Under serious consideration for the Vikings’ offensive coordinator job is Mike Mularkey. But the Vikings might have to compete with the Atlanta Falcons and Jacksonville Jaguars to get the three-time NFL head coach.

Mularkey, 57, played six seasons as a tight end for the Vikings, then was head coach of the Buffalo Bills (2004-05), Jacksonville Jaguars (2012) and Tennessee Titans (2016). A proponent of a running offense and quarterback development, during eight years as a NFL offensive coordinator, his teams compiled a 78-49 record.

Mularkey, who owns a home in Atlanta and interviewed with the Falcons last week, held offensive coordinator positions with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Miami Dolphins and Falcons, and in 2010 was named offensive coordinator of the year by the Sporting News. He also interviewed last week with Jacksonville.

In Atlanta, Mularkey was credited with the early development of QB Matt Ryan. He has coached in assorted capacities in the NFL for 23 years.

It seems clear that interim Vikings offensive coordinator Kevin Stefanski, whose contract ends Tuesday, isn’t returning. That, by the way, looks like Stefanski’s choice, not the team’s.

It’s noteworthy that Vikings coach Mike Zimmer, 62, who has just one year left on his contract, meaning he enters next season as a lame duck, hasn’t received an extension, and that insecurity won’t help in retaining assistants.

Every year about this time, hall of fame Super Bowl-winning coach Tony Dungy, 63, receives inquiries from NFL teams about whether he would be interested in returning to coaching. And the ex-Gophers QB, who is a NFL analyst for NBC Sports, says no thanks.

Ex-Vikings coaches turning 92 this year: Jerry Burns on Jan. 24, Bud Grant on May 20.

The way it looks now, the Vikings, who finished 8-7-1 this season, will be projected at 8-8 next season and a non-playoff team for a second straight season.

The Bears bounced the Vikings out of the playoffs in Minneapolis despite star linebacker Khalil Mack not getting a single tackle.

It’s still unlikely the Vikings will have running back Latavius Murray back. Wideout and draft bust Laquon Treadwell likely will be gone, and tight end Kyle Rudolph and defensive end Everson Griffen probably will have to take pay cuts to return.

It still looks like linebacker Anthony Barr will get more money elsewhere as a free agent than the Vikings can afford, or are willing to pay. In a game when he should have been showcasing himself for the open market, Barr’s performance against the Bears last Sunday was “simply disastrous,” profootballfocus.com points out. He finished without a tackle and missed the only tackle he attempted.

Eric Wilson could be Barr’s replacement.

The Vikings will have the No. 18 pick in April’s NFL draft. Best chance for an offensive lineman at that juncture is 6-foot-4, 337-pound tackle Cody Ford from Oklahoma. The Vikings probably will have to use their two top picks on offensive linemen.

As for free agency, salary cap whiz Rob Brzezinski has the challenge of his 26-year NFL career finding money to spend.

The Gophers’ Friday evening men’s hockey game at Notre Dame will be televised on NBC.

Ten of the 12 NFL teams in the playoffs have head coaches who emphasize offense. The other two are New England’s Bill Belichick and Seattle’s Pete Carroll. The NFL has become an offensive-minded league.

Twins third baseman Miguel Sano, 25, is down nearly 30 pounds — he finished last season at 297 — and this week will move to the Twins’ spring training base in Fort Myers, Fla., from his home in the Dominican Republic to continue workouts. Last year, Sano batted .199 in 71 games with 115 strikeouts.

The Twins have monitored Sano since the end of last season via video, and club trainers have made visits to the Dominican. The Twins also receive regular reports from international scout Fred Guerrero, who is overseeing Sano.

Meanwhile, Twins center fielder Byron Buxton, also 25, whose affection for sliders in the dirt last season resulted in a .156 batting average in 28 games, is fully healthy and eager to begin spring training.

Thursday’s 59-52 Gophers men’s basketball victory at Wisconsin should be worth a top-25 ranking this week, maybe up to No. 23. Minnesota (12-2) probably needs eight more Big Ten wins for an NCAA tournament berth.

The Big Ten should get at least six teams into the tournament, although last season just four were selected. Omitted was Nebraska despite 13 conference victories.

