Football recruits: Out-of-state

Frankly, the out-of-state football recruits excite me more than the in-state guys. Not just because their other offers are somewhat more impressive, but because of where they're from -- two linebackers from Ohio (where my main man Chris Borland came from), an athlete from St. Louis and a quarterback from New Jersey.

We've always gotten good kids from those states, and it's encouraging to see us going back there with regularity. Surprisingly, no one yet from Texas, although it's not over yet. Can't remember the last time we had a kid from Maryland.

Joseph Brennan, QB, Cherry Hill, N.J.
A 6-4 quarterback who chose us over Miami and Stanford, not bad. His highly-coveted teammate Sherard Cadogan is considering us as well.

Manasseh Garner, LB/TE, Pittsburgh
Not that big yet for his projected positions, but apparently very athletic. Maybe he ends up like a Travis Beckum type.

Josh Harrison, LB, Huber Heights, Ohio
Cody Byers, LB, Kettering, Ohio

Cameron Ontko, LB, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio

Without knowing a whole lot about these guys, can't you just imagine three tough kids from Ohio starting at linebacker?

Warren Herring, DE/TE, Belleville, Ill.
Of all the recruits, Herring is the highest rated at his position. St. Louis has been very good to us in the past, good chance it could happen again here.

Frank Tamakloe, DB, Olney, Md.
This guy had a lot of good offers, a nice get. My first thought on him was that he's got really nice size for a safety -- 6-3, but he needs to put on weight. Good student.

Jameson Wright, DB, Fort Pierce, Fla.
Was also sniffing around Wake Forest and Rutgers.

It would be nice to land a headliner before February, but things are shaping up just fine.

Football recruits: In-state

It's been awhile since I ran down any sort of recruiting news, but Bret Bielema and friends have been assembling the class of 2010. As I write this the most recent recruiting news is highly-rated Whitefish Bay punter Will Hagerup choosing -- gulp -- Michigan over Wisconsin and several other big-name schools. Disappointed, but not devastated since Brad Nortman has two more years of eligibility remaining.

It's not a class for the ages yet, there are no Parade All-Americans or guys ranked in the top 10 at their positions, but it seems like this class is full of solid prospects from places that have been good to us in the past.

Most of the early commits were in-state, so let's look at those guys first.

Bryce Gilbert, DT, Brookfield
An early commit, he was interested in some other Big Ten schools, but his only other offers were from I-AA schools and Indiana, which may as well be a I-AA school.

Jake Irwin, DE, Waunakee
Gotta love the Madison-area kids.

Jeff Lewis, RB, Brookfield
He's got good size, 6-2, 200, but isn't necessarily a power runner.

Marquis Mason, WR, Madison
Great size at 6-5, 215, he's apparently going to try to play basketball at Madison as well. Comparisons to Donald Hayes?

Michael Trotter, DB, Milwaukee
Good-sized safety from Marquette High, his other offers were like a lot of these guys -- I-AA, MAC, and Indiana.

Konrad Zagzebski, DE, Schofield
Probably the best in-state prospect in this class, he originally committed to Minnesota but changed his mind. Glad he did. Is coming off a knee injury.

Dallas Lewallen, OL, Berlin
His high school team is winless, but apparently he's playing well.

On one hand, you could be a cynic and complain that we're taking a lot of kids that have lesser offers and interest. On the other, it is crucial to the identity and success of this program that we continue bringing in the best kids from the state, even if they're not all four-star prospects. Just need to coach 'em up.

Whither Minnesota?

One last comment about the trip the East Dakota, then I'm done. For awhile, anyway.

Talking to Toren after the game, and listening to WCCO on the drive home Sunday morning, two distinct schools of thought emerged from Gopher observers.

We'll never win.

We're close.

The first is Toren's view. Talking things over at Schwalbach's house after the game, Chris made the prediction that Minnesota will never -- ever! -- become a program that cracks the top third of the Big Ten on a regular basis. Those of us who did not graduate from the University of Minnesota disagreed with him. Maybe we were just trying to console him in a sportsmanlike manner after his sixth straight loss in this rivalry.

