Sid Hartman: Frerotte mending; Jackson will start

Vikings quarterback Gus Frerotte, who sat out Sunday's game in Arizona, said rookie John David Booty would have replaced Tarvaris Jackson if Jackson had gotten hurt.

Frerotte, being the great competitor he is, would have liked to have played.

"I would have played last week only in a emergency," Frerotte said.

Frerotte said he made a lot of progress with his back injury since he was hurt against Detroit on Dec. 7. "I feel really good. It's coming along great. I've been doing a lot of treatment, and the trainers have done a great job getting me ready."

Will he be able to play Sunday against Atlanta?

"Yeah, I think so. But we'll see how it goes," Frerotte said. "It will be an important couple of days coming up and we'll see how I feel."

But if you want me to guess, I don't think there is any chance Frerotte will start. Jackson will get the call, after winning NFC offensive player of the week honors for his four-touchdown, no-interception performance against the Cardinals, and Frerotte will not play unless Jackson has a bad day or is injured.

"They are very good," he said. "Very good, very good, they're not doing a lot of crazy stuff. I think they keep it pretty basic and let those guys play fast. They're a good team, they fly around, and they have a good defense. They're fast and they're quick."

Painful memory Center Matt Birk is the only player remaining from the Dennis Green-coached Vikings team of 1998 that went 15-1 in the regular season but lost to the Falcons on an overtime field goal in the NFC Championship Game and failed to make it to the Super Bowl.

"That was a long time ago, It was a tough loss," Birk said. "It was the NFC Championship Game, it was a big game. They played better than we did and beat us.

"It was one of those games. It was 11 years ago, that's like ancient history. They were 14-2 that year, they were a good team and they beat us.

"I was a rookie that year. I wasn't really playing that much and I was just kind of along for the ride. Jeff Christy was the center.

The Vikings could have won that game in regulation when kicker Gary Anderson, who had been 35-for-35 on field-goal attempts during the regular season, missed a 38-yard field goal with 2:07 left to play.

Then Morten Andersen kicked a field goal with 3:22 left in overtime to give the Falcons, 11-point underdogs, their first trip to the Super Bowl in the franchise's history.

Offense gets rolling The Vikings have scored 229 points over the past eight games, an average of 28.6 points per game. Only Carolina (29.5) and New England (29) have averaged more points per game during that stretch.

The Vikings rank first in the NFL with 15 touchdowns on plays of 20 yards or more.

If the Vikings continue to lead the NFL in rushing defense through the final two regular-season games, they will become the first team in NFL history to rank No. 1 against the run in three consecutive seasons since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger.

But I've talked to some scouts who believe Decker could be drafted high as an outfielder in baseball if he decides to pass up his senior year in football. The Brewers drafted him in the 39th round of the June draft. What a mistake the Twins made by not drafting Decker earlier.

Jottings Among 10 players who visited the Minnesota campus last weekend were quarterback Moses Alipate of Bloomington Jefferson; three offensive linemen, Brooks Michel (Carmel, Ind.); Josh Campion (Fergus Falls, Minn.) and Ed Olson (Mahtomedi); and wide receiver Victor Keise of North Broward Prep in Coral Springs, Fla. Others visiting who have not committed were Eden Prairie defensive back Corey Frazier, son of Vikings defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier; defensive end Torrey Ball and defensive back Taikwon Paige from Milledgeville (Ga.) Military Academy; and defensive back Anthony Leon of College of the Sequoias in Visalia, Calif.

Three local players are among the top five in goal-scoring in the NHL. Former Gopher Thomas Vanek continues to lead the NHL in goals with 24 and is on a pace for 66 goals this season for the Buffalo Sabres. Former Gopher Phil Kessel is third with 19 goals and is on a pace for 51 goals for the Boston Bruins. Bloomington native and former North Dakota standout Zach Parise is tied for fifth with 18 goals and is on a pace for 50 goals for the New Jersey Devils. Vanek and Parise lead their respective teams in scoring, and Kessel is the second-leading scorer for the Bruins. ... Former Breck and Gophers star Blake Wheeler is having a stellar rookie campaign for the Bruins with nine goals and eight assists and is also tied for second in the NHL with a plus-minus rating of plus-18.

Not a single former Gopher is on the present Wild squad. The presence of a couple of them, such as Devils defenseman Paul Martin and Avalanche defenseman Jordan Leopold, who is finally healthy and having a good year, would have made a big difference in the Wild's won-lost record.

Jordan Schroeder, the outstanding Gophers freshman forward from Prior Lake, is rated the 13th-best player in the Mc-Keen's Hockey Prospects 2009 preliminary draft rankings.

T.J. Oakes, the outstanding Gophers baseball recruit from Jordan and son of Gophers assistant coach Todd Oakes, scored his 1000th point in a basketball game against Rockford this week.

There is no doubt Monte Kiffin, who was paid over $2 million per year as the defensive coordinator of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, will become the highest-paid college defensive coordinator now that he has joined his son, Lane Kiffin, the new Tennessee football coach.

The Gophers wrestling recruits last year were ranked the best class in the country by WIN (Wrestling Insider Newsmagazine). This week WIN rated the current recruits sixth nationally, ahead of Big Ten foes Wisconsin (7), Iowa (8), Michigan (11), Ohio State (13) and Indiana (17).