Sid Hartman: Gophers' latest loss turned on three plays

Monte Kiffin, the Southern California defensive coordinator and father of head coach Lane Kiffin, said he believes the Gophers will beat a good team after he watched the Trojans handle the Gophers on Saturday, winning 32-21.

Monte Kiffin, who spent four years each on the Vikings coaching staffs of Jerry Burns and Dennis Green, had lot of respect for the Gophers offense, especially quarterback Adam Weber, who impressed him with his throwing and ability to run. "They gave us a good number of problems," Kiffin said.

If you want to be positive, you have to conclude that the Gophers made tremendous improvement over their lackadaisical performance last week in losing to South Dakota.

But being a very young team, they are going to have to play near-perfect football if they are to defeat teams of the caliber of Southern California.

Three very negative plays stood out in the loss to the Trojans, who are 69-27-2 all-time against Big Ten teams.

There was a poor out-of-bounds kickoff where the Trojans got possession of the ball on the 40-yard line and marched in for a tying score in the first quarter.

After the Gophers had taken a 14-13 lead in the third quarter, Robert Woods returned the ensuing kickoff 97 yards virtually untouched.

The Trojans had their misplays, too, and were penalized seven times for 71 yards.

Gophers coach Tim Brewster agreed that the kickoff return for a touchdown was the turning point.

"Obviously, the most critical part of the game was we scored a touchdown and go up, we've got this place really on fire, and we give up the kickoff return," he said. "We certainly didn't execute the kickoff as well as we needed to. We didn't allow our coverage to get down the field and get into a position to make a play. We've just got to do a better job in that situation.

"But I thought four or five plays were defining plays in the game, and we didn't get it done on those plays. But again we did a lot of good things. I thought we improved greatly."

Well, at least the result of the game drowned some of the harsh criticism after the South Dakota loss, and if this team continues to improve it will win some games, something a lot of the critics didn't think after last week.

"Whether we were 1-0 or 0-1 coming out of this game, we still have to get ready for a very good Miami team coming in here," Hutchinson said. "Obviously, you want to win every game you play. As we found out last year, just one or two more wins, or maybe one win, could have got us home-field advantage in the playoffs last year.

"Not saying that I'm talking about playoffs already this year, but those are the kind of games where, when they're close at the end, you have to find a way to win, because they'll end up meaning something towards the end of the season."

Hutchinson, who played with a bum shoulder all last season and had surgery during the offseason, says he is a much more effective player this year.

"Yeah it's kind of nice having two arms," he said.

Hutchinson says the team is going to have to find players to replace running back Chester Taylor, who was a great contributor but signed as a free agent with the Bears.

Hutchinson said the same thing concerns replacing wide receiver Sidney Rice, out with a hip injury. "Sidney was a great player for us last year, had a great year, a number of yards, and Brett [Favre] and him were on the same page most of the year, and you just have to find somebody to do that."

Jottings Former Gophers football coach Murray Warmath, who is 97, attended both the 1960 national champion football team's reunion on Friday night and the football game on Saturday.

Regarding Seantrel Henderson, the great Cretin-Derham Hall offensive lineman who signed with Southern California and then changed his mind, Monte Kiffin said he would have been released from his commitment over sanctions by the NCAA.

What a great moment it must have been for Lane Kiffin to be on the sidelines of TCF Bank Stadium. Lane Kiffin attended Bloomington Jefferson and played only his senior year and led his team to an 8-3 record. He almost went to Minnesota as a player and interviewed for Brewster's job.

New USC athletic director Pat Hayden, after taking a tour of TCF Bank Stadium, marveled at the great job the U has done in building what he thought was one of the best new stadiums in the country.

Two top basketball players -- Naadir Tharpe of Massachusetts, who is the 20th-ranked point guard, and Josh Oglesby of Iowa, the 36th-ranked shooting guard -- visited the U, with basketball coach Tubby Smith hoping he can get commitments from both.

Mike Lynn, former Vikings general manager, continues to draw about $500,000 a year from the Viking as a part of a contract he signed with the club when he came up with the idea of the executive boxes in the Metrodome.

Ex-Gophers Alex Daniels and Tremaine Brock, both of whom left early because of personal problems, were signed by the Raiders and 49ers, respectively. Both were released. ... One of the sleepers in the Twins farm system is Oswaldo Arcia. He finished the season hitting .375 for Elizabethton in the rookie league. He drove in 51 runs and hit 14 home runs in 61 games.