Sid Hartman: Hudson has praise for Pirates' Fitch

Todd Fitch, Skip Holtz's offensive coordinator at East Carolina, is in the Twin Cities to interview for the Gophers offensive coordinator job, and it is likely the 40-year-old son of a former football coach will get the job.

Greg Hudson, the former Gopher defensive coordinator who holds the same job at East Carolina, pointed out that Fitch would be a great selection for the Gophers.

"Todd is a throwback with a very creative mind," Hudson said. "I mean, here's a guy that's worked for Earle Bruce and is one of his best friends, well heck the best man at his wedding was [Florida coach] Urban Meyer. He worked for Lou Holtz at South Carolina and Dan McCarney at Iowa State. He's a darn good football coach. I've learned a lot from him."

The Pirates went 9-5 last season, including high-profile victories over Virginia Tech and West Virginia to start the season. On offense, they averaged 340.4 yards and 23.4 points per game, with Fitch responsible for calling plays. In his first season at East Carolina in 2007, the team broke school single-season records for points (403) and touchdowns (52).

Hudson, who came to the Pirates from the Gophers in 2006, previously coached together with Holtz and Fitch at Connecticut in the 1990s.

Hudson said that Fitch also was an outstanding recruiter.

"I think [Tim Brewster] was looking for a guy that was able to still have a spread offense but could still line up and have a Big Ten power football mentality, and that's what we did," Hudson said.

"We got him the ball," Hudson said. "You look at [Titans rookie running back] Chris Johnson, we got him to be a first-rounder. Todd did all that with the offense."

Young team The Timberwolves have taken off this month despite a young starting lineup in which no player is older than 26. Three starters came to the team in the Kevin Garnett trade -- Ryan Gomes (26), Al Jefferson (24) and Sebastian Telfair (23). They are joined in the starting lineup by 2006 draft choices Randy Foye (25) and Craig Smith (25). Two other younger players have been getting a lot of playing time in Rodney Carney (24) and rookie Kevin Love (20).

So when owner Glen Taylor said he wanted to build for the future with the current players and the number of draft choices they have coming, now that the club has started to win a little bit, it looks like it really is building a solid foundation.

The Wolves have received a lot of criticism for trading Brandon Roy to Portland for Foye on draft night in 2006. Roy was Rookie of the Year in 2007 and an All-Star last season, but Foye certainly has held his own of late, making several clutch shots in the fourth quarter for the Wolves. He is averaging 21.1 points in the Wolves' 6-1 January start, while shooting 49 percent from the floor.

"I'm just being really aggressive and playing off my teammates," Foye said. "I've got to give a lot of credit to my teammates, because they give me a lot of open shots. The main thing is just being aggressive out there."

"I hadn't shot this well, but that's just putting in all the extra work before and after practice," he said. "That's the type of results you get when you work hard."

The biggest thing is that Foye is healthy after playing in only 39 games last season.

"Last year, I had my injury with my knee, but I came back pretty strong last year, and this year I'm healthy," he said.

Jottings In a radio interview this past week on KFAN (1130-AM), Wild owner Craig Leipold said team president Doug Risebrough had a hard time persuading coach Jacques Lemaire to come back this season. I wonder whether Lemaire, the only coach in Wild history, will come back for the 2009-10 season.

Gophers receiver Eric Decker never seriously considered leaving school and entering the NFL draft this spring. He has participated in individual Gophers baseball practice that has started.

Former Gophers forward Dan Coleman is having a great season playing basketball for AD Vagos out of Portugal. Coleman is averaging 20.3 points, 8.1 rebounds, 2.2 steals, and 1.5 blocks in 38.1 minutes per game and is the team leader in every one of those categories. In his most recent game, Coleman led his team to a 82-69 victory over Barreirense with 33 points, 10 rebounds, three steals and two blocks in 40 minutes. ... Quincy Lewis is averaging 6.2 points, 3.0 rebounds and 15.2 minutes per game for Iurbentia Bilbao out of Spain.

Ex-Gophers defenseman Alex Goligoski is the leading scorer among rookie defensemen with six goals and 13 assists in 42 games for the Pittsburgh Penguins. ... Ryan Potulny had three assists in four games with the Edmonton Oilers after being recalled from Springfield, where he was the American Hockey League team's leading scorer with 17 goals and 14 assists in 36 games. ... Kris Chucko is the third-leading scorer with 13 goals and 16 assists in 35 games for Quad City of the AHL. ... Gino Guyer has six goals and 10 assists in 32 games for Phoenix of the East Coast Hockey League, and Andy Sertich has three goals and 12 assists in 35 games for Utah in the same league.

Former Gophers running back Gary Russell has continued to play a key role for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the playoffs as a short-yardage and goal-line back. Russell rushed only 28 times for 77 yards in the regular season but he did record three touchdowns. And in his second career playoff game, against the San Diego Chargers last weekend, Russell continued that trend, getting only four carries for 5 yards but scoring a touchdown on a 1-yard run. Russell is also being used on special teams as a kick returner and had two returns for 33 yards. ... Former Gophers tight end Matt Spaeth had 17 receptions for 136 yards in the regular season for the Steelers. ... Apple Valley native and Notre Dame graduate Trevor Laws recorded one tackle in the Eagles' 23-11 victory over the Giants. Laws had 12 tackles in his rookie season playing as a backup defensive tackle.