SID's JOTTINGS

• Bud Grant's biggest fans and cheerleaders, the 40 members of his immediate family including children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, will be there when they dedicate a street to him outside of the new Vikings stadium on 9th Avenue between 6th Street and 7th Street on Monday, a road previously known as Carew Drive. "They are very excited about this," Grant said about his family. "And that's what makes me the most happy about what the Wilf family and the City Council have decided to do."

• The Gophers football team might have the hardest first two games of any team in the Big Ten next season. They open the season against Texas Christian, which thumped the Gophers earlier this year and is currently ranked No. 6 in the country, and follow that by playing at Colorado State, which saw a nine-game winning streak end in a loss to Air Force on Friday. Their final two nonconference games are against Kent State and Ohio University at home.

• Interesting that the Wild and Timberwolves visited Minnesota's former NHL and NBA franchises on the same night on Friday, when the Wild beat Dallas 5-4 in overtime and the Wolves edged the Lakers 120-119.

• Michigan Tech men's hockey coach Mel Pearson, who played at Edina in the 1970s under Willard Ikola, had the Huskies ranked No. 1 in the country for the first time since 1976, but just for one week, as the Huskies were swept by Minnesota State Mankato last weekend, dropping Tech to No. 6 in this week's poll. Incidentally, Pearson's father, Mel, played with the Minnesota Fighting Saints in the 1970s.

• While the Vikings have offensive line problems with Brandon Fusco and Phil Loadholt on injured reserve and Matt Kalil playing with a bad knee, Sunday's opponent Carolina has five offensive linemen on IR.