Twins – Page 71 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Look for Vikings GM, Coach News Soon

Posted on January 4, 2021January 4, 2021 by David Shama

What’s the future for Vikings general manager Rick Spielman and head coach Mike Zimmer?

A source outside the organization told Sports Headliners that the franchise ownership will meet with both Spielman and Zimmer tomorrow (Tuesday). The source does not know what direction that meeting will take, including the possibility things remain status quo.

Another source close to the organization said the Wilf ownership is frustrated with the on-field results versus financial investment. The Vikings haven’t qualified for the NFL playoffs in two of the last three years—yet Minnesota has one of the league’s higher payrolls. Ownership has also invested extensively in stadium and practice facilities.

The second source said the only thing owners Zygi Wilf and Mark Wilf are “concerned about is winning.” Although Spielman and Zimmer have worked for them since 2005 and 2014 respectively, the source said emotion including loyalty to the GM and head coach won’t drive a decision.

Both Spielman and Zimmer received contract extensions last year that are believed to give them each three more years of security. Owners expressed confidence in the two men by extending their contracts and indicated they will trust their leadership into the future. If the Wilfs wanted to make a change, though, buying out Zimmer and Spielman won’t be a deterrent, with the source saying the owners will “pay anything to win.”

The Wilfs are passionate football fans and Zygi has talked openly about winning a Super Bowl. Before buying the Vikings, he was a devoted follower of the New York Giants decades ago. Now at almost 71 years old, he has to decide if he is satisfied with the direction and leadership of his team.

The Wilfs and others in their ownership group are high level business people who make thoughtful but efficient decisions. It seems all but certain that by the end of the week Vikings fans will know whether it’s status quo or there is major change coming in the organization.

Worth Noting

John Schneider, the University of St. Thomas alum and GM of the Seahawks, might be headed elsewhere, according to an online story yesterday by the Seattle Times. Schneider has long been praised for his work in helping make the Seahawks a consistent NFL contender but he doesn’t have final say on personnel, with that authority going to head coach Pete Carroll. Reports are Schneider could fill the Lions’ GM vacancy.

Gophers fans are hoping P.J. Fleck rumors about going elsewhere don’t become an annual annoyance. Talk emerged recently that an NFL team has interest.

Richard Pitino’s Gopher basketball team probably played its best game of the season last night in defeating Ohio State at Williams Arena, 77-60. Minnesota, 10-2, plays its next two games on the road, at Michigan Wednesday and at Iowa Sunday. In road losses to Illinois and Wisconsin the Gophers have been out scored by 39 points.

The Golden Dunkers, the men’s basketball support club for the Gophers, has a campaign to secure more followers on social media like Twitter so that the organization can have a custom URL on YouTube.

Who is the best player on the Twins? MLB.com says it’s third baseman Josh Donaldson in a story today ranking the best on each AL and NL team. Donaldson, the story says, “tends to alternate healthy seasons with injury-plagued ones. It’s the healthy-season turn.”

The Twins rank No. 5 among all teams, per a listing by MLB.com on Saturday. Clubs ahead of Minnesota in the power rankings are the Dodgers, Padres, Yankees and Braves.

It could be that Twins DH extraordinaire Nelson Cruz is waiting to see if the NL will use the designated hitter in 2021. A source said a decision on the DH may come by mid-January, and that will impact the number of suitors to sign Cruz to a new contract. The Twins seem likely to be a finalist.

It’s interesting that Wild general manager Bill Guerin didn’t appoint either Zach Parise or Ryan Suter as the team’s new captain. Jared Spurgeon will have that title while Parise and Suter remain alternate captains.

College hockey prominence is back in Minnesota with four of the state’s five Division I teams ranked in any top-10 polls. The undefeated 9-0 Gophers are the nation’s best team, according to many voters.

Local sports journalists Eric Nelson and Wally Langfellow debut their daily sports talk radio show today on AM 1440-KYCR in the Twin Cities. “Ten Thousand Takes” will air Monday through Friday from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays from noon to 1 p.m.

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Start Watching Gophers QB Roster

Posted on December 28, 2020December 28, 2020 by David Shama

An offseason storyline to follow with the University of Minnesota football program is whether the quarterback roster remains unchanged between now and kickoff next summer against Ohio State in the Gophers’ first game of the 2021 season.

Minnesota will have five scholarship quarterbacks on next season’s roster unless one or more transfer, or (unlikely) give up football. That’s a high total for a major college football program, and the most in memory for the Gophers.

The quarterback scholarship parade is led by Tanner Morgan who started and played every minute at the position this fall. He will be a redshirt junior in 2021 with more than two seasons of starting experience. The other scholarship quarterbacks for next year are: Zack Annexstad, redshirt sophomore; Jacob Clark, redshirt freshman; Cole Kramer, redshirt freshman, and Athan Kaliakmanis, freshman. The QB depth even includes non-scholarship players at the position.

No one is questioning the loyalty of the five scholarship quarterbacks to the Gophers but they all want to compete in games as collegians. With plenty of eligibility remaining, Annexstad, Clark and Kramer might be contemplating their futures now. Morgan is the established starter and Kaliakmanis hasn’t even suited up for his first practice, so those two are all but certain to be Gophers in 2021.

