With three regular season games remaining, there’s no official word yet on extending coach Leslie Frazier’s contract but that seems likely to happen before too long.
Frazier reportedly has a three-year deal that commits the Vikings to him through next season. To let Frazier go very long into next year without an extension wouldn’t show much faith in him and probably won’t happen.
Vikings ownership and general manager Rick Spielman are believed to be supportive of the man who was promoted from defensive coordinator late in the 2010 season to interim coach and later head coach. Frazier won three of six games in 2010, then went 3-13 last season as the franchise began rebuilding. This season the team is 7-6 with the playoffs a possibility for the first time since 2009.
Frazier, preparing this week for Sunday’s game with the Rams, told Sports Headliners he doesn’t worry about his tenure as coach. “Not at all. I talk to our players all the time about control what you can control, and from my standpoint it’s true for me as well.
“My concentration has to be on the St. Louis Rams in this case, and really focusing on that. All those other things take care of themselves as long as I concentrate on the task at hand.”
The Vikings’ record looks like an accomplishment to those who thought before season the team was in for a dismal year. Despite losing playmaker extraordinaire Percy Harvin to injury, and having to develop a second-year quarterback and other young players on both offense and defense, there are only six teams in the 16-team NFC that have a better record than the Vikings.
Frazier’s likeable personality enhances his popularity with the franchise, media and fans. “I try to be myself as much as I can,” he said. “Some people will like that person and some people won’t, but it’s important to be yourself. That’s one thing I’ve learned over the years. Be who you are. Hopefully people will accept you for who you are. …”
Frazier said when he was an NFL player he always appreciated coaches and others who were honest with him. He tries to do the same now in his leadership position.
“When you start trying to mislead people, I don’t think that’s a good deal,” he said. “You don’t create the trust that you have to have in the environment we’re in.”
Worth Noting
Ted Mondale, executive director for the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority, told Sports Headliners an announcement about whether the new Vikings stadium will have a retractable roof will come in “late February or early March.”
That announcement will be made after a construction company is hired and can determine what amenities are affordable on the $975 million budget. An announcement naming the company is expected January 25.
The Vikings want a retractable feature for the stadium but budget limitations might dictate that rather than a costly sliding roof something like a huge window that can be opened and closed will be what is affordable. The stadium will have either a fixed or sliding roof—open air isn’t an option.
In the December 10 issue, Minneapolis native Larry Fitzgerald Jr. is one of 10 individuals profiled in Sports Illustrated for service to others. The Cardinals All-Pro wide receiver is particularly known here for his work in the fight against breast cancer, a disease that took his mother Carol’s life. But he’s also a world traveler whose causes in other countries include the Starkey Hearing Foundation and USO.
“If you get consumed by fame, your world can be a very small bubble,” Fitzgerald told Sports Illustrated.
Steve and Dorothy Erban’s Creative Charters is working on filling up a second airplane with fans wanting to attend the Meineke Car Care Bowl in Houston on December 28 between the Gophers and Texas Tech. www.creativecharter.com
Eden Prairie High School football coach Mike Grant is expected to interview this week for the Saint John’s head coaching job, according to a December 8 St. Cloud Times online story.
Chad Rogosheske, named Hamline football coach on Monday, was a running back for the 1995 Pipers—the school’s last team to have a winning record. He was all-MIAC in 1996, blocking for Eric Johnson who set school records for rushing yards and touchdowns. Rogosheske also spent three seasons at Ohio State as a graduate assistant.
Will tonight be Ricky Rubio’s season debut when the Timberwolves play the Nuggets at Target Center? The second-year Spanish point guard played in 41 games as a rookie before injuring his left knee and ending his season.
Gophers coach Tubby Smith took the redshirt status off Rice Lake, Wisconsin freshman guard-forward Wally Ellenson last night in Minnesota’s win over North Dakota State. With one nonconference game remaining before the Big Ten season begins, the athletic Ellenson will add depth to the roster.
Prep basketball authority Ken Lien emailed that Apple Valley point guard Tyus Jones made 20 of 22 free throws and seven of 14 field goals to score 36 points in the Eagles’ 82-68 win over Minnetonka last night. The junior preseason All-American also had six assists.
My son Bill and I had dinner with former Gophers basketball captain Paul Presthus last night. Presthus and my father were both from Rugby, North Dakota— a small town known as the geographic center of North America. Presthus was famous as a high school player and before his senior season was included with Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul Jabbar) as a first team prep All-American.
The announcement Monday that the NHL has cancelled regular season games through December 30 now means 42.8 percent of the schedule for 2012-2013 is lost.