David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Vikings Harris Talks O-Line ‘Pressure’

Posted on December 4, 2015December 4, 2015 by David Shama

It’s no secret the Vikings’ passing offense ranks near the bottom in the 32-team NFL. Even more to the point, improvement could well be the key to whether the team wins the NFC North.

Guard Mike Harris acknowledges expectations that the line must do its part to help quarterback Teddy Bridgewater have time to throw as the team prepares for Sunday’s home game with the Seahawks, and looks toward four more regular season games.

Mike Harris (photo courtesy of Minnesota Vikings.)

“We’re coming along (with pass protection),” Harris said. “We’re not perfect, where we want to be, but each week in practice we’ve been harping on working on stuff that we need to work on…like (defensive) stunts, picking up blitzes. The run game—I feel like that’s our strong ability—because we have big tough guys that like to move guys around.

“If we can have a good balance of run and pass, this team will be able to beat anybody. The team goes as far as we go. I know we have a lot of pressure on us.

“We (the line) didn’t do so well a couple of weeks ago against the Packers but I feel like we’ve grown from that and we ought to continue to play better.”

Bridgewater was sacked six times in a 30-13 loss to the Packers in Minneapolis last month. He has thrown only eight touchdown passes this season and while he sometimes holds on to the ball too long, pass protection is an issue for the division leading 8-3 Vikings who top the NFL in rushing yards.

This Sunday the Vikings’ offense faces a Seahawks defense that is among the NFL’s best against rushing and passing. The defensive unit includes formidable players such as end Michael Bennett and cornerback Richard Sherman. “Playmakers are at every position that we’re going to have matchups with, and (we need to) go out and execute,” Harris said.

The Seahawks aren’t bad on offense either, including quarterback Russell Wilson who threw five touchdown passes in a win over the Steelers last Sunday. His passer rating of 97.4 puts him near the top among NFC quarterbacks. His strong arm and mobility will test the Vikings defense.

Vikings defensive tackle Sharrif Floyd acknowledged the major challenge of keeping Wilson in the pocket. “Him and Aaron Rodgers (Packers) are the only two (quarterbacks) I can truly think of that can throw touchdowns from the 50-yard line on the run,” Floyd said.

The Seahawks played in the last two Super Bowls and despite a 6-5 record now certainly aren’t a team to sleep on. Seattle has dealt with injuries while playing some of the NFL’s best teams and losing three games by a total of 10 points.

Harris is a West Coast guy and has known of Seahawks coach Pete Carroll back when he was coaching USC to powerhouse seasons. He expects Carroll will have the playoff-worried Seahawks ready on Sunday. “Just a players’ coach,” Harris said. “I feel like guys just want to go out and play hard for him because he has a winning history. …”

Worth Noting

With expected temps well above freezing today, the Vikings plan to practice outdoors at Winter Park. The forecast for Sunday in Minneapolis calls for similar temperatures with perhaps a high of 42.

Stefon Diggs, the Vikings rookie wide receiver from the University of Maryland who leads the team in receptions with 40, was asked if there’s a major difference between Big Ten defensive backs versus those in the NFL: “Yeah, it’s a big difference. As far as the NFL, everybody is pretty much good.”

Vikings center John Sullivan, who has missed the entire season because of a problematic back including surgery, said this week he isn’t in pain and expects to be on the field in 2016. Sullivan comes to Winter Park for rehab but watches all the games, home and away, on television at his residence where he and his wife have a four-month old baby, the couple’s first child.

That was former Gophers football coach Jerry Kill and wife Rebecca having dinner at Murray’s Restaurant earlier this week with WCCO Radio friends Sid Hartman, Dave Lee (with wife Julie), and Mike Max.

With the signing of Korean slugger Byung Ho Park, the Twins have yet another player on the 40-man roster who has experience playing first base. Joe Mauer apparently will be given most of the time at first next season with Park as the team’s likely designated hitter. But others on the roster also have experience at first including Trevor Plouffe, the team’s regular third baseman, and Miguel Sano (an infielder headed to the outfield), and Kennys Vargas, Max Kepler and Adam Walker.

