Sid Hartman: Booty says Gophers landed a good hire in Alabama's Davis

Vikings No. 3 quarterback John David Booty played on two national championship teams at Southern California when Tim Davis was offensive line coach for the Trojans.

The NFL rookie had high praise for Davis, who was hired this week as the running game coordinator for the Gophers football team under coach Tim Brewster. Davis had been at Alabama as director of player personnel.

"A great coach," Booty said. "I think he's coached under a lot of really wonderful head coaches that know the game, Pete Carroll [Southern California] and Nick Saban [with the Miami Dolphins and Alabama].

"Yeah, my first two years he was there, that was back-to-back national championships," said Booty, referring to the 2003 and '04 seasons. "He's a real high-energy guy. Back when he was at SC, we had some of our best rushing numbers the whole time I was there, the five years. So, I think [the Gophers] really got a great coach in Coach Davis."

Davis was with the Trojans from 2002 to '04 before getting a job with Saban as a Dolphins assistant line coach. When Saban went to Alabama, so did Davis.

Booty rattled off the names of the offensive linemen now in the NFL who were developed by Davis. "Every lineman we had, Sam Baker, Winston Justice, Ryan Kalil, Deuce Lutui, you can go on and on down the list of all the guys that we've had come out of there that he recruited and brought in," Booty said. "And coach [Pat] Ruel too, who came in after Coach Davis had left, but it was really Davis and Coach Carroll and those guys that brought in all those great linemen.

"He's fun to be around, but he's not going to slack off. He means business, and when you're out there, it's all ball and go, go, go. That's how he is, just real high-strung and he's going to get the most out of his guys."

Booty said he believed Davis left USC only because he had an opportunity to get a job in the NFL. "I think that was really the main reason, he wanted to try the NFL out," Booty said.

Booty believes the Gophers made a good hire, saying, "It's huge. I think you're getting a coach who knows what he's doing and is a really good recruiter, which obviously, in college, is a pretty big deal."

Strong tight ends Third-year Vikings tight ends coach Jimmie Johnson believes he has as good a group at the position as any team in the league.

"We feel like we have four quality guys at the position," said Johnson, who as a tight end was a 12th-round draft pick by Washington in 1989 but wound up playing 10 NFL seasons.

He pointed to Jeff Dugan, who after playing in all 16 games a year ago was inactive for six of the first seven games this season. He has now played in three of the past four games and was in the starting lineup in last week's game at Jacksonville.

"We had Garrett Mills who was down, [we] didn't feel good about him from a physical standpoint, in terms of his health, so we went with Dugan. That's a luxury I have at tight end with my four guys, but it was great to have him."

Dugan has been playing for Mills, who has had ankle problems lately and been inactive three of the past four weeks.

The top two tight ends, Visanthe Shiancoe and Jim Kleinsasser, have played in every game. Shiancoe has finally become the dependable receiver the Vikings thought he would be when they signed him last year. Kleinsasser remains a strong, durable blocker in his 10th season with the team.

"As solid as ever, one of the best in the business at what he does and I'm glad we have him," Johnson said of Kleinsasser, who can be a free agent at the end of the season.

Johnson said all four players know their roles, and that is very important.

"But they all are interchangeable. Some have more strengths than others in specific things, but we feel good about all of them."

Jottings Give credit to Vikings special teams coach Paul Ferraro. In the first five games, the team was giving up 25.8 yards per kickoff return, which ranked 28th in the league. Over the past six games the Vikings have given up 19.9 yards per return, which ranks fourth in the league over that stretch.

Vikings receiver Bobby Wade had some good words to say of Gus Frerotte: "Frerotte is obviously really savvy, an educated player when it comes to knowing where everybody's at and doing things like that. He makes big plays for us and I'm glad to have him. He's the oldest quarterback I ever played with, but he's good. He rates up there with some of the better guys I played with."

Kyle Okposo, the former Gophers hockey player who left the team in the middle of last season to sign a pro contract with the Islanders, suffered a hand/wrist injury last week that has kept him out in recent games. He has two goals and three assists this season.

Celtics coach Doc Rivers was asked last week when Boston visited the Timberwolves if Kevin Garnett was as good or better than he thought he would be. "I've said this before, being an opposing coach of Kevin, you saw the energy and you thought there's no way possible that it's true energy. There's no way he's like that for real," Rivers said. "What I've found coaching him is that it is like that and it's even more so. But, more important to me for Kevin is he's a great human being to have on your basketball team. He's a true leader. He plays the game to win, only. He could care less about his numbers or anything else. I didn't know that about him, either."