Maroney still a Gophers fan

Tim Brewster suffered through a 1-11 season in his first season at the University of Minnesota, but former Gophers running back Laurence Maroney said he sees better days ahead.

"It was a tough first year," Maroney said in Phoenix, where he and the New England Patriots are preparing for Super Bowl XLII. "Introducing a new offense to an offense of (Glen) Mason's, which was a zone-run scheme or nothing but run and trying to convert those guys to a spread passing offense. But I've still got confidence and faith in the guy that he's going to get us back to where we need to get to."

Selected by the Patriots with the 21st selection of the 2006 NFL draft, four spots after the Vikings grabbed linebacker Chad Greenway, Barber said he "knew I had no chance" of ending up with the local NFL team, and not just because it had already signed Chester Taylor.

"I was hoping that I would because they see me a lot. They heard about me a lot," Maroney said. " … I was hoping that they were looking at me, but during the whole process I really didn’t hear anything about the Vikings so I really didn't think I would go there."

As for Brewster and the Gophers, Maroney said he's keeping his fingers crossed.

"Hopefully, next year they come out and get a good recruiting class and do a little better than we did this year," he said.