Vargas impressed in 2014 with his hitting but not last year when he fell off from .274 to .240—with home runs and RBI declining from 9 and 38, to 5 and 17. He looks like a player who perhaps isn’t in the Twins future, partially because he doesn’t fit well in the field except first base. A switch hitter, Vargas might complement the right-handed hitting Park as a DH. Kepler and Walker are likely to play in the outfield in the minors next year.

The 5-2 Gophers basketball team earned its most impressive win of the season on Monday night against Clemson, and plays South Dakota tomorrow at Williams Arena. Expectations this season are minimal for Minnesota but the Gophers could be a surprise team if they continue to score like they did in the 89-83 victory over Clemson.

Freshman forward Jordan Murphy led all scorers with 24 points and had a team high 10 rebounds. The 6-6, 230-pound Jordan once scored 44 points for Brennan High School in San Antonio.

Former Gophers coach Jim Dutcher praised Murphy’s advanced fundamentals for a freshman. “He’s got a good basketball I.Q.,” Dutcher told Sports Headliners.

College basketball has new rules to speed up play, but deliberate fouling in the closing minutes can still be agonizing to watch. ESPN2 viewers saw Illinois State drag out the end of its game against Kentucky on Monday night when it took about 10 minutes to use up almost two minutes on the game clock. The Gophers-Clemson game was joined in progress on ESPN2 because of the slow finish with Illinois State and Kentucky.

Don Lucia’s Gophers hockey team hopes to have continued outstanding performances from sophomore forward Leon Bristedt tonight and tomorrow evening against Ohio State at Mariucci Arena. Bristedt has at least a point in seven of the last eight games and leads the team with 12 points (seven goals, five assists) in 11 games this season. His seven goals have already surpassed his freshman total of five in 35 games last season.

Bristedt, from Sweden, is one of only four non-North Americans ever to play for the Gophers, a program whose rosters have been dominated by Minnesotans. The others are Bristedt’s Swedish teammate Robin Hoglund, and NHLers Erik Haula (Finland) and Thomas Vanek (Austria).

Comments Welcome

How Peterson’s World Changes Again

Posted on December 2, 2015December 2, 2015 by David Shama

On the football beat with insights about the Vikings, Gophers and St. Thomas:

Adrian Peterson is in a different place today than he was 12 months ago, and his circumstances are even in contrast to two years ago.

Peterson leads the NFL in rushing and appears all but certain to receive All-Pro recognition as the league’s best running back for 2015. He is the centerpiece of an offense that otherwise is pretty much comprised of inconsistent players including second-year quarterback Teddy Bridgewater. Peterson’s running along with a superb defense are mostly responsible for the Vikings’ surprising 8-3 record and first place position in the NFC North.

Adrian Peterson (photo courtesy of Minnesota Vikings.)

A year ago Peterson was on his way to missing all but one game of the 2014 season. He was barred from football activities by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell for developments involving disciplining of his four-year-old son. In early December of last year it was unknown when he would be allowed to play again, and whether he was going to be a Viking.

Minnesotans, including many Vikings fans, were appalled at details about Peterson using a switch on his child. Twelve months ago there was controversy whether Peterson should be allowed to remain with the team and if the Vikings franchise wanted to be associated with him. It wouldn’t be surprising if there were power brokers within the Vikings organization who wanted Peterson gone in 2015, advocating to separate the controversial superstar from the franchise’s marketing and image-making while plans developed to move into U.S. Bank Stadium in 2016.

A source told Sports Headliners in late April the Vikings were in talks with the Cowboys about a trade involving Peterson. While there may have been interest in determining what assets a Peterson deal would yield, it seems clear that general manager Rick Spielman and coach Mike Zimmer saw the impact their future hall of fame runner could have on the 2015 team.

