Stu Voigt, as a Vikings broadcast analyst for 18 seasons, was so adept at his craft in the booth that he would call plays on the field before they happened.
So, what about these Vikings, who open the season hosting the Packers on Sept. 13?
“Kyler Murray’s had injuries over the years, J.J. McCarthy’s had injury problems in his brief stay here, Carson Wentz has been a good soldier, but I don’t know how much he’s got left in the tank,” Voigt said of the Vikings’ quarterbacks. “Wentz has taken a pretty good beating over the years. That’s the position you look at.”
Voigt, 78, was a rugged Vikings tight end for 11 years, playing in three Super Bowls. A University of Wisconsin alum, he also was broadcast analyst for Badgers games for 12 years. He is among active Vikings alumni participants.
“Receivers? The Vikings have a ton of them,” Voigt said. “Can you get another year out of (running back) Aaron Jones? I hope so — he’s pretty good. But you need more than him.
“Offensive line is pretty good. Defensively, I’m not sure they’re a top 10, but (coordinator Brian) Flores does a pretty good job of utilizing his personnel, with the blitzes and different things he does.
“The Vikings are not any worse than the Bears, Lions and Packers in the division, but not noticeably better than any of those teams, either.”
Of Murray, “he’s playing for his future. He throws the ball pretty good. If he comes through…(Sam) Darnold was kind of on the scrap heap for a while.
“You’ve got a have a quarterback. I’d say the games within the division are toss-ups. I do think the Vikings are a playoff team. Win the division? Maybe. Wild card? Maybe. I think the Vikings will be 10-7, and that will get you into the playoffs.”
\>> The Vikings, who missed the playoffs last season, have a 38% chance of making the playoffs this season, per betonline.ag. The Packers have a 51% chance to make the playoffs.
The Vikings are a 1.5-point favorite over the Packers in the opener.
\>> Catcher Vahn Lackey, the Twins’ first-round draft pick (No. 3 overall) in July who received a $9.5 million signing bonus, is hitting .232 with three home runs between low-Class A Fort Myers and high-Class A Cedar Rapids.
At Georgia Tech, Lackey led all Division I catchers by stealing 18 bases in 21 tries. In 23 minor league games this season, the 6-2, 215-pounder already stolen 10 bases in 11 tries.
Twins catcher Ryan Jeffers, 29, can become a free agent after the season and could cost at least $20 million a year. Lackey, 21, told the Pioneer Press his second-best position is third base.
\>> Must-see girls basketball on Dec. 1 at Cretin-Derham Hall: The Raiders, featuring sophomore star Madeleine Hamiel, who has been offered a tender by the Gophers, against Hill-Murray, whose senior star Mya Wilson turned down a Gophers offer for Ohio State.
\>> Noted golf professionals Tom Lehman and Dave Tentis are working on a remodel of the public Timber Creek course in Watertown.
\>> Former Gopher-Fighting Saint-North Star Mike Antonovich, 74, is back as mayor of Coleraine, Minn.
\>> That was retired WCCO-AM 830 star Dave Lee golfing in Scotland last week.
\>> St. Paul’s Dr. Seth Hawkins, known as “Dr. Fan” because he attended every major league baseball game during which a player achieved his 3,000th career hit going back to 1970 with Hank Aaron, died recently at age 83. Hawkins, from the time he was 10 years old, attended a major league regular-season baseball game in every ballpark except one.
\>> New principal at Cretin-Derham Hall is alumnus Dr. Ben Tierney.
\>> Simley High Hall of Fame electees for induction on Sept. 3: Brian Silk, Danielle DuBois-Woog, Jim Reed, Jena Hostetler-Radant, Abby Kain and Ron Haala.
\>> Gov. Tim Walz, asked by the Pioneer Press at a recent Vikings practice his plans after his term is up in January: “I probably won’t work for a mining company.”
\>> Real names of football bowl games this season: Pop-Tarts, Duke’s Mayo, Snoop Dogg, Bad Boys Mowers Gasparilla, Tony the Tiger and Poulan Weed-Eater. The other day, another bowl was introduced: The Berlin Wall Bowl.
