SID's JOTTINGS
• Gophers football coach Jerry Kill received a nice honor when he was chosen to speak to the National Football Foundation on Monday in Chicago. It is considered very prestigious to speak to this group of coaches.
• Kill has made some promotions in his staff, with Adam Clark becoming director of football operations and assistant athletic director for football, replacing Dan O'Brien, who was promoted to senior associate athletic director overseeing football and athletics facilities. Jeff Jones, who was assistant coordinator of recruiting operations, will replace Clark in his old role of director of player personnel, and Mike Sherels, who had been a defensive graduate assistant, will replace Jones.
• The Minnesota Daily reported last week that the University of Minnesota might play host to some of the festivities around the MLB All-Star Game at Target Field this summer. Twins President Dave St. Peter said one of the ideas under consideration is for a free concert at TCF Bank Stadium, but ultimately the decision for where to hold events will fall to Major League Baseball.
• The Vikings added Evan Marcus as strength and conditioning coach and Jeff Hurd as assistant strength and conditioning coach, finalizing their coaching staff under Mike Zimmer. Marcus was the strength coach for the Dolphins and Falcons and worked at the University of Virginia the past three years.
• The Twins have been rumored to be considering free agent Nelson Cruz but are waiting for his contract demands to go down. If the Twins were to sign Cruz they would also have to part with a second-round draft pick. Cruz, an All-Star who was suspended 50 games last season under the major league performance-enhancing substance policy, hit 27 home runs in 109 games in 2013 and has 157 homers over the past five seasons.
