David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Winless Start Won’t Derail Vikings

Posted on October 3, 2011November 27, 2011 by David Shama

Don’t expect the 0-4 Vikings to emotionally collapse starting with next Sunday’s home game against Arizona. The winless start has surprised the players and coaches but while fans are bailing out the Vikings won’t.

First year head coach Leslie Frazier was the choice of the players after being interim boss last season and before that the defensive coordinator. He’s liked by his players and his calm demeanor generates support.

The locker room leadership will keep spirits in place, too. Jared Allen, Chad Greenway, Adrian Peterson and Ryan Longwell are veterans committed to helping the team turnaround.

Part of the Vikings’ fan base has quit on this team already and the boos will come fast and furious at Mall of America Field next Sunday if things don’t go to the fans liking. There have been lots of empty seats in the upper deck at the Metrodome for the first two home games and why wouldn’t there be even more for the Arizona game? Looking for a $20 upper level ticket next Sunday? See your first ticket hawker on the street Sunday.

The Vikings have lost four games by a total of 19 points. That’s indicative of a team which is far from incompetent, but not making enough big plays to win games.

What’s particularly troubling is that the Vikings haven’t been able to make Peterson a dominant weapon for most or all of each game. With limited talent among the receivers and at quarterback, the Vikings’ hope going into the season was to ride Peterson’s powerful legs for consistent yardage and big plays. In four games Peterson has rushed for over 100 yards only once.

Opposing defenses are placing a lot of defenders at the line of scrimmage. The Vikings’ offensive line, mediocre at best by NFL standards, too often can’t move the tacklers for Peterson. This is a line that never has recovered from the departure of center Matt Birk and is even seeing its best blocker, the 34-year-old Hutchinson, growing older.

It was the 0-3 Chiefs, not the 0-3 Vikings, who got a win yesterday. Down in K.C. some folks had been vocalizing this: “Suck for Luck.” The implication being to have such a bad season the Chiefs could draft Stanford quarterback phenom Andrew Luck with the first pick in next year’s NFL draft.

Somebody will adopt it here in the North Country.

Comments Welcome

‘Brew Crew’ Final Grade Not Pretty

Posted on October 3, 2011November 27, 2011 by David Shama

Too bad Tim Brewster and his staff weren’t on the sidelines in Ann Arbor last Saturday to experience the Gophers 58-0 humiliation. The “Brew Crew” was responsible for recruiting most of the players on the Minnesota roster that was dismantled by Michigan.

If Brewster hadn’t been fired during the 2010 season he would now be in year five as Minnesota’s head coach. A five-year tenure is almost always enough time to fairly judge a coach and his staff.

Even though the “Brew Crew” is no longer wearing maroon and gold sweaters on the sidelines, we can issue the final grade: Flop.

What first year coach Jerry Kill inherited was a football team lacking not only playmakers, but physical and mental toughness. The Gophers are probably the worst team in the Big Ten and not even capable of beating schools from low level conferences such as the Missouri Valley and WAC.

Brewster hardly prepared us for this back in his early years on the job. He criticized the talent Glen Mason left him, although the rearview mirror now shows that players he inherited from the former Gophers’ coach were the ones that produced some success in 2008 and 2009.

As for Brewster’s own recruiting, he was frequently over the top in exaggerating the talent he attracted. Brewster’s players were solidly entrenched last year and also this season. The record is 4 wins, 13 losses and counting including embarrassing defeats to South Dakota, North Dakota State and Michigan.

Brewster recruiting hype? Quarterback MarQueis Gray was similar to former Texas All-American Vince Young, Brewster said. Playmaker David Pittman, who hardly got on the field at Minnesota, was reminiscent of Antwaan Randle El.

Not able to land yet another top Minnesota prep headed for a better college program? Didn’t seem to bother Brewster who said he had a better stud coming from out east.

There was often the “sizzle” but not the “steak.” And Brewster didn’t even secure his much hyped high school son Nolan who landed at the University of Texas where dad built a reputation as a slick recruiter working for coach Mack Brown.

Hiring Brewster ─ never a coordinator or head coach at the major college level ─ was a colossal mistake. The program is so down right now that it could take three more seasons to pull it up to the Mason level of 2006. Mason was let go after compiling a 64-57 overall record, but was 16 games under .500 in the Big Ten.

Losses to USC, New Mexico State, and North Dakota State were by a combined 22 points. Last Saturday in Ann Arbor the Gophers lost to Michigan by the worst score in their Big Ten history.

After the game KFAN Radio named punter Dan Orseske Minnesota’s Offensive Player of the Game. The punter? Honest.

Building a major college football program requires coaching, recruiting and time. Brewster and staff squandered away all three at Minnesota.

Comments Welcome

Worth Noting

Posted on October 3, 2011November 27, 2011 by David Shama

Vikings defensive end Jared Allen is no admirer of the Metrodome, except for the passionate fans. “The Metrodome is bad,” he said. “Maybe four showers with hot water down there. We have such great fans and they continue to come to the dome. …They deserve a new stadium more than anything too. …”

Here are the Sports Headliners weekly rankings of Big Ten Football teams: Wisconsin, Michigan State, Michigan, Ohio State, Nebraska, Illinois, Iowa, Penn State, Northwestern, Purdue, Indiana and Minnesota.

My advice to college coaches targeting nationally recruited Apple Valley sophomore point guard Tyus Jones: He will want to play for a winning program and not care about stats while contributing to team success. He won’t want to be the center of attention.

Big Ten basketball media day will be Thursday, October 27 in Chicago. Look for Bloomington native and Wisconsin senior Jordan Taylor to rival Ohio State sophomore center Jared Sullinger for preseason media Player of the Year. Taylor, a point guard, finished among the conference’s top 10 scorers and assists last season, 18.1 and 4.7.

In a downsizing move, retired Gophers basketball coach Jim Dutcher put his Eden Prairie home up for sale, but with three daughters living in the Twin Cities will continue to live here.

Dutcher said Jimmy Williams expects to hear a decision within a “couple of weeks” from the Minnesota Court of Appeals regarding the Williams lawsuit against the University of Minnesota. Litigation has been ongoing for several years in the case with the possibility of a large financial settlement for Williams. Williams was an assistant coach to Dutcher in the 1980s and had wanted to again work for the University after Tubby Smith was hired as Minnesota coach in 2007.

New Timberwolves coach Rick Adelman and wife Mary Kay have been married for more than 40 years. They have six children.

The Twins are not a “knee jerk reaction” organization but I will be surprised if there isn’t some “subtraction” and “addition” in the baseball department before year-end.

Comments Welcome