Vikings – Page 162 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Rivalry Games Already on U Radar

Posted on August 5, 2016August 5, 2016 by David Shama

The Gophers begin training camp today, and yesterday it was evident players want to end past frustrations, and surprise sportswriters who are predicting a fifth place finish in the Big Ten’s seven-team West Division.

Senior corner Jalen Myrick didn’t hold back expressing his feels about Minnesota border rivals Iowa and Wisconsin. “I hate Iowa. … I hate Wisconsin. I want to beat them at least one time. I didn’t get a chance (because of injury) to play against each one of them last year. I got a big statement to prove in each of those games.”

The Hawkeyes won the division last season, the Badgers the year before. Minnesota’s record against Iowa since 2000 is 5-11. Dating back to 1990, the Gophers are a dismal 5-21 against Wisconsin including 12 consecutive losses beginning in 2004.

Senior quarterback Mitch Leidner joined Myrick and several other teammates yesterday to talk with the media prior to practice opening. Leidner predicted the Gophers will play with an edge this season and added he wants a Big Ten title before his college career ends.

Leidner knows the Gophers need to end the drought against the Badgers, and Minnesota head coach Tracy Claeys talked about that during an interview with Sports Headliners in June. “It bothers the hell out of me,” Claeys said. “We’re on our way to try to get that back to where it’s a rivalry. We gotta win sooner or later for it even to be considered a rivalry anymore.”

Worth Noting

Myrick also returns kickoffs for the Gophers and is considered the team’s fastest player. A recent NFL.com story identified him as the Big Ten’s fastest player. Myrick said he’s faster than last year. How much? “We’ll see,” he replied.

Myrick intentionally lost a couple of pounds to bring his weight to about 200, and he has speed on his mind. “Anytime I can build my speed, that’s what I am trying to do,” he said.

Leidner said he’s healthy after playing injured the last couple of years. He even acknowledged that in a 2014 game ligaments attached to a big toe were so torn the toe was “floating around” in his shoe.

Leidner predicted yesterday that senior offensive tackle Jonah Pirsig might be named an All-American this fall. The 6-9, 325-pound Pirsig has played much of his career with injuries. “This is the healthiest I’ve felt since I’ve been here,” Pirsig said.

Both Leidner and Pirsig praised new offensive line coach Bart Miller and the impact he’s had on that unit. “He’s completely changed the mindset around,” Leidner said.

Coaching staff decisions about starters will be made after 18 practices. Claeys said starters need 10 days of practices to prepare for the first game.

Prior to their September 1 opener against Oregon State, the Gophers have five practices open to the public. Practices August 6, 9 and 12 begin at 10 a.m. at the Gibson-Nagurski Football Complex. Two practices August 13 are also open to the public—starting at 9:10 a.m. at Gibson-Nagurski and 4:45 p.m. at TCF Bank Stadium.

Retired Twins executive Jim Rantz has talked recently with Terry Ryan who owner Jim Pohlad let go as the club’s general manager last month. Rantz and Ryan worked with each other for decades. Rantz said the 62-year-old Ryan is “doing fine,” still has passion for baseball and watches the Twins on TV.

Rantz’s guess is his friend will eventually get back into baseball. “I don’t think he’s going to call it a career,” Rantz said. “I think he’s going to hang in there, and we’ll see what happens here. I am sure he’ll hang out until the end of the year and then go from there.”

The Thursday morning Go 96.3 radio show offered a few critical comments about U.S. Bank Stadium’s debut sports event Wednesday night between soccer teams AC Milan and Chelsea. Comments included too much congestion inside the stadium, “spotty Wi-Fi” and at least one or two concessionaires running out of menu items. A sausage for $7 that cost $2 more for peppers and onions also prompted comment.

General manager Rick Spielman said the Vikings’ new practice facility and team headquarters in Eagan (opening in 2018) will be the best in the NFL and can contribute to attracting free agents. “Just like the new stadium (downtown), I think was a big factor this year,” he said. “(But) it’s always going to come down to your football team, and it will come down to the financial commitment you’re willing to make to the player. I think a lot of it has to do (also) with your coaching staff and our head coach. …”

It will be interesting to watch the development of high-potential Vikings second-season defensive lineman Danielle Hunter. Could Hunter, who doesn’t turn 22 until October, replace 10-year veteran Brian Robison this season? Robison, 33, might one day finish his career as a situational pass rusher.