The Gophers clearly were a better team than Wisconsin, which entered the game No. 22 nationally ranked by the Associated Press. Minnesota will be favored in its next three games against Maryland, Rutgers and Illinois.

Rick Rickert, the 2001 Mr. Minnesota Basketball from Duluth East and former Gophers standout, will be home to have his No. 44 high school jersey retired on Feb. 9 at his alma mater.

Rickert, 35, who has a degree in nutrition communication and has played professionally all over the world, including seven seasons in Japan, lives in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, but is considering a full-time return to Minnesota pursuant on career opportunities.

Minnesota Mr. Football 2017 Antonio Montero from Eden Prairie as a freshman linebacker for Rice University this season started seven of the last nine games, finishing with 34 tackles.

Besides getting a commitment from Bryson DeChambeau to play in the inaugural 3M Open PGA Tour tournament July 4-7 at the TPC in Blaine,

Hollis Cavner, who oversees a $20 million budget for the event, has U.S. Ryder Cup player Patrick Reed among early entrants.

Winner’s check is expected to be in the $1.3 million range.

Cavner said sales for the tournament “are going great. We’re killing it. With the Zac Brown (Band) playing (a concert on July 5 at the National Sports Center), it’s off the charts.”

Jashon Cornell, the 6-3, 273-pound junior defensive end from Cretin-Derham Hall, had a sack and two tackles for Ohio State in its 28-23 Rose Bowl victory over Washington.

Mike Scanlan, who coached Cornell at CDH, watched him on TV against Washington.

“I was very happy for him — to even get on the field at that level, especially at Ohio State, on national TV in the Rose Bowl, that says a lot,” Scanlan said. “People don’t have an appreciation for how good you’ve got to be average in a program like that. I heard he’s already picked up enough credits to graduate and is going to graduate school now.”

Scanlan, 67, retired three years ago after 26 years of coaching at his alma mater.

“It’s surprising how busy you can stay doing nothing,” he said.

New Twins manager Rocco Baldelli speaks at a Dunkers breakfast on Jan. 25 at the Minneapolis Club.

Former Stillwater Country Club golf professional Mike Tracy, who underwent brain surgery after an accident two years ago, continues to make slow but steady progress in recovery.

Steve Winfield presents local baseball writer-photographer Gordy Jones with an Old Timers award at the Original Hot Stove banquet on Jan. 17 at Jimmy’s Event Center in Vadnais Heights. Head table includes Jack Morris, Cory Provus, Tom Kelly, Trevor Hildenberger, Stephen Gonsalves, Dave St. Peter, Derek Falvey, Jerry Bell, Jim Rantz, Tim Tschida, John Anderson, Winfield and Carl Renalls. For tickets: 651-379-2325.

J.P. Macura, the 6-5 shooting guard and former Lakeville North basketball star, last week was called up to the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets from G-League Greensboro, where he was averaging 15.1 points.

University of St. Thomas grad Todd Bell will be the new WCHA marketing and communications manager, replacing Matt Hodson, who left to work for the Minnesota Twins.

Ex-Wolves coach Eric Musselman, whose Nevada team is 14-1, and ex-Wolves executive Fred Hoiberg, fired by the Chicago Bulls, are among names getting mentioned for the UCLA job that became available the other day with the firing of Steve Alford.

The Twin Cities finished third among 30 NFL metered markets for NBC “Sunday Night Football” viewing, averaging 19.3 viewers for its telecasts this season, according to Nielsen ratings.

The Vikings’ epic loss to the Eagles in the NFC championship game one year ago was the third-most viewed TV show in 2018 behind only the Super Bowl and the Super Bowl postgame, attracting nearly 43 million viewers.

It’s a 10-under-par 59 shot by Jeff Sorenson last week at Casselberry (Fla.) Golf Club, the Minikahda Country Club professional’s 10th course record.

Karl-Anthony Towns, Andrew Wiggins, Wally Szczerbiak, Kevin Garnett,

Kevin Love, Christian Laettner and Ricky Rubio represent Timberwolves

franchise history in a new collection of Panini America-Beckett Media trading cards.

