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Vikings Griffen Lauds Zimmer’s Courage

Posted on December 16, 2016December 16, 2016 by David Shama

Vikings tough guy Everson Griffen voiced admiration for coach Mike Zimmer yesterday. Griffen, a seven-year pro, has played for a lot of coaches during his high school, college and NFL career. “He’s the most courageous,” the Vikings defensive end told Sports Headliners yesterday. “He’s just a great coach to play for.”

Zimmer’s multiple eye surgeries this fall have stopped him from coaching in only one game, a loss against Dallas on December 1. Zimmer flew to Jacksonville last week and coached the Vikings to a 25-16 victory over the Jaguars. He has been wearing a patch over his right eye in practice this week but will coach against the Colts on Sunday at U.S. Bank Stadium.

“It was hard not to have him on the sidelines for the Cowboys game,” fullback Zach Line told Sports Headliners. “It felt like things were back to normal when he was travelling with us last week.”

What was different when Zimmer didn’t coach in the Dallas game? “I think just having your leader there changes everything,” Line said. “He’s definitely the guy we look to on the sidelines and in the locker room at halftime.”

Griffen, a 2016 Pro Bowler known for his aggressive style, finds Zimmer inspirational. “He’s a tough guy. He loves the game of football. He was going to find any solution to get back on the field with us.” …

Sam Bradford (photo courtesy of Minnesota Vikings)

Despite the team’s offensive line being in disarray because of injuries, and a running game that is among the worst in pro football, Vikings quarterback Sam Bradford has a career-best 98.2 passer rating. Bradford, 29, has thrown 14 touchdown passes and just three interceptions.

Bradford ranks eighth in the NFL in passer rating. In six of his 12 games his passer rating has been over 100. He’s given the Vikings their best passing season since Brett Favre’s lights-out 2009 season.

The offensive line didn’t allow a sack in last Sunday’s win over the Jaguars. “Those guys played great last week,” Bradford said. “They went out there and they just blocked their butts off, both in the run game and in the pass game. I thought they did a great job, and I couldn’t be more proud of those guys. …” …

Don’t be surprised if 11-year veteran Chad Greenway waits until spring before deciding whether to retire. Expect a well thought out decision by the Vikings linebacker on whether to play another season. …

When the Vikings play the Colts Sunday it will be a homecoming for Minnesota native Joe Haeg who played high school football in Brainerd. The rookie offensive tackle and guard, a fifth round draft choice, has been a surprise starter for the Colts. …

The Christmas Eve day weather forecast in Green Bay is for a high of 36 and “snow or flurries possible,” according to Accuweather.com. The Vikings-Packers holiday game at Lambeau Field begins at noon. …

Jim Carter, who is a candidate to become a University of Minnesota Board of Regent next year, attended last Friday’s board meeting on the Minneapolis campus. Carter said “about 30” demonstrators wore “Fire Kaler” t-shirts and spoke critically of University president Eric Kaler, including his hire of former athletics director Norwood Teague. The police cleared the room and broke up the demonstration after a short while, according to Carter. …

chasing-dreams1 Former Gophers football coach Jerry Kill has a book signing today at Barnes & Noble Nicollet Mall from noon to 2 p.m. Tomorrow he will be at Barnes & Noble Eden Prairie and Sunday at Barnes & Noble Mall of America—1 to 3 p.m. both days. He will be signing copies of his new book Chasing Dreams: Living My Life One Yard at a Time. …

Gophers athletics director Mark Coyle speaks to the CORES lunch group Thursday, January 12 at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Bloomington, 1114 American Blvd. Vikings executive Lester Bagley talks to the group on March 9. More information is available by contacting Jim Dotseth, dotsethj@comcast.net. …

Mark Ritchie said via email the Minnesota World’s Fair bid for 2023 will place emphasis “on all aspects of how we keep ourselves healthy, including sports, fitness, exercise and how we return to fitness if sick or injured.” The president and CEO of the Minnesota Expo 2023 project announced yesterday that his group has met the Bureau of International Expositions bid deadline. He also told Sports Headliners in an email the anticipated site for the fair will be on land between TCF Bank Stadium and Surly Brewing Company. Others competing to host the fair are Argentina, Brazil and Poland. …