Peterson is 30 years old—a number that typically puts most NFL runners on the brink of old age or even in it. Two seasons ago the Vikings were slogging through a losing year and there was conjecture it was time to trade a then 28-year-old Peterson. Move him before his legs fell off and get something back in value, maybe a draft choice to land a first-rate quarterback prospect to replace Christian Ponder.

The Vikings finished 6-10 in 2013 and Peterson had an okay season playing in 14 games, rushing for 1,266 yards and 10 touchdowns. This season he already has 1,164 yards and eight touchdowns in 11 games. On Sunday against the Seahawks he could best his 2013 numbers and still have four remaining regular season games.

The man some fans wanted traded two years ago is on a short list of league MVP candidates. After a slow start in game one against the 49ers when Peterson was trying to ditch the rust of not playing in the preseason and even further back, he has often looked like the best back in the NFL. In four of the last five games he has run for over 100 yards including 158 last Sunday in the win over the Falcons.

Did Zimmer expect this kind of performance from Peterson after being sidelined last season? “Yes. I just know he’s a really special player and I just think I figured that he’d be pretty good, yeah.”

Peterson and the Vikings have sometimes faced challenging competition. The Falcons had the league’s best rushing defense before the Vikings gained 191 yards against them. That Falcons team is ranked No. 8 in the Profootballfocus.com power rankings. The Vikings, who are ranked No. 6, have also defeated the No. 10 Raiders. Minnesota has lost to the No. 5 Broncos and No.7 Packers who ranked behind the Panthers, Patriots, Bengals and Cardinals. …

After five years of the Jerry Kill revival, the Gophers football program is much improved but doesn’t match more famous turnarounds in Big Ten history—at least not yet.

The coach Tim Brewster era prior to the 2011 season and Kill’s arrival produced annual records of 1-11, 7-6, 6-7 and 3-9. Kill created a success story by reviving a program on life support academically and on the field, with his best work in 2013 and 2014. Those were eight win seasons and the 2014 team earned an invitation to Minnesota’s first January 1 bowl game since 1962.

The Gophers took a step back this season, misfiring because of a difficult schedule, numerous and serious injuries, and Kill’s resignation to save his health. With Tracy Claeys elevated to head coach, Minnesota struggled late in the season winning only once in five games. The team’s final 5-7 record, including 2-6 in the Big Ten after last season’s 5-3, added up to the most disappointing year in the Kill era.

Minnesota’s 12-game schedule included six major college opponents who won nine games or more in 2015. Next season the schedule will be softer because Michigan, Ohio State and TCU get swapped out for Maryland, Oregon State and Rutgers. It’s also hard to believe the Gophers will be so devastated again by injuries that forced players to the sidelines for long stretches.

The Gophers will have some talented and experienced players returning next season as they try to restart the program turnaround. Gophers fans have waited for decades to see results similar to well-known turnarounds at Iowa, Wisconsin, Northwestern, Purdue and Michigan State. All except Purdue established success that continues to this day.

Those turnarounds were led by Hayden Fry at Iowa, Barry Alvarez at Wisconsin, Gary Barnett at Northwestern, Joe Tiller at Purdue and Mark Dantonio at Michigan State. Each one of those coaches had a nine win season or better in his first five years on the job, and all but Dantonio took a team to the Rose Bowl in that time period, according to statistics from Sports-reference.com. Dantonio reached Pasadena in his seventh season with a team that won the Rose Bowl and finished with a 13-1 record. …

St. Thomas hosts Wabash (Indiana) on Saturday in a quarterfinal Division III playoff game involving two 12-0 football teams. The Tommies figure to be prepared including with clock management—something head coach Glenn Caruso started perfecting 30 years ago as a kid playing video games.

Caruso told Sports Headliners he played “every conceivable football video game I could” and credits the experience with helping him to best use the clock in various situations. Even on the professional level, clock management is a skill that sometimes escapes coaches. “It boggles the mind how people don’t pay more attention,” he said.

