In its August 2 issue Sporting News magazine lists the top 100 prep football recruits from across the country.  There’s not a single player from Minnesota, and the Gophers aren’t included on the possible college destinations for any prospect.

Big Ten football media day (televised by the Big Ten Network) wasn’t without interesting moments on Monday.  A reporter asked 83-year-old Penn State coach Joe Paterno if he plans to die coaching.  Paterno, who has been head coach in Happy Valley since Lyndon Johnson was president in 1966, answered the question politely and said he plans to coach indefinitely.  Wisconsin’s Brett Bielema said coaches “brainwash players” but he doesn’t.  Illinois coach Ron Zook, on the hottest coaching seat in the conference, said his team “on paper” is the equal of the Illini’s 2008 Rose Bowl team.

Gophers coach Tim Brewster has a local media lunch today and then his team opens practice tomorrow.

Independence Party candidate for governor Tom Horner is the son of the late Jack Horner, a pioneer sportscaster on television here.

For the fourth consecutive year Canterbury Park is promoting non-wagering races involving camels and ostriches.  Those races are part of “Extreme Race Day” on Sunday that also includes unconventional horse racing.

Members of the C.O.R.E.S. and Minnesota Minutemen organizations will have their annual golf tournament on September 2 at Ridges at Sand Creek in Jordan.  The registration deadline is August 23.  For more information contact Duane McEwen at 651-484-5614 or mcewendh@aol.com.

At Big Ten media day this afternoon Gophers football coach Tim Brewster acknowledged his team’s difficult schedule for 2010, and also talked about replacing the Texas series for 2015 and 2016.

Brewster, along with the Big Ten Conference’s other 10 head coaches, addressed a media gathering in Chicago that was televised live on the Big Ten Network.  In Chicago and around the country expectations for the Gophers are minimal, perhaps not even matching last year’s 6-7 overall record and 3-5 in the Big Ten.

Brewster didn’t predict Minnesota’s record for 2010 involving a schedule that includes national powers USC, Ohio State, Iowa, Wisconsin and Penn State.  But he likes what he’s seen of his team this summer.

“We’re bigger, we’re stronger, faster, (and) we’re more athletic than we’ve been, and rightfully so,” Brewster said.  “We need to be.  We know we’re going to play one of the most challenging schedules in America this season, and our players are going to have to be prepared.”

The Gophers lost their second straight bowl game last year and overall had problems finishing games.  “We need to be improved,” Brewster said.  “We need to be better.”

A conflict between Texas and the Big Ten Network regarding game and post-game video led to the cancellation last week of the series with the Longhorns.  Brewster expressed “disappointment…that the University of Texas chose not to play the game.”   Brewster said Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany had assured him that Texas’ needs regarding video could have been worked out.

“We want to be a championship caliber program at the University of Minnesota and we think that to do that we’ve got to bring the spotlight to us,” Brewster said.  “We’re very close to replacing Texas with another marquee nonconference BCS opponent.”

Brewster was asked about realignment of conference schools into two football divisions for next year and whether it was important that the Gophers play Wisconsin and Iowa each year as they do now. “I don’t think there’s any question that as we look at realignment Mr. Delany is going to figure out a way in which we play each other each and every year,” Brewster said.

Tubby Smith wishes Royce White success at Iowa State and believes the former Minnesota Mr. Basketball will be okay in Ames, but he also predicted that White’s behavior will be closely watched.  White announced last month he will continue his college education and basketball career at Iowa State.

“He will only get one chance there,” Smith told Sports Headliners. “He got three or four here.”

White, a 6-7 power forward, was the 2009 Mr. Basketball winner and among the nation’s best prep prospects after his senior season at Hopkins High.  His arrival as a Gophers recruit was highly anticipated last fall but White never played a minute for Minnesota and dropped out of school earlier this year.

Smith disciplined him for incidents at the Mall of America and on the University of Minnesota campus.  Although that disciplinary action kept White from playing for Smith last season, it was long believed that White might one day return to the Gophers.

Smith said during an interview last week that it was White’s decision to attend Iowa State, implying that had White convinced the coach he would meet all expectations, he could have ultimately returned to Minnesota.  “It’s always up to the player,” Smith said.

Smith is having a busy summer scouting potential players, running his basketball camps and preparing to take the Gophers on an exhibition tour against Canadian teams that begins in early September.  It’s hoped that junior forward Trevor Mbakwe, possibly the Gophers best player next season, will be available.

Mbakwe, like White, wasn’t allowed to play last year.  A woman alleges Mbakwe attacked her last year in Florida and a trial has been pending but frequently been postponed.  Smith said if Mbakwe’s trial takes place prior to the exhibition trip departure he plans to bring the former St. Bernard’s prep player with him if Mbakwe is found not guilty.

But Smith doesn’t know what to expect next, describing the legal system in this country as “good” but unpredictable.