My counterpoint to him was that they just need to find their guy, their Barry Alvarez, who turns it all around and builds a modern tradition. After all, demographically Minnesota is very similar to Wisconsin and Iowa, and before Barry arrived, we had less overall football history than Minnesota does even after their recent decades of mediocrity. Do I think Tim Brewster is that guy? No, not for a minute, and I don't think many Gopher fans do either.

Chris's strongest point was this: University of Minnesota football will always take a back seat to pro sports in the Twin Cities. Case in point: until we let the Gophers back in the game late in the fourth quarter, the biggest cheer from the home fans in the second half came when Goldy Gopher stripped down to reveal he (she?) was wearing one of the new NFL Europe jerseys Brett Favre wears nowadays.

Last weekend was being billed as the biggest in Minnesota sports history, or at least recent history. And yet there was the battle for Paul Bunyan's Axe, the most-played rivalry in college football history, ranking right around the Wild-Blue Jackets opener, just ahead of a marathon and Bucks-Timberwolves preseason hoops in Mankato.

Will Minneapolis ever rank with Madison for gameday atmosphere? No chance. But as the Badger program was rising in the 1990s, so were the Packers, and statewide media and fan attention drifted to the Northeast. Didn't stop UW from creating a football program that inspired deep loyalty and passion around the state, though. Theoretically, Minnesota can do the same thing.

On the other hand, despite what Brewster and Sid Hartman would tell you, they aren't close. If you listen to Sid, who is basically the voice of Minnesota sports, the Gophers got screwed by the refs, which is really the only reason they didn't beat the Badgers.

I'll paraphrase, but on the radio one of Sid's first questions to Brewster went like this: "That jerk official has been doing this for 100 years and he has no place being out there anymore! He can't even run with the players, he just drops flags! In the first half it was all penalties on the Gophers, none on Wisconsin! I've never seen a penalty called on the 1-yard-line! A chop block?!"

Pause. Crickets. Did the Voice of Minnesota Sports just call Dave Witvoet a jerk? Is everyone considering the irony of Sid accusing someone else being too old to do a good job? Sid's co-host says, "How do you expect coach Brewster to respond to that, Sid?"

That's right: Minnesota thinks Witvoet has it in for them, and is the one thing standing between them and Pasadena. Take it to The Bank.


As the conversation goes on, you get more along the same vein. "Tell you what, no one's really taking it to you," Sid says to Brewster. "There's a lot of parity in the Big Ten this year, you're still right in this thing."

Then they start talking recruiting, and how excited Brew is about the class they're putting together, it's going to be the one that puts them over the top. Thing is, if you look at Minnesota's depth chart, they start eight seniors, two juniors and a sophomore on defense, and four seniors and three juniors on offense.

This is a very experienced team that can't stop the run or block the run, that commits silly penalties and turnovers. They are not a very well-coached team.

So while Minnesota's class of 2010 might be a good one, it's also a good bet Brewster won't be around to coach them at the end of their college careers. When they pull the plug on him and send him back to coaching NFL tight ends, Joel Maturi will have a chance to find his Alvarez. It's possible he will and Minnesota will do what we did. I hope not.

Wisconsin-Minnesota additional thoughts

Tell you what: I could watch our second half offensive performance over and over and over again. Aside from the fumbles and penalties, of course.

John Clay and the blockers operating in front of him just manhandled Minnesota time and time again. Emasculated the Gophers. Embarrassed them. There was Lee Campbell, visibly upset with himself after Clay shrugged him off on a touchdown run. There was that Triplett guy walking off the field groggy after Clay ran him over. There was Gopher defensive back Simmons, shaking in his shoes as Clay picked up steam in the open field, consciously waiting until Clay was almost by him and just diving at Clay's feet.

This is why we beat Minnesota every year. We are stronger and tougher than them. It was apparent sitting seven rows up Saturday, and just as apparent watching the replay.

Other thoughts after getting a TV view of the game.

-You know what else I could watch over and over again? Those ESPN clips of all the empty trophy cases at Minnesota's new stadium. I'll bet someone in their SID office is in trouble for allowing that to happen.

