Brewster expects fierce competitions

The Gophers have started spring football practice, and coach Tim Brewster is predicting big competition for all but three positions on his team.

"Quarterback Adam Weber and [defensive] tackles Eric Small and Garrett Brown are the only three players who I believe are a cinch to be starters when we open the season," Brewster said.

This statement is notable because the Gophers have 10 starters on offense back from last year's team.

"We'll have at least four guys battling for the center position," said Brewster, an indication of the type of competition he expects before the Gophers open the season at Syracuse on Sept. 5.

At the end of the 2008 season, Brewster made it clear that unless the team spent a lot of time in the offseason working on getting stronger and quicker, it would be tough for the team to improve on its 7-6 record of 2008.

Brewster now said he is convinced players have worked hard enough in the weight room that they have gone beyond what he had expected.

And another thing that has impressed Brewster is his players' attitude, and how upset they were about starting out 7-1 last season before losing their last five games.

If they aren't a better football team, they could start out 0-3.

Could have won The fact that the first and second round of the NCAA tournament was held here this year got Flip Saunders thinking back to his days playing for the Gophers. The former Timberwolves coach is confident the Gophers could have won the national championship in 1977 had the team not been on probation.

"That was the year we beat Marquette at Marquette when they won the NCAA title," Saunders said. "In fact, when they won the championship that year, [then-Marquette coach] Al McGuire, after they won the NCAA, said the best team in the country was Minnesota, but they couldn't play because of NCAA violations."

The 1976-77 Gophers beat Marquette 66-59 in Milwaukee, part of a 24-3 season, including 15-3 in the Big Ten under coach Jim Dutcher. The team had three NBA first-round draft choices in Kevin McHale, Ray Williams and Mychal Thompson.

"The starting five, was myself, Williams, Thompson, McHale and Osborne Lockhart, and Dave Winey [off the bench]," Saunders recalled.

Jottings Johnny Blanchard, who died of a heart attack Wednesday morning at age 76, will go down as one of the greatest all-around high school athletes to compete in this area. He attended old Minneapolis Central High School, where he did everything and then went on to a great career with the New York Yankees, where he was a backup catcher to the great Yogi Berra and others. Blanchard's funeral will be at 11 a.m. Monday at St. Mary of the Lake Church in Plymouth.

Jerry Bell, the Twins Sports Inc. president who has been the man in charge of getting Target Field built, said one reason the economy hasn't affected Twins ticket sales is that they got started early in their marketing campaign, before things got really bad. "We collected one-third of the cost of the various types of tickets before we started building the stadium, one-third this year and one-third when the stadium opens," Bell said.

According to Twins pitching coach Rick Anderson, R.A. Dickey, the former Seattle Mariners knuckleball pitcher battling for a spot on the roster, spent time before spring training with Hall of Fame knuckleballer Phil Niekro and Boston Red Sox veteran pitcher Tim Wakefield just trying to figure the pitch out. "His biggest thing, he said coming into this spring, he wants to see if he can't throw more strikes with it," Anderson said. "It's kind of a new pitch for him; he's been throwing it for a couple of years. Boy, he's been throwing it for strikes, he's pitching ahead in the count, and he's doing a nice job for us. It's kind of a fun look to it, and it's something different you can mess hitters up a little bit. But Dickey's been very good for us."

One former Gophers football player who definitely will get an invitation to try out with an NFL team if he isn't drafted is defensive end Willie VanDeSteeg. Vikings coaches have studied film of VanDeSteeg and are impressed with his ability and believe he can play in the NFL.

Ron Johnson, the former Gophers, NFL and Arena Football League player, is a candidate for coaching jobs at Missouri State and Augsburg.

Ex-Gophers defenseman Paul Martin has assists in seven out of his past 10 games, giving him four goals and 25 assists for New Jersey. Included in his streak is an assist in the Devils' 4-0 home victory over the Wild on Friday. Also on the Devils, Twin Cities native Zach Parise is fifth in the NHL in points, with 41 goals and 47 assists for 88 points. ... Phil Kessel has five goals and two assists in his past eight games, giving him 31 goals and 23 assists for Boston this season, while fellow former Gophers forward Blake Wheeler has 18 goals and 22 assists for the Bruins. Wheeler is tied with former North Dakota standout Travis Zajac of the Devils as the NHL leader in plus-minus at plus-36.