Caruso, 85-13 in eight seasons at St. Thomas, coached the 2012 Tommies to the national championship game. He believes this year’s team might not have “all the high-end talent” of the 2012 group but is deeper, healthier and even more focused. There are 140 players on the team and Caruso said they understand and execute their roles.

Not that the Tommies don’t have talent this year, including star running back Jordan Roberts who had three touchdowns in last Saturday’s 38-19 win against Saint John’s. Roberts is a 6-2, 220-pound junior from Sheridan, Wyoming who played two years at South Dakota. Caruso said he’s the best back he’s coached at St. Thomas and if Roberts keeps improving he could one day receive an NFL tryout.

The Tommies, who have 12 coaches including Caruso, will practice outdoors this week unless the weather makes it impossible. Caruso is a believer in working out the team in conditions similar to game day. The Tommies are 16-0 in rain games under him.

Attendance for Saturday’s game at O’Shaughnessy Stadium might be somewhere between 2,000 and 8,000. A week ago last Saturday, for the Tommies first playoff game against La Verne, attendance was 1,832 at O’Shaughnessy. Last Saturday in a second round playoff game at home against legendary rival Saint John’s, the announced crowd was 8,025.

Comments Welcome

Dan O’Brien Joins U Football Staff

Posted on November 30, 2015November 30, 2015 by David Shama

Dan O’Brien is joining the staff of Gophers football coach Tracy Claeys as assistant to the head coach, assistant defensive backs coach and co-special teams coordinator. The announcement was made this morning by interim athletic director Beth Goetz in an e-mail to staff.

O’Brien was a senior associate athletic director for the Gophers overseeing the football program. The Winthrop, Minnesota native was director of football operations for ex-head coach Jerry Kill before being promoted to the administrative position in the athletic department. His career coaching experiences include high school positions and being head football coach at Concordia, St. Paul.

The announcement seems surprising but the new assignment may provide O’Brien with more job security since the athletic department leadership is uncertain with a new AD expected to be hired next year. A source told Sports Headliners O’Brien’s salary will increase by a lot in his new role which includes working with Pat Poore in coordinating special teams.

O’Brien has excellent relationships in the state including with high school coaches. He and linebackers coach Mike Sherels, another Minnesota native, will be responsible for recruiting in the state.

The change appears indicative of Claey’s vision as the new leader of the football program. Yesterday he dismissed offensive coordinator Matt Limegrover and quarterbacks coach Jim Zebrowski.

Claeys, who has shown a willingness to take risks on the field coaching his team, likely has replacements already in mind. It would be unusual for a head coach on the major college level to make dismissals without having a solid idea regarding philosophies he wants his coordinator and quarterbacks coach to have, and also not having names of candidates he wants to pursue.

At least two former Gophers and Minnesota natives could perhaps enter the picture. Tony Levine, who was let go as Houston’s head coach last December, might be a name to consider for the offensive coordinator job. Levine, a wide receiver for the Gophers under Jim Wacker, has an extensive coaching resume including under offensive coaching whiz Kevin Sumlin. A source said this morning Levine is living in Houston but not coaching.

Adam Weber received praise this year in his first season as an offensive graduate assistant working primarily with the quarterbacks. A four-year starter for the Gophers as a record-setting quarterback under then head coach Tim Brewster from 2007-2010, Weber has playing experience in pro football and is interested in a coaching career.

His knowledge and ability to relate to young players could make him an attractive hire as quarterbacks coach under Claeys.

Worth Noting

Sports Headliners’ final Big Ten football power rankings:

1. Michigan State, 11-1: One controversial call at Nebraska leaves Sparty inches short of an undefeated season.

2. Ohio State, 11-1: Rare times when a one loss team is labeled a disappointment but the description fits the defending national champs.

3. Iowa, 12-0: Textbook season by the Hawkeyes who didn’t try to do more than their talent could deliver and seldom made mistakes.