-Early on, Scott Tolzien scrambled and ran into former Badger Kimmy Royston, knocking him back. In the aftermath, Royston was the one talking trash, as if he were the one who had lowered the boom, not the one who got his ass kicked by our slow-footed quarterback. Man, we really miss Royston ...

-Speaking of Tolzien running, I didn't realize his fumble was forced. During the game it appeared he just coughed it up by himself, but on TV it was clear a Minnesota defensive lineman made a nice play to knock the ball loose.

-Louis Nzegwu's sack where he ran down Weber was really a coverage sack. But he made another nice hustle play where he ran down a Minnesota wide receiver downfield. He's a nice logical replacement for O'Brien Schofield next year.

-Watching Zach Brown's fumble and the return for a touchdown made me throw up in my mouth. How does that happen there? For all intents and purposes the game is over at that point. Instead my blood pressure remains elevated for another half-hour. It's too bad he's had troubles hanging onto the ball. For all the increased talk about Montee Ball, from the limited looks we had at him Saturday Brown is still clearly the faster, shiftier back.

-Aaron Henry appears to be the #4 cornerback now behind Antonio Fenelus, Devin Smith, and Niles Brinkley. Shaky knee? Shaky confidence? Other guys' improvement? A little bit of all those things, probably. He had pretty decent coverage on Decker's touchdown, but Weber made a good throw and Decker made a good play on the ball. Aaron also did make a play on the ball on the Gophers' last drive. Henry's got a lot of football to play yet for us, but I'm still a little worried about him.

-Did you see Decker making that Axe-chopping motion after his touchdown? Nice, huh? That'll have to do for him, I guess, since the only wood he'll ever ... never mind.

-Fenelus led us with nine tackles.

-Which was our special teams lowlight? The Gophers' repeated long kickoff returns? Smith and Fenelus fighting each other to keep Brad Nortman's excellent punt out of the end zone, neither succeeding? David Gilreath running full steam into Prince Moody on a return? This unit still needs tons of work.

-Oh yeah, and we also almost had a punt blocked.

-Among Minnesota's many bush league moves is having their band play loud, annoying noises right up until the opponent's snap. Not music, just banging on drums and blowing into horns.

-As much as Lance Kendricks is a nice receiver, he's really become an asset as a blocker. He's not Mickey Turner or Garrett Graham, but he's not a liability either and engages defenders sufficiently enough to give his backs some room. His footwork on the touchdown catch was really nice, and his vision on his other catch of Tolzien's beautifully-thrown ball was great too.

-The tight end screen to Garrett Graham was the perfect call at the perfect time by Paul Chryst.

-Apparently the 12-men-on-the-field penalty was defensive line coach Charlie Partridge's fault for sending in two defensive tackles. The penalty was a good call, Patrick Butrym was not off the field at the snap. Mike Taylor made a nice play on that pick, again, had to reach back across his body. He's good good hands and good instincts.

-Did you happen to notice that before the Gophers' onside kick, Bret Bielema was about five yards on the field yelling instructions and a staffer ran out and pulled him back to the sideline. After last year's Michigan State fiasco, does Bielema have a chaperone to keep him from penalties like that?

-Speaking of onside kicks, that's three times in five games where our opponent has tried one, and we're still not all that good at fielding them.

-Speaking of onside kicks, how funny was it that Minnesota was penalized for having a guy standing to the wrong side of the kicker? That's simple knowledge of the rules. That's the kind of thing we would have been penalized for last year.

-On our second-to-last possession, we passed on third-and-long rather than running. Most people would have run there, and I probably would have too, but passing there wasn't as dumb as it may have originally appeared. Given that they had just gone 80 yards in about 10 seconds on their previous drive, the difference between them having 1:45 and 1:20, only needing a field goal attempt to force overtime, wasn't that great. Why not make a legit attempt at a first down and end it?

-Why was Minnesota running play action passes on their last drive? Was running really an option at that point? And didn't Weber used to be a pretty good runner? He looks downright slow now.

