Sid Hartman: Vikings QB coach Rogers says he has plenty to work with

Kevin Rogers has been a football coach for 33 years, 28 in college. Among the players the Vikings quarterbacks coach has guided was Syracuse's Donovan McNabb, one of the NFL's top quarterbacks with the Philadelphia Eagles.

Rogers also coached at Ohio State, William & Mary, Navy, Notre Dame and Virginia Tech. He said the Vikings' quarterback situation right now is a lot better than when he joined Brad Childress' staff in 2006.

And Rogers is a big backer of Tarvaris Jackson, the Vikings starting quarterback. The veterans backing him up currently are Gus Frerotte and Brooks Bollinger.

"It's constantly changing. I think since I've been here, I've had 13 different faces to work with," Rogers said. "Right now we have five guys that we're working with, with the three young guys.

"... Obviously, we feel good about what went on in the draft and free agency, but we've got to work with them and find out exactly what we've got."

Rogers is pleased about the selection of Southern California's John David Booty in the fifth round of last week's NFL draft.

"He was a tremendous value for us in the fifth round," Rogers said. "In fact, I had him rated right in there with the top five quarterbacks. So, we're real excited about John David.

Rogers also likes Miami (Fla.) quarterback Kyle Wright, whom the Vikings signed as a free agent.

"Again, he's a guy that's played on the big stage at Miami, had a lot of ups and downs in his career," Rogers said. "I think he had three different coordinators while he was there, but Kyle's a talented guy. I think he was the No. 1-rated high school football player when he graduated from high school."

While many of the "experts" don't agree with him, Rogers looks for Jackson to develop into one of the better quarterbacks in the NFL.

"I'll tell you what, he's certainly made every effort to be as good as he can be and improve on his talents," Rogers said of the second-round draft pick in 2006 out of Alabama State. "He is in here the extra time, whether it's in the weight room, whether it's in the classroom, or whether it's on the field. He has volunteered to come in here on Fridays and Saturdays, so the effort is there and you can visibly see improvement.

"I'm really excited about him. I expect this year to be his biggest leap of improvement. You're going to see a marked change, I believe, in the guy. I think, really, he's a second-year guy, and I think you see the biggest improvement from the first year to second year."

"... Certainly he's shown a lot of promise as far as I'm concerned."

Studying the statistics of various young NFL quarterbacks, Rogers said Jackson did as well last season as any of them.

"Even if you compare Tarvaris with Matt Leinart, Jay Cutler and Vince Young -- you know, the three first-round draft picks [in 2006] -- if you look at the numbers, Tarvaris compares favorably with all three of those guys," Rogers said. "So, it's a process. Some guys it takes five or six years to get good enough; different guys develop at different times."

It is amazing how much confidence all of the people at Winter Park have in Jackson. His record as a starter is 8-4, he had to play hurt and he had to play with average receivers.

Speaking on ESPN recently, former Vikings star wide receiver Cris Carter called the receivers here in 2007 "the worst in 20 years at Minnesota."

And if you speak to Jackson, he has a lot more confidence than he ever had. And Frerotte's presence should make Jackson a lot better, just as Frerotte did for Daunte Culpepper.

Joe Mauer -- who has been healthy this season for a change and is hitting .326 after going 3-for-4 Saturday night in the Twins' 4-1 victory over Detroit at the Metrodome -- was asked what he did during the offseason. "Well, this offseason, I just pretty much rested," the Twins catcher replied. "I was pretty banged up last year, and I just was allowed to rest."

Twins pitching coach Rick Anderson in describing Livan Hernandez, who is 4-1 with the Twins after his seven innings Friday vs. Detroit: "He's one of a kind. I don't think I've ever had one that changes speeds [like that] -- he'll throw one at 85, one at 75 and one at 59. So, I can't compare him to anyone we've ever had. He's good for the young ones to watch, knowing that you don't have to go out and throw 95 miles an hour to get hitters out. It's all about changing speeds and locations."

Arnold Palmer, here to speak to employees at Starkey (a manufacturer of hearing aids in Eden Prairie), said he hasn't decided whether he will be at the 3M Championship in July at TPC Twin Cities in Blaine but that tournament promoter Hollis Cavner is working on him and he will have a hard time saying no.

Checking the Red Wings' playoff domination over the Avalanche, Detroit scored 15 goals in 130 minutes vs. Colorado goaltender Jose Theodore as the Red Wings swept the second-round series in four games. That compares to 12 goals in 384 minutes the Wild scored vs. Colorado in losing the first-round series in four games. Theodore had a 6.92 goals-against average and a .826 save percentage against the Red Wings, getting pulled from three of the four losses for backup Peter Budaj.

Mark Alt, an outstanding sophomore athlete at Cretin-Derham Hall and the son of former Columbia Heights, Iowa and Kansas City Chiefs offensive lineman John Alt, has verbally committed to a hockey scholarship offer from the Gophers.

Hoopmasters.com has the Gophers men's basketball recruiting class ranked ninth nationally, according to Gopher Illustrated.com. Kansas is No. 1, with No. 7 Ohio State the only Big Ten school ranked ahead of the Gophers.