The NFC North might be the NFL’s best division this season.  Renowned Sports Illustrated writer Peter King predicts the Bears, Vikings and Packers will make the playoffs, and the NFC North will be the only division in the NFL with three teams in post season.  He believes the Bears will win the division but writes in the magazine’s NFL preview issue that the “Vikings now have arguably the best roster, top to bottom, in the league—one good enough to make a serious run at the Super Bowl.”

King predicts the Bears will defeat the Patriots in the Super Bowl.

With Adrian Peterson, Chester Taylor, Albert Young and rookie Ian Johnson, the Vikings probably had the most talented group of running backs in training camp ever.  Johnson was cut over the weekend, then added to the eight-man practice squad.  He’s a slashing runner who can be effective.  Young was on the practice roster last year before making the team this year.

Former Gopher Mark Setterstrom is a reserve with the Rams, listed on the team’s Web site as the second team center.

The Twins Joe Nathan, who has never finished better than third in saves among American League relievers, is third this season, too, but only three behind leader Brian Fuentes of the Angels who has 39.

USA Today Sports Weekly chose Anthony Slama as the Twins representative for its listing of “every big-league team has its minor league hope.”  The 25-year-old relief pitcher has been impressive this season with stops in both AAA and AA.  Since being promoted to AAA Rochester he has struck out 19 in 15.2 innings.  At New Britain he struck out 93 in 65.1 innings.

Here’s the predicted order of finish in the MIAC preseason football coaches poll: Saint John’s, St. Thomas, Bethel, Concordia, St. Olaf, Gustavus, Carleton, Augsburg and Hamline.

Saint John’s led NCAA Division III schools in attendance last season, averaging 7,694 fans per game.  The Johnnies have been No. 1 in attendance 12 of the past 16 seasons, including the last eight.

The Gopher basketball newsletter reports that Devron Bostick spent part of the summer working out with NBA All-Star Caron Butler in their home town of Racine, Wisconsin.  “He showed me how my shot can be more consistent,” Bostick told the publication.  “I think it’s working.”

Bostick, who came to the Gophers last year after being a junior college All-American, averaged 4.0 points per game.  The team’s other junior college transfer, Paul Carter, averaged 5.3.  Collectively the Gophers only had one player, Lawrence Westbrook, who averaged in double figures (12.6).  Bostick and Carter could be major contributors to an improved Gopher offense next season.

Explorer and environmental activist Will Steger will be among the speakers at the Big Green Conference on October 15 at the Mall of America.  The event is being co-hosted by MOA and Larkin Hoffman.

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Bob Lurtsema played for the Vikings from 1971-1976 and remains a close observer of the team, attending practices and games.  He told Sports Headliners “you never heard me this excited before.”

Lurtsema all but gushed when asked about his optimism concerning the Vikings after watching them acquire quarterback Brett Favre and prepare for their season opener on September 13 at Cleveland with the Browns.  How does he calibrate his level of optimism?

“All I can say is wow! I am so excited.  I mean the highest rating possible for enthusiasm, I have that for Brett Favre.  The puzzle is put together.”

Describing the defense as “unbelievable,” Lurtsema said the arrival of Favre is a dramatic upgrade for the team’s offense.  No longer will defenses be able to crowd the line of scrimmage with a majority of its players, intent on stopping running back Adrian Peterson.

Lurtsema said Favre can read defenses and call plays so expertly he will be a mega difference maker for Peterson and the offense.  Lurtsema believes the boost to the passing game with Favre will result in Peterson gaining 2,000 or more yards this season.  He led the NFL in yards rushing last year with 1,760.

Favre will help, too, with his leadership including his passion to play football.  “He really wants to win and that attitude is contagious,” Lurtsema said.

Lurtsema respects NFC North title contenders Green Bay and Chicago, but believes in the Vikings.  “I think we’ll win it,” he said.  “It’s not going to be easy, but we have the stronger team.”

What will the season record be?  “The Vikings will win at least 12 games,” Lurtsema answered.  “I am very confident of that because there’s not a weakness on that team.”

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The Gopher football program begins its 126^th season on Saturday at Syracuse.  The program that produced six national championships hasn’t won any since 1960 and during the last 40 years or so has struggled to be anything other than a Big Ten cupcake.

So who can the Gophers emulate to improve their results? Yes, the Hawkeyes and Badgers are easy guesses.  Our neighboring states of Iowa and Wisconsin are similar to Minnesota in various ways including so-so high school football talent.  In the last 20 years the programs at Iowa and Wisconsin have each won three Big Ten titles.  But there’s probably even a better model to stir the hope of long patient Gopher fans.  Northwestern, for decades a sorry excuse for a football program, is no longer the “Mildcats,” and may even provide any anti-sports folks at the U something to think about.

At Minnesota the leadership wants to emphasize academics, and also honesty in recruiting.  Winning, they will tell you, is important, too.  To all of that Northwestern says: check, check and check.

Since 1995 the Wildcats have won three Big Ten championships.  Only Ohio State and Penn State have won more titles during that time.  The Gophers’ last championship was in 1967.  Northwestern went to the Rose Bowl in 2006.  Minnesota was there in 1962, the longest absence of any conference school.  Since 1993 when Penn State joined the Big Ten and made the conference an 11 team league the Gophers have the 10^th worst winning percentage in Big Ten games, with only Indiana doing worse, according to https://www.cleveland.com/datacentral/index.ssf/2008/10/alltime_big_ten_standings_and.html

Northwestern, the Big Ten’s only private school, overcame an embarrassing football reputation with smart coaching and recruiting.  First Gary Barnett, then Randy Walker and now 34-year-old Pat Fitzgerald have shown that winning can be accomplished almost any place.

Educational mission?  Apparently NU is still on track there.  Northwestern was the top ranked school from a BCS conference in America, according to a 2008 Forbes listing of colleges.  The criterion included impact of a school’s degree on a career, how much student debt is incurred, quality of the professors, and also national and international reputation of the institution.  Northwestern ranked No. 11 among all schools in the listing and Minnesota was the lowest among Big Ten schools at 554.

Last season Northwestern finished 9-4 overall, 5-3 in the Big Ten (last time the Gophers did that was 2003, 10-3, 5-3) and went to the Alamo Bowl.  What have the Wildcats done since?  Well, at the top of Fitzgerald’s list of talking points at a Big Ten media gathering this summer was academics.  Collectively, his players had a 3.0 grade point average for spring semester.

Fitzgerald, who played on the teams that started the Northwestern renaissance in the mid 1990s, has a 10 player leadership council to help make everyone accountable.  That and a whole lot of other things seem to be working at Northwestern.

Northwestern won the first of its recent three conference titles in 1995, ending a title drought dating back to 1936. The nine wins last year happened for only the fifth time in school history.  “I think we’re just scratching the surface,” Fitzgerald said.

As the Gophers begin a season that has them opening a magnificent new stadium with a third year leader in coach Tim Brewster, scratching the surface and looking to Northwestern for inspiration seems like good advice.

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