When the Gophers play Michigan tomorrow, Mr. Indispensable, wide receiver Eric Decker, may not play effectively because of a sprained right ankle.  Decker has six touchdown catches this season; the rest of the Gopher wide receivers have collectively produced one.

The junior from Cold Spring has 895 receiving yards, the other wide receivers 537.  If Decker can’t play effectively, it will only be more evidence of his importance to the Gophers’ struggling offense (two drives per game the last four games of over 50 yards), and how their wide receiver fleet could have been far more potent if Michael Floyd, David Gilreath and Nathan Swift, all native Minnesotans, hadn’t chosen other schools.

Coming off his first season and a 1-11 record, Gopher coach Tim Brewster couldn’t sign up Floyd to stay home.  Brewster’s pursuit was all-out but Floyd chose Notre Dame where the freshman wide receiver has 41 catches for 633 yards and seven touchdowns, best on the team.  It won’t bring any comfort but a prep football source told Sports Headliners he believes that with the Gophers’ 7-2 record and success this year, Brewster could convince Floyd to stay home if this were his senior year at Cretin-Derham Hall.

Wisconsin’s David Gilreath, a sophomore, is learning to become a threat at wide receiver.  The former Washburn and Robbinsdale Armstrong prep has exceptional speed.  He has three touchdown receptions, second most on a non-passing team.  Gilreath, who appeared headed toward Minnesota until Glen Mason was dismissed as coach, has 1,080 total yards in kickoff returns, punt returns and receptions.

Swift, a senior wide receiver at Nebraska from Hutchinson, has 150 career receptions.  He recently broke the school record of 143 set by former Nebraska Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Rodgers.  Swift also has seven touchdown receptions this season and an eye-caching 17.3 yards per punt return average.  He returned one punt for 88 yards and a touchdown earlier this season.

Swift was part of the star trio from Hutchinson High School that also consisted of Gopher quarterback Tony Mortensen and offensive lineman Lydon Murtha who joined Swift at Nebraska.

During the off-season it won’t be surprising to see the Gophers recruit and sign a junior college wide receiver, perhaps a couple of them.  The Gophers also have true freshmen wide receivers who they will look to for improvement, plus possible incoming freshmen next year.

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The Wolves’ Al Jefferson, listed at 6-10 but maybe shorter, prompts talk that he’s too small to be an NBA center.  Jefferson, who averaged 21 points and 11.1 rebounds last season, has heard similar conversation about Kevin Love, speculation that he’s too short (listed at 6-10 but smaller) to play power forward.

Jefferson dismisses such talk saying you “can’t worry about what people say.”  So Love can play against power forwards?  “Most definitely” Jefferson told Sports Headliners last week.  “No doubt in my mind he can.”

Jefferson, 23, is an admirer of the 20-year-old first round draft choice. “For a rookie, I have to say Love is a very smart guy,” Jefferson said.  “The only thing that he’s going to have to do, is just like every rookie has to do, is to learn the game and get used to how things go here in the NBA. …He passes the ball.  He rebounds well and he can score when it’s time for him to score.  I just think he’s a very smart guy.”

At UCLA Love averaged 10.6 rebounds per game and dazzled observers with his outlet passing.  In four games with the Wolves and in limited paying time, he’s averaging 6.3 rebounds in about 23 minutes per game.  Jefferson referred to Love as a “rebounding machine.”

Don Meyer, the coach of the Northern State team that played the Gophers in an exhibition loss last night, was head basketball coach at Hamline for three seasons starting in 1972.  Meyer had his lower left leg amputated recently because of a car accident.

Early draft preview: A recent issue of Sporting News magazine projects a 2009 mock NFL draft that has the Vikings picking at No. 16, choosing Baylor offensive tackle Jason Smith.

Talk about a close rivalry: the Vikings and Packers are 25-25 in games played here.  Green Bay leads the series that began in 1961 by four games, 49-45-1.   On Sunday at the Metrodome the Vikings try to end a five game losing streak against the Packers.

