Hartman: Zimmer's first year bodes well for 2015

The 2015 season will be of great importance for the Vikings as they prepare to open a new stadium in 2016. They want to have renewed fan interest in a team that hasn't made the playoffs the past two seasons and hasn't won a playoff game since 2009. Luckily, all signs indicate that next year's team should be greatly improved and ready to push for the playoffs.

The fact that coach Mike Zimmer has the team at 6-8 overall with a chance to make it 8-8 is a minor miracle considering all the issues the team has faced this year. They lost 2012 NFL MVP Adrian Peterson following his indictment in a child injury case one game into the season and quarterback Matt Cassel to a broken foot in Week 3, and they have missed several games from offensive linemen Charlie Johnson, Brandon Fusco and Phil Loadholt, tight end Kyle Rudolph, and linebackers Chad Greenway and Anthony Barr, an NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year candidate who will miss the rest of the season.

A year ago with Peterson healthy for 14 games, the Vikings ran for 2,081 yards, an average of 130.1 per game and 4.9 per carry. This season, with Jerick McKinnon, Matt Asiata, Ben Tate and Joe Banyard filling in for Peterson, the Vikings are on pace for 1,787 rushing yards, averaging only 111.7 per game and 4.4 per carry.

Add to that the fact that the Vikings had to rush rookie Teddy Bridgewater into the starting quarterback role it's a real accomplishment that they have stayed so competitive this season.

That's not to mention that if the Vikings had won their games at Buffalo and Detroit, games they should have won, they would be at 8-6 right now.

Next year, they will likely get Peterson back and have the benefit of working for a second year under Zimmer and his staff, as well as playing a second season outdoors at TCF Bank Stadium.

Another big plus is that the Vikings finally seem to have found their starting quarterback after numerous attempts following the departure of Brett Favre.

Bridgewater has also had a complete season to get comfortable with receivers such as Charles Johnson and Jarius Wright, as well as Rudolph, who has again battled injuries but has looked like a Pro Bowl tight end when he can play.

Others players such as Joe Berger, Vladimir Ducasse, Chase Ford and Mike Harris have benefited from playing time because of injuries, and that depth should be beneficial as well.

The key impetus for the Vikings ownership in hiring Zimmer was that he could help turn around a defensive unit that was miserable in 2013, giving up 397.6 yards per game, the second-worst mark in the NFL that season.

Well, that turnaround has already happened. Zimmer has the Vikings defense at No. 11 in the NFL at 339.9 yards per game, and 12th in the league at 21.2 points per game.

There's no question that Zimmer's ability to mold a defensive unit will only improve when the team gets to work with him for a second season. His ability has already shown in the development of 2013 first-round draft choice Xavier Rhodes into a top cornerback, as well as 2010 fourth-round pick Everson Griffen, who appears to be on his way to a Pro Bowl as a defensive end.

With the hiring of Zimmer, the drafting of players such as Bridgewater and Barr, the continued improvement of their young defense, along with the potential return of an MVP running back, it surely looks like they will have that winning product next season.

Missouri receiver Jimmie Hunt will miss the Citrus Bowl, and that's a big missing piece of the Tigers' offense.

Hunt was Missouri's best player against Alabama in the SEC Championship Game, when he had a career-high 169 receiving yards. But he decided to have surgery to repair a labrum in his left shoulder and will sit out against the Gophers.

Hunt is the Tigers' second-leading receiver this year with 698 yards and seven touchdowns. It sounds like they will move freshman Nate Brown into Hunt's spot.

Another big absence for Missouri is defensive coordinator Dave Steckel, who will not be on the sideline as he has taken the coaching job at Missouri State.

• Gophers football coach Jerry Kill reports that highly recruited Minneapolis Washburn running back Jeff Jones is in school and eligible for spring practice next season. Jones, who was the top-ranked player in the state by Rivals.com for the Class of 2014 and the seventh-ranked running back in the nation, rushed for 1,525 yards and 34 touchdowns last year for Washburn.

• Eight years ago, the University of Minnesota started the Gopher Graduation Program in which the school offers a chance for athletes who leave school to play pro sports or for other reasons to return and earn a degree. A total of 34 athletes have come back to school to get their degrees, and one of the latest is 74-year-old former All-America football player Bobby Bell, who even got an A-plus in one of the courses he took. Among others who have taken advantage of the program are basketball players Willie Burton, Trent Tucker, Sam Jacobson and Randy Carter and hockey player Ben Clymer.
• Gophers fans might outnumber Missouri fans at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, with a chance of more than 10,000 Gophers supporters attending, thanks to a big Florida delegation from Naples and Fort Myers, where a great number of Minnesota natives spend the winter. … Byron Helgeson, a member of the Florida Citrus Sports group that runs the Citrus Bowl and pushed for the Gophers to be invited, graduated from Gustavus Adolphus. … The Gophers are expected to take 103 players to the game.