Pro Football / Bob Oates : Testaverde, Bennett Would Appear to Be Class of Class of 1987

Vinny Testaverde and Cornelius Bennett will be the first two college football players drafted by the pros next spring, most scouts have been saying.

But in the view of Gil Brandt, vice president of the Dallas Cowboys, there’s one if.

“As good as those two are, they’ll only (be drafted first) if they play as well this year as they’ve been playing,” Brandt said. “NFL coaches hate to take a chance on guys who tail off in their senior season.”

Testaverde is the quarterback at the University of Miami, and Bennett is an Alabama linebacker. And, Brandt said, which one you prefer depends on your needs.

“If you’re happy with the passer you’ve got now, you’ll draft Bennett,” Brandt said. “This guy gives you a linebacker who can dominate a game--like Mike Singletary (of the Bears) or Lawrence Taylor (of the Giants).”

Standing not quite 6 feet, Singletary is the Pat Haden of linebacking. And he’s the new model. Since the Super Bowl, everybody wants another Singletary--although, next year, someone will have to settle for Bennett, who is 6-4.

Starting their fifth year in Los Angeles, the Raiders would like to extend the kind of streak that is possibly the most difficult for a sports team to maintain.

They’d like to reach the NFL’s playoff round again.

They and the Miami Dolphins are the only two teams that have made the playoffs in all four seasons that the Raiders have played in the Coliseum.

Years ago, Bud Grant, the on-again, off-again coach of the Minnesota Vikings, started something that his successors haven’t been able to, or haven’t wished to, amend.

Maintaining that the football season is much too long, Grant invariably delayed the start of training camp until the end of July.

Again this summer, some NFL players will have been in camp three weeks before the Vikings become the last to report July 28.

“I never wanted to work for but two guys,” former All-Pro Lyle Alzado said. “Al Davis because he always finishes so good, and Bud Grant because he starts so good.”

This year’s good starter at Minnesota is Jerry Burns, who at 59 will be the oldest new head coach in the league when he calls the Vikings in next week.

An eccentric team in recent years, the Vikings two years ago were led by the youngest head coach in the league, 38-year-old Les Steckel.

Between Steckel and Burns, they were led by Grant, who had resigned the year before.

Burns is an old Viking warhorse who, after an undistinguished Big Ten tour at Iowa and a two-year stint as an assistant with the Green Bay Packers, has been at Minnesota since 1968, most recently as offensive coordinator.

Thirty of his 35 years as a coach have been spent in press boxes advising coaches and players on the field.

“I always liked it upstairs,” he said. “I felt I had a better view of what was happening. It’s been so long, I don’t have any idea what it’s going to be like on the field.”

As Minnesota’s new offensive coordinator, another NFL veteran, Bob Schnelker, will replace Burns in the press box.

“My role will be to recognize the flow of the game,” Burns said.

He’s one of the few hired so late in their careers.

“If I had my druthers, obviously I would have liked to be a head coach 8 to 10 years ago,” he said.

In those days, though, Grant was coaching four Super Bowl teams at Minnesota. He bows out after setting one final NFL record: shortest tour ever by a coach who started and finished a season. Reporting to the Vikings in late July as usual, Grant was out by last December, finishing with a 7-9 record.