Author: David Shama

Dean Dalton is a common sense former football coach who doesn’t sensationalize or exaggerate.  So when he talks about the Vikings, including the early part of the schedule starting with Monday night’s game in Green Bay, better listen up.

Dalton, the former Vikings assistant coach now in the media, is a passionate admirer of the Vikings’ defense but is as curious as most everyone else in Purple Nation about the offense.  “As this defense goes, is how the team will go as long as Tarvaris Jackson manages the football well and doesn’t create turnovers,” he told Sports Headliners.

Coming off a season as the No. 1 defense against the run in the NFL, Dalton likes the pass rush, too, led by new defensive end Jared Allen who led the league in sacks last season.  The unit’s ability to bring pressure on the quarterback means Dalton isn’t that concerned about cornerback Cedric Griffin, a player sometimes singled out as not being effective.

The offense entered training camp with at least three major questions and added one or two more.  Jackson, beginning his third pro season, was supposed to receive more playing time in preseason but injured his right knee in the second game and shorted out that goal.  Dalton describes Jackson as “quite raw” and “is coming off a knee injury.”  Not the way you want to prepare a young quarterback.

Last week’s four game suspension of left tackle Bryant McKinney by the NFL further clouds expectations for the offensive line.  Journeyman Artie Hicks replaces McKinney at that vital pass protecting position.  He doesn’t have McKinney’s ability but then, too, the former No. 1 draft pick is considered an underachiever.

Right tackle Ryan Cook, a third year lineman, is considered a project player.   Along with Jackson and McKinney, his name had a question mark after it, going into training camp.

Hicks and Cook aren’t good one-on-one pass protectors, Dalton said.  “So there’s going to be a challenge there against the relentlessness of the Packers’ defensive front,” he added.

Dalton said one worry the Vikings don’t need to have is wide receiver Bernard Berrian. He was bothered by a sore right toe during training camp, and also last year while playing for Chicago, but Dalton expects him to be okay for Green Bay.

A receiver that does concern him, though, is tight end Visanthe Shiancoe who joined the team last season.  Neither last year nor in preseason did Shiancoe play up to expectations, according to Dalton.

Just like late last season, Dalton expects the Packers to crowd the line of scrimmage with defenders, focusing on stopping the Vikings’ runners until the offense can prove its effectiveness in passing, including protection of the quarterback.

Dalton thinks a 10 win year is possible for the Vikings and describes the Packer opener as “critical” to the season.  “The first four games are just giant tests, and the fact that now you’re going to take on those tests without not all of your front line (on offense), lends you to be concerned,” he said. “They (the Vikings) have the capability of winning their division but…to do that, they’ve got to go through Green Bay, and that’s the first test out of the box. …”

After the Packer game, the Vikings play Indianapolis and Carolina at home, before a road game at Tennessee.  Sports Illustrated predicts all four teams will have winning records with Indy advancing to the AFC Conference title game.

Based on offensive and defensive starting lineups, key reserves, and special teams, the Gophers will easily have a double digit total of players participating in their first college game on the road Saturday at Bowling Green.  The Falcons upset No. 25 ranked Pittsburgh last weekend.

Adam Weber, the Gophers’ redshirt sophomore quarterback, is already a team captain, leader and someone who experienced his first road start a year ago in a loss at Florida Atlantic.  He was asked by Sports Headliners last week about the road experience.

“It’s your first time getting away from your comfort zone,” he said.  “We’ve been in Minnesota for the first month practicing against ourselves and you get in that first road game and it’s going to be interesting because you’re in unfamiliar territory.  You’re in your other school’s place.  It’s that first time where you really have to overcome a lot of things. …”

Is it a jitters situation for someone who has never played before?  “It can be,” Weber said.  “… I know for me it was.  It was surreal.  It took awhile to get used to things.  Being such a young team (the Gophers have only 12 seniors), we’re going to have to calm down probably a lot of guys out there.  But they’ve played football before and the game doesn’t change from high school to here.  It’s all the same thing.  It’s just a little faster, a little bigger, and they’ll quickly adjust.”

