Author: David Shama

Ryan Cook was a center at New Mexico but the Vikings switched him to right tackle where he is a starter. Cook, taken in the second round of the 2006 draft, told Sports Headliners that he prepares as a backup center to Matt Birk every week in practice.  “That’s what I was told,” Cook said.  “If he goes down, I am in there.”

Viking place kicker Ryan Longwell,33, talking about how much longer he wants to play pro football:  “I love what I do,” Longwell said. “I’d love to keep doing it for a long time.  I don’t know if I will be around as long as Morten Andersen. …”  Andersen, 47, plays for Atlanta and is the NFL’s oldest player.

Former Viking player Jack Del Rio and now Jacksonville head coach has his team off to a 2-1 start, quieting talk that there might be a change in leadership.  The Jaguar staff of assistants includes former Viking coach Mike Tice, Dallas coach Dave Campo and University of Alabama coach Mike Shula.

Harvey Mackay, New York Times best selling author and former University of Minnesota golfer, jogs and walks about four miles 300 days per year.  Mackay said he is “74 and holding.”

With all the upsets in college football this season, including plenty of David vs. Goliath results, you can be sure the folks in Fargo are looking forward more than ever to the Gopher-North Dakota State game on October 20 in Minneapolis. North Dakota State is 3-0 after defeating Central Michigan, 44-14, in Mount Pleasant last Saturday.  The Bison defeated the Chippewas by a bigger score than Purdue (45-22) won by on its home field.

Gopher basketball coach Tubby Smith is looking for corporate jets, according to a Minnesota alum.

The Twins drew 2,296,383 fans in 2007, an average of 28,350 fans per home game, and the third highest total in club history, behind 1988 (3,030,672) and 1992 (2,482,428).

Some teams would change coaching personnel after a losing and disappointing season but manager Ron Gardenhire and all his coaches will return.  The Twins organizational culture emphasizes loyalty and promotion from within.

The St. Paul Chamber Faceoff luncheon is next Monday starting at 11:30 a.m. in the Crowne Plaza St. Paul-Riverside.  Minnesota Wild players will be in attendance and president/general manager Doug Risebrough will talk about the upcoming season. Tickets are $50 each and information is available at 651-265-2795, or visit www.saintpaulchamber.com and click on calendar of events.

The Timberwolves host media day Friday and by Sunday will be holding training camp in Turkey, a country that ranks high internationally in NBA interest. The Wolves will play a Turkish team on October 6, the first NBA exhibition game ever held in that nation.  The Wolves will then resume training camp in London and on October 10 will play Boston in a pre-season game.

Saint John’s senior quarterback Alex Kofoed is the MIAC Offensive Player of the Week.  He was 26 of 32 passing (.813 pct.) for 303 yards and four touchdowns in last Saturday’s 52-21 win against Concordia (Moorhead). Saint John’s junior defensive tackle Nick Gunderson is Defensive Player of the Week and Concordia junior wide receiver Paul Shol is Special Teams Player of the Week.  Gunderson led the Johnnies with eight tackles (five solo), including one tackle for loss, one sack and a forced fumble in the win over Concordia. Shol produced one of the Concordia highlights when he returned a kickoff 90 yards for a touchdown.  It was the second longest kickoff return in program histor

The Vikings have enjoyed the good fortune of competing against mostly ineffective quarterbacks in their first three games.  Atlanta’s Joey Harrington, Detroit’s J.T. O’Sullivan and Kansas City’s Damon Huard won’t be headed to the Hall of Fame in this lifetime.  The Purple’s luck ends Sunday, though, when Brett Favre comes to town, tied with Dan Marino for the all-time NFL record for touchdown passes, 420.

Like a good movie script, it seems appropriate that Favre, who has already broken Marino’s league record for pass attempts, is within one touchdown pass of setting the record when Green Bay comes to Minneapolis.  The Viking-Packer rivalry is one of the best in football and provides a little more theater for Favre.

Favre and the Packers won both games against the Vikings last season.  Green Bay has won three of the last four games at the Metrodome.  The Packers are 3-0 while the Vikings are 1-2.  Favre has six touchdown passes, 861 yards and a quarterback rating of 93.4 in three games, according to www.nfl.com.