Fans wonder about new 33-year-old Twins baseball boss Derek Falvey working with 60-year-old manager Paul Molitor. That’s a 27 year difference in age but when Falvey was in the Cleveland front office he collaborated with 57-year-old manager Terry Francona. Molitor has long been known for his high baseball I.Q. and that was developed because of his willingness to learn. Expect Falvey and Molitor to be curious about each other’s ideas this offseason. …

Until the Timberwolves pull toward a .500 record, legitimate questions will nag at the franchise that hasn’t made the playoffs since 2004. The Wolves have a talented young core of players but management hired a coach who made his reputation handling veteran players. In Chicago as head coach and Boston as a key assistant, highly regarded Tom Thibodeau was known for leading stingy defenses. He also had physical players—enforcer types—but the Wolves are a finesse team with some of their best players being stylish performers like Andrew Wiggins, Zach LaVine and Ricky Rubio. …

Marv Wolfenson and Harvey Ratner, the deceased founders of the Timberwolves and the Northwest health clubs in Minneapolis, were tennis advocates including boosters of the Gophers program. A recognition plaque is on display at the University of Minnesota Baseline Tennis Center, and February 3 at the Gophers-Dartmouth match the contributions of Wolfenson and Ratner will be honored. …

Former Gophers guard Blake Hoffarber, who won a 2005 Best Play ESPY Award for his amazing three-point shot in the state tournament while in high school, is a business insurance risk consultant for Marsh & McLennan in Minneapolis. …

The Minnesota Wild and other sponsors will celebrate Girls Hockey Weekend Saturday and Sunday at Xcel Energy Center. Natalie Darwitz, the Olympic medalist and women’s hockey coach at Hamline, will say “Let’s Play Hockey!” at the start of the Wild-Coyotes game Saturday afternoon. There will be promotion of girls and women’s hockey at the game. Post-game, fans can attend a chalk talk featuring Darwitz and two other hockey authorities, Laura Halldorson and Kristen Wright. Hockey clinics for girls and women will be held on Saturday and Sunday. More at Wild.com/girlshockey. Darwitz also skated with the Wild at practice this morning, becoming the first female to suit up with the team.

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Vikings Miss on Momentum Builder

Posted on December 2, 2016December 2, 2016 by David Shama

The Vikings missed a storybook ending to their game last night, and diminished their chances of making the playoffs.

In the closing seconds the Vikings lined up for a two-point conversion attempt but right tackle Jeremiah Sirles was called for a false start, pushing the football back from the two-yard line to the seven. The next play quarterback Sam Bradford threw high on an attempted pass that if completed would have tied the score 17-17 with the Cowboys and sent the game into overtime.

A replay of Bradford passing showed that the Cowboys’ Cedric Thorton hit the Vikings quarterback on the helmet. A roughing penalty should have been called but the officials didn’t throw a flag.

Instead of another attempt at the two-point conversion and possible overtime, the Vikings were left with frustrations and a .500 record of 6-6 with four games remaining on their schedule. It’s been a traumatic week for the Vikings both off the field and on. Head coach Mike Zimmer followed the game from home because of emergency eye surgery Wednesday night. Zimmer’s players wanted to win for him and build momentum for a playoff run. It’s not known when the coach will return to practice.

It’s also very uncertain how the Vikings will play in their games between now and when the season ends on January 1. The good news is that the remaining teams on Minnesota’s regular season schedule all have losing records. The Jaguars (2-9), Colts (5-6), Packers (5-6) and Bears (2-9) have a cumulative record of 14 wins, 30 losses. The games with the Jaguars and Packers are away, while the Colts and Bears come to Minneapolis. The Vikings are 2-4 on the road this season, 4-2 at home.

Minnesota has now lost two more games than the NFC North Division leading Lions (7-4). The Vikings have dropped six of their last seven and, with or without Zimmer, they are scrambling to defend last year’s division title.

