6:44 p.m. – Antoine Winfield, Anthony Herrera and Marcus Johnson arrived at Gage Hall. Winfield came with a pile of pillows to go along with his belongings, and he also had a nice looking flat-screen television on his moving cart.
Herrera didn’t have a big-screen television with him, but he gets the reward for arriving with the most style. With blue-tinted sunglasses shading his eyes from the evening sun, Herrera entered the Gage Hall parking lot in a shiny green Chevy convertible. That’s all the detail I can give you right now on his car, perhaps he’ll shed some more light on it later in camp. If so, we’ll be sure to pass the details on to you.
We’ll halt the updates on vikings.com for now. A few players may trickle in later tonight, but I expect guys like Jared Allen, Tarvaris Jackson and Adrian Peterson to check in tomorrow morning. Until then, that’s all for now. Be sure to check back tomorrow for more updates and complete coverage from Alltel Vikings Training Camp in Mankato!
6:01 p.m. – Brad Childress arrived in Mankato just after 6:00 p.m. for his third training camp as head coach of the Vikings. Offensive lineman Bryant McKinnie was right behind him and then fullback Fahu Tahi arrived just minutes later.
After unloading his car and speaking with reporters, Coach Childress signed autographs and visited with fans outside of Gage Hall. Then it was time for an interview with radio play-by-play announcer Paul Allen for Vikings GamePlan: Training Camp Edition.
5:29 p.m. – Each year the Vikings provide a bus for players to take from Winter Park to Mankato if they don’t want to take their own cars. The bus arrived today just before 5:30 p.m. and a small group of players – mostly rookies – exited the bus and began checking into the dorms.
Linebacker Erin Henderson, brother of Vikings middle linebacker E.J. Henderson, was one of the players who rode the bus. Immediately upon leaving the bus, the group of fans waiting outside of Gage Hall called him over to sign autographs. Considering he wasn’t even drafted by the Vikings, the demand for him to sign autographs was surprising.
Henderson gladly walked over and signed for more than ten minutes while also being interviewed by the media.
5:00 p.m. – After a spending a bit of time seeing the city of Mankato, Hutchinson returned to Gage Hall only to be stopped by a mob of media members starving to speak to players. Only a small number of players have reported so far, so the individuals that do show up now get plenty of attention.
Before scooting back into Gage Hall, Hutchinson addressed a few questions. Here are some of the highlights…
On the high expectations some have for the Vikings this season: “Yeah, it’s good stuff. We don’t pay too much attention to it. The hype doesn’t really get you anywhere or buy you anything, so we’re just going to continue to work on what we’ve worked on all season - to try and get better and improve on what we need to improve on from last year and hope for the best.”
Asked if Tarvaris Jackson has shown improvement over the offseason: I think so, yeah. I think he’s getting more confident in what he’s doing and it shows in the huddle.”
On whether or not there are questions facing the offensive line this season: “No, I don’t think there are any questions. I’ve said it all along, and I’ll say it again. It’s a position that requires five guys to kind of gel and get the experience together. And I think you’ve seen some improvements from ’06 to last year and now hopefully we can continue to improve and work on areas that we need to improve.”
4:15 p.m. - Pat Williams arrived riding solo and was met by a group of reporters before heading into Gage Hall. He had a light-hearted and candid conversation with the media, talking about his 12th NFL training camp, all of the Brett Favre retirement talk and his confidence in quarterback Tarvaris Jackson.
“I have a lot of confidence in him (Jackson),” Williams said. “He got a whole lot better this offseason and I think the whole team saw it.”
2:05 p.m. – I arrived at Gage Hall on the campus of Minnesota State University, Mankato, just after 2:00 p.m. today. The streets along the way from the interstate to campus are lined with Vikings-themed decorations.
Upon arrival I noticed that quite a few coaches and even a player or two had already begun settling in at Gage Hall. Offensive lineman Steve Hutchinson was inside the entrance way chatting with a couple of the Vikings public relations staffers and running backs coach Eric Bieniemy was making a few trips back to his car from his dorm room.
Players should begin arriving in mass here at Gage Hall closer to dinner time tonight, so be sure to check back frequently for more updates.