Train wreck ahead or program-turning opportunity?

The Gophers are 6-1 and ranked No. 13 nationally.  Ahead are five more nonconference games against teams that don’t match Minnesota’s talent and depth.  Cornell, Eastern Kentucky, Akron and South Dakota State will be home games, with one business trip to St. Joseph’s in Philadelphia.

But then the party is over and the Big Ten Conference schedule starts.  Earlier this fall Michigan State, Ohio State and Purdue were ranked among the top 10 teams in the nation.  Illinois and Wisconsin were top 25 choices.

Minnesota will play its first five league games against all of the above except Illinois.  The Gophers are at Wisconsin on December 28 and at Michigan State December 31.  A home game follows against Indiana on January 4, then back on the road at Ohio State January 9 before playing Purdue at home on January 13.  With three of the five games on the road, the Gophers won’t have the support of a potentially raucous Williams Arena audience.

Wisconsin doesn’t have enough votes to make the top 25 this week, but Michigan State is No. 6, Ohio State No. 2 and Purdue No. 18 in the latest USAToday/ESPN national poll. It’s obvious the Gophers have a major challenge ahead starting later this month but what’s interesting is the Big Ten schedule makers have given Minnesota arguably the most difficult five-game start in the league.  Among the six most likely title contending teams, Minnesota and Wisconsin are the only ones that must play three or four of the best during the first five games.

The Badgers play Illinois twice, along with Minnesota, Michigan and Michigan State once each.  Three of the five games, though, are in Madison.

What will the Gophers record look like after five games?  Put the possibilities in a hat and draw them out?  A 3-2 start or better will be an indicator this team could be in pursuit of the program’s first conference title since 1998.  A 1-4 or worse beginning won’t deter hopes for the NCAA tournament in March, but will make a league championship a long shot.

The Gophers received no favors from the Big Ten last season either.  Minnesota played national powers Purdue, Ohio State and Michigan State in three of its first five conference games.  Of course two of the three games were on the road.  The Gophers lost two of the three, winning at home against Ohio State.  Minnesota also had wins over Penn State and Iowa to start the conference schedule 3-2.

The Gophers this week are a bit in recovery mode after blowing a double digit lead at home on Monday night against Virginia.  Minnesota gave up 58 points in the second half to lose 87-79 after leading 39-29 at halftime.  The Gophers allowed Virginia to shoot 53 percent on field goals, including 57 percent on three pointers in a defensive performance Minnesota coach Tubby Smith described as “pathetic as we’ve had in a long time.”

The Gophers Blake Hoffarber said: “I think we have to go out there every game like we’re the underdog.  …We weren’t as intense as we normally are.  We weren’t all over the ball, getting on the floor.  It’s better now rather than later that we get this wake up call and get back to work, and work on the fundamentals.”

Part of the problem was the Gophers played without point guard Al Nolen who is one of the nation’s best defenders.  Minnesota missed his leadership on offense, too. Smith said Nolen will not play for awhile because of a foot stress fracture but the coach seemed optimistic Nolen will return for the Big Ten schedule.

Virginia coach Tony Bennett said Nolen “steadies the ship” for the Gophers.  “I know that was a loss for them,” Bennett said.  “Obviously, he puts pressure on the point of attack defensively. …It was fortunate for us that he wasn’t out there.”

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Gophers marketing leader Jason LaFrenz said ticket sales have increased since Minnesota won the Puerto Rico Tip-Off tournament and broke into the national rankings. Tickets remain for all games including the Big Ten Conference schedule.

The Gophers’ expenditures for the football program during the 2009-10 school year were $17.43 million, ranking Minnesota eighth in the Big Ten Conference, according to FanHouse, the AOL website.  The Gophers were No. 29 nationally, moving up from No. 72 the previous year with an increase of $8 million to the budget, according to the article that obtained figures from the U.S. Department of Education’s Equity in Athletics.