The Lions’ remaining games are against the Saints (5-6), Giants (8-3) and Cowboys (11-1) on the road, and at home with the Packers and Bears. The cumulative record of those clubs is 31-25. Past performances and records certainly indicate the Lions’ remaining schedule is more difficult than Minnesota’s.

But even if the Vikings somehow manage to finish in a tie with the Lions (perhaps both having 9-7 records), Detroit will have the tiebreaker for the playoffs because of two regular season wins over Minnesota.

Six teams from the NFC will qualify for the postseason, the four division champions and two wildcard entries. Right now there are seven teams with better records than the Vikings, so Zimmer’s bunch still has a chance at the playoffs but last night’s performance didn’t create momentum or optimism.

The Vikings’ defense was impressive against perhaps the best offense in the NFC. The Cowboys scored two touchdowns but one was a gift because Vikings punt returner Adam Thielen fumbled near the goal line. His miscue was part of a difficult special teams evening for the Vikings that also included anemic punting giving the Cowboys preferred field position.

As usual, the Vikings offense struggled with minimal rushing success and point production. The Vikings got three field goals from Kai Forbath but scored only one touchdown. Bradford, also as expected, took a physical beating from pass rushers and absorbed a crushing blow late in the second quarter that knocked him out of the game. The offensive line has had so many injuries the Vikings are now using overmatched personnel as they struggle to put momentum back into a season that started 5-0.

Vikings fans can hardly be cocky about the coming weeks. The lowly Bears defeated the Vikings 20-10 in Chicago earlier this season. Aaron Rodgers and the Packers are always a pain-in-the-you-know-what, the Colts have a top quarterback also in Andrew Luck and the Jaguars—well, they get the Vikings on their home field a week from Sunday.

But perhaps somehow the Vikings will find a way to win games down the stretch. Hard to know what tomorrow brings. Zimmer received a reminder this week.

Worth Noting

The Twins announced this morning that James Rowson, 40, will be the team’s new hitting coach. The last three seasons Rowson has been the minor league hitting coordinator for the Yankees. He was the Cubs hitting coach from June of 2012 through 2013.

St. Thomas plays at home tomorrow (noon start) in a Division III quarterfinal national championship football game against UW-Oshkosh. In the last 12 years, St. Thomas’ 30 teams in nine different sports have qualified for NCAA tournaments and advanced to at least the national quarterfinals. Ten of the teams went on to place first or second nationally. The Tommies’ football team played in the national title game last season.

Glenn Caruso (photo courtesy of University of St. Thomas)

In nine seasons under football coach Glenn Caruso, 19 different players have been named All-America or Academic All-America. In the 66 previous St. Thomas football seasons, 29 other Tommies were honored. At least one other player is expected to be added to that 48 member list when All-America teams are announced this month, because senior cornerback Michael Alada leads all four NCAA levels in interceptions with 11.

Senior wide receiver Nick Waldvogel made the 2016 Division III CoSIDA Academic All-America team this week, joining his older brother Fritz who was honored in 2011. Only one other set of brothers have made Academic All-America for St. Thomas: Greg Kaiser (1997) and Andy Kaiser (2001).

If the Gophers play Washington State in the Music City Bowl, Minnesota will have another look at Mike Leach. The famous passing game authority has revived the Cougars’ program as head coach, just like he did at Texas Tech. In the 2006 Insight Bowl Leach’s Raiders trailed the Gophers 35-7 at halftime but scored 31 second half points to force overtime. The Raiders passed the Gophers dizzy and eventually won 44-41 in Glen Mason’s last game as Minnesota’s head coach.

The 8-4 Gophers will learn their bowl destination Sunday night.

The Gophers will have four players returning next year who received All-Big Ten honors this week. The four are first team kicker Emmit Carpenter, defensive tackle Steven Richardson and running back Rodney Smith, both third teamers, and linebacker Jonathan Celestin who received honorable mention.

