EAGAN, Minn. (AP) — Minnesota Vikings left guard Donovan Jackson likely will miss the rest of the regular season because of a torn meniscus in his knee that will require surgery, after the promising second-year player was injured in the first quarter during a 15-10 win over Miami.
Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell announced the news on Monday, revealing another significant setback for an offense that has struggled to consistently move the ball despite the team's 4-0 start. Jackson was a first-round draft pick out of Ohio State in 2025.
“It's very, very unfortunate,” O'Connell said. “Don's gotten off to a great start.”
Left tackle Christian Darrisaw also began the week with uncertainty surrounding his availability for the upcoming game at New Orleans, after he was placed in the concussion protocol on Sunday. Darrisaw hurt his neck in the second quarter, returned in the third quarter and had to be pulled again for evaluation following another hit.
Joe Huber, a second-year player who made the team last season as an undrafted rookie out of Wisconsin, replaced Jackson. Ryan Van Demark, who signed with the Vikings as a free agent this year after three seasons with Buffalo, took over for Darrisaw.
The offensive line depth, which was a persistent problem last year as the interior injuries piled up, could get a boost soon with the return of center/guard Michael Jurgens, who began the season on injured reserve. Jurgens will have his 21-day practice window opened this week, O'Connell said.
The Vikings' offense also was without star wide receiver Justin Jefferson (ankle) on Sunday, his first absence in nearly three years. Running back Jordan Mason (thumb) will miss at least one more game on injured reserve.
Jefferson made “great progress” last week, according to O'Connell, but he didn't practice at all and was ruled out ahead of the game. The Vikings have a bye in Week 6 and thus could give him extra recovery time with only one more absence, but O'Connell said the schedule won't be a factor in the decision about when Jefferson returns.
“We'll see how he does throughout the week,” O'Connell said. “I don't have any real projection on whether we'll have him or not.”
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Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson looks on from the bench area during the second half of an NFL football game against the Miami Dolphins, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Matt Krohn)
FILE - Minnesota Vikings guard Donovan Jackson (74) checks a replay on the video board during an NFL football game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Tampa, Fla., Sept. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Peter Joneleit, File)
ITHACA, New York (AP) — Cornell students thronged a campus plaza to protest the university's response to allegations of sexual assault at a fraternity house, and the school's main administration building was splashed with graffiti and damaged overnight.
At a demonstration that overflowed the large space in front of the school's student center, students, faculty members and others wore purple ribbons and held signs with such messages as “support survivors, expel rapists” and “Justice 4 every Jane Doe" — the name by which the woman who reported the assault is known in court papers. Others watched from pathways, windows, and a nearby hill.
“Too often, we are met with silence, we are met with statements, we are met with procedures, but not enough support,” student Athena Holloway told the crowd. “How much does it take for our university to stand with survivors?”
Hispanic studies professor Julia Chang added to applause: “Rape should not be inevitable.”
Speakers faulted fraternities, the university trustees and Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff, saying he and his administration have prioritized protecting the university's reputation over students' safety.
“Kotlikoff, resign!” demonstrators chanted, among other slogans, as they marched to the damaged administration building to present a list of demands. They included changes to how the student code of conduct defines sexual consent, an overhaul of the student discipline system and expulsions or degree revocations for all students involved in the alleged 2024 assault of the woman known as Jane Doe, among other things.
Standing in front of the administration hall, students held a banner reading “Burn Down the Patriarchy.”
The Ivy League school has been trying to quell a firestorm — on campus and beyond — over its handling of the alleged 2024 gang rape. Early Monday, the university found signs of the anger on the very walls of its administrative headquarters.
Holes were knocked into one of the building's glass doors, and the walls beside them were marked with red-painted messages condemning patriarchy and the Ivy League school’s handling of sexual assaults, news media photos showed. Later Monday, the graffiti was removed and the door was boarded up.
Cornell spokesperson Kyle Kimball said in a statement that the university was investigating and that “damaging property is not the answer” to Cornellians' “frustration and strong emotions.” Campus police referred questions to his office, which declined to provide more detail on the incident.
The woman known as Jane Doe alleges that she was sexually assaulted by multiple Chi Phi fraternity members in October 2024 after being pressured into drinking and taking drugs. She was a Cornell student at the time.
The woman recently sued the university, seven former students, the fraternity and others. Her lawsuit said that she became fully incapacitated as fraternity members assaulted her, and that one man sent others a message inviting them to participate.
“I felt like bait. I felt like lions around me. It just was a totally debilitating place to be in,” she told Cornell investigators last year, according to records reviewed by The Associated Press.
Lawyers for two of the former students denied they participated in a sexual assault. Attempts by The Associated Press to reach the other men or their representatives have been unsuccessful. Court records show that some of the accused students, when interviewed by Cornell investigators, described the sexual activity as consensual.
Shortly before she went to Cornell police in November 2024, Jane Doe recorded a phone call with one of the men she says raped her, ABC News reported Monday, saying it had obtained the recording. The network played portions, containing only what it said was his voice, and recounted other parts of the conversation in writing.
According to ABC, the man told her that after dancing with her for five minutes or less, he suggested a three-person encounter. He maintained that she agreed to it, and that he then fetched the second Chi Phi member from the dance floor.
Her lawsuit says she was too intoxicated to give consent.
On the call, she tried to pinpoint who else later came into the room, ABC said. The man suggested both he and she might be misremembering something that's “not true,” but she countered that she recalled looking up and seeing “too many people” there.
“What y’all did would be classified as gang rape,” she told him at one point, according to the network, which said she had provided the recording to the university.
The suit has drawn national attention to what Cornell, its police force and the local district attorney did after she told the campus police in November 2024 she “can say with 100% confidence I was raped.”
No criminal charges have been filed. The Chi Phi chapter at Cornell was shut down, and the Ivy League university has said it expelled some students and suspended others. In a statement last week, the administration bristled about the “false narrative that there were minimal consequences in this case.”
Students, however, have demanded more accountability and transparency, and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has said Jane Doe was “failed by people and institutions" including the Cornell police and local District Attorney Matthew Van Houten.
Hochul appointed the state attorney general last week to take over a criminal investigation that Van Houten had reopened days earlier, and the governor called for an independent review of Cornell’s handling of the matter.
After the week's developments, Kotlikoff released an apologetic video Saturday, saying that Jane Doe's account “raises heartbreaking and troubling issues about sexual assault, dehumanization and aspects of party culture, alcohol and drug use.”
Kotlikoff reaffirmed his support for an independent review of the university's actions and vowed more transparency and a commitment to "finding the answers our community deserves.”
Associated Press writer Jennifer Peltz contributed from New York.
The Chi Phi fraternity house is seen at Cornell University, Monday, Oct. 5, 2026, in Ithaca, N.Y. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus)
A sign stands outside the Chi Phi fraternity house at Cornell University, Monday, Oct. 5, 2026, in Ithaca, N.Y. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus)
The Chi Phi fraternity house is seen at Cornell University, Monday, Oct. 5, 2026, in Ithaca, N.Y. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus)
A sign is displayed on a door at Day Hall after damage and graffiti overnight was cleaned up at Cornell University, Monday, Oct. 5, 2026, in Ithaca, N.Y. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus)
A Cornell University police car is seen parked on campus at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
