Sid Hartman: Jackson was prepared, and will be needed

It will take a miracle for Vikings quarterback Gus Frerotte to play against the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday because of the serious back injury he suffered against the Lions last weekend. He went to the locker room and never returned to the field.

Frerotte hasn't taken any snaps on the field this week and has spent his time living in Eric Sugarman's training room morning, noon and night.

In fact, the injury is so serious that Frerotte might miss the Dec. 21 Atlanta game.

However, Frerotte is a tough egg. While many quarterbacks would have missed some earlier games, he played through serious pain.

It was fortunate Tarvaris Jackson got some experience on the field at the right time and should be ready to play well. Had Frerotte been hurt earlier in the season, Jackson wouldn't have had the time to run the scout team for several weeks. He improved a lot and was ready to perform against the Lions.

Vikings offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell and quarterbacks coach Kevin Rogers never have given up on Jackson.

"A guy like that has to continue to work to try to make himself better and be ready at any moment's notice," Bevell said. "We drafted him for a reason. We believe in his skills, and we believe in his ability, but there's a lot more to it than just having the physical skills.

"I mean, you still have to love them up. I know we put him on the bench, put somebody else in there, but you still have to love them up. It's no different than [with offensive linemen] Artis Hicks and Ryan Cook. That thing has fought back and forth a couple times. It's no different than Artis going in for big Mac [tackle Bryant McKinnie]. There's a lot of guys that are going to get opportunities to play, and you have to still have enough confidence in those guys that you can put them right back in there and believe in them."

Bevell said the coaches didn't simplify the game plan when Jackson replaced Frerotte last week.

"We called the game plan the way it was installed, and he did a great job of executing it," Bevell said. "Absolutely, we'll go to town with the same game plan that we're putting in right now."

Rogers added: "He's a young guy, and you know the old saying, when things don't go well, like early in the season, the quarterback is going to get too much credit and too much blame. I think that was the case with him."

What does Jackson need to do to stay ready?

"Keeping his finger in it and making sure that he's working on his timing," Rogers said, "particularly when we're running our own plays against our defense really helps him out. Based on the way that he performed last week, absolutely [he can execute the full game plan]."

Not fair About two weeks ago, when I asked Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor if coach Randy Wittman's job was in danger, Taylor made it clear Witt-man was not in any danger at all. Well, contrary to what Taylor assured me, Wittman was fired Monday.

"Well, I don't know if it's ever fair," Taylor said. "I don't know that life is fair. It isn't even something that I enjoy or wanted to do. But in looking at the season, I thought I had to do it early so that we could try to save the season. I just had this feeling that it was slipping away. As you say, that's not fair to Randy. I'm trying to be fair to our players and give them the best opportunity to have a good year.

"[Two weeks ago] I was optimistic. I didn't have any reason. You saw the games. The last two games really changed a lot. It isn't that you just lose, if you played against a really good team and you lost, I wouldn't be as concerned about that. But I think we played against some teams that we probably should have beat and we didn't even play them competitively, and that concerns me. And I know that Randy has tried and was doing everything that he could, but I just didn't know how he was going to turn it around."

Well, yes it isn't fair to fire a coach with eight new players after only 19 games and given no chance to install his system. And then two of his best players got hurt -- guard/forward Mike Miller and forward Corey Brewer.

Taylor said new coach Kevin McHale, the former vice president of basketball operations, still will have the chance to offer his opinions on trades and personnel matters. But I believe Taylor made the coaching change too quickly.

Jottings When NBC introduced the Vikings players before the Bears game Sunday night at the Metrodome, nearly all of them introduced their regular college. But Vikings defensive end Jared Allen announced his school as "Culinary Academy." So on Wednesday, ESPN brought a crew to Winter Park to film and interview Allen dressed in a chef's uniform and photograph him serving the players. Allen will appear with ESPN's Kenny Mayne in the pregame show before Sunday's game with Arizona.

Has Gophers basketball coach Tubby Smith had such young, talented big men before? "No, no I haven't," he said. "I remember at Kentucky we had three 7-footers at one time, and we still weren't a very good rebounding team. So what we have now is 6-10, 6-11 guys, [freshmen] Ralph Sampson III and Colton Iverson, [who] are not only skilled basketball players but they really have a very competitive, tough spirit about them that I think will help them down the road." ... The Gophers basketball team will play in the ESPN basketball tournament Nov. 26, 27, and 29 in Anaheim next season. Teams in the tournament include UCLA, West Virginia, Butler, Clemson, Long Beach State, Texas A&M and Portland.

Gophers receiver Eric Decker, who also plays baseball for the Gophers, is ranked No. 91 among the top 100 college prospects for the 2009 Amateur Draft by Baseball America. ... Gophers outfielder Matt Nohelty was named to the preseason Brooks Wallace College Baseball Player of the Year watch list. Nohelty, a senior from Rothschild, Wis., batted .397 for the Gophers last season.

The Augustana football team, which is coached by Brad Salem (the son of former Gophers coach Joe Salem), defeated Missouri Western 37-16 in the Mineral Water Bowl last Saturday. The Vikings were led this season by Joe Clark, a sophomore from Rochester, Minn., who set a school record with 1,114 rushing yards. Augustana will move into a new $10 million on-campus stadium next fall.

Sid Hartman can be heard weekdays on WCCO AM-830 at 6:40, 7:40 and 8:40 a.m. and on his Podcast once a week at www.startribune.com/sidcast. shartman@startribune.com