As a walk-on, Annexstad was the Minnesota starter at the beginning of the 2018 season and stayed at No. 1 for seven games. Injuries set him back in late 2018 and all of 2019. A scholarship player for awhile now, he hasn’t seen game action for two seasons. He wanted so much to be a Gopher, the former Mankato West QB reportedly turned down other major college offers, but could a place like North Dakota State interest him now? The powerhouse Bison will have opportunities at QB next year and beyond.

Clark came to Minnesota as a four-star recruit from Texas and Rivals ranked him the No. 13 pro style passer in the class of 2019. The Dallas Morning News, in a June 2018 story, reported Clark had 16 college offers including California, Iowa, TCU and Purdue. It is surprising that Clark, Annexstad and Kramer didn’t receive even a minute of playing time this fall despite opportunities for a reserve quarterback in one-sided games. If Clark enters the NCAA football transfer portal, he will draw immediate interest from major programs.

If anyone is taking bets on Annexstad, Clark or Kramer moving on, the latter seems least likely to change schools. The former Eden Prairie quarterback has the moxie of a winner and the quality hasn’t gone unnoticed at the U. His affection for the school is genuine, having grown up influenced by relatives who are prominent former Gophers including Carter Coughlin and Tom Moe. Kramer played briefly in three games as a true freshman in 2019.

None of the quarterbacks, by the way, need to move on to other schools because of academic challenges at Minnesota. Annexstad, Clark and Kramer were all honored as Academic All-Big Ten players in 2020. Morgan earned the designation in 2018 and 2019.

With the Gophers coming off a challenging and disappointing 3-4 season in 2020, head coach P.J. Fleck could voice a public challenge to all players that every position is open for competition during spring football practices. That could be done at quarterback without sending the message the coaching staff doesn’t want Morgan to be the starter. An effective message is that offseason competition is an asset for all concerned, pushing individuals and the team to improve. That kind of communication influences players including reserve quarterbacks.

Morgan’s passing regressed in 2020 after making second team All-Big Ten in 2019. He had too many throws off target including a killer interception in the end zone against Wisconsin that cost Minnesota the game and the return of Paul Bunyan’s Axe. To be fair, though, he didn’t quite have the same quality of receivers this fall as he did in 2019, and the Gophers played with a reshuffled offensive line that could be ineffective in pass protection. He was also working with a new quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator in Mike Sanford Jr.

The coaches know they have a special asset in Morgan who is an exceptional and experienced game manager who can consistently throw with accuracy (school record 18 consecutive games with a touchdown pass between 2018 and 2020). He is a eye-catching 17-7 as Minnesota’s starting quarterback. He turns 22 years old in April and as a “geezer” could finish his career at the U as a five-year starter!

Worth Noting

Gophers running back Mohamed Ibrahim was named Third Team All-America by the Associated Press today. He led the Big Ten in rushing attempts (201), rushing yards (1,076), rushing yards per game (153.7), rushing touchdowns (15), scoring (90), points per game (12.9) and all-purpose yards per game (168.4). He was third in the nation in rushing yards per game, fourth in points per game, fifth in rushing touchdowns, sixth in all-purpose yards per game and eighth in rushing yards.

George Paton, the Vikings assistant GM, is a regular on the annual SI.com list of potential NFL general managers. He made the latest rankings published last Friday and his name is rumored for a position with the Chicago Bears front office, while finishing up his 14th year with the Vikings.

Words of praise last week from Andrew Simon writing on Mlb.com about the Twins’ Byron Buxton: “Buxton finished with a stellar 124 OPS+ over 135 plate appearances but how he got there was…unorthodox. This was pretty much the definition of ‘all or nothing.’ Buxton struck out 36 times against his two walks, and 13 of his 33 hits were homers.

“Never before had a player posted an OBP below .280 and a slugging percentage above .550 in a season with at least 100 PA. Buxton also set a record by having 35% of his total times reaching base safely come via the home run ball.”

The Gophers’ men’s basketball team is ranked No. 21 in today’s Associated Press poll. It’s the first time the Gophers have been nationally ranked since Dec. 10, 2017. Nine Big Ten teams are ranked in the AP’s top 25 including No. 17 Michigan State who the Gophers play tonight at home.

Former Gophers basketball public address announcer Dick Jonckowski has cancer, with more specifics to be known this week after meeting with his oncologist. Several years ago he beat stage 4 non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

St. Thomas men’s basketball coach John Tauer posted these appreciative words on Facebook last week about wife Chancey Anderson Tauer and her battle with breast cancer: “…conclusion of 8 grueling months of chemo, surgery, and radiation, all while supporting and inspiring her family, and pouring her heart into her passion, Prodeo Academy.”

Award winning singer John Legend, uncle of Gophers wide receiver Mike Brown-Stephens, turns 42 today.

