Sid Hartman: Vikings will take look at Quinn

At the end of the 2006 season, Vikings coach Brad Childress made it clear that Tarvaris Jackson, the young quarterback from Alabama State, was going to be the No. 1 quarterback for 2007, with the position not a priority this offseason. Brooks Bollinger would also compete for the position.

However, in later conversations with Childress, he talked about how the Vikings could be looking for a young quarterback to battle Jackson and Bollinger for the starting job, though perhaps not a top draft choice.

Well, the word around the NFL is that the Vikings are going to pay a lot of attention to Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn at the NFL scouting combine, which started on Wednesday in Indianapolis.

Quinn is likely to be one of the players the Vikings will interview to try to find out what makes him tick. If Quinn makes a great impression at Indy and in further workouts, it might be difficult for the Vikings to pass over him if he is available with the No. 7 overall pick.

Quinn started his freshman year and holds many Irish passing records, throwing for 3,426 yards and 37 touchdowns last season. Notre Dame went 30-19 in his four seasons. But after going 5-7 as a freshman and 6-6 as a sophomore, he had records of 9-3 and 10-3 under current Irish coach Charlie Weis, the ex-New England offensive coordinator who had a lot to do with the improvement of Patriots quarterback Tom Brady.

Todd McShay of Scouts Inc. has the Vikings taking Ted Ginn Jr. of Ohio State with their seventh pick, using Ginn as both a wide receiver and return man.

However, after the bad experience they had taking South Carolina's Troy Williamson at No. 7 overall in the 2005 draft, I expect the Vikings to look for wide receivers in the second round and later.

Good schedule

The 2007 Gophers football schedule includes seven home games, with only one of the first five on the road and with Penn State and Michigan State not on the Big Ten schedule.

The Gophers open with Bowling Green on Sept. 1, followed with Miami (Ohio) at the Metrodome and a trip to Florida Atlantic, where old pro coach Howard Schnellenberger might have a very competitive team. Then they begin Big Ten play with Purdue and Ohio State at home on successive weeks.

Road games follow at Indiana and Northwestern before North Dakota State visits the Metrodome on Oct. 20.

The hardest part of the schedule comes at the end: a road game at Michigan, a much-improved Illinois team here, a game at Iowa and then ending with Wisconsin at home. The Gophers don't have a week off from the beginning to the end of the season.

Locals high in draft

Doug Risebrough, the Wild president and general manager, said recently that there are more good young hockey players in this state than maybe any similar area in the world.

Well, if you check McKeen's Draft Digest's top 300 prospects available for this summer's NHL draft, given the number of local players featured on the list, you have to believe that Risebrough is on to something.

Sam Gagner, the son of former North Stars center Dave Gagner, is rated No. 9. Gophers freshman Jim O'Brien is ranked No. 14; Cretin-Derham Hall defenseman Ryan McDonagh No. 17; and Gophers recruits Patrick White of Grand Rapids and Nick Larson of Hill-Murray are No. 24 and 36, respectively.

Other Gophers recruits in the top 100 are Mike Hoeffel, formerly of Hill-Murray, at No. 45; Virginia's Nico Sacchetti at No. 70; White Bear Lake's Jake Hansen at No. 77; and Cade Fairchild, formerly of Duluth East, at No. 81. Hoeffel and Fairchild have been playing for the U.S. National Team Development Program in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Former Blake goalie Kent Patterson, now playing in the USHL, is ranked No. 39 and Hermantown's Drew LeBlanc is No. 98.

There are many more Minnesotans ranked by the publication. Tyler Johnson of Cloquet-Esko-Carlton is at No. 107; Holy Angels' Taylor Matson is 116; Moorhead's Jeff Foss, 143; Roseville's Michael Dorr, 147; Moorhead's Jordy Christian, 153; Moorhead's John Lee, 168; Grand Rapids' Joe Stejskal, 221; Brandon Martell, formerly of Elk River, 234; Richfield's Mark Guggenberger, 246; Stillwater's Tyler Kieffer, 253; Blaine's Joe Beaudette, 265; Edina's Matt Reber, 272; and Bloomington Jefferson's Josh Levine is 284.

Jottings

Carey Bailey, who was on the Gophers football coaching staff for the past two years as the defensive line coach for Glen Mason, has been named the new head coach at Howard. Other members of Mason's staff who have secured jobs include secondary coach Craig Bray, now the defensive coordinator at Arizona State, and linebackers coach Marc Criner, the defensive coordinator at Idaho.

The Wild is 10-4 in shootouts after Tuesday's 2-1 shootout victory at home over Dallas. The Wild also is 5-1 in overtime. Under the old NHL rules where games would have ended in ties after a scoreless overtime, the Wild would be 23-24-14 for 60 points instead of 33-23-5 for 71.

The Gophers spring football game has now been scheduled for April 7 at the Metrodome. New coach Tim Brewster plans a big party the night before with invitations to a number of former Gophers greats whom he wants to get involved in the program. ... Alex Daniels played running back, linebacker and defensive end last season. New defensive line coach Tim Cross will get the assignment of making Daniels into a tough, effective pass-rushing lineman, and Cross is confident it will happen. ... The Gophers have hired a new quality control person in former Toledo graduate assistant Greg Roskos. ... Cory Sauter has left the Gophers staff as a graduate assistant to be an assistant coach in NFL Europe. But Brewster is high on Sauter as a future quarterbacks coach and could bring him back to a permanent spot on the staff if an opening develops.

Stu Starner, an assistant men's basketball coach on the Gophers' 1982 Big Ten championship team that was honored at Williams Arena last week, is now a director of major gifts for Texas A&M, where the Aggies football staff features Bob DeBesse and Mark Tommerdahl, two members of Jim Wacker's Gophers staffs. ... Former Gophers men's hockey coach Doug Woog, who now is involved in the sale of executive boxes at all Gophers events, looks for increased interest in Metrodome boxes because of the great reception Brewster has received since his hiring. Brewster continues to sell the program like he did Tuesday night at a "meet the coaches" dinner at Williams Arena for a number of Gophers corporate sponsors.

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