Weber’s father, Bobby, played defensive back for the Gophers in the 1970s.  Weber said his dad helped him learn to focus and reminded him football is just a game.

“My dad loves football and I see it in him every single day,” Weber said.  “And I think that helps because seeing someone love a sport that much. …Sometimes you go out to practice and you’re hurting a little bit, and you don’t want to put on the pads, and you think I know my dad or some of those old timers would give up anything to come back out there and do it again.  It keeps things in check for me.”

The Bowling Green team the Gophers play on Saturday (6:30 p.m. start, ESPN U) is coached by Gregg Brandon.  He’s in his sixth season after succeeding Urban Meyer who left for Utah and is now head coach at Florida.  The Falcons, who lost 63-7 to Tulsa in the GMAC Bowl last January, return eight starters on offense and defense, and are favorites to win the Mid-American Conference East Division championship.  Bowling Green, 8-5 last season including the bowl loss, beat an underachieving team in Pittsburgh last Saturday.

Former Minneapolis Patrick Henry High School football coach Don Swanson hosted his 53^rd Coaches and Captains Crying Towel banquet last week.  The event is for Minneapolis football schools and Swanson good-naturedly provides crying towels so coaches can down play their chances for the coming season.  Don Swanson Awards and the Vikings are sponsors. Swanson was pleased to see players from various schools become acquainted and express appreciation for the event.

The two MIAC players who received the most preseason national football publicity are Saint John’s senior defensive lineman Nick Gunderson and Augsburg College senior wide receiver Royce Winford.  Both were named to multiple All-American teams.

Former Gopher football coach Glen Mason, now a color commentator for the Big Ten Network, picks Ohio State to beat USC in Los Angeles on September 13 if Buckeye running back Chris Wells has recovered from his right foot injury.

Gopher athletic director Joel Maturi said there isn’t enough support among Big Ten Conference athletic directors to add a ninth league football game.  Because there are 11 teams in the conference, one team every season would play eight league games, while the others played nine.

Maturi said a more recent generation of FieldTurf than what is used at the Metrodome will be the playing surface in the Gophers’ new TCF Bank Stadium opening next year.

Gopher football coach Tim Brewster describes true freshman Troy Stoudermire from Dallas as “dynamic” and not only will continue to use him on kickoff returns but possibly punt returns.

Wisconsin transfer Kim Royston, the former Cretin-Derham Hall player, has been given the weekly Teammate award by the Gophers.  Royston, a defensive back who has to sit out this season before being eligible in 2009, has shown an “unbelievable’” attitude in practice, Brewster said.

He also said the Gophers will use true freshmen running backs Shady Salamon, also from Cretin-Derham Hall, and DeLeon Eskridge from San Francisco, in the Bowling Green game.  Neither played against Northern Illinois in the opening game.

Speculation is persistent that within two years or less, Minneapolis-St. Paul will have one major daily newspaper, not two.

WCCO Radio’s Steve Thomson created a spoof called the “Batista award,” according to talk show partner Eric Nelson.  “Minnesota’s infamous signing of Tony Batista a couple years ago fostered the award,” Nelson wrote in an e-mail to Sports Headliners.  “As you know, Batista is one of many coupon-clipping deals that have not worked out.  Others include Sidney Ponson, Tony Clark, Ramon Martinez, Livian Hernandez, Craig Monroe, Mike Lamb, Adam Everett and Bret Boone. Steve and WCCO studio coordinator Craig ‘Hammer’ Schroepfer chose Craig Monroe as this year’s Batitsta award winner.  My selection is Mike Lamb.”

The Twins are eight games below .500 on the road this season, 31-39.  In 2006 when they won the Central Division with a 96-66 record, their road record was 42-39.