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With a lull in the last fall sport left, swimming, and none of the traditional winter sports having kicked in to gear yet here at Chisago Lakes and North Branch, I thought I'd take some of this space to address the state of some of the professional sports teams in our great state.

In the middle of both the Gophers and Vikings football season and the early stages of the Timberwolves and Wild seasons, it's as good a time as ever to scope out some of the current problems most of our teams face, and some future solutions.

Hopefully. We all know being a Minnesota sports fan is not an easy task. Especially for us young ones. The last meaningful title in major sports for Minnesota was the Twins in 1991. Great for the nostalgic effect, but I was five years old when that happened. I couldn't have told you the difference between a baseball mitt and football helmet at that time.

The Gophers have sprinkled in a few NCAA hockey and wrestling championships, but outside of Minnesota, Maine, Colorado, Wisconsin and North Dakota, who really cares about that NCAA hockey trophy? I know those fans in New York or Los Angeles aren't jones-ing for an NCAA hockey title.

After sitting in the stands and witnessing a disappearing act in person, I was dumbfounded and amazed at the same time.

I wasn't at David Copperfield's big show or a new Sigfried and Roy special. I was at a Minnesota Golden Gophers football game.

Adam Weber and Co. fumbled and stumbled their way to 188 total yards against the previously punchless Michigan Wolverines. This isn't the maize-and-blue teams of old either. If you watched them game, you heard over and over that the Wolverines were in a transition period in their program.

Yea, they were transitioning from beating us by 40 to beating us by only 23.

One of the most mind-numbing facts about the game is that this was supposed to be the Gophers statement game. They had a staggering number of recruits attending the game to see the maroon-and-gold storm over to Michigan's sideline after the game and claim the two teams' annual trophy, the Little Brown Jug.

Thirteen recruits showed up to the Metrodome and were treated to a complete and utter domination by the Wolverines. In fact, one of the top recruits in the stands, wide receiver Bryce McNeal from Breck, had recently de-committed from Michigan in part because he liked what he saw from Minnesota early in the season when the raced out to a 7-1 start.

I bet he is regretting that decision right now.

Now I know that recruiting is about the big picture. Just because the Gophers had a bad game, it doesn't mean that the 13 visits were a complete loss.

Head Coach Tim Brewster has the brand new TCF Bank Stadium to flaunt to would-be Gophers, as well as a spread option offense that has been slow to catch on in the Big Ten, but is attractive to playmakers.

They also have a young, talented quarterback (regardless of what he showed against Michigan) in Weber. The 2006 Mounds View graduate has been starting at the highest level possible for six of the past seven years.

He took over the reins in high school as a freshman and never relinquished them throughout his career. After redshirting his first year on the U of M campus, he took over for the Gophers and has been improving ever since.

I had the privilege of playing against Weber in high school football, and can say that he was undoubtedly the best quarterback I faced in my high school career. And he was a sophomore at that point.

They also have one of the best receivers in the nation in Rocori's own Eric Decker, as well as a young defense that only gets better each time out.

Still, the ultimate factor for recruits has to be the product put on the field. Elite-level players simply don't want to come to a school to lose. And the Gophers did just that on Saturday. Embarrassingly.

To my surprise, the Gophers did receive two commitments from the group of 13, the biggest, literally and figuratively, was Minneapolis Washburn's Ra'Shede Hageman. Hageman is a six-foot, six-inch, 255 pound athletic tight end/defensive end. He was being recruited by nearly every major school in the Big Ten, including the Mecca of Midwest football, Ohio State.

The other recruit was three-star defensive end Matt Garin from Eastview Senior High in Apple Valley.

The two in-state recruits do signal a changing of the guard for Brewster and the Gophers.

For years, Head Coach Glen Mason was praised for his recruiting in Ohio and Missouri, but year in and year out, the top recruits in Minnesota went elsewhere. The list includes John Carlson from Litchfield, Trevor Laws from Apple Valley and Ryan Harris of Cretin-Derham Hall. All three snubbed the Gophers for Notre Dame, and all three find themselves in National Football League uniforms now.

James Laurinitis, one of the best linebackers in college football over the past two years, hailed from Wayzata, yet plays in the scarlet and silver of Ohio State. Holy Angels' alum John Stocco quarterbacked the Wisconsin Badgers for four years. Breck's Dominique Byrd, a tight end, starred for a national championship team at the University of Southern California.

The list goes on. And while Brewster hasn't been able to completely blockade the borders -- he lost out to the Fighting Irish again on coveted wide receiver Michael Floyd from Cretin last year -- he has made more strides in one year than Mason did in his whole tenure.

The real test will be Cretin Derham's Seantrel Henderson. The six-foot, seven-inch, 315 pound senior-to-be is expected to be one of the top recruits in the nation for the 2010 class. He is the Next Big Thing in Minnesota football recruiting, and Brewster would be wise to do anything possible to appease the beast.