James Johannesson, the redshirt running back from Fargo who was one of the stars of the Gophers spring game, never played a minute this season. Minnesota’s top three running backs who played this fall all return in 2017. Johannesson ran for 6,158 yards and 81 touchdowns in high school.

A sympathy card might be appropriate for former Gophers basketball coach Dan Monson. His Long Beach State team is 1-8 with losses that include road games at Kansas, Louisville, North Carolina, Washington, Wichita State and UCLA.

Tubby Smith, who succeeded Monson at Minnesota, is 6-1 in his first season at Memphis. The most notable teams on the Tigers’ schedule so far are Iowa (Memphis 100, Hawkeyes 92) and Providence (Friars won 60-51).

Anyone else notice the Timberwolves have one of the worst records in the NBA, while the pro franchise that first played in Minneapolis is the surprise of the league? With a nucleus of promising young players, the Wolves were favorites before the season to emerge as the NBA’s most improved team. Instead, it’s the Los Angeles Lakers—who most everyone thought would be awful—that are playing .500 basketball after the first month of the season. Luke Walton is turning heads in L.A. and across the NBA in his first head coaching job, while the Wolves are off to a 5-15 start.

The Wild is at Calgary tonight and is 0-1 this season against the Flames. Minnesota goalie Devan Dubnyk stopped 26 of 27 shots in a 1-0 loss November 5 at Xcel Energy Center.

The Gophers volleyball team has its highest NCAA Tournament seed in program history at No. 2. Minnesota is hosting opening regional rounds at the Sports Pavilion tonight and tomorrow evening. The Gophers had top 25 RPI wins against 10 teams this season and nine of the 18 players on the roster are Minnesotans.

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Vikings QB Cautions about 5-0 Starts

Posted on October 19, 2016October 19, 2016 by David Shama

The Vikings are 5-0 and ranked near the top of everybody’s NFL power rankings but the players insist they’re not high on themselves. They know how fast things can change in the NFL because of misfortune including injuries.

Shaun Hill is the No. 2 quarterback on the Vikings, and he was also a reserve in 2003 when Minnesota started the season 6-0. “I’ve been in this situation and I understand that there’s a lot of work yet to be done,” he told Sports Headliners.

The 2003 Vikings didn’t have a defense comparable to the 2016 version and the club lost four consecutive games after starting the season unbeaten. “I just know we led the division until the last play of the game that year, and didn’t do enough to make it to the postseason,” Hill recalled. “It doesn’t matter what your record is this week, it’s a…weekly (challenge), and really, you gotta go into every game as if both teams are 0-0.”

Wide receiver and kick returner Cordarralle Patterson said wherever he goes strangers and friends are hyped about the undefeated Vikings who play the 3-2 Eagles in Philadelphia Sunday afternoon. Patterson said he hears comments at gas stations, in taxis and on airplanes about how great the team is, but he knows fans are fickle.

Here’s what Patterson said fans tell him, and what his perspective is about the praise. “Oh, man, you all so good—5-0, man. We can’t believe it and all this. But two weeks from now (if the Vikings are losing), they be like, oh, man, ya all suck. I thought you all way better than you all was.

Cordarrelle Patterson (photo courtesy of Minnesota Vikings)

“I am like, duh. Just last week you said how good we is, and now you say we suck. So you can’t really pay attention to what people say. …”

Patterson is convinced teammates are focused and competitive, realizing there are 11 more games to be played before the playoffs. “There’s no selfish guys in this locker room. Everybody wants the next guy to be better than what they is. We like to compete. If you’re not competing, you’re not trying.”

Those comments will resonate with Hill. “I guarantee you this, they don’t hand out any trophies in October,” he said.

Worth Noting

Vikings coach Mike Zimmer talking about former North Dakota State quarterback Carson Wentz who as a rookie has started every game for the Eagles: “…It seems like he understands where the ball is going quickly. He has done a nice job of avoiding pressure in the pocket and using his athletic ability, and he has got a great arm. He looks very accurate to me. He has got a great deep ball. So, he has been impressive.”

