Christian Ponder told Sports Headliners he isn’t counting on playing time in Saturday night’s Vikings-Chiefs exhibition game in Kansas City.
Ponder said he hasn’t been told if he will play but his status could be the same as last Saturday night when he watched the entire exhibition game against the Cardinals from the sidelines. “I would be surprised if it (playing) changed,” he said. “I hope I can get in and get an opportunity to play. We’ll see what happens.”
A starter in nine games last season, Ponder has accepted the No. 3 quarterback role on the team behind Matt Cassel and Teddy Bridgewater. Ponder’s contract is up after this season and he anticipates being with a different team in 2015.
“If we look at the reality right now, Matt’s the starter,” Ponder said. “They’re (developing) Teddy to be the future starter at some point. I am excluded in their future plans so I would assume I will be on a different team next year, but I am not really thinking about it right now.
“I have to be prepared (for the present). It’s a lot of responsibility being the third string quarterback. You’re not getting that many reps and you have to be ready to play at any point, so that’s what I am focused on right now and we’ll see what happens after the season.”
Ponder did play briefly toward the end of the Vikings’ first exhibition game on August 8 against the Raiders. Playing with other backups, he was sacked three times while completing three of seven passes.
Saturday’s game in Kansas City will be the third exhibition for both teams. Game threes are typically when starters see their most minutes of the preseason schedule so Ponder could certainly be correct about not participating in Kansas City.
Before last Saturday’s game, Ponder was seen talking with new offensive coordinator Norv Tuner in the tunnel at TCF Bank Stadium. What was the discussion?
“We actually were talking about getting together to eat at some point,” Ponder said. “We weren’t even talking football. Before the game is a pretty relaxed atmosphere. We were just talking and joking around a little bit.”
Ponder and Turner live near one another and a future dinner—on a date yet to be determined—makes sense. Ponder speaks highly of Turner whose career experiences include being a head coach with three NFL teams.
“I think he’s done a great job of reaching out to everybody and building a personal relationship,” Ponder said. “He’s a great coach. I think he knows how to get the best out of everybody.”
Turner said he was disappointed with the negative way some fans reacted to Ponder in the August 8 exhibition game. “I think he’s done everything he can do and he’s working his butt off, and I think he’s a guy that’s going to be valuable to our team,” Turner said.
Worth Noting
Ponder’s wife Samantha gave birth in July to a baby girl, Bowden Sainte-Claire Ponder. The Bowden first name is in honor of Ponder’s coach at Florida State, the now retired and legendary Bobby Bowden.
“Everyone assumes it was my idea,” Ponder said. “It was actually my wife’s idea.”
Coach Bowden is well-known to Samantha who works for ESPN and is a college football authority. Ponder admires his ex-coach’s character and recalled listening former Florida State players talk about Bowden when he was in college. “A lot of guys said they might be dead if it wasn’t for him,” Ponder said.
The Vikings have renewed over 80 percent of season tickets and expect to increase that to a final figure of about 85 percent (first home regular season game on September 14). That will mean a season ticket total in the upper 40,000’s at TCF Bank Stadium where capacity is 52,000.
The home game with the Packers on November 23 is sold out. Only a small number of tickets remain for the Patriots game September 14 while other games have a few thousand tickets available.
Purchase of personal seat licenses in the new downtown stadium opening in 2016 has exceeded expectations. The Vikings’ goal is to eventually total $125 million in the sale of PSLs, and the intent was to reach $37 million by this December. Instead, the club is already near $62 million.
State Fairgrounds parking and shuttle service will be available after Labor Day for Vikings and Gophers games at TCF Bank Stadium. That option wasn’t available for the Vikings’ first two home exhibition games.
About 10,000 to 11,000 Vikings fans used light rail service to the team’s opening preseason game at TCF Bank Stadium on August 8. Numbers aren’t yet available for last Saturday night’s game.
Gerry DiNardo offered a flattering statistic about the Gophers defense on the Big Ten Network’s Minnesota season preview last Saturday. He said the defense stopped opponents in the red zone “74 percent” of the time last season, the best results in the Big Ten for all games, nonconference and league.
Last week’s college football preview issue of Sports Illustrated had four Big Ten teams in the magazine’s top 25 rankings, Ohio State No. 4, Michigan State No. 6, Wisconsin No. 15 and Nebraska No. 24. The publication predicts the first ever Division I four-team College Football Playoff next January will consist of Alabama, Florida State, Ohio State and Oklahoma.
Four state prep football coaches will enter the upcoming season with 99 career wins. Those coaches are John Austinson, Byron; Chad Johnston, Minneota/Lincoln Hi; Bob Staska, McGregor; and Jeff Weiland, Orono.
Oswaldo Arcia, 23, has now played in 167 major league games for the Twins over two seasons. His home runs, 27, and RBI, 79, are impressive during a total number of games that is only a little more than a single 162-game season. His average, .242, would improve with fewer strikeouts (202 in 603 at bats) but for a young player making about $500,000 per season he’s a promising asset on the power-starved Twins.
Arcia homered last night in the team’s loss to the Indians. It was the third consecutive game he has homered. He has seven home runs in his last 20 games. That’s the second most in the American League over that period.