Sid Hartman: U caught off guard by Iowa's passing attack

Gophers football coach Tim Brewster opened his postgame remarks Saturday night after the 55-0 loss to Iowa by apologizing to the Minnesota fans for the lackluster performance as the team suffered its worst loss to the Hawkeyes in program history.

Here was a Gophers team that was 7-1 at one time and then lost five in a row, including its worst performance of the year Saturday night.

Here was a Gophers team that went 1-11 a year ago and lost to this same Iowa team 21-16 at Iowa City, a game in which it stayed competitive all the way.

It was apparent that Iowa improved a lot more over the year than the Gophers did, despite the Gophers' great recruiting class and the experience the returning players and coaches learned from last year.

The mystery is that Iowa at home last week struggled with an anemic Purdue team that the Gophers beat this year at West Lafayette. The Hawkeyes won 22-17 with the Boilermakers missing on a chance at the end.

Against the Boilermakers, the Hawkeyes rushed for 248 yards and passed for only 72. Against the Gophers, Iowa rushed for 222 yards but also was successful passing, with Ricky Stanzi completing 15 of 28 passes for 255 yards and three touchdowns.

It was obvious the Hawkeyes expected the Gophers to concentrate defensively on stopping running back Shonn Greene, decided to go the air, and took advantage of the Gophers' horrible pass defense.

Adam Weber had very little protection from an offensive line that was outweighed by 25 pounds a man. He completed 14 of 28 passes for 127 yards, and Eric Decker had only two catches for 33 yards.

"We didn't do anything to stop them, and so they're going to continue making plays, making runs, making catches and making big plays on defense," Weber said. "As an offense, we don't go down and score and help our defense out. We go three and out, three and out and three and out. It's a bad formula if you're trying to win games. Obviously, we didn't do our part as an offense.

"... That's just a testament on how football is a game of momentum and attitude. Without the right attitude, bad things will happen. The difference between 3-9 and 9-3 is a blink of an eye. It was a frustrating game."

Now it looks as if the Gophers are headed for the Motor City Bowl.

Look around the NFL, and you see a number of older quarterbacks having success: Kerry Collins at Tennessee, Jeff Garcia with Tampa Bay, Chad Pennington with Miami and, of course, Brett Favre with the New York Jets. There are other older quarterbacks who are backups.

The Vikings aren't doing so bad with their veteran starter Gus Frerotte, an established quarterback who has had some success in the NFL. Sure, he is 37 years old, but the Vikings offense has been sufficient since he took over in Week 3 for Tarvaris Jackson. Frerotte has performed as good as or better than some of the older starting quarterbacks.

And the word is that unless some outstanding underclassmen quarterbacks leave college after this year, there will not be a good crop of quarterbacks available in the 2009 NFL draft.

The Vikings have started six quarterbacks since Daunte Culpepper last played for the Vikings in 2005: Brad Johnson, Tarvaris Jackson, Kelly Holcomb, Brooks Bollinger and Frerotte. Certainly, the Vikings have failed to establish anyone at the position since Culpepper's departure. But Frerotte has done OK, given the circumstances.

One person not surprised to see Marc Trestman coach the Montreal Alouettes into today's Canadian Football League championship tonight is Bud Grant, who hired the former St. Louis Park and Gophers athlete as Vikings running back coach in 1985, when Trestman was only 29 years old.

Trestman has been an offensive assistant coach with various NFL and college teams since then, landing in Montreal and turning around a team that went 8-10 last year. Montreal (11-7) plays host to Calgary (13-5) for the Grey Cup tonight.

Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor and eight members of his family recently returned from India, along with Bill and Tani Austin, owners of the Starkey Laboratories in Eden Prairie, after having distributed more than 3,500 sets of hearing aids to those in need. Taylor spent $200,000 for the hearing aids and did other things for the needy in India, while the Austins made great contributions, too.

The Twins will wear throwback uniforms from 1982, their first season in the Metrodome, on Saturdays next season at home. First baseman Justin Morneau and pitcher Glen Perkins will model the uniforms at noon Monday at the IDS Center.

Vikings quarterback coach Kevin Rogers was asked about the status of Jackson, who has played very little since getting benched for Frerotte. "He's continuing to work," Rogers said. "We give him all the scout team reps. He takes just about every one of them. And, if we need to give Gus a rest during the week we give Tarvaris a couple snaps also. I think it's important for him to stay into it. He needs to continue to focus on what he's doing, because at any moment he could be in there in one play."

Sure, most NFL teams have injuries. But in the Vikings' case, they might have been hurt a little more than others in that they have lost two of their three 2007 team most valuable players in special teams MVP Heath Farwell and defensive MVP E.J. Henderson. The 2007 offensive MVP was running back Adrian Peterson.

The Gophers football team has one break in the 2009 schedule in that it won't play Wisconsin and Iowa on successive weeks as it did this year. The Gophers' first conference home game will be against Wisconsin on Oct. 3, and they close the season at Iowa. After missing Michigan State and Penn State this year, the Gophers figure to have a tougher conference schedule next year, gaining those two schools while losing Michigan and Indiana.

Former Minnesota State Mankato forward Jon Kalinski made his NHL debut on Friday for the Philadelphia Flyers, playing 6 minutes, 37 seconds in a 3-0 victory at Buffalo. Kalinski, 21, signed with the Flyers last spring after three years with the Mavericks. He is the sixth former Mavericks player to play in the NHL.

Former Dawson-Boyd standout Jeff Nordgaard, who has played professional basketball for 13 years in Europe after a college career at Wisconsin-Green Bay, has been named the player/coach of his current team in Poland, AZS Koszalin. ... Two former MIAC basketball players -- Trevor Wittwer of Gustavus Adolphus and Tom Conboy of Macalester -- are teammates on TV Werne, a German professional team.

Former Augustana receiver Tommy Ellingworth, who is from Redwood Falls, Minn., has signed a contract with Iowa of the Arena Football League.

Sid Hartman can be heard weekdays on WCCO AM-830 at 6:40, 7:40 and 8:40 a.m. and on his Podcast once a week at www.startribune.com/sidcast. shartman@startribune.com