-You know what else I could watch over and over and over? Chris Borland running by Minnesota's big, slow offensive linemen. And I didn't even have to rewind the DVR, it was happening on every single play. On one play, Borland spun around and Wills didn't realize he'd been beaten for another three seconds. Then, Borland has the athleticism to stop, change direction, and tip Weber's pass.

-Looks like Blake Sorensen forced that last fumble, not Schofield, but O'Beezy was right there on the play. Whatever helps him with his all-conference resume.

This team and this game effort still has plenty of warts, but watching the kids run around with the Axe makes you forget all of it. It doesn't get much better than that.

TCF Bank Stadium

The question tomorrow at work will be, What did you think of Minnesota's new stadium? That is, of course, if the average sports fan in Wisconsin even realizes the Gophers have a new stadium, or if they somehow forget that the Minnesota Favres are playing the Packers in The Biggest Football Game In The History of Earth.

My response will be, It's very nice, it would easily be the nicest stadium in the MAC.

All right, all right, too snotty. Minnesota did a nice job with the new place. As Barry Alvarez told Sid Hartman on the radio this morning, they got their bang for their buck, or something like that. The few bugs we experienced will likely be ironed out over time. Even though it was overcast and damp, that was better than heading inside a dome on a beautiful fall day.

The exterior of the place is strange, lots of windows and glass. Not ugly by any means, but it looked more like a commercial building than a stadium.

The worst part, by far, was entry. We arrived at the gates about 15 minutes before kickoff, and waited in line so long we missed the first seven minutes of play. This was after we chose the unfortunately-named "Express" line. The game tickets had bar codes on them, but the ticket takers for some reason had no bar code readers.

Inside, the concession stands did not have cash registers. Instead, the workers used calculators to tally up orders, sort of like they do at the Iola-Scandinavia JV games by my house. Another technical blunder I observed came after a Gopher interception, when the scoreboard flashed "FIELD GOAL!!! FIELD GOAL!!!"

Other than that things were really nice. Our excellent seats, obtained by Matt Schwalbach, were actual seats, not benches or benches with seat backs attached. With cup holders! Much nicer than Camp Randall seats. We were more or less surrounded by Gopher fans who were very civil and sportsmanlike, as I believe we were in return. I got two yummy chocolate chip cookies for $1, as good a value as you'll find anywhere.

The school harkens to its successful past with signs noting its Big Ten and national championships between the lower and upper decks, although it does remind me of the banners we had at the Field House honoring all of our national championship boxing teams from the 1950s. Cheesy, however, are the signs circling the upper deck noting the Gophers' bowl appearances. Do you really want to be bragging about appearances in the Music City and Micron PC Bowls?

The concourses are plenty big, overall much better than Camp Randall. They also have some unused room at one end of the field, where I would put statues of someone like, say, Bronco Nagurski.

Unlike entering the stadium, exiting was very easy. Of course, that's because only about 15 Gopher fans were still there for their band's version of the Fifth Quarter. Their music was so quiet that about 100 Badger fans staging their own spoken-word version of a Camp Randall Fifth Quarter in the upper deck drowned out the Minnesota band.

The game was announced as a sellout, but there were plenty of empty seats in the corners of the student section. Hilariously, our Gopher friend Chris Toren, the ultimate good sport after years of crushing defeats in this game, claimed that it was for spillover media. Right, the U issued 15 press passes to Japanese media members who didn't come when the forecast showed rain.

It is undeniable, though, that there were far fewer Badger fans in attendance than in prior years. The actual ratio was hard to determine from our seats, but watching the TV replay I would think only about 10% of the crowd was wearing red. Give it a few years and see how tough tickets are to find once the novelty of the new field wears off.

Bottom line: nice place, good for the Minnesota program, 1,000 times better than the Metrodome.

Decker goes Axe-less for career

Just in case this point hadn't been made clear ...

Decker goes Axe-less for career

Too bad, I'll miss the old crotch-slugger. I was thinking, if he really wants to get his hands on Paul Bunyan's Axe, he can come down to our spring game in April, during the family events they let people take pictures with it.

Good riddance.

Wisconsin-Minnesota thoughts

I'm getting too old for this!

