Vikings training camp features four Gophers

MANKATO — It was about this time last year that Nate Triplett and Marcus Sherels began fall camp in preparation for their final season as Gophers football players.
This year, they’re suiting up for that other Minnesota football team.
Triplett and Sherels are two of four former Gophers participating in their first Minnesota Vikings training camp in Mankato, along with NFL veterans Rhys Lloyd (kicker) and Logan Payne (wide receiver). Triplett said the Gophers’ fall camps prepared him well for training camp, but there is a decidedly smaller margin for error in the NFL.
“It’s a lot different obviously; the game’s a lot faster and takes a little keener of an eye,” Triplett said. “But really all I’ve been doing is watching the guys ahead of me — on the field or in film — and just seeing how they approach the game.”
After Triplett started for just one season in college, the Vikings took him with the 167th overall pick in April’s NFL draft , and will likely use him primarily on special teams.
But Triplett isn’t satisfied with that, and hopes to continue playing linebacker in the future. He has been playing weakside linebacker behind former Iowa Hawkeyes star Chad Greenway at practice.
“I’m not going to be happy just doing [special teams] obviously,” Triplett said. “I’m getting my work in on the field as a linebacker, and I’m just trying to make my mark there.”
But while Triplett signed a four-year contract with the Vikings and has likely locked up a roster spot, and Lloyd has started regularly for two seasons, Sherels and Payne are still fighting for a job.
Sherels went undrafted in April, and is looking to find a spot in a veteran-filled secondary that includes pro-bowlers Lito Shepherd and Antoine Winfield. The Vikings have yet to make any cuts and have until Sept. 4 to trim the roster from more than 80 down to 53 .
Sherels said he’s focused only on impressing his coaches at Saturday’s preseason opener against St. Louis, and not his chances of making the team.
“I can’t wait,” Sherels said Monday as he carried a teammate’s pads off the field, a ritual for rookies in camp. “It’s my time to shine and show them I can make plays.”
Sherels knows a thing or two about trying to make the cut, having originally joined the Gophers as a walk-on wide receiver before earning a starting job at cornerback his junior and senior seasons. Sherels had two interceptions in Friday’s practice , and Vikings head coach Brad Childress said that although Sherels is undersized — the Vikings list the former Gophers kick returner at 5-foot-10, 175 pounds — he expects Sherels will make a big play sometime during the preseason.
“He has had a nice camp here; he’s a smart guy,” Childress said. “He’s a guy that’s not getting as many snaps as those first two groups, but he’ll flash somewhere in the preseason, you [can] almost guarantee it.”
Although he is competing within a deep receiving core, Payne seems to be getting a legitimate look from the Vikings coaches.
Payne also went undrafted after graduating in 2007, and was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Seattle Seahawks. After a year on the practice squad he caught two passes in the 2008 season opener, but injured his knee the next game and has bounced around on practice squads with the Detroit Lions and Kansas Chiefs since. As a senior on the Gophers football team in 2006, Payne tallied a team-leading 59 catches for 804 yards and nine touchdowns.
He has a unique shot at this year’s camp with the Vikings’ two leading receivers, Sidney Rice and Percy Harvin, missing time due to a hip injury and a death in the family, respectively.
“[Payne] has some knowledge of the system,” Childress said. “[Payne and other receivers] are getting more looks that they don’t normally get.”
Lloyd, who arrived at Minnesota the same year as Payne and handled punting, field goal and kickoff duties for the Gophers, was signed by the Vikings this offseason after spending two years as the Carolina Panthers’ starting kickoff man. He expects to play a similar role, as a kickoff specialist, for the Vikings.
Lloyd is most remembered for his game-winning field goal in the closing seconds of the 2003 Sun Bowl to give the Gophers a 31-30 victory over Oregon. For his reputation of keeping cool under pressure, he earned the nickname “Winston Churchill.”
“It’s good to be back in Minnesota,” Lloyd said. “I lived here for eight-plus years and I kind of consider it my second home, other than England.”
Vikings special teams coordinator Brian Murphy said Lloyd and veteran kicker Ryan Longwell (who also handles field goals) will split kicking duties during the first two preseason games, but the Vikings are unsure if they want to use two roster spots on place kickers with a 53-man roster.
Triplett and Sherels are roommates in Mankato, and although Triplett has a more certain future than Sherels, Payne or Lloyd, he said rooming with his former teammate has helped to ease into life in the NFL.
“We talk about what we were thinking about this time last year and how much it’s changed,” Triplett said. “To have a roommate with me that’s on the same page, the same year even, it’s pretty cool.”