Enjoy a Monday notes column.
The Vikings’ recent contract extension with backup tight end Josh Oliver adds to speculation the offense will be more committed to the running game than at any time in head coach Kevin O’Connell’s three previous seasons. Oliver is a superb blocker and superior with that skill to starter T.J. Hockenson.
According to Pro Football Focus, Oliver led NFL tight ends with a 74.2 run blocking grade in 2024 (minimum 50 percent block snaps played) and earned the fourth-highest grade during the 2023 season with a 73.9.
Offensive coordinator Wes Phillips has indicated there will be times the Vikings will have both Oliver and Hockenson on the field to add size and muscle. While the two could be in the game for blocking, Hockenson is one of the NFL’s most gifted big yardage receivers and could break off the line of scrimmage and run an explosive pass pattern.
The Vikings are expected to emphasize the run game to ease the transition and workload on new quarterback J.J. McCarthy. The 22-year-old, who missed his rookie season after injuring a knee, figures to hand the ball off on at least 50 percent of the snaps to his running backs.
That RB roster includes Aaron Jones, last year’s starter. The Vikings signed him to a multi-year contract in early March before he could hit free agency. He started all 17 games for the Vikings, with career highs of 255 carries, and 1,138 yards. He also had 51 catches for 408 receiving yards and two receiving touchdowns.
In another March move that has potential to aid the running game, the Vikings worked a trade with San Francisco involving draft choices and Jordan Mason, the 49ers RB who led the team in rushing last season with a career-high 789 yards. Mason, who will be in his fourth NFL season in 2025, ranked sixth in the NFL in yards after contact per rush (3.62) according to TruMedia, and seventh in yards per rush (5.2). Among players with a minimum of 150 rushing attempts last season, he led the NFL in missed tackles forced at 37.3 percent, according to Next Gen Stats.
Look for times next fall where both Jones and Mason are on the field together, Phillips indicated recently. Maybe with two tight ends, too.
College basketball coaches are usually former players, but the Golden Gophers program is a bit different. Head coach Niko Medved is a former student manager under ex-head coach Clem Haskins at Minnesota in the 1990s. Medved assistant coach Aaron Katsuma and his director of scouting and analytics Drew Evenson are both former managers with the Gophers.
Ryan Saunders, the former Gopher player and Timberwolves head coach, is no longer an assistant coach with the NBA Nuggets. New head coach David Adelman, son of former Wolves head coach Rick Adelman, has reorganized the staff.
At 39 Saunders is probably open to taking a college coaching position for the first time in his career.
Saunders’ wife Hayley gave birth to daughter Grace Leigh on February 23. That would have been the 70th birthday of Ryan’s dad Flip Saunders, the deceased former head coach of the Wolves and a savvy point guard who was a Gopher basketball favorite.
Tim Connelly, the Wolves president of basketball operations, should have fans on the edge of their collective seats as to what’s next with the roster. Since being hired in the summer of 2022, he has pulled off dramatic trades that first brought Rudy Gobert here and later traded away Karl-Anthony Towns.
The Twins, 5-9 in June, have pitching problems that probably have already sunk their chances of winning the Central Division and threaten earning a wild card entry in the playoffs. The starting pitching rotation is troubled, and third baseman Royce Lewis is sidelined with yet another hamstring injury.
Staff ace Pablo Lopez is on the 60-day Injured List. His replacement, Zebby Matthews, is on the 15-day. Bailey Ober, a mainstay in the rotation with Lopez, Joe Ryan and Chris Paddack, is struggling with his mechanics.
The Twins were swept by the Astros over the weekend. Minnesota entered yesterday’s game with a staff ERA of 6.39 in June. That compares with 3.11 in May and 3.54 March-April.
Minnesota is 3-8 in its last 11 games, and 8-13 in the previous 21. At 36-35, the Twins are barely holding on to second place and are nine games behind the Central Division leading Tigers.
FanGraphs gives the Twins a 7.2 percent chance of beating out the Tigers but 42.1 percent likelihood of making the playoffs. That could be optimistic for a pitching staff down two starters and a bullpen that while elite has been taxed with a lot of innings already this season.
The way it looks now the Twins will have at least two representatives on the American League All-Star team for the July 15 All-Star Game in Atlanta. Center fielder Byron Buxton, 31, should be a starter because of his hitting, fielding and base running this spring. Reliever Johan Duran, 27, has saved 10 games working out of perhaps baseball’s best bullpen, and has a 4-2 record with a 1.64 ERA.
This would be Buxton’s second All-Star Game, having homered in two at bats as a reserve in 2022. Duran would be making his debut.
Buxton signed a seven-year contract for $100 million in December of 2021, according to MLB.com. That deal includes staggered bonus amounts if he places in the top 10 for the league MVP Award. He won’t win the award this year (would bring $8 million) but he receives $3 million for a finish between sixth and 10th.
Duran is a steal for the Twins at a reported $4.15 million.
Ryan, among the winningest pitchers in the majors this season, could also represent the Twins as a first-time member of the AL All-Star staff. Ryan, 29, with a 7-2 record and ERA of 2.93, is the club’s best pitcher with Lopez sidelined.
Sam Udovich, the Cretin-Derham Hall senior who recently won the boys’ golf 3A state tournament, will be on scholarship at TCU where the program celebrates its 100th year in 2026.
Humor department: My friend Bob Klas remembered the late Murray Warmath’s take on golf. The Golden Gophers football coach said he’d do anything to improve, “except practice.”