MinnesotaSportsScene.com

Well, Tubby Smith can now relax and not worry so much about that term life insurance quote rate; he’s pulled off what previous coach Dan Monson never managed during his tender and that’s getting the top two Minnesota recruits in the state to stay at home and play for the Gophers.

Rodney Williams Jr. finally gave Minnesota and Coach Tubby his oral commitment recently, joining his lifelong pal Royce White in the maroon and gold as part of the 2009 recruiting class. Williams Jr. and White are both Top 50 recruits according to most scouting services, and while White is clearly the better of the two, having them both is a huge recruiting coup by Tubby and his staff.

Williams and White are joined in the 2009 recruiting class by California pure point guard Justin Cobbs, and with Williams on board, Coach Smith may lay low on his 2009 recruiting class until spring, when most of his top power forward targets are expected to make their decisions. One possible target is Trevor Mbakwe, currently attending Miami Dade Community College; he’s a big man that could certainly help the Gophers, especially if they start losing some of Tubby’s recruits to early NBA Draft entries. That is a risk with current freshmen recruits in the class of 2008, like Colton Iverson, Paul Carter and Ralph Sampson III.

Even before the Gophers add a power forward, though, the commits from this trio should be enough to get Tubby a top-20 recruiting class ranking once again.

With success coming mostly on the ground and a powerful 1-2 punch at running back, most people from Minnesota would expect a game description like that to apply to a Vikings victory; but instead, it was the textbook description of how the Tennessee Titans dismantled the Vikes 30-17 on Sunday.

In a daytime game with no need for Maxim lighting, Titans RB Chris Johnson had two scores and his running back partner LedDale White had an additional score on the way to a dominating victory over the purple-and-gold.

Meanwhile, Adrian Peterson scored twice but could not create a win on his own for the Vikings, who are now 1-3 on the season and 0-1 in the NFC North Division.

Tragedy struck close to home for Gophers men’s basketball coach Tubby Smith on Sunday; his nephew, William Smith, 19, a Becker College student in Scotland, MD, was stabbed once in the chest following a fight at an off-campus apartment. He died shortly thereafter.

“We lost a special young man last night,” Tubby Smith said in a statement released by Minnesota. “The grieving process will take some time for my brother and his family, but I know that they appreciate and will need all the support.”

An autopsy was scheduled for today (Monday) and the results have not yet been announced; the murder weapon was recovered at the scene and no arrests have been made yet, though Maryland police are believed to be hard at work on the case.

This is never the kind of news that’s fun to report; our prayers go to all of the Smith family during their tragic loss. Hopefully this blog can soon return to it’s usual sports frivolity and occasional wacky off-topic references to things like sweet potato pie.

California point guard Justin Cobbs committed to the Minnesota Gophers on Sunday, delivering coach Tubby Smith the first pure point guard of his stint in Minnesota. Cobbs is considered a three-star prospect by most experts, but has been highly recruited and made his decision while visiting the campus at the same time as another prime Gophers target, Rodney Williams Jr., a forward who ranks Top 50 nationally but hasn’t announced his decision yet.

Cobbs joins a 2009 recruiting class that already includes a Top 20 talent, Royce White, who committed last spring to the Gophers. If Tubby can land Williams Jr. and add a decent big man, he’ll be well on his way to having one of the top recruiting classes nationally, and maybe the top class in the Big 10, for a second year in a row, which would be a Gophers feat worth its weight in unlocked cell phones.

Well, the Minnesota Vikings finally came up with their first win of the season, but it took until game three, and a QB change, to secure it. The win game against the acne treatments-needing, so-called “Cardiac Cats,” the Carolina Panthers, who the Vikes have done very well against over the years since Carolina entered the league.

The 20-10 victory may not seem like a lot to write home about, but at least it wasn’t a loss. MinnesotaSportsScene.com was among the first to question whether T-Jack had the drive to be a starting QB, and the answer, finally, seems to be, “Nope.” We don’t revel in being right, this time.

Still, when a 37-year-old journeyman signal caller like Gus Frerotte can outperform you, something’s wrong. And that’s what happened Sunday as Frerotte led Minnesota to a long-awaited first win of the season.

Star RB Adrian Peterson carried only 17 times for 77 yards, but it was enough to help the passing game while Peterson doesn’t overwork his ailing hammy. The important thing, again, is it was a win.

On Monday night, I took in the Vikings-Packers game at Joe Senser’s Sports Pub in Bloomington, and the atmosphere was nearly perfect, except for a number of obnoxious Packers fans who couldn’t win gracefully. There were plenty of promotional products available for the game, and my only real complaint is the waitress who didn’t want to give us the Monday Night Football special at 6:30 PM, even though the game was already underway.

As for the game itself, it was nice to see the Viking keep it close on a road game, during the first game of the season, but there were several worrisome signs. Most importantly was the one-dimensional nature of the offense.

OK, we all know T-Jack is playing hobbled; but if he can’t throw at all right now, sit him down until he heals and let our backups do the job for a game or two. What I saw was a quarterback who was hurried (thanks to O-line deficiencies), and started throwing dumb passes.

