On the Vikings' 20-17 season-opening home loss to Tampa Bay on Sunday afternoon: Fred Friedman: "Brutal interior offensive line play means a poor season. Suggest you follow baseball or pick another NFL team. Failure to protect your quarterback means turnovers, incompletions and a losing year."
Kenny Kalligher: "A bad performance especially on the day the team honored Bud Grant. Too many blown opportunities. And, do we miss Adam Thielen or what?"
"Melissa and John are both personal friends. Melissa was the mentor for my freshman class when I was elected to the House. John and I served in the Senate together and quickly became friends." -- Duluth Mayor Roger Reinert
"I think we have some real playmakers this year who are excited for the challenge ahead. We graduated only eight seniors, although several were major contributors. For the first time in a long time, I like our depth." -- Hermantown Hawks football coach Mike Zagelmeyer
"I’m loving my time in Duluth and getting to work with this fantastic group of young men. We’ve improved tremendously as a team (tactically, technically, physically, and mentally), and we have a lot of room for growth, which is super exciting for the staff and I." -- Thomas Pazo
"It's important for people to recognize that we could be dealing with air quality impacts for a long time to come. These impacts could likely vary from day to day, and even hour by hour; and may also vary depending based on location across our large county." -- Amy Westbrook
The Vikings are too talented at receiver, too well coached and too versatile defensively to dismiss. They are also too uncertain at quarterback, center, safety and defensive-line depth to declare a championship contender. The most reasonable prediction is 10-7.
The exhibition will be UMD’s first meeting with the Under-18 team since Jan. 5, 2019, when Team USA defeated the Bulldogs 4-2 at Amsoil. Cole Caufield scored twice for the visitors, who outshot UMD 39-28.
The next challenge for AF1 will be converting its larger digital audience into sustained interest during the playoffs and offseason.
