With this week off because of no game scheduled next Sunday, Vikings players can spend more time with their families and attend to personal business.  Punter Chris Kluwe will be flying home to Huntington Beach, California to see his young daughters trick or treat in dinosaur costumes for Halloween.  Kluwe’s costume?  Possibly Indiana Jones, he said.

Wide receiver Greg Camarillo closes Friday on his new home in San Diego.  He’s sold his house in Davie, Florida but because of more expensive prices in California will be going from a one-acre property to a one-third acre lot.

Rookie Vikings offensive lineman Brandon Fusco is an improbable success story.  As a high school player in Harmony, Pennsylvania he didn’t have one offer from a BCS school and decided to play for Slippery Rock, a Division II program.  Drafted on the sixth round by the Vikings, Fusco surprised by not only making the final roster but has earned playing time on the field.

At Slippery Rock Fusco said he had 44 consecutive starts at center, a position the Vikings have practiced him at along with guard.  At either position his goal is to be aggressive.  “I don’t really get intimidated,” he said.

Fusco said he’s more comfortable with pro football now than earlier in the year but realizes he has much to learn.  “I am a raw player,” he said.  “I know that.”

Coach Tubby Smith’s Gophers open their exhibition schedule with a game tomorrow night at home against Bemidji State.  The Gophers also have a home exhibition game scheduled against Augustana next Monday.

Minnesota is a popular choice to finish among the bottom teams in the Big Ten Conference.  Lindy’s Sports College Basketball Magazine, for example, forecasts an eighth place finish ─ although hedges the prediction is too low if Minnesota develops an outstanding point guard to replace departed Al Nolen.

Lindy’s includes Gophers forward Trevor Mbakwe among its third team All-Americans.  The senior from St. Paul made the preseason All-Big Ten first team chosen last week by a Big Ten media panel.

Lindy’s has Benilde-St. Margaret’s grad and Wisconsin point guard Jordan Taylor on its All-American first team.  Hopkins alum Trent Lockett, now playing for Arizona State, is rated the No. 15 small forward in the country.

Vikings rookie quarterback Christian Ponder makes his second career start on Sunday.  Ponder was the No. 12 pick in the 2011 NFL draft while Newton was the No. 1 overall choice.  Sunday will be the first time in the 51-year history of the Vikings franchise that two rookie quarterbacks have started a game.

Gophers athletic director Joel Maturi said his Minneapolis home has been on the market for about a month.  He characterized the potential sale as a downsizing move by him and wife Lois.  The sale isn’t related to his future as athletic director, he said.

Now that he and new University of Minnesota president Eric Kaler have been working together for awhile, the two must determine intentions on whether Maturi continues as athletic director when his contract expires in June next year.  Maturi said both he and Kaler need to say “yea or nay” but wouldn’t predict whether an announcement will come before year-end, nor would he say what he wants to do beyond June of 2012.

Maturi said the Memorandum of Agreement that initially bound football coach Jerry Kill to the Gophers before signing a contract this fall was a legal document.  The agreement was only a “couple pages” while the contract is about 16 pages, according to Maturi.  Kill’s annual compensation of $1.2 million is the same in both documents.

Minnesota native Justin Gaard, who attended the University of Iowa, will be working the sidelines for the Gophers football radio network when Minnesota hosts his old school at TCF Bank Stadium.  But he doesn’t “expect too many emotions” on Saturday and he will be there to do his job – “eavesdrop on the coaches,” report on injuries and more.

Gaard, who played tennis for the Hawkeyes after graduating from Edina High School in 2001, grew up following Gophers and Iowa teams.  Both his parents are Iowa natives.  His first Iowa bowl experience came at the 1991 Rose Bowl.  “I was a little spoiled early,” he said.  “There’s no doubt about it.”

Gaard, who followed the Gophers basketball team to the Final Four in 1997, said the 1998 Vikings are “probably” his all-time favorite sports team.  “I am a bandwagon guy,” he said.  “I kind of go with the wind.”

He makes his feelings about Wisconsin clear: “I want the Hawks to win.  I want the Gophers to win.  I never want Wisconsin to win. …”

Through seven games the 1-6 Gophers have established themselves among the least productive teams in major college football and their national statistical rankings support that view.  Minnesota ranks 109^th in passing offense, 114^th in pass efficiency, 112^th in total offense and 110^th in scoring offense.  The Gophers are 115^th in scoring defense and 100^th in total defense.