Although the sting of the Gophers defeat was tough to rub off, the Vikings made it a lot easier with a big division win over the Packers.

Head Coach Brad Childress earned his first ever win over he Pack, and he did it in a traditional matter. Riding his thoroughbred, a racehorse they call Adrian Peterson, Childress and the Vikes nudged out a 28-27 win after Mason Crosby missed a field goal.

I know I'm pretty close to the Wisconsin borders here at the County Press, so too bad if it offends you, but is there a better Sunday feeling that the Vikings beating the Packers.

If the two teams played all 16 times during the regular season, I'd watch all 16 times. It never gets old. Except when the Pack wins five in a row. Then I tend to break things that are near me. Yea, I know, I'm too emotionally invested into a simple game, but I can't help it. Unlike my fairweather publisher, I'm with the Vikes whether they're 0-16 or 16-0. I know it's an exercise in futility, but I need my exercise somewhere, right?

This week, the Vikings gauntlet of a schedule gets no easier when they take on the rejuvenated Tampa Bay Buccaneers. These two used to be old NFC Central rivals, and I still have a special place of hatred in my heart for the Bucs.

They were the lone team to beat the Vikings in their 1998 campaign, when they went 15-1. I remember Randall Cunningham and a brace-faced Randy Moss tearing up teams every week they faced them. Except the Bucs. They kept the Vikings from the first 16-0 regular season in football history.

Speaking of that magical season, the Vikings also have to suit up for another hated team from that era later this season. The Atlanta Falcons derailed the Viking Express that year in the NFC Championship game. If there has ever been a time when I was built up so much as a child, only to be let down, I can't recall it. Never for a Christmas present, never for a girlfriend, never for anything did I have so much hope. And in the end, that's all it was -- hope.

In the battle of the elder Anderson's, Morten Anderson out-kicked Gary Anderson -- who had been perfect on the season -- and the Falcons moved on to be cannon fodder for the John Elway-led Broncos and us Vikings fans were left wondering "What if?"

In case you hadn't noticed, the Timberwolves are off to a familiar 1-5 start. Not only are they looking an awful lot like the T'Wolves of last year, who jockeyed with the Memphis Grizzlies for last place most of the season, they are watching O.J. Mayo, the guy they drafted and then traded, blossom into a scoring machine.

After a nice first game by Kevin Love, the main piece in the Mayo trade, he has leveled off to a rookie-like line of 10 points per game, 6.7 rebounds per game and one block per game.

Meanwhile, in Graceland, Mayo put up back-to-back 30 point games for the Grizzlies over the weekend. He is now averaging 21 points, five rebounds and 1.3 steals per game for Memphis.

It's actually quite embarrassing as Kevin McHale slowly but surely dismantles the franchise and sends them to the bottom of the basement, reserving a room right next to the lowly Los Angeles Clippers, who've been the league's laughingstock for years. McHale and his regime are making sure the Wolves get in on some of the laughs.

First Brandon Roy, then Kevin Garnett, now Mayo. With a trio like that, the Wolves would be instant contenders in the aging Western Conference. But, McHale bumbled all three of those parts away and now has Al Jefferson, Mike Miller, Randy Foye and Love to show for them.

Hardly a championship nucleus.

I promise to not devote another line of print to this franchise until either McHale is fired or they make a -- gasp! -- smart basketball move. And re-signing Rashad McCants is not a smart basketball move.

In the early stages of the National Hockey League season, the Wild are trumping up everyone's expectations, again. With an 8-3-1 record, the team is building up their loyal fan base's hopes up for what will most likely be another disappointment as the season ends.

Last year, the Wild sprinted to a 7-0-1 start only to fall back into mediocrity soon after. They were then eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by the aging Colorado Avalanche.

Two years ago, after a 9-1 start, the Wild crashed back down to reality and ended the season with a five-game series loss to the Anaheim Ducks in the playoffs.

And in 2005-06, they started the year 5-2-1 and failed to even qualify for the postseason.

It's an ugly trend the Wild follow, but the fans let their blind loyalty mask the real problem with this squad. This is a physically weak team.

Outside of Derek Boogaard, an enforcer with extremely limited actual hockey skills, the team wears down easily. Their speed and skill carry them out of the gate, but the grind of an 82-game season soon starts to wear on the red-and-green charges, and they fold quickly.

This year is a little different as this start has come with the flimsy Marian Gaborik sitting on the bench nursing various injuries while jockeying for a new contract. I love the guy's talent, but his heart and drive don't seem to be on par with most other hockey players. You know what the saying is -- talent only gets you so far. And Gaborik's talent has taken him to his ceiling.

I say shed Gaborik for a young defenseman and a young center, and build around the true cornerstones of the franchise, Mikko Koivu and Brent Burns.

This team has reached its potential with Gaborik as the centerpiece.

It's time to move on.

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