Greenway expects improved defense

Chad Greenway led the Vikings in tackles in 2008 and 2009. And the former Iowa linebacker and No. 1 draft choice by the Vikings in 2006 started off this season by leading the team with 12 tackles (nine solo, three assists) in the 14-9 loss to New Orleans.

Those great stats are one reason a man who sees almost every Vikings game either in person or on television and has been very involved with the NFL describes Greenway as "the most underrated football player on the Vikings team. You watch him and Greenway makes the big plays, the big tackles," said the source, who didn't want to be named.

One of the reasons the Vikings drafted Greenway was because of the friendship between Vikings coach Brad Childress and Iowa defensive coordinator Norm Parker, who ranked Greenway with the best linebackers he had ever coached. Greenway's ability, along with fellow linebackers E.J. Henderson and Ben Leber, is the reason Childress describes the trio as the best group of linebackers in the NFL. Childress said he thought they all played well in the loss to the Saints.

Speaking about losing in New Orleans, Greenway said: "It's tough, you want to get off on the right foot first of all, especially in front of a national audience like it was. We wanted to do really well, and unfortunately we fell a little bit short. But you know what? We've got to move on. There's 15 games left, and it can't be judged on one week. We have to keep moving forward and if we -- like you said, we have a tough schedule -- so if we sit and think about this one too much, we're going to be in trouble down the road because our division itself is hard enough."

The Vikings were one of the best defensive teams in the NFL last year, and Greenway looks for them to be better this year.

"We have the personnel here to be a lot better than we were last year," Greenway said. "We want to be in the top two or three defenses in the league. Our goal is to be number one, and we just want to keep striving to be the best. We have great players. We just have to keep working hard, and we have a group of guys that's going to work real hard all year and try to get to that spot and help our offense as much as we can."

Greenway looks for a tough game from the Dolphins on Sunday.

Greenway will be an unrestricted free agent after this season.

"It's a long road ahead here this season before we get to that point," he said. "I love it in Minnesota. I've been here every step of the way in my professional career. It's close to home for me, and so I do love it here a lot. They've been great to me. So when that issue comes up next offseason, you know we'll address that when it happens, but you know, you certainly can't say enough about the people in Minnesota and the organization."

You can rest assured the Vikings will have a lot of competition to sign Greenway, but it's pretty obvious he wants to stay here.

Warmath was leaving The Gophers football team had a record of 4-5 in 1957 after going 6-1-2 in 1956. Then the Gophers went 1-8 in 1958 and 2-7 in 1959, and there was heat on coach Murray Warmath. What a lot of people didn't know was that Warmath had agreed to coach Arkansas in 1960, where his former Tennessee football teammate John Barnhill was the athletic director.

But thanks to a great booster and friend by the name of Don Knutson, Warmath was persuaded to stay at Minnesota, with the understanding he would join some downtown businessmen in recruiting a number of great black players who weren't allowed to play at colleges in the South at that time.

The result of this incoming talent was the Gophers won their sixth and most recent national title in 1960 and played in the Rose Bowl in 1960 and 1961. And when Warmath pulled out of the Arkansas job, Frank Broyles went from Missouri to Arkansas to become the Razorbacks' longtime coach and athletic director, and Dan Devine went from Arizona State to Missouri to replace Broyles -- all because Minnesota was lucky that Warmath withdrew.

Warmath and the 1960 team will celebrate the 50th anniversary of that season Saturday. Without Knutson and the downtown boosters, that title would have never happened.

Warmath, 97, who has made a good recovery after recently being very ill, might be at the noon luncheon honoring the team at TCF Bank Stadium.

Jottings The Vikings-Miami game Sunday at the Metrodome is a sellout and will be televised, unlike a number of other franchises' second regular-season games, which will be blacked out.

Twins General Manager Bill Smith, describing the great contribution of lefthander Brian Duensing, who is 14-4 over the past two seasons after pitching six innings of two-run ball to beat the White Sox 9-3 Wednesday: "He's been great. Last year he went into the rotation about August 20th and he went 5-0 down the stretch when we were trying to chase down Detroit and he was huge for us last year. He was good out of the bullpen and he's been equally good or better in the rotation. He's under control [as far as his eligibility for free agency], he's not arbitration-eligible yet. So he'll be under control for four more years."

The annual Trent Tucker Celebrity Golf and Poker Tournament is this weekend. The event starts with a poker tournament at Running Aces Harness Park in Columbus on Thursday. A celebrity party including a number of former NBA stars will be held Friday at the Shops at West End in St. Louis Park, followed by the golf tournament at Rush Creek on Saturday. ... A year ago, the Gophers sold 10,000 student season football tickets. To date they have sold 8,300 student season tickets, and any tickets the students don't buy will become available to the public. There are tickets available for the Southern California game Saturday and all other home games except Ohio State and Iowa.