Sid Hartman: Rams lineup has several players with local ties

Scott Linehan -- the Vikings' offensive coordinator under Mike Tice for three years and now the head coach of the St. Louis Rams, the Vikings' opponent here Sunday -- will have a number of familiar names in his lineup.

Former Gopher Mark Setterstrom, who sat out the first 10 games with the Rams, has developed into a left guard with a great future and has started the past five games. He has done everything Gophers coach Glen Mason told Linehan that Setterstrom would do.

Ex-Vikings tackle Todd Steussie still has some football left and brings experience to the offensive line. Linehan said he wants Steussie to come back next season. Former Viking Adam Goldberg is a reserve offensive lineman and has played about 10 quarters this year, according to Linehan.

Dominique Byrd, who played high school football at Breck and in college at Southern California, has seen limited action with the Rams. He caught two passes for 39 yards and a touchdown in last Sunday's 37-31 victory over the Washington Redskins.

Finally, ex-Vikings safety Corey Chavous is a Rams captain and, according to Linehan, having a great year.

Linehan, who served one season as the offensive coordinator for the Miami Dolphins before being named head coach of the Rams, said he found there was a lot more to being a head coach in the NFL than he thought. That is one reason he gave up calling the plays after the Carolina game on Nov. 19.

Linehan said he has known Rams offensive coordinator Greg Olson since before college. Both learned an offensive system similar to what Linehan ran with the Vikings during previous playing and coaching stops, and Linehan said Olson is very capable of calling plays.

Linehan said the Rams recently have played two of their best games in beating the Oakland Raiders and Washington, earning a chance to be in the playoffs. That will happen only if they beat the Vikings and the Giants, Panthers and Falcons all lose or tie this weekend.

"Once you get the opportunity anything can happen," he said.

As for facing a new quarterback in Tarvaris Jackson of the Vikings, Linehan said they scouted him quite a bit coming out of the draft and they have watched film of last week's Packers game, Jackson's first NFL start.

Coming back to the Metro- dome won't mean anything special to Linehan, he said, except he hopes to visit with a number of friends.

Not surprised

One person not surprised about the great play of Timberwolves rookie guard Randy Foye is Craig Smith, whose Boston College team played Foye's Villanova team. He watched his new Wolves teammate score final-second baskets time after time as he did in the Wolves' 100-98 victory over the Chicago Bulls on Tuesday night.

"Definitely, he's always been a big-time player, especially in the clutch. He always comes up with the shots like that. He beat us a couple of times with some game-winners," said Smith about Foye, who scored a career-high 25 points against the Bulls. "He pretty much has seen every situation imaginable. No surprise at all, especially not to me. I knew he was capable of doing this the whole time."

One positive thing about Foye is he has been healthy. Brandon Roy, whom the Wolves originally drafted and then traded to Portland for the rights to Foye and more than $1 million, has been on the injured list most of the season.

Jottings

Rob Babcock was the general manager at Toronto last year and made the deal that brought Mike James to the Raptors. When Babcock left Toronto and rejoined the Wolves as an assistant GM, he recommended the team sign James. He is still on the James bandwagon.

"Mike is still adjusting to a new system, but I'm convinced he will have a good year," Babcock said.

The biggest bargain on the Twins roster is closer Joe Nathan, who is signed for $5.25 million next season and $6 million for the following year. The Twins need to sign Nathan to an extension, or he will be gone and get paid a lot more money.

Joe Mauer, who attended the Wolves-Bulls game Tuesday, said his agent and the Twins have talked very little about a contract for next year. Despite becoming the first catcher to win the American League batting title, Mauer said the only new national commercial he has is with ESPN. Mauer heads to Fort Myers, Fla., this week, where he will be on the faculty of former Twin Ron Coomer's baseball camp.

Devin Bishop -- the outstanding City College of San Francisco linebacker who is rated the 55th-best college junior college football player -- told gopherillustrated.com that, after first saying he was going to Minnesota and then to the University of California, now has decided to go with the Gophers.

Even though it can't win on the road, the Wild is still one of the few NHL teams selling out every game. At one time, the Boston Bruins franchise never had an empty seat. But now it is averaging around 9,000 per game in a building seating twice that.

Former Gophers football star Tom Brown, who won the Outland Trophy in 1960, is in a Vancouver, B.C., hospital, recovering from a stroke he suffered while recovering from knee replacement surgery.

Buddy Wyatt, who was an assistant Gophers football coach from 1992 to 1995, has joined the staff of Bill Callahan at Nebraska. Wyatt spent the past four seasons at Alabama.

Zach Lee, the son of former Vikings quarterback Bob Lee, has committed to play football for Nebraska. Zach, who just completed his freshman season at City College of San Francisco, is one of the top-rated JC quarterbacks in the nation.

Rich Olson, who was Vikings quarterbacks coach in 2005, has moved to Arizona State, where he will be on the offensive coaching staff of new coach Dennis Erickson.

John Carlson, the Litchfield, Minn., native and Notre Dame player who was a runner-up to the Gophers' Matt Spaeth for the John Mackey Award as the country's best college tight end, missed the Irish's final two games but will be ready to face LSU in the Sugar Bowl. Carlson, now 6-6 and 256 pounds, was named to ESPN The Magazine's Academic All-America team with a 3.59 GPA as a history major at Notre Dame.

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