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| English: its a leslie fraizer and he wants to be on wiki cuz im hes broda (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Vikings: Leaving the Metrodome--and Leslie Frazier--Behind
In Leslie Frazier's three seasons (or so) as Vikings coach, the NFL team has rollercoastered from the depths of high-draft-pick mediocrity to surprise playoff spot and back again. Inconsistencies abounded from starting quarterbacks to defense and special teams. For those reasons, and also because the Vikings face a two-year transition period before their new glass football palace opens in 2016, the team bid adieu to Frazier Monday.
With a 21-33-1 record over three seasons (5-10-1 this year), Frazier committed the cardinal sin of not getting to the playoffs often enough. This season alone, none of their victories came on the road. Four of the five games they did win came at the Metrodome, including that so-called "home" game in London over the Pittsburgh Steelers. There was one tie at Lambeau Field against the Green Bay Packers, and too many come-from-ahead losses to count for anyone to stomach.
At quarterback, Christian Ponder caused plenty of folks to, you know, ponder his effectiveness. Josh Freeman, acquired from Tampa Bay, started a Monday night game against the New York Giants, played poorly, suffered a concussion and was never heard from again. Which left us with Matt Cassel, who played well enough in the second half of the season to earn the starting job--that is, unless the Vikings draft another hotshot college signal-caller. Like Christian Ponder.
With Adrian Peterson sidelined by injuries and personal problems, Cordarrelle Patterson has arrived as the next big offensive star of the Vikings. Whether it's a runback or a big gainer, this type of back hasn't been seen around here since Percy Harvin. Which just happens to be last season.
If you want to know about the Vikings' biggest need, it's the defense. Any team that gives up as many points (480), or blows as many leads as the Vikings have this past season certainly needs an overhaul. Part of it may come through free agency, where Jared Allen and Kevin Williams are not expected back.
Whoever the Vikings get to become their new head coach (they hope to have one in place before the Super Bowl) is not nearly as important as signing players who are ready and willing to play outdoors for a rebuilding team for a couple of years, not to mention selling that kind of team to a skeptical public. This is not going to be easy.
Projected Super Bowl Matchup
Seattle vs. New England.
Golden Gophers: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
The University of Minnesota ended their football season with another close loss in a Houston-based bowl game, this time to Syracuse 21-17 in the Texas Bowl.
Since coach Jerry Kill's last epilepsy seizure forced him to watch games from the press box, letting his assistants do the actual coaching, the Gophers have played better. They posted an 8-5 record this season, and 4-4 in the Big Ten. They did, however, drop their last three games to Wisconsin, Michigan State (the conference champion) and Syracuse.
This was Kill's third year as Gopher head coach. If, as they say, the third year represents a turning point in the improvement of the football program, then the gophers might just be on the road to bigger and better things. Or they just reached their level of competence.
It depends, of course, on what kind of players Kill and his associates can recruit. They know full well that (A) Minnesota isn't exactly a hotbed of football talent, (B) what talent there is will likely go elsewhere, and (C) the cream of the crop around the country want to play for football factories that win. And Minnesota is no football factory.
For Jerry Kill, it's all a matter of doing what he can with what he's got. If he can win with what he's got, then great. It simply means another appearance in some third-rate ESPN-televised bowl game played in an empty stadium. If not, then it's what everybody expects out of the football program anyway.
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