Also, we went away from the running game too soon in the second half and, considering that it’s the only facet of our offense that works right now, that worries me. It’s a bit too early in the season to start calling for the heads of T-Jack and B-Chill on a platter, but this is a team that could easily start 0-2 now, and that would be a shot in the tender bits for the rest of the season.

Either T-Jack needs to find his rhythm and get on track, or he needs to sit until he’s healed enough to play well. And if Brad Childress finishes this season still winless against the Pack, you can bet MinnesotaSportsScene.com will be leading the call for a new head coach. Three seasons of pointlessness is more than enough - if that’s what this becomes.

Even the best diet pill in the world won’t be enough to keep the purple and gold at bay tonight in Green Bay; with the early season match-up, there really is no weather advantage for the Packers tonight.

So unless there’s a huge windstorm or rain or something, tonight will be a match-up of talent, pure and simple. While Green Bay may have an edge on linebackers and receivers, it’s hard to imagine the Vikings not having the edge at every other position, or close to it.

All X-factors being equal, I’d say tonight the Vikings will win, but it’ll be close. Look for it to be in the neighborhood of a 31-27 Vikings win.

I’m itching for the start of the Vikings-Packers game tonight and one of the biggest questions on my mind is whether Adrian Peterson can be great again this year. Certainly, despite missing four games last season, he has already established himself as possibly one of the best runners ever to wear the purple and gold.

The question is, can he avoid the sophomore slump? Can he improve on what he did last season? With the healing that’s gone on in his knee in the off-season, I’d venture to say it’s possible, even plausible. Only time will tell and kickoff’s in about 12 hours. No time left for those Caribbean cruises. It’s football time, baby!

Cancel the reservations for Las Vegas hotels, the party this Monday Night is on the gridiron! The Minnesota Vikings will open their season tonight against the Green Bay Packers, and for the first time in 16 seasons, the Pack will be without Brett Favre under center.

Since the Vikings have a refurbished pass rush threat with NFL sack leader Jared Allen on the same D-line as the Williams Wall, the purple certainly aren’t going to make the debut of Favre’s successor, Aaron Rodgers, an easy night.

Right now, Tavaris Jackson has more game experience and more wins on his belt that Rodgers as a pro, and with Adrian Peterson in the backfield for the Vikes, and Bernard Berrian competently catching passes, it’s our hope that tonight’s game will be a blow-out favoring the purple.

Of course, historically the series has usually been close; but we’re entering a new era, and on paper, the Vikes look solid for the win. Of course, the X-Factor in all of this is the Green Bay defense, which tried to end Adrian Peterson’s career last season and will likely be cheap-shot artists again tonight, which is why we chose our nickname for them: Murderer’s Row.

Somehow, though, I have a feeling the Green Bay Assassins will miss their target tonight.

With won-loss results as reliable as mortgage quotes last season, after we won a close game against Northern Illinois last week, I wasn’t sure we’d see another Gophers win this season. However, the Gophers somehow remembered they play in the Big Ten Conference and posted a more convincing 25-point victory over Bowling Green this weekend.

Thank goodness.

Adam Weber proved he’s a legit starter by completing 21 of 25 passes for 233 yards and three scores; he was not intercepted. The game stands as one of the most accurate single-game performances in Gophers history.

Running back Duane Bennett had a great start in the game, gaining 92 yards on the ground and 142 all-purpose yards before being injured in the third quarter on Saturday. Scheduled for an MRI, Bennett’s knee injury could keep him out the rest of the year, which could damage the hopes of this team to keep from repeating last year’s dismal failure of a season.

However, Shady Salamon and DeLeon Eskridge stand ready to fill in, and personally I think Salamon stands the best chance to break through in relief of Bennett. Time will tell.

Former Minnesota Vikings quarterback typed up his own retirement announcement and withdrew from his NFL career on Thursday, mere hours before the new season kicked off with a Thursday night game. As has been typical of his career since just before leaving Minnesota, Culpepper blamed everyone but himself.

“It seems that the stance I took in both Minnesota and Miami regarding my rights as a person and player has followed me into free agency,” Culpepper said. ” … Since I was not given a fair chance to come in and compete for a job, I would rather move on and win in other arenas of life.”

There were juicy backup jobs Culpepper could have had in either Green Bay or Pittsburgh, had he been willing to accept league minimum and a backup role; but because he chose to act as his own agent, he had no one to advise him to take the spot and rebuild his career.

Instead, Culpepper’s days in the NFL end at the age of 31, with him never really proving himself following the career split with the Vikings and Randy Moss. Time for the disposable diapers to be put in storage at NFLPA HQ.

Canadian guard Devoe Joseph, a young athlete just now leaving the pimple cream crowd, was cleared by the NCAA to enter the University of Minnesota and be eligible to play D1 basketball for Tubby Smith’s Gophers last week. While Smith put together a Top 15 recruiting class and all of them are important, it is Joseph who might make the difference between another 20-win season and NIT appearance, or a 20-plus-win season and an NCAA bid.

“Talking to Devoe, he’s going to be starting,” Smith told TwinCities.com. “But that’s the attitude I love about him. He’s got the kind of mentality.”

With sophomore guard Al Nolan Jr. at point and Joseph as the two-guard, Minnesota may now have a back-court that can enable its sizable front court to match up well and create more victories than the team achieve prior to Tubby Smith’s arrival.