Childress likes what he sees at minicamps

Vikings coach Brad Childress was holding court Thursday at Rush Creek, where the team's annual golf tournament was being held, and was asked what the team had accomplished during minicamps. The last one was held this week.

"I think overall ... the goal is to make sure we're better on our pass offense while still being able to run the football," Childress said. "And then being able to be better on our pass defense and being able to stop the run. These are some things that we have been working on all of the time."

While being impressed and believing this is the best squad he has coached here, he added: "Well, you like what you see from these guys, but the proof is in the pudding. We don't have pads on right now and they're just basically getting up to speed with assignments."

Childress said the absence of center Matt Birk from the optional camps gave John Sullivan, a sixth-round draft choice from Notre Dame, the opportunity to get a lot of snaps, and he performed well.

"I just think from the standpoint [of] John Sullivan getting snaps that he normally would not see because of the elevated reps, he's caught your eye ... [and] gotten a chance to get in there and move around," Childress said. "He's done a good job. ... He's smart and he's physical and he played for four years there under pretty bright lights glaring and under a pretty hard taskmaster the last couple of years in Charlie [Weis, Notre Dame football coach]. Charlie gave him a vote of confidence and that's what I've seen."

Actually, Sullivan is just one of several draft choices and free agents who have impressed. Vikings owner Zygi Wilf said the other day this will be a tough squad to cut to 53 players.

Recruits in school Gophers basketball coach Tubby Smith has three of his top five recruits in summer school. NCAA rules don't permit coaches to supervise any of the workouts, and Smith is working to change that rule.

Forward Paul Carter has some work left in summer school to graduate from Missouri State-West Plains College, so he will arrive in the fall.

Smith said guard Devoe Joseph is trying out for the Canadian Olympic team, but the coach is concerned about Joseph's development.

"I looked at that roster, and the people that Canada is inviting, all of them are veteran players," Smith said. "So, he might need to get here. I don't want him to waste his summer if he's not going to be [playing much]."

Pride to Totino-Grace J.D. Pride II, the son of former Gopher J.D. Pride and an outstanding quarterback, has transferred from Cretin- Derham Hall to Totino-Grace, where he could be the starting quarterback this fall.

There was expected to be a real battle at Cretin-Derham Hall for the starting quarterback position this fall between Pride and Mark Alt, son of former Chiefs tackle John Alt.

"I coach track and field," he said. "I pulled back from football because I coached J.D. and Seantrel Henderson since they were fourth-graders, since they were 10, 11 years old, and I decided, you know, I couldn't coach them the rest of my life, so it's time to let someone else coach them."

Henderson, a 6-7, 305-pound offensive lineman and junior-to-be, is being nationally recruited for football and also is receiving some interest from colleges for basketball. The senior Pride, being close to Henderson, believes he will wind up with the Gophers.

Jottings Blake Wheeler -- the former Gophers winger who is now a free agent after not signing with Phoenix, the team that drafted him -- is not interested in signing with the Wild. His father, James, said Blake wants to get away from the state to play. He was in Boston on Thursday and has visited the Rangers, Canadiens and Devils, and is likely to sign with one of them.

Jon Wefald, who moved from the position of chancellor of the Minnesota State University system to become president at Kansas State, is retiring as president in June 2009 and will remain on the school staff as a professor. During Wefald's presidency at Kansas State, the school has won as many big-time scholastic awards as any college in the Big 12 Conference, and demonstrated that a school other than a Stanford or Duke could be successful in academics and athletics. He recently called to sing the praises of former Wildcats basketball standout Michael Beasley, and wanted to encourage the Timberwolves to find a way to draft this outstanding basketball player in the upcoming NBA draft on June 26.

Bryce Webster was one of the Gophers' top basketball recruits while playing for St. Thomas Academy. He left Minnesota before his sophomore year, enrolled in Irvine Valley (Calif.) Community College and signed a tender to transfer to Utah State, where former Gophers assistant James Ware was an assistant coach. Now, according to Ware -- who is leaving Utah State to join the Santa Clara staff -- said Webster told him he no longer has an interest in playing basketball. Incidentally, Ware was one of the better recruiters when he was on the Gophers staff. He recruited Minneapolis Roosevelt basketball star Stavon Williams, who is transferring to Utah State from San Jacinto Junior College in Houston, where he was one of the top junior college players in Texas.

Former Gophers golfer Clayton Rask has earned exempt status for the remainder of the Canadian PGA 2008 schedule. ... The new Gophers football equipment boss is Ryan Grooms, who was the head equipment specialist at Air Force.