That S.I. preview rated Adrian Peterson of the Vikings No. 2 among NFL running backs, second to LaDainian Tomlinson of San Diego.  Bernard Berrian was 48^th and Sidney Rice 60^th among wide receivers.  Minneapolis native Larry Fitzgerald Jr. of Arizona was rated fourth in the wide receivers ranking.

The Vikings used a Post-It-Note advertisement on the front page of the Sunday Star Tribune promoting $10 off on a single game ticket for the team’s two preseason home games.  Meanwhile, Time magazine in a story about Michigan’s struggling economy reported that the Detroit Lions are using billboards to advertise $230 season tickets.  The magazine also said there’s no waiting list for Detroit Red Wings season tickets despite the team being Stanley Cup champions.

Gopher coach Tim Brewster told Sports Headliners that his defensive line is more advanced than the offensive line because of experience.  Among young Gophers to watch develop on the offensive line are two red shirt freshmen, center Trey Davis from Farmington High School and tackle Ryan Wynn from Maple Grove High School.

Brewster expects sophomore Adam Weber “to be one of the most outstanding quarterbacks in the Big Ten” Conference.  He believes junior wide receiver Eric Decker is going to be “one of the better wide receivers in the country.”

Lou Holtz’s recruiting axiom when he coached here in the 1980s was the “body” came from Minnesota but the “arms and legs” had to come from elsewhere.  With more high level skilled players coming out of the state than ever before, Brewster isn’t so sure that axiom is as accurate now.

Pam Borton’s Gopher basketball team plays four exhibition games in Italy later this month.  The team leaves August 18 and returns August 28.  Gopher athletic director Joel Maturi and wife Lois will be on the trip, too.  NCAA rules allow a team to make an international trip every four years.

Former Gopher and NCAA wrestling champion Brock Lesnar has a new sponsorship agreement with a consumer food company, according to a source who requested anonymity.  There’s talk the company will launch a Lesnar flavor.  He will be a featured participant in the Ultimate Fighting Championship event on Saturday at Target Center.  Lesnar, 1-1, will fight Heath Herring, 28-13-1, in a heavyweight match-up.

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Dave Mona’s new book, “Beyond the Sports Huddle,” is written with efficiency, clarity, charm and wit.  That’s pretty much the way Mona, a 1964 graduate of the University of Minnesota, has lived his life.

He has done enough during his six-plus decades to pretty much fill two or three lifetimes. So why not author a book, too?  He’s done just that with a 286 page publication that is pure Mona, with tales about people he’s known ranging from Kirby Puckett to Hubert Humphrey, from Muhammad Ali to Molly Ivins, with a mass murderer included for intrigue.  With points for efficiency, Mona even includes stories he’s written in the past including a piece on baseball card collecting he authored long ago for the Minneapolis Tribune.

Who is Dave Mona?  Well, unless you just flew in from across the Pond, you probably know him as a radio personality on WCCO.  For 27 years he’s been heard on WCCO Radio’s Sunday Sports Huddle and since 1998 he’s provided color commentary on Gopher football.  In 2006 he won Associated Press and Edward R. Murrow writing awards for his pregame vignettes.

Writing and creativity come easy to Mona, who grew up in Minneapolis, the son of South High School basketball coach Lute Mona.  Mona was sports editor of the Minnesota Daily where he had a talent for encouraging young (and not so gifted) writers on his staff.  In typical multi-tasking fashion, he worked at WCCO TV while a student at the University, serving as a news room dispatcher and assisting with a hilarious late night Saturday show called the Bedtime Nooz starring Dave Moore.

Although most journalists aspire to work at a big city newspaper out of college, few are talented enough and prepared for the assignment.  Mona went straight to the Tribune where he worked for five years with two seasons devoted to covering the Minnesota Twins.

Along the way he decided that 100 days or so away from home was too much.  He made his way into the public relations profession and later became the founder and current chairman of Weber Shandwick, the region’s largest PR firm.

In addition to Weber Shandwick, all he’s done over the years is raise a nice family with wife Linda, own and operate the Field of Dreams sports memorabilia stores, personally collect over a million baseball cards, assist many community organizations with his leadership and marketing savvy including the Minneapolis chamber and the University of Minnesota athletic department, emcee and speak at many events, and provide enough sports insights on WCCO Radio to keep your average Minnesotan sounding sports savvy around the office water cooler.

He’s done it all with energy, intelligence and a high likeability factor, making it look so easy.  Dave Mona is Minnesota nice.

And always the quick wit with willingness to tell stories, anecdotes from long ago and today.  The book is full of them including a number of paragraphs devoted to Molly Ivins, the tall and outspoken Texan who worked with Mona at the Tribune before going on to a famed writing career where she bashed a lot of people including Bill Clinton whose character was described as “weaker than bus station chili.”

Mona remembers in the book, too, that Ivins came to Minneapolis without an overcoat.  A few weeks later she corrected that and paraded into the newsroom wearing a floor-length reddish-orange coat that matched her reddish hair.  Mona writes that assistant managing editor Frank Premack shouted, “My God, it looks like a bad paint job on the Foshay Tower.”

Mona has a series of book signings including on Thursday, August 19 at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes & Noble, Galleria, 3225 W. 69^th Street, Edina.

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The Gopher football team begins practice today and coach Tim Brewster told Sports Headliners on Saturday that his defense “without question” will be improved. Brewster has said repeatedly since becoming the Gopher coach that Minnesota must have a championship level defense to contend in the Big Ten Conference, but minimal personnel last season allowed opponents to average 36.7 points and almost 520 yards per game.

Whether it’s added athleticism, improved experience, or the coaching of new defensive coordinator Red Roof, the Gophers have optimism they will be better on defense in 2008 than last season when six times other teams scored 40 or more points against them.  Brewster said Roof, the former head coach at Duke who is Minnesota’s third defensive coordinator in three years, stresses fundamentals.  “We want to be a great tackling football team,” Brewster said.

Ask Brewster who his impact players on defense could be this season and he mentions several names, a mix of new players and returnees.  He listed junior college transfers Tramaine Brock (safety), Traye Simmons (cornerback) and Simoni Lawrence (linebacker-safety), plus junior Eric Small (defensive tackle) and senior linebacker Steve Davis.

Brewster spoke about Brock, Simmons and Lawrence having the kind of athleticism a Big Ten defense needs to compete at a “high level.”  He described Lawrence as a “hybrid” player who can contribute at linebacker and safety, with his assets expected to include being a mobile, fast pass rusher.

Small, a junior college transfer a year ago, now weighs over 300 pounds.  “He’s done a better job with his body, improving size, strength and speed than any player I’ve ever been around,” said Brewster whose coaching resume includes jobs as an assistant at Texas and North Carolina.

Davis made a name for himself in the Big Ten his first two seasons as a speed rushing defensive end.  But a year ago the new Gopher coaching staff decided Davis didn’t have the size for the position and switched him to linebacker.  It wasn’t always an easy transition. “He was like a fish out of water,” Brewster said.

This year Davis may swim with the sharks of the Big Ten.  Brewster said Davis has “become a student of the game” and he expects leadership from Davis and other seniors, on offense and defense, including defensive end Willie VanDeSteeg.  VanDeSteeg hurt his wrist last year after a productive sophomore season.

Brewster hosted the annual dinner for Gopher seniors on Saturday night.  His message?  “It’s time for us to win.”

The Gophers, 1-11 a year ago and characterized by that infamous defense, plan to start winning with the first game on August 30 at home against Northern Illinois.

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