At 6-5 and over 250 pounds the Vikings 2015 third round draft choice is an intriguing prospect. He had 33 tackles and six sacks last year. Hunter’s NFL.com draft analysis in 2015 described him as having a “freakish combination of size, athleticism and explosiveness.”

The Minnesota Wild will offer single game regular season tickets starting at $35. Tickets go on sale September 24. Pricing for single game regular season tickets is based on demand factors like rivalries, day-of-week, marquee teams or superstar players.

Former Gophers, Olympics and North Stars coaching legend Herb Brooks, who was killed in a 2003 August car accident, would have been 79 today.

Comments Welcome

Kepler Top Rookie of Year Candidate

Posted on August 3, 2016August 3, 2016 by David Shama

With a three home run game on Monday night, and another last evening, the Twins Max Kepler is now a favorite to win the American League Rookie of the Year Award.

Despite joining the Twins after the season started and for awhile not being a regular, Kepler has hit 15 home runs this year, including seven in his last 15 games. His home run total leads all American League rookies, and a baseball authority predicted yesterday he could finish the season with 25 homers.

Kepler is averaging a home run every 13.6 at bats. When former Senators and Twins great Harmon Killebrew played his first full season in the majors in 1959 he homered every 13 at bats.

Kepler’s home run totals have probably surprised everyone. In six minor league seasons through 2015 he homered every 46.8 times at the plate. His minor league batting average was .281.

Max Kepler (photo courtesy of Minnesota Twins).

“He’s got that kind of bat that he’s going to hit for average and show a little power,” former Twins executive Jim Rantz told Sports Headliners back in April.

Turns out Kepler is showing more than a “little power” with his line drives that are going over the fence and positioning him to possibly become the sixth Twins player to win the American League Rookie of the Year Award. The 6-4, 207-pound Twins right fielder is impressive at bat with a leveraged swing and exceptional plate discipline. He is hitting .259 with 46 RBI in 205 at bats with the Twins.

“We all thought that he was probably going to be a line drive type hitter that was going to put a lot of doubles up,” Rantz told Sports Headliners yesterday. “It’s a beautiful swing that he puts on the ball…(and) if he gets elevation, it’s going to go because when he hits a ball it carries.”

The German-born Kepler comes from an athletic family. His parents were ballet dancers. As a youngster Kepler played not only baseball but other sports including soccer, swimming, skiing and tennis. Mark Rozycki and Mary Kepler may also have raised the next AL Rookie of the Year.

“No telling how this is going to finish if he keeps going like he’s going,” Rantz said.“He’s liable to hit 25 before it’s over (the season).”

Worth Noting

Vikings owners and brothers Mark and Zygi Wilf didn’t attend yesterday’s groundbreaking event for a new privately funded practice facility and team headquarters in Eagan because their father is ill, a source told Sports Headliners. Leonard Wilf, Mark and Zygi’s cousin and another Vikings owner, represented the Wilf family.

General manager Rick Spielman, speaking at the event, predicted the new complex will be the most “unique and best” of its kind in the NFL. The 40-acre Vikings campus will have offices, a 100-yard indoor practice building and four outdoor fields including a 6,000 seat stadium that is likely to host premiere high school games.

While there’s been no announcement, it seems likely the Vikings eventually will move their preseason training camp from Mankato to Eagan. The new complex will be known as the Twin Cities Orthopedics Performance Center and TCO Stadium. It is scheduled to open in March of 2018.

Steve Poppen, the Vikings chief financial officer, said Eagan was “clearly” the best of three sites considered. Eagan mayor Mike Maguire said before the Vikings’ headquarters was built in Eden Prairie, the Eagan site had been promoted by a St. Paul developer in the 1970s.

Twins’ right-hander Tommy Milone, who this week was assigned to the bullpen, pitched five-plus innings in four of his last five starts after not achieving that in any of his first six starts this season. Milone hasn’t walked a batter in his last two starts.

Rob Antony, the Twins assistant general manager who could be a finalist to succeed Terry Ryan as the franchise’s baseball boss, started out in the media relations department. So, too, did Twins president Dave St. Peter and director of travel Mike Herman. The organization has long been known for its loyalty to employees and for promoting from within.