DON’T PRINT THAT

Pssst: A little birdie says Mike McCarthy, fired by the Packers, already has turned down an Arizona Cardinals offer to be GM-coach.

Vikings interim offensive coordinator Kevin Stefanski interviewed for the Browns’ head coaching job last week. Unfortunately, a lot of teams just use these interviews to pick brains of candidates to benefit themselves without being serious about hiring them.

Except for Pat Elflein, who did not have a good year, and Brian O’Neill, the Vikings’ leaky offensive line is subject to change next season.

Elflein? In the 24-10 season-ending loss to the Bears, the 6-3, 295-pound center allowed six pressures, according to profootballfocus.com, and the line gave up an NFL-worst 23 pressures. Quarterback Kirk Cousins “faced pressure on an overwhelming 55.3 percent of his dropbacks,” it said.

Average ticket price for Sunday’s Timberwolves-Lakers game in Minneapolis is $222. That’s 43 percent more than the season average, according to TickPick, but dropped from $274 because of the groin injury to L.A.’s LeBron James that will keep him out of the lineup.

New University of Minnesota President Joan Gabel will get a first-year salary of $640,000. Football coach P.J. Fleck just received a contract extension for $3.55 million annually.

There’s no doubt that John DeFilippo, 40, the offensive coordinator Mike Zimmer fired three weeks ago, will be back in the NFL next season, if not as an offensive coordinator as a QB coach rebuilding his resume.

Looks like either the Nationals or Brewers for free-agent ex-Twins second baseman Brian Dozier, who turns 32 in May, but with just a one-year deal in the $5 million range.

Wishing the best for former Gophers men’s basketball assistant Jimmy Williams, who is struggling with early stage Parkinson’s disease while living in Tampa, Fla.

Chris Weinke, the 2000 Heisman Trophy winner at Florida State from St. Paul, returns to coach running backs at Tennessee.

Victory No. 13 for the Gophers women’s basketball team should come Sunday afternoon against Illinois at Williams Arena. The Illini have lost 29 straight Big Ten games.

Tickets for the Big Ten women’s basketball tournament in Indianapolis March 6-10 are $55. They increase to $75 on Feb. 1.

The Wild now have 33-to-1 odds to win the Stanley Cup, according to BetOnLine.

Some 100 Gophers men’s hockey alumni gathered at Mariucci Arena recently to show support for new coach Bob Motzko. Meanwhile, the Gophers’ greatest hockey alumnus, Johnny Mayasich, 85, from Eveleth was among former players at St. Mary’s Point Ice Arena in Lakeland for the 50th anniversary of the opening of a Hubbard-financed arena.

With the signing of Nelson Cruz, mlb.com projects at least a wild-card finish for the Twins this year should Cruz, Eddie Rosario, Max Kepler and Miguel Sano each hit 30 home runs. Last season, Cruz hit 37 homers, Rosario 24, Kepler 20 and Sano 13.

For the NCAA Final Four men’s basketball tournament, which culminates April 6-8 in Minneapolis, upper-deck tickets at U.S. Bank Stadium have been available for $169 on vividseats.com; lower-level front-row seats started at $2,438. The stadium will seat 70,000.

St. Paul’s Julian Loscalzo’s Ballpark Tours is working on another baseball tour of Cuba.

Some drivers on Interstate 94 passing by new Allianz Field in St. Paul while it was testing bright lights in wee hours joked that their initial impression was that aliens had landed in a giant flying saucer.

The Wild paid an $80 million NHL expansion fee in 2000. Seattle’s expansion fee is expected to be $650 million.

Plans are for WCCO-AM’s Dave Lee and Eric Nelson to return to call

University of St. Thomas football games next season.

For $5 billion, you could buy 11 NHL teams if they were for sale, according to new franchise assessments by Forbes, which values the Wild at $490 million.

OVERHEARD

Big Ten football analyst Glen Mason, the former Gophers coach, on Minnesota freshman running back Mohamed Ibrahim, who rushed for 224

yards in the Quick Lane Bowl victory over Wisconsin: “Let me tell you, he is tough sucker.”