Favre’s 38^th birthday is next month and some people didn’t think he would still be playing, or at least performing at such a high level after all these years in pro football.  When the Packers drafted Aaron Rodgers out of California in 2005 it was a signal to some that Favre’s days in Green Bay were coming to an end.  Rogers, a No. 1 draft choice, has played in five games in three seasons, with no starts.

Viking kicker Ryan Longwell played with Favre for nine seasons in Green Bay.  He was asked about the crowd that’s wanted to move Favre out of the way because of his age.  “I don’t know what they’re thinking,” Longwell told Sports Headliners. “I think he could still play for a long time.  I think unfortunately in this position and this job everybody is going to have an opinion there’s always something (someone) better.

“A lot of times in this business it’s not the case.  Brett is certainly an example of a guy that can take anyone around him and make them better.  And there’s not many of those guys in this league that can just bring the whole team, the whole organization up. And he happens to be one of them.”

Favre threw a league-leading 29 interceptions during 2005, but through three games has only two.  Peter King wrote in last week’s Sports Illustrated that the Packers have asked Favre to be “more card shark than riverboat gambler.”  The emphasis on shorter passes and more completions is likely to limit interceptions and give the overall mediocre Packers a better chance to win.

Longwell said Favre is very coachable and that a more conservative approach can make sense in the NFL where there is more parity than years ago.  “Yeah, he’s bought into it,” Longwell said.  “There’s no doubt, but at the same time he’s one of those guys that can go outside the play if it breaks down and make something happen. …

“I think he does a good job of kind of straddling both sides.  Staying in the scheme and…if it breaks down he’s the guy you want back there scrambling and throwing the ball around.”

A lot of NFL quarterbacks have played up to age 40 and beyond, according to the NFL Hall of Fame Web site (www.profootballhof.com).  Only three have played at 44 or older, Warren Moon and Steve DeBerg played at 44 and George Blanda was still on the field at 48.

Longwell was asked how much longer his friend will play.  “Who knows? I think only he knows, and sometimes I am not even sure he knows. … It’s tough to sit through the meetings, it’s tough to go to the mini-camps, and the training camps, but come Sundays in the fall there’s no place you would rather be.  I think you start weighing I don’t want to go to all this off-season stuff and all the stuff you have to sit through, but then it comes game day.  Man, it would be hard to give this up. Certainly his talent has not decreased and he can still win games with the best of them.  So who really knows?”

Big Ten football schools have a flashy .794 non-conference winning percentage (27 wins, 7 losses) but reality is the teams are disappointing.  College football observers including Sports Illustrated rank the Big Ten among the worst BCS conferences.  In its issue last week the magazine rated the conferences this way: SEC, Pac-10, Big East, Big 12, ACC and Big Ten.

Three of the non-conference wins by Big Ten teams have come against feeble Notre Dame (0-4, scored 24 total points).  League teams scheduled mostly a collection of nobody schools and stumbled to a few losses.  Headline embarrassments include Michigan-Appalachian State, Minnesota-Florida Atlantic, Iowa-Iowa State and Northwestern-Duke (Blue Devils ended nation’s longest losing streak).

In non-conference games Big Ten schools haven’t come near playing top 10 ranked teams with the closest quality win being Ohio State’s road victory over Washington, 33-14.  The conference doesn’t have a team that deserves consideration among the nation’s elite.  In this week’s Associated Press rankings of the top 25 teams the league has only three schools included, Ohio State No. 8. Wisconsin No. 9 and Penn State No. 21.  Top ranked USC and No. 2 LSU are probably three touchdowns better on a neutral field than any Big Ten team.

A major problem is that several conference teams lack balance between offense and defense.  Iowa and Purdue are two examples. The Hawkeyes have speed, talent and are well coached defensively but have much less to offer offensively.  In their last two games, both defeats, the Hawks have allowed 29 points but scored 26 in losses to Iowa State and Wisconsin.  Purdue has scored over 40 points in all four of its wins, including a 45-31 victory over the Gophers but the Boilermakers have an average defense that has allowed Toledo, Eastern Illinois and Minnesota to score 77 points.

Last weekend the Big Ten opened its conference schedule with only Michigan State’s win over Notre Dame being a non-league game.  From now through mid-November league teams will infrequently play non-conference games, more “Joe Blows” like Eastern Michigan, Western Michigan, Temple, Ken State and Ball State.  Except these days it’s a good idea for conference teams to address these opponents as Mr. Ball State, Mr. Kent State etc.