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U Regent Wants to Revive Programs

Posted on December 16, 2020December 16, 2020 by David Shama

Board of regent member Michael Hsu proposes giving about $1.2 million in University of Minnesota borrowed money next year to the Gopher men’s gymnastics, tennis, and indoor track and field programs, allowing them to continue for the 2021-2022 school year.

The regents received a report stating the U likely needs to borrow about $82 million sometime next year because of the pandemic and its adverse effects on revenues. Hsu suggested at a recent regents meeting that the $82 million be increased to $83.2 million, with the additional sum providing a short term fix for the above mentioned sports. “Give everybody a chance to kind of figure things out and see if there is any way to continue these sports using outside money,” Hsu told Sports Headliners.

In October the regents voted 7-5 to eliminate the three sports at the end of the fiscal year in June as a cost savings to the Gopher Athletic Department. Critics have scoffed at the less than $2 million amount in annual savings that will be realized, but athletic director Mark Coyle has said Title IX issues also dictated the decision. Program boosters have held protests, generated fundraising ideas and used the media to plead their case, with gymnastics coach Mike Burns even appearing nationally on the “60 Minutes” TV program.

Hsu was planting an idea with the suggestion to provide funding for the programs facing elimination. “I am not expecting a (University system) loan amount to be known until May or June timeframe, but we have several meetings before that and it may come up in some fashion. …I don’t think we’ll be acting on any loan until closer to the end of the fiscal year,” Hsu said.

Hsu also said it’s anticipated U is facing about $166 million in budget shortfall by fiscal year end. Therefore, there would be a need to source outside money via a loan, or perhaps sale of bonds, to make up for a lot of the shortfall. Hsu and others predict a significant portion of an $82 million loan would be given to the Gophers’ Athletic Department.

Earlier in the year Coyle projected a worse case revenue shortfall of $75 million for this school year. Since then one major development has been that despite the pandemic, Big Ten teams including the Gophers have been able to play a fall season and generate significant TV revenues.

Hsu doesn’t have the figures on TV revenue, or other current specific athletic department revenue and expense data, but he guesstimates the Gophers’ Athletic Department may need $40 million of the U’s borrowed money. “Let’s be clear. That is a Michael Hsu estimate—that is likely not to be right.”

Worth Noting

St. Paul Saints owner Mike Veeck told Sports Headliners he expects ticket and concession prices to remain the same next season, despite his franchise losing $1 million this year and elevating from Independent to Triple-A status in 2021.

The Saints will be a farm club of the Minnesota Twins, with officials of the big league team assuring the creative Veeck his franchise can continue its famous promotions that characterized the fan experience in St. Paul for more than 25 years. Veeck also said he will be interested to see the direction of Independent Baseball in coming years and could be interested in acquiring a franchise.

A financial victim of the pandemic, the Harold’s Cabin restaurant in Charleston owned by Veeck has closed.

Gophers football fans were wondering who No. 48 was last Saturday when Minnesota defeated Nebraska, 24-21. Redshirt senior Anders Gelecinskyj from Bloomington Kennedy, by way of Minnesota State, kicked one field goal and three extra points in his Gopher debut while subbing for regular kicker Michael Lantz who is out for the season.

On the KFAN Radio post game show Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck acknowledged his new kicker, who despite being on the team for two-plus seasons had never appeared in a game. Then Fleck told a story about Gelecinskyj giving him a gift awhile ago that is popular in the Gelecinskyj family. On Fleck’s desk sits a hollowed out egg painted in German colors.

Fleck talking about his defense that played its best game of the season in defeating Nebraska: “We knew we were going to be younger on defense, and nobody predicted COVID. Then you don’t get the spring ball and summer to develop them (young players). They’re thrown into play with a few weeks of preparation.”

Avante Dickerson, the Omaha cornerback who was the 247Sports composite top ranked Gopher verbal commit, will not sign with Minnesota today on National Signing Day and is delaying his National Letter of Intent commitment until February.

Much maligned Kirk Cousins has thrown 83 touchdown passes since joining the Vikings in 2018. That is tied for fourth best in the NFL with Tom Brady, and trailing Patrick Mahomes (109), Russell Wilson (104) and Aaron Rodgers (90).

Saint John’s coach Gary Fasching told Sports Headliners he is hopeful MIAC football teams will play a spring schedule starting in April. He said it’s likely a four-game Johnnies schedule will include a game against historic rival St. Thomas before the Tommies depart the MIAC next fall for the Pioneer Football League. The matchup was scheduled last fall for U.S. Bank Stadium where Fasching was told the attendance might reach 50,000.

A game next spring with the Tommies would likely be hosted by Saint John’s without spectators. The Johnnies have made a MIAC record six consecutive NCAA playoff appearances dating back to 2014.

Fasching reported that offensive tackle Ben Bartch, the former Saint John’s star drafted in the fourth round this spring by the Jacksonville Jaguars, made his first NFL start last Sunday. “He graded out very well,” Fasching said. “They are really excited with him.”

SI.com points out the Timberwolves Ricky Rubio, playing last year for the Phoenix Suns, made the top 10 in “ESPN’s real plus-minus statistic for point guards.” He is a top 100 player in the NBA, according to SI.com, which ranks him No. 82.

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