David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Vikings D-End Could Play Running Back

Posted on September 19, 2014September 19, 2014 by David Shama

Nobody is suggesting the Vikings replace Adrian Peterson at running back with a defensive end but Paul Wiggin told Sports Headliners that Everson Griffen could make the switch.

“He could play running back for us,” Wiggin said. “He’s a phenomenal athlete.”

Wiggin is a former college and NFL coach who works in the Vikings’ front office. He made the statement above after being asked about Griffen’s abilities and potential. The 26-year-old, 6-3, 273-pound Griffen is in his fifth season with the Vikings but first year as a starter. During the last offseason the Vikings signed him to a new contract, an indication the organization thought he was ready to replace Jared Allen as an every week starter.

Griffen’s job description puts an emphasis on sacking quarterbacks—something the Vikings hope he can do to Drew Brees of the Saints on Sunday in New Orleans. Griffen had 2.5 sacks in the final three games of last season, and then had two in the Vikings’ opening win this year against the Rams. His two sacks put him among the NFL leaders in that category so far.

“We attack. Our coach (Mike Zimmer) wants us to attack,” Griffen said in the September 14 issue of the Vikings’ GameDay program. “We make plays. I feel like we’re go-getters. We’re not waiting for them (foes) to strike. …”

Wiggin has watched Griffen mature as a person and said that has played a role in the player’s improvement. Griffen is involved with a program that makes meals available to school-age kids, and has participated in the Vikings’ blood drive and community events.

Griffen was drafted by the Vikings in 2010 after being a second team All-Pac 10 defensive end as a junior playing for USC. In high school in Avondale, Arizona he also played in the defensive line and had 16 sacks his senior season. But guess what? He also played running back in high school, rushing for 1,251 yards and 20 touchdowns.

Worth Noting

Replacing Peterson in New Orleans likely will be Matt Asiata who was given that assignment in Peterson’s absence last Sunday. The Vikings are also looking at rookie Jerick McKinnon and Joe Banyard, a first-year player last season who has yet to have an NFL carry. “We will keep evaluating that spot each and every time,” Zimmer said.

Wiggin, whose career experiences include college head coach at Stanford and in the NFL with the Chiefs, has the title of senior personnel consultant with the Vikings. Part of his job is to scout opposing linemen from films. He identifies tendencies that can help Vikings offensive and defensive linemen.

The Rams’ Robert Quinn, for example, is one of the NFL’s most dominant defensive linemen. In preparation for the Rams game on September 7, Vikings offensive tackle Matt Kalil was given 42 plays involving Quinn to watch on his iPad.

Gophers redshirt freshman quarterback Chris Streveler will have his first college start tomorrow if Mitch Leidner, who has been slowed by knee and turf toe injuries, can’t play against San Jose State at TCF Bank Stadium. Streveler, 19, might have the cool for the pressure-filled job.

As a reserve player Streveler likes to have “fun” on the sidelines, trying to help however he can. Off the field? “I don’t really take myself too seriously,” he said. “I stay pretty low-key.”

Leidner has only passed for 362 yards in three games, completing 48.1 percent of his passes with two touchdowns and four interceptions. Still, offensive coordinator Matt Limegrover believes the redshirt sophomore can become an effective passer, and that progress will come by Leidner having better support from teammates including pass blocking.

“In anything you want to be successful (doing), you have to feel comfortable in that environment, and I don’t think he feels comfortable now going back and throwing the football,” Limegrover said. “So what’s happening is he’s trying to do too much and it’s getting him in trouble. I think that has to start up front (offensive line).”

Last winter the Gophers signed a promising group of incoming freshman wide receivers to National Letters of Intent but so far none has seen the field. This week it was announced that Isaiah Gentry, the 6-4 receiver from Cincinnati, is out for the season because of a knee injury that bothered him for a couple of weeks.

“Yeah, he’s a tough kid,” Limegrover said. “He fought through what a lot of guys would have shut down on and really actually did pretty well. So long‑term, that’s exciting for us, and it’s a little disappointing in the short-term that he had to get shut down.”

Melvin Holland Jr., 6-3 from Ashburn, Virginia, and Conner Krizancik, 6-2 from Mentor, Ohio, could be freshman wideouts who will play this season. Among the first year receivers, Holland may have turned the most heads in practices.

At the start of this college football season the University of Alabama compliled a list of programs with the most graduate students on their rosters. The Crimson Tide and Boston College topped the list with 15 each, and only four other teams had more than San Jose State’s nine grad students including starting quarterback Blake Jurich.

The Spartans have only five players on their 104-man roster who aren’t California natives. Three of them are from Arizona, with one each from Texas and Washington.

Congratulations to Browerville head football coach Wayne (Ribsy) Petermeier on his 100th career win last week. Petermeier, now in his 13th season at Browerville, was previously head coach at Hayfield for one season. His career record is 100-41.