\>> New Minnesota Forge pro women’s volleyball owner Craig Leipold had to like Fox Sports’ telecast of last weekend’s Nebraska-Texas women’s college match, which the network says drew 1.04 million viewers.
### \>> Don’t print that
\>> Twins’ Pohlads ownership a year ago couldn’t get the $1.75 billion they sought to sell the team. Then last spring, the Padres sold for $3.9 billion. And last week, the Angels reached a sales deal for $4 billion.
By holding out, it looks like the Pohlads will end up nearly doubling their initial price, if they put the club on the market. A new economic model for major league baseball after the anticipated owners lockout of players in December should have the Pohlads smiling.
\>> Not only has Kody Clemens been the Twins’ MVP this season, he is expected to be voted by at least one major league manager as the Gold Glove winner for the utility player category.
Clemens, 30, who the Twins got in a cash deal with the Phillies for just $100,000 last year, has played five different positions this season, and played them superbly. That’s why his manager, Derek Shelton, told the Pioneer Press he feels he should win the Gold Glove.
“Kody Clemens, in my opinion, should win the Gold Glove for utility guy,” Shelton said. “He’s played first base, second, both (outfield) corners, he’s played center and he’s played them all in either average or above average.
“Now, he has the ability to play one position all the time, and I think the good utility guys that I’ve been around, Marwin González, Ben Zobrist, they have the ability to play five positions, but they also have the ability to play four of those positions on an everyday basis. And in today’s game, that’s extremely valuable.
“The place he’s probably most deficient would be center, but in fairness to Kody, we put him in center because, at the time, we didn’t feel we had a ton of options. So, we played him out there to keep him in the lineup and to keep other people in the lineup.
“But the other positions, he’s played above average.”
Clemens, asked his favorite position, smiled and said second base.
\>> That was Terrance Gray, the classy Buffalo Bills assistant GM who last June was considered a favorite for the Vikings GM job that went to Nolan Teasley, scouting Gophers Drake Lindsey, Anthony Smith, Greg Johnson and John Nestor against Eastern Illinois on Thursday night. Other NFL teams scouting were the Bears, Texans and Dolphins.
Gray was interviewed twice by the Vikings this year for the GM position.
\>> Cost of business today: A little birdie says that among players the University of St. Thomas men’s basketball team lost to transfers after last season, Nolan Minessale left for a $1 million deal with Marquette, Nick Janowski left for Davidson for $500,000, and Ben Oosterbaan for San Francisco for $350,000.
\>> St. Thomas men’s hockey this season is entering the National Collegiate Hockey Conference, of which members have won nine of the last 11 NCAA championships.
“The good news is that our entire staff has coached in the NCHC,” head coach Rico Blasi said.
And recruited well. The Tommies enter this season with nine players who have been drafted by NHL teams.
\>> Perseverance: As a 22-year-old seeking a college football assistant job in 1996, Glenn Caruso, literally by hand, wrote 117 notes to head football coaches across the country, asking for an opportunity. Two came back as “maybes,” North Dakota State and Emporia State, and North Dakota State gave him a chance on a volunteer basis.
Entering Saturday’s game at North Dakota, the St. Thomas head coach had a 171-51 career won-loss record.
Now, before the start of every season, Caruso, 52, reads every one of those 117 handwritten notes. Just to remind him, he said, “of how grateful I am that someone took a shot on me,” and that there are others of another generation maybe seeking similar chances.
Caruso is set at St. Thomas but don’t think he doesn’t regularly get unsolicited inquiries about jobs elsewhere.
\>> Nolan Teasley, by the way, the Vikings first-year GM, penned letters to all 32 NFL teams asking for a chance to work in the NFL. He received one response, the Seahawks, who hired him as an intern.
#### Overheard
\>> Teasley on J.J. McCarthy: “The thing you need to keep in mind with J.J. is that he has the hardest job in sports. He’s only started 10 games, and his story’s not written.”
For more Charley Walters, DontPrintThat.com.