The Big Ten rankings included Nebraska, a school that becomes the league’s 12^th member next year.  Ranking not far ahead of the Gophers were Penn State $19.78 million; Iowa, $18.46 million; Michigan, $18.32 million; Nebraska, $17.93 million; and Michigan State, $17.46 million.

Ohio State’s budget was $31.76 million, the largest among major college football programs in the country.  Wisconsin, $22.04 million, was second in the Big Ten.  Brett McMurphy’s article was posted on the FanHouse website November 16.

Former Gophers football player Mike Sherels told Sports Headliners he plans to ask the new head football coach for a position on the Minnesota staff.  He also said his brother Marcus is learning on the Vikings practice squad and has been mentored by All-Pro cornerback Antoine Winfield.

Wolves forward Kevin Love was featured in the Pop Culture Grid of the November 29 issue of Sports Illustrated.  Asked for a definition of Black Friday, Love said: “When my sister takes my credit card.”

Love is partnering with Comcast and the Salvation Army for a coat drive. Fans can bring new or “gently” used coats to any of eight metro-area drop-off locations, including the Target Center Box Office and Comcast service centers.  The drive ends December 17.

Wolves rookie forward Wes Johnson was Grand Marshall of the Holidazzle Parade Sunday night.

There will be no advance ticket sales for Saturday’s playoff game at O’Shaughnessy Stadium between St. Thomas (12-0) and Bethel (11-1).  Gates open at 10:30 a.m. with kickoff at noon.  Adult tickets are $8, student tickets $4.

The game will be the first time that two MIAC teams have reached the Division III national quarterfinals in the same season.  Coach Glenn Caruso’s Tommies defeated coach Steve Johnson’s Royals, 10-6, in October.

Canterbury Park will have a 62-day thoroughbred and quarter horse race schedule in 2011. The meet will begin Friday, May 20 and run through Monday, September 5 with Thursday and Friday post times at 7 p.m. and weekend and holiday post times of 1:30 p.m.  Attendance this year averaged 5,859, a record since the suburban Minneapolis facility reopened in 1995.

 

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Marc Trestman, the Minneapolis native and former Gophers quarterback, is likely not a candidate for the University of Minnesota head football coaching position.  Trestman, who yesterday coached Montreal to its second Grey Cup title in three years, has his name rumored with the Gophers job but I am almost certain he won’t be on the list of final candidates.

Trestman, 54, might be a favored candidate of at least some past football letter winners at Minnesota but the Gophers search is believed to be concentrating on candidates with college head coaching experience, and University administrators likely aren’t pursuing Trestman.  He was an assistant coach at the University of Miami in the 1980s and spent two seasons as offensive coordinator at North Carolina State (2005 and 2006) before being fired along with head coach Chuck Amato.

But Trestman has been a career assistant in the NFL and for the last three seasons Montreal’s head coach in the Canadian Football League.  He’s known as an offensive innovator and gifted developer of quarterbacks who has worked for coaching gurus Bud Grant, Bill Walsh, George Seifert, Jon Gruden and Sean Payton.  He was offensive coordinator of the 2003 Oakland team that played in the Super Bowl and lost to Tampa Bay.

Not well known is that Trestman interviewed for the Gophers job in 1996 when he was San Francisco’s offensive coordinator.  In his 2010 biography “Perseverance” with local author Ross Bernstein, Trestman writes that he wasn’t expecting to be among the candidates to replace Jim Wacker.

“I was intrigued, so I met with the Gophers athletic director Mark Dienhart on the tarmac of the San Jose airport,” Trestman said in the book.  “It was late at night and completely under the radar.  I was not well prepared and dealing with the exhaustion of the season.  Also, in the back of my mind was the fact I never really saw myself in the position of a college head coach.”

Trestman is a Miami law school graduate but never practiced law and except for a couple of years selling bonds has been a career coach.  His first pro head coaching offer came from Montreal although he writes in his book that several years ago he turned down the top job at Cornell.

Yesterday Montreal defeated Saskatchewan, 21-18, to win Trestman’s second straight Grey Cup championship.

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