The Gophers baseball team practiced this week with 33 players. The Gophers don’t provide full scholarships for baseball but 26 of the players have partial financial assistance ranging from 25 to 70 percent.

The baseball Gophers once offered a full scholarship to Joe Mauer who could have also had a football scholarship to Florida State but signed a contract with the Twins coming out of Cretin-Derham Hall High School in 2001.

Big Ten Hockey Media Day is next Wednesday in Detroit. Forward Kyle Rau and goalie Adam Wilcox will represent the Gophers who are expected to be among college hockey’s elite teams next season.

SI.com listed college basketball’s top 20 college guards, wings and “big men” for next season in a September 11 story, but no Gophers were included—a mild surprise that senior guards Andre Hollins and DeAndre Mathieu were left out. In a separate listing of freshmen, Tyus Jones, the ex-Apple Valley high schooler now at Duke, was included with the best first-year guards, and Rashad Vaughn, who played at Cooper High School two years ago and is now at UNLV, was listed among the top wings.

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Momentum Increasing for U Facilities

Posted on September 17, 2014September 17, 2014 by David Shama

According to sources, expect 3M to become a corporate contributor to the $190 million campaign to improve Gophers’ facilities, and also look for ground to be broken next spring for a new on-campus indoor football practice facility.

Effective fundraising—mostly still behind the scenes—is being done by the Gophers’ Athletic Department and well-connected volunteers. An announcement is expected that 3M will join Land O’Lakes as a major contributor to the fundraising campaign. LOL has made a $25 million commitment to support a wide range of University of Minnesota activities, but the centerpiece will be building the Intercollegiate Athletics Center for Excellence that will benefit over 700 student-athletes through academics and nutrition.

Among projects expected to receive priority in the master facilities plan is the new football practice building, perhaps costing $70 million. Sources told Sports Headliners they predict shovels in the ground for the football building by next spring.

Gophers football coach Jerry Kill has been outspoken with high school recruits and media about the importance of a new football complex. The existing facility has a ceiling so low footballs hit the top and the building has a crowded schedule with multiple teams practicing there.

Athletic director Norwood Teague, who announced the $190 million campaign in July of 2013, said earlier this month $40 million has been secured but hasn’t specified sources by name beyond LOL which reportedly will contribute $21 million of the $25 million to athletics. Corporations, wealthy donors, the general public and revenue bonds are all on the table as funding sources.

An announcement is expected soon about how the public can make contributions to the campaign. Included will be a website with information that potential contributors can review.

The $190 million master facilities plan will include a new practice building for Gophers basketball, and amenities for other sports such as wrestling and track. Minnesota’s athletic facilities are considered among the worst in the Big Ten and generally haven’t been improved for many years.

The near $200 million project is expansive and ambitious, with a fundraising goal that may be challenging to meet without the sale of bonds. The University is authorized to sell bonds and those involved with the fundraising have been considering that option for awhile.

Worth Noting

“Who would you want your son to play for?” Football Bowl Subdivision coaches were polled asking that question and ESPN.com posted a story last Saturday reporting Gophers coach Jerry Kill tied for third with Stanford’s David Shaw. Georgia’s Mark Richt and Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops tied for first. Duke’s David Cutcliffe was fifth in the ESPN poll while Michigan State’s Mark Dantonio and Ohio State’s Urban Meyer were among five coaches tied for sixth. Ninety-eight of 128 coaches participated in the poll.

Dick Jonckowski, the Gophers baseball and basketball public address announcer, is selling half of his sports memorabilia to help pay medical bills. The sale will be October 3, 4 and 5 at the new Canterbury Park Expo Center. Items—many of of them autographed—will include baseball, basketball and football cards, and photos and publications.

For many years Jonckowski’s basement has housed a vast collection of not only Gophers, Twins and Vikings memorabilia but also national items. He is selling much of the collection because of bills relating to his non-Hodgkin lymphoma and type 2 diabetes. He expects a full recovery from the cancer.

Former Gophers quarterback and NFL coach Tony Dungy said on Monday’s Dan Patrick Show it remains to be determined whether Vikings running back Adrian Peterson abused his four-year-old son. Dungy also said he grew up with similar discipline. See Danpatrick.com.

Mick Tingelhoff, who is a 2015 senior finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, said he doesn’t know who he would ask to be his presenter if he does receive induction into the Canton, Ohio shrine.

One reason the Vikings activated running back Joe Banyard last week is his work ethic. Signed as a free agent in 2012, he has yet to have an NFL rushing attempt. Growing up in Texas, he hunted rattlesnakes.

Parking near TCF Bank Stadium for last Sunday’s Vikings game cost $40 in at least one lot but some customers are paying $70 at the 49ers’ new stadium in Santa Clara.

