Sid Hartman: Farwell rebounds on special teams

If you stand close to the locker of Heath Farwell, you will see a letter posted on the wall sent to the Vikings special teams captain encouraging him not to give up last year after he had suffered a serious knee injury in a preseason game against Seattle, forcing him to miss the season.

Farwell said the message, "a setback paves the way for a comeback," inspired him during a tough time in his career.

"This was sent to me by a coach, an old coach at the University of Pennsylvania," Farwell said. "I never met the guy, he just sent it to me and I guess he had coached there for 50 years or something. ... He had seen the game and, like I said, thought he would send that to me. I thought it was pretty cool that it was right after I got hurt. So it's something that I've left up there."

One reason the Vikings are 11-2 is that Farwell, no doubt one of the best special teams players in the NFL, is healthy after spending all last year rehabilitating a knee injury that some people thought would end his career.

"I feel healthy, I feel back the way I was two years ago before the injury," said Farwell, who was selected by his teammates as special teams player of the year in 2006 and '07. "We're playing well on special teams, so it's a lot of guys playing well. It's a good group we have.

"It was rough watching last year, just not being able to play on Sundays, that's what we live for, that's what we do. But as far as getting back in the swing of things, I use the whole preseason to kind of measure myself and kind of get back in the swing of things."

The Vikings have a new special teams coach this year in Brian Murphy, who succeeded Paul Ferraro, who went to work for the St. Louis Rams.

Well, if you're watching the game on TV today, look for number 59. Rest assured, Farwell will be doing a great job on special teams.

Childress lauds Favre Speaking about Brett Favre to the Carolina Panthers media, Vikings coach Brad Childress said: "I knew about his physical skills and how he played the game, but you have no idea until you work with somebody what kind of time they spend at their trade. It might be late hours or after everybody is gone or back here on Saturday when nobody is here, he spends a lot of time here."

Carolina rookie cornerback Captain Munnerlyn, who was three years old when Favre was a rookie in the NFL and now lists Favre as his favorite players, says: "He throws the ball so hard -- the swing route, the curl route, he's putting it in there. You'd better be practicing on that JUGS machine if you think you are going to catch an interception or he is going to break your finger."

Panthers running back DeAngelo Williams ranks third in the NFL with 1,104 yards, but even so, the Panthers are looking for their second 30-point game this year after having nine last year. The Panthers offense has rung up only 49 points in the past four games.

The Panthers put their 10th player on injured reserve when tackle Jeff Otah was hurt. Earlier this season, they lost Pro Bowl tackle Jordan Gross, who fractured his leg. Carolina has had a record number of injuries and on Sunday vs. the Vikings they will start two seventh-round draft choices: left guard Mackenzy Bernadeau and right tackle Geoff Schwartz.

The Gophers got verbal commitments from two top recruits: Devon Wright, a running back from Coral Springs, Fla., and Brock Vereen, a cornerback from Valencia, Calif. Wright rushed for 1,835 yards the past season, scored 18 touchdowns and wound up as the leading rusher in all of Broward County, where some of the best high school football is played. In the Big Ten, Purdue, Michigan, Michigan State and Wisconsin had interest in Wright. The Gophers believe that recent junior college signees Tiree Eure and Christyne Lewis, who will enroll in January, can play right away. Eure, a tight end, caught 22 passes for 268 yards and two touchdowns the past season. Lewis, a defensive back, had 43 tackles and four interceptions last season.

The San Diego Union Tribune newspaper did a study this week on the number of tickets the Gophers and other colleges had to buy to qualify for a certain bowl game. For the Insight Bowl last year, the Gophers and the Big Ten had to buy 10,500 tickets, but could only sell 1,512, leading to a loss of $434,340. Ohio State and the conference had to buy 17,500 tickets for the Fiesta Bowl, but sold only 9,983 for a loss of some $1 million. However, the Big Ten has a plan where they reimburse the schools.

Phil Steele, a respected football writer who has a blog, reports that the Gophers had the 11th-toughest schedule this past season. It was the toughest in the Big Ten, with Illinois next at No. 20. Iowa State, the Gophers' opponent in the Insight Bowl, had the 73rd-toughest schedule.

Eric Curry, vice president of corporate partnerships for the Twins who is also a Big Ten basketball official, said the Twins will have 631 television sets in the new stadium, with Best Buy coming up with a new system where different advertisements and messages can be put on different television sets at the same time. The Gophers have 150 TVs, but the system the Twins will be using wasn't available.

Steve Stripling, who was with the Gophers football staff at one time and then worked on the Michigan State and Michigan staffs, is now the interim coach at Central Michigan. Former CMU coach Butch Jones was named coach at Cincinnati after Brian Kelly left the undefeated Bearcats for Notre Dame.