Tonight southern power Alabama, the defending national champion, plays Notre Dame for the 2013 title. The West Coast dominated Pac-12 Conference holds impressive wins this bowl season in the Rose Bowl and in the Fiesta Bowl where Oregon defeated Kansas State, 35-17. The SEC is rich in players from the South while the Pac-12 recruits California high schools and junior colleges, and signs players from football-crazy Texas, too.

Ohio State, the Big Ten’s best program, wasn’t eligible in 2012 for a bowl game. Maturi said when the Buckeyes return to bowl games starting next season that will be a major boost for the conference and so too will a resurgent Michigan program under second year coach Brady Hoke. Traditional power PennState looks crippled for years to come by NCAA sanctions including three more years of bowl bans. “I am worried about how long it will take Penn State to come back,” Maturi said.

Maturi is taking an optimistic view toward the future. He notes some of the bowl losses in the last few weeks have been close games (three decided by 14 total points including the Gophers’ 34-31 loss to Texas Tech). He also points out that after years of losing the annual basketball series with the ACC, the Big Ten has now won the last four ACC/Big Ten Challenges.

“I don’t think we’re that far away (in football),” Maturi said.

From Nebraska to Penn State—and 10 schools in between—a lot of people hope he is correct.

Worth Noting

Gophers assistant basketball coach Saul Smith told Sports Headliners he’s leading a quiet lifestyle away from the court. “I went to J.D. Hoyt’s for dinner with family on New Year’s Eve,” he said.

Gophers head coach Tubby Smith sat next to North Carolina coach Roy Williams watching point guard Tyus Jones and shooting guard Rashad Vaughn play in the 17^th annual Timberwolves Shootout at Target Center on Saturday. The two juniors are among the most coveted prep players in the country for the class of 2014. Jones’ Apple Valley team defeated Vaughn’s Cooper team, 80-70.

Assistant coaches Saul Smith and Vince Taylor watched the game along with Gophers players Joe Coleman, Trevor Mbakwe, Oto Osenieks and Rodney Williams. The group was targeted by fans for photos and autographs.

It’s my opinion the Gophers have a better chance of securing Vaughn than Jones who won’t surprise recruiting observers if he chooses Duke. Other schools on his short list could be Kentucky and Michigan State. Jones admirers hope to see him reduce the time he’s missed in the past with physical problems including recent back spasms.

Timberwolves Shootout organizer Jeff Munneke is already working on teams for next year’s event. Among schools being contacted is Chicago Whitney Young, a team that features junior center Jahlil Okafor, a friend of Jones and among the best players nationally in the class of 2014.

Teams participating in the Timberwolves Shootout pay their own expenses and don’t receive appearance fees. Munneke said the Timberwolves, trying to help promote prep basketball, have some years made a small profit on the event while other times breaking even on finances. This year’s Shootout field included eight teams and four games on Saturday.

Former Duluth Central and Gophers guard Terry Kunze was a state tournament star in the early 1960s. Asked at the Shootout who are the most dominant players to play in the tournament over the years, he listed Lake City’s Randy Breuer, North’s Khalid El-Amin, Melrose’s Mark Olberding and Ellsworth’s Cody Schilling.

On Saturday, for the first time this season, the Timberwolves put single game tickets on sale for their February 1 and March 27 home games with the Lakers, plus March 4 against the Heat, March 29 versus the Thunder and April 1 with the Celtics.

Northwestern, 9-6 overall and 0-2 in the Big Ten, lost at home to No. 2 (A.P.) ranked Michigan last week, 94-66. The No. 9 Gophers, 14-1 and 2-0 in the Big Ten, beat the Wildcats 69-51 in Williams Arena last night.

How ironic if Montreal CFL head coach Marc Trestman, a St. Louis Park native and former Vikings assistant, is the next head coach of the Bears. Trestman, who played part of his college career at quarterback for the Gophers, has been a past favorite of U alums for the Minnesota head coaching job.

Doesn’t look like former Vikings coach Mike Tice, the Bears offensive coordinator in 2012, will be promoted to Chicago head coach.

For the first time ever during the 17 week regular season, an NFL game was the most watched national TV program each week, according to a January 4 email from Sports Media News.

In an online article last Saturday, Sbnation.com reported most college football authorities are predicting Alabama will defeat Notre Dame in the national championship game tonight. Will Harris of ESPN, Stewart Mandel from Sports Illustrated, Jerry Palm of CBS Sports and John Tamanaha from NBC Sports College Football Talk were all quoted as favoring the Crimson Tide.

Former Twins Kyle Lohse, Matt Capps, Carl Pavano and Delmon Young are among major league baseball’s remaining free agents.

Hall of famer and St. Paul native Paul Molitor remains a subject of speculation to one day manage the Twins who for two consecutive years have finished last in the AL Central Division.

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