Rochester Postbulletin.com reported last week that 6-foot-8 eighth grade guard Matthew Hurt, who is being recruited by the Gophers, suffered a lacerated spleen recently and could miss early games with John Marshall High School. His brother Michael, a 6-7 junior guard-forward, has already been offered a scholarship by the Gophers.

Richard Pitino, who had his 32nd birthday yesterday and is the Big Ten’s youngest basketball head coach, wrote on his Gophersports.com blog last week that Minnesota fans should disregard what his dad—legendary Louisville coach Rick Pitino—says in coming weeks when their two teams prepare for a nonconference nationally-televised game in Puerto Rico in November. Writing with dry humor but also making a point about his dad, Richard said: “Ignore anything and everything that comes out of my father’s mouth leading up to this game.”

Former Timberwolves reserve Mark Madsen will be an assistant coach for the Lakers under new head coach Byron Scott. Madsen’s basketball resume and positive outlook will likely land him an NBA head job some day.

This is the fourth year WCCO Radio is broadcasting all St. Thomas football games. A three-year agreement ended after last season but another three-year deal is in place.

Through the first two weeks of the season, MIAC football teams have a 12-5 record against nonconference teams. Among the highlights last week was a 55-45 Augsburg win against Concordia-Wisconsin when the Auggies had 682 yards in total offense with over 400 yards rushing. The MIAC has only one nonleague game remaining in 2014—Bethel at home against Chicago on October 18.

Bridgeport Tusler, who was the 2012 Associated Press Minnesota Player of the Year while at Osseo, is now a freshman wide receiver at Bethel. Tusler started his college career at South Dakota State.

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Vikings Adrian Peterson Needs Counseling

Posted on September 15, 2014September 16, 2014 by David Shama

Adrian Peterson needs help and here’s what I think he should do:

He should first recognize the need for change in his life and be determined to accept the counsel of professionals. Then he must find the best self-help advisors and meet with them in the coming months to set him on a better course.

Before going further, let’s get this on the record: I am not apologizing for Peterson or defending him in this column.

If allegations that he injured his four-year-old son by beating him with a tree branch stripped of its leaves are true, then he has no acceptable defense. What can a four-year-old ever do to deserve a beating from anyone? Over the weekend the Vikings running back was charged with one count of injury to a child in Montgomery County, Texas. A trial date hasn’t been determined.

Peterson has fathered several children out of wedlock, according to media reports, with estimates totaling up to seven. The four-year-old in the news is among those children, and not the child of Peterson’s wife Ashley whom he married earlier this year.

Fathering children without willingness to make a parenting commitment is epidemic in America. It has much to do with the emotional turmoil in many homes, the academic failure seen in schools and the life of crime that begins for many kids before they reach adulthood.

A child fathered by Peterson died in South Dakota last year, a victim of abuse by another man. Media reports in 2013 said Peterson learned only a couple of months before the baby’s death that he was the father. Now the alleged incident in Texas is yet another worrisome development in the story of the 29-year-old football hero.

Peterson’s father, Nelson Peterson, served prison time for money laundering. Although his father was absent for part of Adrian’s youth, Peterson’s lawyer stated his client disciplined his Texas four-year-old in a manner similar to what Peterson experienced. If true, who knows how such an experience impacts Peterson as an adult and father?

As first a high school and college football superstar, and now for several years one of the gods of the NFL, Peterson has known a life of privilege with wealth and adulation. But how accountable is he in his personal life? What anguish may churn inside him?

If Peterson wants to self-examine he needs to make that commitment now. Thinking and behavior can be modified. To do so he needs to apply the same kind of determination that he used in making a nearly miraculous recovery from his ACL injury a couple of years ago.

With professional counseling, people do make changes in their thought processes and how they live their lives. Counseling requires honesty and willingness to accept changes that will help the recipient and others. And that help doesn’t have to come just from a psychologist or other professional. It can be provided by advisors who know what they are talking about.

Maybe one advisor could even be Jim Brown, considered by many authorities to be the greatest running back in NFL history. The two men already know each other, and perhaps the 78-year-old Brown has the wisdom and willingness to help. Brown’s own past includes allegations of domestic violence, and jail time.

Football should be secondary to Peterson as he contemplates the future. He is positioned at the proverbial fork in the road. The high ground is a place where he can not only help himself but also his family and the loved ones who need his support. He may achieve results more meaningful than anything he ever accomplished on the football field.

Maybe a different-thinking Peterson can even enlighten some of the idiots who have surfaced on social media applauding use of a switch as appropriate discipline. Society needs that kind of punishment to make for better kids, they write.

No, beating up defenseless children just makes this a scarier world than it already is, and reminds us again the real heroes on the planet are often those who have to pick up the pieces from someone else’s mistakes.

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