The Gophers open preseason football practice Friday. Saturday’s 10 a.m. practice at the Gibson Nagurski Football Complex is open to the public.

Former Gophers coach Glen Mason compared Minnesota senior quarterback Mitch Leidner to a 10-handicap golfer last week while doing analysis on the Big Ten Network. Mason said a 10-handicapper is inconsistent and Leidner needs to more like a five-handicapper.

Gophers coach Tracy Claeys told reporters at last week’s Big Ten media days in Chicago it will be important for he and new offensive coordinator Jay Johnston to give Leidner assignments that he is comfortable with during August practices.

A lot of college football programs, including the Gophers, are discounting tickets to boost sales. Big Ten rival Purdue has single game tickets starting at $5.

The U.S. Olympic women’s basketball team, with four Lynx players and Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve on the staff, has its first game in Rio de Janeiro Sunday. The U.S. team, favored to win gold, plays its opening game against Senegal starting at 10 a.m. CDT.

Vashti Cunningham, the 18-year-old daughter of former Vikings quarterback Randall Cunningham, isn’t expected to win the high jump in Rio but could surprise, and the Nevada native has already put Olympic coaches on notice she is a special talent.

Hamline has hired ex-Gophers women’s tennis star Julia Courter as its new head men’s and women’s tennis coach. The Pipers now have four former Gophers as head coaches with the others being Becky Bauer Egan (volleyball), Natalie Darwitz (women’s hockey) and Cory Laylin (men’s hockey).

Comments Welcome

U Must Live with Stadium Decision

Posted on August 1, 2016August 1, 2016 by David Shama

While champagne corks pop all over town toasting the opening of U.S. Bank Stadium, there is one group that ought to be biting their collective fingernails.

The new stadium will ensure sellout crowds at gaudy ticket prices for Vikings games this season—inflating both the revenue streams and value of this town’s NFL franchise. The facility will also be used for all kinds of events in the coming months—from small parties to marquee concerts, from college baseball to rollerblading—and adds to the ballyhoo of this being “the people’s stadium.” A near capacity crowd could be present Wednesday night when the stadium hosts its first sports event, the soccer match between Chelsea FC and AC Milan.

The stadium’s design and features are so impressive the public is willing to buy tickets for tours of the building, while setting calendars months in advance for dates that aren’t first choices. Heck, U.S. Bank Stadium is such a success the Star Tribune reported last Friday the arena’s completion is contributing to a construction slowdown in Minneapolis.

There are a lot of winners gathering under the U.S. Bank Stadium big top, but one major loser is the Gophers. The University of Minnesota’s football program has mostly played second fiddle to the Vikings in this market for more than 50 years. The opening of U.S. Bank Stadium only widens the gap between the two entities that compete for the love and financial support of this state’s football fans.

The opinion here is the Gophers are always best positioned to market their product when playing their home games in the same facility as used by the Vikings. The Gophers broke their co-occupancy of the Metrodome with the Vikings awhile ago with the decision to build TCF Bank Stadium. At one time there had been discussion of the Gophers and Vikings sharing a stadium on the University’s Minneapolis campus, but U leaders didn’t want the mega-size required of an NFL facility and the busy traffic brought to campus.

TCF Bank Stadium opened in 2009. It’s a nice stadium, and the facility certainly trumps most of the dinosaur-aged football homes on other college campuses. But the facility is also problematic for the Gophers. Let’s count the ways.

U.S. Bank Stadium is going to be praised for some time as one of the most luxurious and fan-friendly stadiums in the world. TCF Bank Stadium can’t compete with that reality and image. Too bad because word is Gophers’ ticket sales are lagging after last year’s 6-7 season (2-6 in Big Ten games), and the loss of head coach Jerry Kill—the face of the program to Minnesota football fans.

There’s such a buzz about the new stadium it’s likely the Gophers could sell out multiple games this season if playing in that building. It’s probably fair to say every game on the schedule would attract more paying customers downtown than will show up at TCF Bank Stadium.

But it’s not just this fall and the next couple seasons where the Gophers and their fans will lose out for not signing on with the Vikings in a shared stadium. That facility has about 13,000 more seats for football than TCF Bank Stadium. Every game the Gophers play in the future that has high ticket demand will be a reminder of how many more fans could have been accommodated and U Athletic Department revenues generated by making U.S. Bank Stadium home.