Wisconsin lost in overtime Saturday night to Ohio State, 30-23, but Joel Stave told Sports Headliners he believes if the teams played 10 times in Madison, the Badgers would win half the games. Stave, the Badgers starting quarterback last season and now on the Vikings practice squad, attended Saturday night’s game in Madison and watched on the field.

Badgers coach Paul Chryst had the undefeated Buckeyes guessing as to what was going to happen next when Wisconsin had the ball. “I think he’s the best play caller in the country,” Stave said.

For the second consecutive week, players with state of Minnesota ties have been named Big Ten Players of the Week. Badgers junior linebacker Jack Cichy, a native of Somerset, Wisconsin who attended Hill-Murray School in Maplewood, was announced Monday as the Defensive Player of the Week for his career-high 15 tackles (11 solo) against Ohio State. Last week Purdue running back Brian Lankford-Johnson from St. Paul was Freshman of the Week after rushing for 127 yards against Illinois. Johnson signed with the Boilermakers after playing prep football in Palm Bay, Florida.

Former Gophers offensive coordinator Jedd Fisch, now an assistant at Michigan, might be among the candidates Purdue considers to fill its head coaching vacancy. A stronger possibility could be former Purdue assistant Brock Spack, now head coach at Illinois State where his wins this year include an upset of Northwestern.

It will be interesting to hear Saint John’s head football coach Gary Fasching speak to the C.O.R.E.S. lunch group Thursday, November 10. The Johnnies are not only nationally ranked and chasing the MIAC title, but Monday it was announced the St. Thomas-Saint John’s game next year will be played at Target Field. The lunch will be at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Bloomington, 1114 American Blvd. More information is available by contacting Jim Dotseth, dotsethj@comcast.net. C.O.R.E.S. is an acronym for coaches, officials, reporters, educators and sports fans.

Patrick Mahomes, the Texas Tech quarterback and son of former Twins pitcher Pat Mahomes, leads all FBS players in total offense at 455.2 yards per game.

Ex-Gophers quarterback Phil Nelson, now at East Carolina, ranks 19th in the country with 311.8 yards per game. Nelson first left the Gophers for Rutgers and later transferred to East Carolina where he is in his first and last season of eligibility. Former Minnesota coach Jerry Kill helped Nelson transition to East Carolina because of Jeff Compher, the Pirates’ athletics director. When Kill coached at Northern Illinois, Compher was the Huskies’ athletics director and the two built a friendship and mutual admiration.

“At the end of the day that’s how he (Nelson) got there, and that’s how it all worked out,” Kill told Sports Headliners. “Jeff was good enough to believe what I said and took the chance on Philip. He talked a lot about it. The reason Philip is at East Carolina is because of Jeff Compher and what kind of person Jeff Compher is.”

Wide receiver True Thompson, formerly of Armstrong High School, suffered a concussion in August while with the Iowa Western Community College football team, but he has resumed practicing with the team. Thompson, the son of ex-Gophers running back Darrell Thompson, is redshirting this year.

Home court might be the difference tomorrow night when the WNBA Finals are decided at Target Center. The Lynx and Sparks are tied at two wins in the best of five series but Target Center has been a favored place for the Minnesota team. The Lynx is 16-3 this year in its home arena, including playoff games. With a victory the Lynx can win its second consecutive WNBA title and fourth in franchise history.

Owner Glen Taylor told Sports Headliners last month the franchise will have its most profitable year ever, coming in between $1 million and $2 million. Now with the club hosting three games in the WNBA Finals the bottom line should look even better.

Former Gophers All-American Leonard “Buddy” Edelen, who became the first man to run a marathon faster than two hours and 15 minutes in 1963, is among those selected for the 2016 USATF National Track & Field Hall of Fame Class. Edelen, who passed away in 1997, will be posthumously inducted during the second annual Black Tie & Sneakers Gala in New York on November 3.

A native of Harrodsburg, Kentucky, Edelen was a two-time All-American and a two-time Big Ten champion for the Gophers competing for the cross country and track teams in the late 1950s. In 1963 he ran 2:14.28 to win Britain’s Polytechnic Marathon. He finished sixth in the marathon at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

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