Sid Hartman: Gophers show they will surprise experts

Well, all of those experts who selected the Gophers to go 0-8 during the conference season and 3-9 for the season will have to make another guess.

A 24-point underdog, they went to Southern California, gave up 19 points to the No. 25 Trojans in the first half and then stopped them without a score in the second half. USC held on to win 19-17.

Jerry Kill said he didn't know what kind of a team he had until they played this game. Well, the new Gophers coach found out he had a team that could come back in the second half and play as well as they did in one of the toughest stadiums in the country for opponents to play in. The Trojans, who led 19-3 at halftime, seldom lose at Los Angeles Coliseum.

Kill and his coaching staff should be praised for the great job they did in adjusting their defense at halftime. The great passing combination of Matt Barkley and Robert Woods didn't get into the end zone in the second half after combining for 163 yards and three touchdowns in the first.

The Gophers defense also did a great job stopping the Trojans running game to 67 yards on 28 carries and twice stopped them in fourth-down situations.

The Gophers clicked in the second half, scoring 14 points despite the fact that MarQueis Gray had to leave the game because of an injury. In his place, highly recruited true freshman Max Shortell completed seven of 13 passes for 98 yards and one touchdown.

Unfortunately, Shortell threw an interception with time running out and the Gophers in a position to march in for a winning field goal, which seemed like a good possibility the way they were moving the ball at the time.

I have seen very few Gophers freshmen go in and do the job passing Shortell did. He also showed he could make plays with his feet, scrambling for 8 yards and a first down on third-and-8 for his very first college play.

There was no doubt that this Gophers team, playing before this Hollywood atmosphere, was nervous to start as shown by a false-start penalty on the very first offensive play of the game.

Gray also appeared not to be his poised self to start, as he had trouble moving the Gophers offense with either his arm or his feet. He finished with decent numbers, going 7-for-12 for 94 yards passing while carrying 16 times for 47 yards until he was injured. But in the second half, the Gophers played like they did in the winning the final two games of last season.

Now they return home for three games and a chance to get a lot better and surprise some of their conference foes.

Ponder shows his normal running ability Christian Ponder rushed eight times for 61 yards, an average of 7.6 yards per effort, in little more than one half of the action in the Vikings' 28-0 victory over Houston on Thursday. The Vikings closed the preseason 2-2.

"Obviously, there's still a lot to learn from and a lot to get better, but I think tonight went pretty well," he said afterward.

The Florida State product was asked if this was the normal amount of rushing fans can expect from him when he replaces Donovan McNabb at quarterback.

"I was [a running quarterback at Florida State], actually, found ways to get out of the pocket and run the ball and do some quarterback runs. That's kind of always been part of my game," Ponder said.

Ponder said he is pleased with the progress he has made in spite of the NFL lockout, which wiped out all offseason minicamps and prevented him from working with coaches over the summer.

"I came into this camp and had a lot to learn very quickly, and I stayed focused on what I was supposed to do," Ponder said. "I'm pretty pleased with myself in the first camp. ... I like everything that's on the table with the offense. I'm enjoying myself."

"I'll get better from it and adapt, but that's the goal from Day 1," he said.

He credited the veteran McNabb with helping him improve. "He has helped me; he's been great to me," Ponder said. "This is his 13th year in the league, and he's a proven vet. He doesn't have to help out a rookie, and he's right there helping me out every series and everything. It's really great."

Personally, I was hoping the Vikings would make this a rebuilding year and go with Ponder and Joe Webb as their quarterbacks, rather than bringing in a veteran quarterback the way they did with McNabb.

But did Ponder think he had the ability to be the starter right away, like several recent rookie quarterbacks such as Matt Ryan, Joe Flacco, Matthew Stafford, Sam Bradford and Cam Newton? "I don't know, that's a question that can't be answered," he said.

If you want my opinion, the answer would be yes. This guy has the potential to be great.