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Phil Miller is returning to his Big Ten roots to follow Minnesota’s football fortunes for the Star Tribune after a decade of chronicling the NBA and Major League Baseball. The Illinois native began his writing career by covering Utah football for six seasons, and still insists that 12-1 Florida stole the 2009 BCS Championship from the unbeaten Utes.
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Posts about Gophers awards and honors
Wilhite is first All-Big Ten Gopher since Decker
Posted by: Phil Miller Updated: November 26, 2012 - 7:57 PM
Senior defensive end D.L. Wilhite, whose 8.5 sacks tied for second-most in the Big Ten, was named Monday to the All-Big Ten second team by conference media members.
Willhite, a fifth-year senior from Lexington, Ky., is the first Gophers player to receive all-conference recognition since 2009, when wide receiver Eric Decker was chosen for the first team by the league's coaches. His sack total was the seventh-most in a single season by a Minnesota player, and his career total of 15.5 ranks sixth in Gopher history.
Three other Gophers received honorable-mention recognition: Senior cornerback Michael Carter, selected by coaches and media members; plus junior defensive tackle Ra'Shede Hageman and senior cornerback Troy Stoudermire, each chosen by the media. Senior linebacker Mike Rallis was named the Minnesota winner of the league's Sportsmanship Award.
Tinsley's parents accept their son's diploma
Posted by: Phil Miller Updated: May 10, 2012 - 5:44 PM Gophers linebacker Gary Tinsley formally became a University of Minnesota alum on Thursday, when his parents accepted his diploma during the University of Minnesota's spring commencement.
The Mariucci Arena crowd stood and applauded as Ronda Evans and Gary Tinsley Sr. walked across the stage to receive their son's diploma from Jean Quam, dean of education and human development, before the regular bestowing of degrees began, a university spokeswoman said. Tinsley, 22, who died of an enlarged heart in his Wilkins Hall dorm on April 6, earned a bachelor of science degree in business and marketing education while at Minnesota, while also making 198 tackles as the Gophers' starting middle linebacker.
Gophers coach Jerry Kill and athletic director Joel Maturi attended the commencement with Tinsley's parents, who flew to Minnesota from Jacksonville, Fla., to receive their son's posthumous degree. Several of Tinsley's teammates also attended the ceremony.
No Gophers on ESPN top 25, but McKnight close
Posted by: Phil Miller Updated: August 26, 2011 - 4:28 PM ESPN.com is finishing its countdown of the Big Ten's top 25 players -- the league's Player of the Year only ranks No. 2, with No. 1 still to come -- and for the second straight season, there are no Gophers on the list. (Nor were there any on a similar postseason list last winter, hardly surprising after a 3-9 season.)
It's not an absence that Adam Rittenberg, ESPN.com's terrific Big Ten blogger takes lightly -- it's probably better for readership if all programs are represented -- but the list loses meaning if artificial factors are introduced. This ranking takes into account "past performance and potential impact for the 2011 season," so it's no surprise that Northwestern quarterback Dan Persa is No. 3 and Ohio State center Mike Brewster is No. 4, while Minnesota and Indiana are not represented.
The addition of Nebraska to the Big Ten also crowded out a handful of players. With one more slot to go, there are four players from Wisconsin on the list, topped by James White at No. 7, and three each from Iowa, Ohio State, Michigan State and Michigan.
Had the list numbered 30 or so, though, the Gophers would probably have been represented. "One guy who was close from Minnesota was Da'Jon McKnight, who is a legitimate NFL prospect," Rittenberg said Friday. "He's a guy they will really rely on for offense."
There are a lot of good receivers who didn't make the list, Rittenberg said, including Michigan's Roy Roundtree, Michigan State's B.J. Cunningham, and Indiana's Damarlo Belcher. "Had the list been based mainly on the potential for an NFL career," as it once was, Rittenberg said, "Da'Jon would have been in there for sure."
The weight given to past performance eliminated MarQueis Gray, probably the Gophers' most critical player this season, from the list, since he has never been a starting quarterback in college before. He's an intriguing story to watch, Rittenberg said. "It's a tough transition from wide receiver to quarterback, but he's a guy who at least has the athleticism to rely on," Rittenberg said. "It's going to be an interesting game at USC, because they haven't handled dual[-threat] quarterbacks that well."
