The Vikings will finish the regular season having played their last seven games either in warm weather sites or covered stadiums.  Place-kicker Ryan Longwell, who played nine seasons with Green Bay before coming here, was asked about how “neutral conditions” help execute a game plan.

“It’s tough to play December cold games when there’s field conditions, and weather conditions, and wind conditions,” he said. “…I’ve seen it so many times in Lambeau (Field) when you game plan all week for a certain thing and you show up on game day and it doesn’t allow you to do what you practiced.  So you scrap it, you figure out a way to get through the game.  So having neutral conditions, you can kind of expect what you game plan for you can actually do.”

No league does parity better than the NFL and although seven teams have only won four or fewer games, the playoff contenders are many and it’s anyone’s guess which two teams will make the Super Bowl.  The Vikings are 9-5 and in first place in the NFC North but with two weeks left in the season could even miss the playoffs depending on how they and other teams perform.  Eleven teams in the NFC have seven losses or fewer.  And all of this means at least several NFL head coaching jobs could open up after the season.

Mike Sherels, who was a senior on Tim Brewster’s first Minnesota team in 2007, has a prediction as to when the Gophers will be special.  It will be the 2011 season when Brewster’s first full recruiting class (last February) become seniors.

Sherels is an assistant football coach at Prior Lake High School.

What’s in a name?  Apparently a lot if you’re former Gopher football player Greg White now in the NFL with the Tampa Bay Bucs.  On Monday a judge approved his new name, Stylez G. White, according to www.miamiherald.com and other news sources.  He chose the name because he liked a particular character in the Michael J. Fox movie “Teen Wolf.”

Former Gophers national championship coach Murray Warmath will be 96 on December 26.

Jerry Burns, former Vikings coach, will be 82 on January 24 and works out at a local health club every other day.

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Lane Kiffin, the former Bloomington Jefferson alum, is in the news because he’s the new head football coach at Tennessee and his dad, former Vikings assistant Monte, will be joining the Volunteers staff.  But his gorgeous wife Layla is a search engine favorite, too.

PGA player and Wayzata native Tim Herron (aka “Lumpy”) and wife Ann will launch the Lil’ Lumpy Leadership Initiative tomorrow at the Kimberly Lane Elementary School gymnasium in Wayzata.  The initiative teaches kids leadership skills through golf.  The Herrons will congratulate students for taking part in a essay challenge on leadership and recognize the school for its commitment to teaching leadership skills.  The school will be the first in Minnesota to be placed atop the “Lil’ Lumpy Leaderboard.”  More at www.lillumpy.com

It will be a downer for the golf industry, including next summer’s PGA at Hazeltine National Golf Club, if Tiger Woods sits out 2009 to rehab from his famous knee surgery.

The Timberwolves Al Jefferson donated $25,000 to Miami Dade College earlier this year to start a scholarship in honor of his late father.  Jefferson’s sister Jazma is in her second year at the school.

Kate Smith, formerly Kate Riley, was recently named director of marketing for Gatorade.  Kate, who was inducted last month into the Edina High School Athletic Hall of Fame, was an all-state basketball player for the Hornets and later played for Illinois where she was a four-year starter and team captain.  Her parents are Dick and Carolyn Riley, both of whom have been active volunteers for the United States Tennis Association.

Congratulations to former Patrick Henry coach Don Swanson and wife Barb on their 50^th wedding anniversary this Friday.

“Day In The Life: Nick Schultz” will debut on the NHL Network beginning at 6 p.m. local time tomorrow.  The 30-minute episode follows Schultz for the entire game day of December 5 when the Wild played Vancouver at home.  NHL Network will also re-air the show on Saturday at 3 p.m. and Sunday at 3:30 p.m.

In 21 games this year Pavol Demitra, who left the Wild after last season to play for Vancouver, has 10 goals and eight assists for the Northwest Division leading Canucks (tied with Calgary).  Minnesota, which has lost both of its games to Vancouver, misses his point production.  The Wild have four goals in their last five games, all losses.

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The anticipation and determination was evident in Saul Smith’s words.  The Gophers assistant basketball coach was talking about next Saturday’s game against No. 9 ranked Louisville in Glendale, Arizona.

Although the Gophers are 9-0, this will be Minnesota’s first game against a nationally ranked team and only the second time playing a school from a major conference.  But there’s more to it.  Louisville is annually among the royalty of college basketball and coach Rick Pitino, eight years with Louisville, and before that coaching teams like Kentucky, the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks, will one day have the tag “legendary” associated with his name.  Pitino won a national championship at Kentucky and then was succeeded by Saul’s dad Tubby, who won an NCAA title in Lexington.  Tubby was once an assistant coach for Pitino at Kentucky.

No wonder the Gophers figure to be focused and excited for Saturday’s game which is the first of a doubleheader in the University of Phoenix Stadium (the Desert Shootout also includes Arizona State versus Brigham Young).   Saul told Sports Headliners the Gophers are determined to be prepared for the game that starts at 1 p.m. Minneapolis time and will be televised on FSN.

“We’re gonna know a lot about them,” Smith said.  “We’re dedicating…all three (assistant) coaches toward this scout(ing).  Usually it’s just one.  Everybody is going to get a shot at trying to scout against this team and put their wisdom into it. And we’re gonna call around (info from other teams)…and watch every film that they’ve played in the last year or so.  We’re going to try and dissect them.

“We want to win this game. We circled this game in the summer as a measuring stick to where we were.  We knew they were going to be a top 10 team in the nation. So this is where we’re going to measure ourselves against.”

Smith expects Pitino to be “relentless” in his preparation for the Gophers. That’s often a good word to describe Pitino teams on the court, too.  Louisville is known for its relentless defense (68 steals to opponents 39) and so far this season is giving up 56.1 points per game while averaging 80.  The Cardinals are 4-1 with their only loss to Western Kentucky (5-3) in Nashville, 68-54.

Louisville’s leading scorer is 6-8 freshman center Samardo Samuels, a Jamaican by way of New Jersey who is a former USA Today prep player of the year and is averaging 17 points per game for Pitino.  The Cardinals may have the best front court in the country with Samuels, plus forwards Earl Clark and Terrence Williams.  Clark, a slashing offensive player, supposedly returned for his senior season rather than become a first round NBA draft choice last spring while Williams, another senior, often gains attention for his playmaking.

It didn’t take long in a conversation for Smith to bring up the Samuels name and how the Gophers will try to counter with their own freshman center, Colton Iverson.  “I think he’s (Samuels) a future pro,” Smith said.  “He’s very strong down there. I think the match up with him and Iverson is going to be critical when it comes down to who is going to win the game. …”

Smith used the word critical, too, when talking about Minnesota’s Damian Johnson guarding Clark who is Louisville’s second leading scorer at 11.6 points per game.  Johnson, a 6-7 junior forward, is probably Minnesota’s best defender.

Smith said the Gophers want to be undefeated in nonconference games (two home softies remain after Louisville) but there’s more to it than that.  A win in December over highly ranked Louisville will help the Minnesota resume in March when selections are made to participate in the NCAA tournament.  “No question, because we feel like Louisville is a team that’s gonna make some noise in March,” Smith said. “And we feel like if we can come in and beat a team of that caliber we feel confident about our team.  …”

The Gophers will look back in March and know whether they had the reputation building satisfaction of beating a school that Smith said has its name in “capital letters” on the Minnesota schedule.

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