Everybody’s playing Thursday this week

John Gilbert

Mike Rybarczyk gets his chance to be UMD’s starting quarterback against a potent Sioux Falls outfit in the Thursday night opener at Malosky Stadium. Photo credit: John Gilbert
Mike Rybarczyk gets his chance to be UMD’s starting quarterback against a potent Sioux Falls outfit in the Thursday night opener at Malosky Stadium. Photo credit: John Gilbert

Officially, it may be premature to call it the “Mike Rybarczyk Era” at UMD when the Bulldogs open their 2017 season at Malosky Stadium against Sioux Falls Thursday night, but he is the starter selected by coach Curt Wiese to take over quarterback duties for Drew Bauer, who graduated after four stellar seasons.

And, by the way, don’t overlook the technicality: Thursday night, meaning just as you might first get your hands on this week’s Reader.

What’s with Thursday this year? Generally, with colleges and high schools just starting, and the NFL facing its final exhibition games, this grand opening football weekend would feature high school football openers on Friday, college openers on Saturday, and final NFL exhibitions on Sunday.

Simple? Definitely. And nicely spaced for those of us who try to pay attention to all levels of the sport. But this season, perhaps in an attempt to avoid Labor Day Weekend, everything starts on Thursday night. That includes high school openers, other college openers including the University of Minnesota, and the Minnesota Vikings closing out their exhibition slate against Miami down in Minneapolis.

UMD’s Alex Lasinski made a diving catch in front of  Harry Momoh at UMD practice scrimmage. Photo credit: John Gilbert
UMD’s Alex Lasinski made a diving catch in front of  Harry Momoh at UMD practice scrimmage. Photo credit: John Gilbert
Sophomore Harry Momoh followed through to tackle Alex Lasinski. Photo credit: John Gilbert
Sophomore Harry Momoh followed through to tackle Alex Lasinski. Photo credit: John Gilbert

Further, the UMD women’s soccer team opens its home slate against Wisconsin-Parkside at 1 p.m. at Malosky. UMD’s highly regarded volleyball team also opens this weekend, but the Bulldogs first eight games will be on the road in a couple of invitational tournaments. Friday, UMD faces Saint Anselm at 1 p.m. and Nova Southeastern at 6 p.m. at the Shark Invitational in Fort Lauderdale, and Saturday, UMD plays American International at 10:30 a.m. and Saint Leo at 3:30 p.m.

UMD’s game with Sioux Falls is bigger than just an interdivisional warm-up for the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference. Last year, the Bulldogs lost their opener and while they came back to win their annual Northern Division title, that opening loss ultimately prevented them from a high enough seed to get home-field advantage for the playoffs.

And while UMD is ranked No. 8 in the country right now, Sioux Falls is No. 15, followed by No. 16 Minnesota State-Mankato, and No. 17 Bemidji State -- impressive to have four NSIC teams in the top 20 preseason rank. Winning that first game can go a long way to helping UMD in the later stages of this season. 

Quarterbacks seem to be the focal point for virtually all Minnesota football teams, with UMD’s situation among the most settled. At Minnesota, new coach P.J. Fleck is making the big move up to the Big Ten by staring his first big decision straight on -- and making no decision. Instead of picking a quarterback as starter to face Buffalo (Buffalo?) tonight, Fleck has named Conor Rhoda and Demry Croft as co-starting quarterbacks. Good luck with that.

A few blocks west of the Gopher opener, the Vikings will face Miami for their final exhibition, and traditionally, NFL teams don’t play their starters in the final exhibition, not only averting injuries, but getting a last look at other prospects going into the season.

That means Sam Bradford is established as the starting quarterback, which we all understand. But Bradford and the first-team offense has struggled through the first three exhibitions, scoring only three points. Last week, Bradford was an impressive 17-for-21 in the first half, and it would have been 19-21 had ace receiver Stefon Diggs not dropped two passes that blatantly hit him in the hands.

Still, the Vikings came back to beat San Francisco 32-31 in what might be as exciting as exhibition NFL football can get. Big plays were compounded by more big plays, but the end result is that it took the No. 2 and No. 3 quarterbacks to score all the touchdowns. Except, that is, for Jerick McKinnon’s sensational 108-yard kickoff return, which ignited the dormant Vikings after their 14-0 halftime deficit had turned into a 24-10 score late in the third quarter.

Still trailing 31-17 late in the fourth quarter, the Vikings scored a touchdown with 6:09 remaining when No. 2 quarterback Case Keenum threw his second short TD pass to close it up to 31-24. No. 3 quarterback Taylor Heinicke took over for the final minutes, and marched the Vikings with impressive poise and intensity to get into position where a pass interfernce penalty in the end zone gave them first and goal from the 1. Terrell Newby crashed in for the touchdown, making it 32-31 with 0:00 on the clock. Then came the play of the game.

Heinicke dropped back, going for two points and the victory, then took off for the right end, sweeping wide and cutting in, then diving out of bounds just wide to the right of paydirt. But he reached out as far as he could to the left and hit the pylon -- automatic two-point conversion -- and the Vikings escaped with a 32-31 victory.

None of that matters as much as how inept the first offensive unit looked, despite Bradshaw’s success. Lousy blocking allowed him to get sacked a couple times and hurried a bunch more, and never allowed any semblance of a running game throughout the first half. And the defense, vaunted though it may be, parted ways to allow a couple of first-half 49er touchdown passes, and an 87-yard bomb from C.J. Beathard to Raheem Mastert in the final minute of the third quarter.

 Regardless of tonight’s outcome, the Vikings will start the regular season against Adrian Peterson and the slick Drew Brees New Orleans offense, and ferocious defense, and more questions than answers remain.