We can joke about how the Vikings don’t take their exhibition games seriously, and how the Gophers football team is reluctant to schedule major college teams for its nonconference openers, but if ever a team deserved to have one practice game, where it could shake everything out and get it in order, it is the UMD Bulldogs.

As it is, this is the week football gets serious on all fronts. The Vikings cn forget about their 1-3 exhibition slate, because they go to Detroit and face a season-opening battle with a good and improving Detroit Lions outfit on Sunday. After not playing Christian Ponder enough to know whether the quarterback situation is settled, and not playing Adrian Peterson enough to make sure he has his normal rhythm, the Vikings will try to demonstrate that both factors are ready to start the season against a Lions team that wants to make some noise in the division this season.

As for the Gophers, they didn’t have to work up anything resembling a sweat to whip an outmanned UNLV team last Saturday. UNLV is the University of Nevada-Las Vegas - a proven basketball school decades ago but a team unproven in football. The Gophers may wish they had performed better on offense, rather than let their defense and special teams account for three long touchdowns and a 51-23 victory. Things might be decidedly tougher this weekend, at New Mexico State.

Up in Duluth, meanwhile, the UMD Bulldogs have an established tradition of being a football powerhouse in Division II, and they are planning to continue that pattern this season. The departure of coach Bob Nielson, and four-year quarterback star Chase Vogler, immediately means that Curt Wiese, stepping up from his assistant position, will have a real challenge to take over and keep the program winning.

The Northern Sun Conference has expanded to the point where there are two eight-team divisions, and while the Bulldogs are favored in divisional play, there is no room for anything resembling a preseason game. Their 11-game schedule kicks off Saturday at 6 p.m. at Malosky Stadium against Sioux Falls, a comparative newcomer to the NSIC, and one that has made an impact in every sport. What better way to solidify its intentions for this season than to knock off the perennial power that the Bulldogs have become.

That doesn’t mean UMD will shrink at the challenge presented by Sioux Falls in the schools’ first meeting in football, but it should be a nice evening for weather, and a perfect setting for a high-octane game that both teams must view as a focal point.

One thing that will greet the UMD fans at Malosky Stadium is the newly enhanced scoreboard. The right half of the board is now a large video screen, so some of those tantalizing diving catches, close-call touchdowns and big interceptions can now be replayed on the big screen. There were a lot of precious keepsakes among the big plays in the last few years, and with Wiese clearly as focused as Bob Nielson, we can assume that flow of big plays -- and victories -- will resume.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could be as certain the Vikings and the Gophers could be as exciting?