The Vikings have improved their point production.  In the last four games they’re averaging 27.8 points, compared with 17.8 during the first four games.

Packer coach Mike McCarthy and Viking coach Brad Childress are both in their third seasons.  McCarthy is 26 and 16 with Green Bay, while Childress is 18-22 with the Vikings.

Rookie defensive tackle Letroy Guilon, drafted on the fifth round out of Florida State, is the youngest Viking at 21.  He has yet to play this season.

Former Gopher golfer and now best selling New York Times author Harvey Mackay has a weekly newspaper column that is syndicated and also is sent via e-mail to approximately 25,000 readers. 

The Wild are at Vancouver tomorrow night for a game against a Canucks team whose roster includes defenseman Willie Mitchell and wing Pavol Demitra.   Mitchell, who was with the Wild for parts of five seasons until 2006, has played in all 13 Vancouver games and has six assists.  Demitra, who has two goals and one assist in six games, won’t play tomorrow night because of a rib injury.  He played with the Wild the last two seasons and scored 118 points.

Veteran MIAC observer Dave Wright wrote to say he’s “never seen” a finish like last Saturday’s men’s hockey game between St. Thomas and St. Scholastica.  He reported that St. Thomas, leading 2-1, had a penalty with about two minutes to play.  St. Scholastica pulled its goalie and tied the game with 1:13 remaining.  Then St. Scholastica scored again with 1:01 left and had a 3-2 lead.  St. Thomas responded by pulling its goalie and the Tommies scored with 33 seconds remaining in the third period. The game ended in overtime at 3-3.

Leading the 18-player all-MIAC volleyball team is St. Thomas senior middle blocker Katie McCaffrey who was named the conference’s Player of the Year after leading the league in hitting percentage, kills, and blocks.  Gustavus senior libero Emily Klein was named Defensive Player of the Year, the third time she has won the award.  Concordia outside hitter Jenna Green was honored as Rookie of the Year.  St. Thomas head coach Thanh Pham received the MIAC Coach of the Year award after the Tommies went 11-0 in conference play for the second consecutive season and earned the No. 1 seed in the MIAC Playoffs.  Selections were made by conference coaches.

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If the Gopher football team needs additional motivation beyond playing for the school’s first New Year’s Day bowl game since 1962, they can crank themselves into a higher frenzy in anticipation of the last three games of the regular season, all of them trophy games against Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa.

The 7-2 Gophers are hoping to win out the rest of the way and be invited either to the Capital One Bowl or Outback Bowl, both January 1 games in Florida.  If they sweep their last three games it will be the first time since 1967 the Gophers have defeated the Wolverines, Badgers and Hawkeyes in the same season.

Those schools haven’t been the last three opponents on the schedule since 2002.  Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa have been the closing three schools on the Gopher schedule only 12 times in Minnesota football history.

So starting Saturday at the Metrodome the Gophers pursue the Little Brown Jug (originated in 1903), Paul Bunyan’s Axe (1948) and Floyd of Rosedale (1935).  Gopher senior defensive end and captain Willie VanDeSteeg said trophy games are “awesome.”

VanDeSteeg was a freshman on the 2005 Gopher team that won at Michigan for the first time since 1986.  It was only the third time in 28 years the Gophers had won the jug.  “We want to get it back in Minnesota hands because that’s something very special to us,” VanDeSteeg said.

In the last 10 years the Gophers have won the axe only two times.  The pig has been in the Gophers’ trophy case three times since 1998.

After last Saturday’s disappointing last minute loss to Northwestern, the Gophers are looking forward to Michigan.  “I think something with a lot of emotion will really help us,” senior tight end Jack Simmons said.  “I think I am really disappointed with the way we came out and played Northwestern. …We weren’t really ready to play…at the level we needed to win the game.  So a rivalry game will really be something we’re up for.”

Michigan is 2-7 overall, 0-4 in the Big Ten.  Wisconsin is 4-5 and 1-5, while Iowa is 5-4 and 2-3.   The Gophers may not win these games, but they certainly have motivation and they know there’s not a super team in the bunch.

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