4. Michigan, 9-3: With Jim Harbaugh in charge, these are your father’s Wolverines.

5. Northwestern, 10-2: After two seasons of mediocrity, the Wildcats claw back near the top.

6. Wisconsin, 9-3: The Badgers couldn’t run the ball in Big Ten games until they arrived in Minneapolis and found a Gophers defensive line wrecked by injuries.

7. Penn State, 7-5: Coach James Franklin’s recruiting looks good on paper but Nittany Lions aren’t back yet as a Big Ten power.

8. Nebraska, 5-7: Talented Cornhuskers beat Michigan State but mostly beat themselves with self-inflicted wounds.

9. Minnesota, 5-7: Risk being called a homer by ranking the Gophers ahead of Indiana and Illinois but here we go.

10. Indiana, 6-6: Hoosiers bowl-bound for first time in five seasons under coach Kevin Wilson, who has a go-go offense, and a yikes defense.

11. Illinois, 5-7: Illini matched Minnesota losing four of its last five games including one to the Gophers.

12. Rutgers, 4-8: I doubt many people in Manhattan are boasting that the Scarlet Knight’s are “New York’s college team.”

13. Maryland, 3-9: The Terps are searching for a new head coach and need a good one.

14. Purdue, 2-10: Boilers are cemented in as Big Ten’s worst after coach Darrell Hazell has won two league games in three seasons.

Gophers senior offensive lineman Jon Christenson will earn his masters degree in public health next semester. He plans to be enrolled in medical school in the fall of 2017, hopefully at Minnesota. What will the Minnetonka native specialize in?

“Right now I am leaning toward orthopedic surgery,” he said. “I would love to be somewhere in sports medicine. I really feel like I could relate well to patients, especially young athletes—having been through so much myself. Unfortunately I know quite a few orthopedic surgeons from my experience here (being injured).”

After yesterday’s 20-10 win by the Vikings over the Falcons, coach Mike Zimmer has his team in first place in the NFC North with an 8-3 record. Running back Adrian Peterson leads the NFL in rushing with 1,164 yards. The Vikings have given up 194 points, second only to the Bengals with 193.

The Vikings have remaining games at home against the Seahawks, Bears and Giants. Road games remain versus the Cardinals and Packers. The Vikings could be favored in every game except the matchup against the 9-2 Cardinals.

Fox commentator John Lynch, the former defensive back with the Bucs, critiqued Teddy Bridgewater on yesterday’s telecast and said the Vikings quarterback holds the ball “longer” while attempting to pass than any quarterback in the NFL.

The 4-2 Gophers play 4-1 Clemson tonight at Williams Arena as part of the Big Ten/ACC Challenge series. The Tigers’ one loss was 82-65 to Massachusetts but of more interest to Gophers fans should be Clemson’s 76-58 neutral court win over Rutgers, a team that is a popular choice to finish last in the Big Ten. Minnesota is predicted to finish near the bottom of the standings too. Tonight’s game is on ESPN2.

Save the date: the annual Breakdown Sports Tip Off Classics at Minnetonka High School involving boys and girls teams will be December 12. Among the anticipated matchups is the 3:45 p.m. boys game between Class 4-A powers Apple Valley and Hopkins. Apple Valley’s roster includes national recruiting targets Gary Trent Jr. and Tre Jones—junior and sophomore standouts. Hopkins features Amir Coffey, a favorite to be the state’s best prep senior. Michael Hurt, another senior and like Coffey committed to the Gophers for next fall, will play for Rochester John Marshall in an 8 p.m. boys game against Shakopee. Both are 4-A teams. More on the tournaments at Breakdownsportsusa.com.

The Gophers hockey team has a disappointing 4-7 record so far but entering this season Minnesota had won more games (105) the last four seasons than any Division I men’s program. The Gophers also made program history by winning consecutive regular season league titles the last four years, with two championships in the WCHA and the two most recent in the Big Ten.

Comments Welcome