Spaeth reflects on John Mackey
Posted by: Phil Miller Updated: July 7, 2011 - 3:23 PMBY CHIP SCOGGINS
Hello everyone. I'm jumping on Phil Miller's blog here to post an item about former Gophers tight end Matt Spaeth, who reflected on the death of Hall of Fame tight end John Mackey.
Spaeth won the Mackey Award in 2006 as college football's top tight end. Spaeth, a free agent who played his first four NFL seasons for the Pittsburgh Steelers, met and spent time with Mackey at the awards ceremony in New York after his senior season with the Gophers.
I talked to Spaeth after his workout at the Gophers football complex on Thursday.
"Man, what an awesome guy and an incredible player," Spaeth said. "I had heard of him but I had never really seen anything on him until I won the award and did some research. I mean, he was just the most incredible player. He was like a man amongst boys. He did everything. He would just run over people. He would run by, around and over everybody."
Here is a story on Mackey's death. Mackey suffered from dementia later in his life and was cared for by his wife Sylvia.
"His wife is just incredible," Spaeth said. "Unfortunately she had to do lot of caretaking with him and different things because of his health. She's just incredible. I've tried to keep in touch a little bit through emails here and there with her. She's an incredible woman."
Stephens elected to College Football Hall of Fame
Posted by: Phil Miller Updated: May 17, 2011 - 3:58 PM
Sandy Stephens
Sandy Stephens, who quarterbacked the Gophers to their only Rose Bowl appearances a half-century ago and became the first black quarterback selected to an All-America team, has been elected to the College Football Hall of Fame.
"They're jumping for joy in Minneapolis, and back in Uniontown," said Judge Dickson, who went to high school in the small southwestern Pennsylvania town with Stephens and was his roommate at Minnesota. "Nobody would have been prouder of it than Sandy, and I'm just ecstatic about it."
Stephens, who died in 2000 at the age of 59, will become the 19th Gopher to be inducted into the South Bend, Ind., museum, and the fourth from Minnesota's 1960 national championship team. That team played in Pasadena on Jan. 2, 1961, losing to Washington 17-7 but fulfilling Stephens' boyhood ambition to play on college football's biggest stage.
"He wanted to be the best quarterback in the country, but when we were kids, we really dreamed more about the Rose Bowl. That was everything to us," Dickson said of Stephens, who guided the Gophers to a return trip -- and a 21-3 victory over UCLA, with Stephens in a starring role -- 12 months later. "The Hall of Fame, though -- I think this one would surprise even Sandy."
Stephens threw for 75 yards and rushed for 46 yards and two touchdowns in that game, his final one as a Gopher, and was named the Player of the Game. He was elected to the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame in 1997.
But Stephens' legacy was about more than excellence on the field. He broke a barrier by becoming the first black quarterback at Minnesota, and one of the first in the Big Ten, and his berth on the All-America team in 1961 made him a national figure. The University of Minnesota, where he passed for 1,475 career yards, rushed for 791 and scored 32 touchdowns, retired Stephens' No. 15 shortly after his death in 2000.
"I remember we used to get comic books with pictures of all the Hall of Fame guys on the back. To be on those comic books was the greatest thing we could imagine. Those were our heroes," said Dickson, who lives in Sanibel, Fla. "Sandy would be so delighted to know he's one of them now."
Stephens is one of 16 players and coaches -- and one of three from the Big Ten, including Michigan State receiver Gene Washington and Ohio State running back Eddie George -- who will be inducted in South Bend on July 16. Also selected for the Class of 2011 was Florida receiver Carlos Alvarez, Michigan coach Lloyd Carr, Air Force coach Fisher DeBerry, Texas defensive tackle Doug English, Oregon State fullback Bill Enyart, Alabama defensive lineman Marty Lyons, Miami defensive tackle Russell Maryland, Florida State cornerback Deion Sanders, Georgia defensive back Jake Scott, Nebraska guard Will Shields, West Virginia linebacker Darryl Talley, Oklahoma halfback Clendon Thomas and Arizona defensive end Rob Waldrop.
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