Today's game should not have been close. We absolutely dominated the second half, ran the ball with authority, Tolzien settled down. And yet ...

Couldn't close the deal until the absolute end. Brown's fumble ... what can you say? The back-to-back 40-yard pass plays that allowed Minnesota to get close. Letting the Gophers convert fourth-and-16.

But we beat Minnesota. Again. Got to see our kids parade the Axe around their shiny, tiny new stadium. We're 5-0. Can't complain too much.

-I just loved the way we blocked for John Clay and the way he ran. It appeared that we wouldn't be able to do to much up the gut, with their enormous defensive tackles, but the off tackle runs were so effective. Especially around the left, have to credit Gabe Carimi. It will be interesting to see how the staff arranges the depth chart heading into next week. It's hard to see how they can keep Brown at #1, but if they're dead set on keeping Clay at #2 for whatever pscyhological reasons are at play, who are they going to start? Montee Ball? Stay tuned. Just happy Clay is looking like the back we envisioned.

-Tolzien was shaky at times, which is understandable given it was his first road start. Early on it seemed like he was fixating on his first option and not moving further into his progressions, which led to the first pick. But he played much better in the second half. His two passes to Lance Kendricks were very nice, particularly the second one that he dropped over Kendricks' shoulder. He fell back on Garrett Graham a bunch, smart move. Loved Paul Chryst's naked bootleg call that led to our last touchdown, and how Tolzien covered up with two arms at the end.

-Minnesota should have run the ball more, they were reasonably effective when they committed to it. When they fell back on the pass, our rush was effective in rushing Weber. O'Brien Schofield and Louis Nzegwu each had two sacks, and were relentless in their rushes. Chris Borland just continues to make plays, he was embarrassing Minnesota's right tackle. And let's not forget the excellent play Patrick Butrym made to intercept Weber's tipped pass. Minnesota was up three and driving for another score at that point, and we dominated play thereafter.

-All kidding aside, TCF Bank Stadium is nice. They need to come up with a better way of getting people in, we had a ridiculous wait and missed the first five minutes of the game. There are no cash registers at the concession stands. And they appear to treat Micron PC Bowl appearances just as importantly as national championships. But all in all it's a nice place, definitely a huge upgrade from the Metrodome.

I'll have more thoughts later, but back to the celebration.

Remember this one?

Has it only been four years since that glorious day in the Metrodome? I could watch this over and over again all day ... just might if we lose today.

Take it to the Bank

I'm pretty sure the Badgers are going to lose to Minnesota tomorrow. Which will be disappointing, especially since I'll be there, but since it won't be unexpected, it won't be devastating. Here's what I see happening:

-Eric Decker doesn't necessarily kill us, but he's productive and has at least one key touchdown.

-Duane Bennett has a better game than we would expect.

-We have a tough time running on their big defensive tackles, but still are able to muster up a respectable ground game. Zach Brown does well running off tackle.

-Scott Tolzien throws a couple picks and has his shakiest game of the year.

-We get a big, unexpected special teams play. Might as well come from hometown boy David Gilreath.

-Minnesota plays with the lead for most of the game, we keep things close. Unlike 2005, however, we don't pull out a miracle finish and fall just short.

Looking forward to seeing TCF Bank Park or whatever they're calling it. For all my teasing it appears like a nice place. Of course, if it happens to rain I'll be longing for that craphole the Gophers used to play in.

Josh Gasser

With Diamond Taylor leaving school after violating the school's student-athlete discipline policy, a scholarship opened up a year early for Josh Gasser. He's a Port Washington kid whose stock was really on the rise, with offers from the likes of Maryland and Arizona State.

As of now he's slated to be the only point guard on the roster after Jordan Taylor exhausts his eligibility. At 6-4 he's taller than the kids we've had playing the position lately, which leads to the inevitable question of whether he'll be quick enough to guard the position in the Big Ten.

As a 20-plus points per game scorer, it's obvious he knows how to score. And judging by his jersey, he's plenty familiar with Bo Ryan's offense.

Gasser join Evan Anderson in the class. Now all we need is Vander Blue to re-commit. Come on Vander, we love you!