Sid Hartman: Safety has seen Hill succeed in past

Vikings safety Madieu Williams arrived at Maryland in 2001, the year Shaun Hill helped the Terrapins to a 10-2 record and an appearance in the Orange Bowl, so Williams is pleased to see his college teammate is doing a great job as the 49ers quarterback.

Hill, who played in one game in four seasons as a third-stringer with the Vikings from 2002 to 2005, beat out former No. 1 overall draft pick Alex Smith for the starting job with San Francisco this year. The 49ers arrive at the Metrodome this weekend 2-0 after beating NFC West rivals Arizona and Seattle.

"I'm not surprised, because Shaun was my quarterback in college and he's displaying some of the same traits that he did in College Park, that he's doing now in San Francisco," Williams said. "So I'm happy for him, and looking forward to seeing him on Sunday."

Williams transferred to Maryland in 2001 after two years at Towson State and sat out as a redshirt. That year, the Terrapins won their first Atlantic Coast Conference championship since 1985.

"Shaun, we used to call him 'The General,' because of the way that he commanded the offense, more importantly, the way he had the ability to get guys lined up and execute the offense without making any mistakes," Williams said.

Hill signed with the Vikings as an undrafted free agent in April 2002, and he beat out Spergon Wynn as the No. 3 quarterback. Hill served in that role for most of his four seasons here. In 2005, he was elevated to the No. 2 spot behind Brad Johnson after Daunte Culpepper suffered his season-ending knee injury at Carolina, but Hill did not play in a regular-season game until the '05 finale.

Hill joined San Francisco in 2006 but didn't throw his first NFL pass until December 2007. That month, he made his first NFL start at home against Cincinnati, while Williams was still with the Bengals. Hill won that game 20-13 and won the next week, too, and after going 5-3 last year he is now 9-3 as a 49ers starter.

"Yes, you know what, you can know someone personally but you still got to play on Sunday," Williams said. "You can watch all the film in the world, until you get out there and see things for yourself, and see how the flow of the game goes, all those things don't matter."

The 49ers also have Frank Gore, who ran for touchdowns of 80 and 79 yards against the Seahawks on Sunday. Williams said the 49ers are a very talented team and won't be any pushover.

"The offensive line is doing a pretty good job in terms of blocking," Williams said. "[Gore] is doing a good job of finding the holes. We have to be very sound this Sunday, and more importantly, we have to make sure we tackle."

Confidence improved Gophers senior linebacker Simoni Lawrence believes that playing nonconference opponents such as Syracuse, Air Force and California will make the defense better than ever when Big Ten play begins Saturday.

"Our defense worked great, we know that we're a really good team and everything, and we understand that we can beat anybody if we all play great defense," said Lawrence, whose team opens conference play at Northwestern.

Lawrence believes the Gophers have been a better team in the second half of games because of strength and conditioning coach Mark Hill. "Coach Hill, you know, we work out very hard in the offseason, and when we come out in the second half, it's like we're still fresh, we're not tired or anything. ... We're in great shape thanks to our workout program," Lawrence said.

Lawrence also had great praise for new co-defensive coordinator Kevin Cosgrove, saying, "He's a great coach. He lets us trust our abilities and boosts our confidence and makes sure that he knows that we know we can do anything we can do."

Lawrence believes the Gophers have the best group of linebackers in the Big Ten. Against Cal, the Gophers used four linebackers at times, with freshman Keanon Cooper joining the veteran group of Lee Campbell, Nate Triplett and Lawrence.

"Cooper, he's a great addition in certain packages, he helps out a lot," Lawrence said.

The Gophers begin conference play on the road, but Lawrence said that won't be a liability. "We love going on the road," he said. "Those kinds of games are fun. I love when everybody's against you. It's fun just going into somebody else's home and playing great football. That's nothing but motivation. It motivates us to go in there and know that they're a great team and they can beat you if you don't go in there and play your hardest."

Jottings Joe Mauer is hitting .371, but the Twins catcher finished only .250 against the White Sox this season, batting 14-for-56 with three home runs and 12 RBI in 15 games. Mauer struck out 10 times against Chicago, the most he ever ever recorded against a single team in a season in his career.

ESPN has come up with some interesting figures on how Michael Cuddyer has hit fastballs since replacing the injured Justin Morneau at first base. Over a stretch of nine games going into Wednesday night with Cuddyer playing at first, his batting average when swinging at fastballs was .409 with five home runs. He has a 1.136 slugging percentage in that time. In the previous nine games, he had hit .111 and slugged .222 vs. the fastball.

The Twins have 34 victories since the All-Star break, sixth in the American League. Detroit also has 34, after a 6-5 at Cleveland on Thursday night. The Twins are 9-1 since Sept. 13, the most victories in the majors, and the Twins pitching staff has a 2.90 ERA during those 10 games, the fourth-best in the majors.

A year ago on Sept. 24, the Twins were 85-72 and 1 1/2 games behind the White Sox, playing the second of three games against Chicago at the Metrodome. The Twins swept the White Sox to move into first place but then lost two of three to the Royals before losing the one-game playoff at Chicago. The Tigers were in last place at this time a year ago.

Twins home attendance with three games left at the Metrodome is 2,222,127, an average of 28,489. Through 78 home games last year, the Twins drew 2,190,743, an average of 28,086.