Another problem is TCF Bank Stadium is an open-air facility, while U.S. Bank Stadium has a roof. Watching games outdoors is appealing to most fans in September, a little less so in October and then problematic for many ticket buyers and holders in November and beyond. The cold and snow didn’t keep Vikings fans away for late season games when the NFL team played at the Bank while their new palace was being built, but the Gophers don’t command that kind of passion and loyalty.

Look, for example, what happened in November of 2014 when eventual national champion Ohio State came to the Bank. It was a bitterly cold day on November 15, and despite the Ohio State brand name and the Gophers still being in the hunt for the Big Ten’s West Division championship, attendance was 45,778—about 7,000 under stadium capacity. The weather kept a lot of customers away, but in a covered facility the game likely would have attracted 55,000 to 60,000 fans.

Returning football to campus was promoted as a move to boost interest in the program. The results have been mixed. The Gophers didn’t sell out a single game in 2014, but last year—with the promise of Kill having his best team and playing a glitzy home schedule—Minnesota sold out multiple games and averaged a TCF Bank Stadium season-best ever 52,354 fans.

In the Gophers’ last seven seasons in the Metrodome they averaged 47,926 fans per game. During the first seven seasons since returning to campus—supposedly boosted by the honeymoon impact of a new home—the average is 48,980. Of course team success has a major impact on attendance, but during the last seven years in the dome and the first seven on campus Minnesota’s Big Ten records are nearly identical, 21-35 and 20-36. The conclusion is the Gophers didn’t gain much box office sales from being in their new facility.

More than 35 years ago the Gophers were struggling to draw fans when playing outdoors in Memorial Stadium but attendance jumped playing indoors at the Metrodome, their shared home with the Vikings. The first six seasons at the dome saw the Gophers averaging 54,898 fans. In the six prior years at Memorial Stadium the average was 40,872.

It’s all but certain the Gophers could earn a big growth in attendance in the immediate seasons ahead if their home was downtown, only a few miles from campus. Public season ticket sales for 2016, likely to finish behind last year, no doubt would be a higher number in U.S. Bank Stadium. Student season ticket sales have been a disappointment at TCF Bank Stadium, despite the hype that an on-campus stadium would bring more undergraduates to games from nearby dorms, fraternities and sororities. Truth is the Gophers drew as many or more students to games at the beer-friendly Metrodome.

The Athletic Department is reportedly still working on paying down the debt of the $288.5 million cost of TCF Bank Stadium. At the dome the Gophers paid no rent and you can be sure the U would have been given a sweetheart deal to play in the $1.1 billion people’s stadium that includes large subsidies from the state of Minnesota and city of Minneapolis.

I didn’t favor a return to campus for outdoor football. I thought the U could put $288 million to better use while trying to build an elite Big Ten football program. Like how? Oh, maybe for a $190 million Athletes Village that the U is struggling to finance now. Or, paying $6 million or more annually to the best head football coach money could buy—plus dramatically expanding the budget for assistant coaches. The right coaches have far more to do with attracting the best players and building winning teams than bricks and mortar for stadiums, or practice facilities.

The long-term benefits of an on-campus, small capacity open-air stadium were over sold as a benefit to Gophers football. Yes, the Gophers have their own home and can retain all the revenues, but they receive all the expenses too. Yes, it’s nice to walk across campus to see a game but how many folks buy tickets to soak up that part of the college atmosphere? Yes, the Bank is used to host events like banquets, commencements, concerts and soccer but the stadium also sits on valuable land that the ever expanding Minneapolis campus could put to full-time academic use.

This season the Gophers have home games against (in order) Oregon State, Indiana State, Colorado State, Iowa, Rutgers, Purdue and Northwestern. Iowa fans are riding high after last year’s Big Ten West Division title and trip to the Rose Bowl. Our friends from the south will make sure the Bank has at least one sellout next fall.

Too bad because it didn’t have to be that way. U.S. Bank Stadium has the image, the amenities and the roof, plus one mega tenant in the Vikings. The Gophers, trying to compete against pro sports with a fragile product and small fanbase, can see the new building from campus but they’re on the outside looking in.

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