It's Time For a Change

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Are a lot of people just assuming Croft is some sort of great scrambler? I thought I remember reading he really is more of a pocket passer. I don't know if he's really (at this point) any faster than Leidner. Also doubt he's as good (at this point) at reading a defense as Leidner.

On a different note - I wonder which percentage is higher - Joe Mauer taking the first pitch, or the Gophers running on first down?
 

Word said:
Are a lot of people just assuming Croft is some sort of great scrambler? I thought I remember reading he really is more of a pocket passer. I don't know if he's really (at this point) any faster than Leidner. Also doubt he's as good (at this point) at reading a defense as Leidner.

On a different note - I wonder which percentage is higher - Joe Mauer taking the first pitch, or the Gophers running on first down?
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I also read that he has the ability to end world hunger, eliminate the national debt, and cure both HIV and cancer simultaneously. If only the coaches would let him take some snaps in practice to show what he can do.
 

Dpo, maybe Demry should transfer to Notre Dame and become the next football Jesus disciple.
 

Wisconsin went to and won a Rose Bowl with Mike Samuel. Take a look at his stat lines. Their formula/strategy was great O-Line play and run, run, run. Same as the Gophers. Mitch isn't the problem and Croft isn't the solution. The line and the backs are the problem and they must be the solution. That said, Mitch shouldn't play if he's turning the ball over.

http://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/players/mike-samuel-1.html
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
Today's offense will not win the Gophers another game this year. How could it get worse?
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They don't need to win the game. All championship teams win with defense and an offense that does not lose it. We don't turn the ball over and play D like we can and we will win most of our games.
 


SonOfTheVarsity said:
It's also a microcosm of how poor a coordinator Limegrover is. How many times have we heard that a defense "showed us new looks" to throw our offense off. I'm guessing this is one of those "new looks" from Kent St. They likely didn't show a lot of double safety blitzes on film. But we showed a lot on film that would suggest to any d-coordinator that a double safety blitz would work. So they added the new wrinkle, and we stuck with the same game plan as always, and it resulted in a sack.
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What amazes me about this is that with a defense as good as ours and by extension a DC as good as Claeys, how can we not be exposing these same weaknesses in practice. Part of the coaching process should be game planning our own defense versus offense. If went through a week of practice loading the box and blitzing and failing to succeed on offense, you would think that the offense would figure out what it needed to do to beat/exploit that.
 

badgergopher said:
Wisconsin went to and won a Rose Bowl with Mike Samuel. Take a look at his stat lines. Their formula/strategy was great O-Line play and run, run, run. Same as the Gophers. Mitch isn't the problem and Croft isn't the solution. The line and the backs are the problem and they must be the solution. That said, Mitch shouldn't play if he's turning the ball over.

http://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/players/mike-samuel-1.html
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Agree with all of this. Mitch is fine for our system, our scheme. The problem is we are not effective with our scheme.
 

SelectionSunday said:
Gophers remind me of 2012 Michigan State team that went 7-6 (with bowl win). Championship type defense kept them in every game, but offense was nonexistent largely because of very limited QB.
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That MSU team had a pretty decent Oline and running back though (just no passing game).
 

WorkingMyTailOff said:
That MSU team had a pretty decent Oline and running back though (just no passing game).
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Yeah Le'Veon Bell was alright...but Andrew Maxwell vs Mitch Leidner might be a pretty good comparison. Especially if Leidner gets beat out next year like Maxwell did by Connor Cook his senior year.
 



WorkingMyTailOff said:
That MSU team had a pretty decent Oline and running back though (just no passing game).
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Very fair point. The Maxwell-Leidner comparison GopherWeatherGuy mentioned was mostly what I was looking for. And all the close games Sparty lost largely because they had a QB that turned out to be something shy of B1G level.

That was the difficult decision Dantonio had to make in 2013 (Cook eventually beat out the senior incumbent Maxwell), and possibly the one Kill has to make this season or next. With the defense the Gophers have right now, I would hate to waste the (favorable) schedule the Gophers have this season and next, especially 2016. There's just way too much pressure on the defense. Probably feeling like they'll have to pitch a shutout almost every game.
 

But wouldn't the o-line have to get better before you make that switch? I don't see o-line being similar and just QB differences. Right now the line has to get fixed first.
 

No, the current QB doesn't suck. Last year he actually had some good games when we had a running attack and some pass protection. The offense unfortunately is in rebuild mode (no Epping, Maxx, Cobb, Fruechte, down several TEs, and several OL). I hope they can figure out a new style of offense to match the current personnel or this team will waste a good defense.
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He had some decent games with the best tight end in the country, a good offensive line, one of the best running backs in the country, and a wide receiver currently on an NFL roster. We won in spite of Mitch, not because of Mitch. If he was an average quarterback he would have looked great, if he was a mediocre quarterback he would have looked good. He looked decent with a lot of great offensive talent.
 

fraternity2017 said:
He had some decent games with the best tight end in the country, a good offensive line, one of the best running backs in the country, and a wide receiver currently on an NFL roster. We won in spite of Mitch, not because of Mitch. If he was an average quarterback he would have looked great, if he was a mediocre quarterback he would have looked good. He looked decent with a lot of great offensive talent.
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His numbers don't blow you away, but Leidner is absolutely a big reason we beat Purdue and Nebraska last year. He made some big plays in those two games.
 



SelectionSunday said:
Very fair point. The Maxwell-Leidner comparison GopherWeatherGuy mentioned was mostly what I was looking for. And all the close games Sparty lost largely because they had a QB that turned out to be something shy of B1G level.

That was the difficult decision Dantonio had to make in 2013 (Cook eventually beat out the senior incumbent Maxwell), and possibly the one Kill has to make this season or next. With the defense the Gophers have right now, I would hate to waste the (favorable) schedule the Gophers have this season and next, especially 2016. There's just way too much pressure on the defense. Probably feeling like they'll have to pitch a shutout almost every game.
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Connor Cook beating out Maxwell looks obvious now, but also, don't forget that Cook struggled a lot his Freshman year. GH will give up on Demry and want Perra if DC11 doesn't light it up this Saturday.
 

GophersInIowa said:
His numbers don't blow you away, but Leidner is absolutely a big reason we beat Purdue and Nebraska last year. He made some big plays in those two games.
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Leidner has made some plays this year, that last drive against TCU and the long pass into the sideline against Kent State are examples of big time play making, he's just so inconsistent and without a running game it really destroys any momentum the offense generates. Without the line working out it problems this season might turn into a nightmare.
 

Spoofin said:
Connor Cook beating out Maxwell looks obvious now, but also, don't forget that Cook struggled a lot his Freshman year.
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I agree. That's part of the reason it was such a tough decision for Dantonio. It was a difficult one to bench a veteran (senior), but obviously he made the right one. Kill might be (my conjecture) facing the same crucial decision now or more likely next season in terms of a QB helping a team get over an elusive hump (like Cook did with MSU).
 

RolGnav said:
No one is saying to clean house and fire Kill or whatever... But the coaches better wake up and fix it, which I'm sure they will... for a while. That's how it's always been. Every year we have these offensive issues then the offense gets opened up and we go on a nice offensive streak, then it goes back to lame and predictable again. Then we lose a Bowl Game.
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NM
 

We are going to be fine in the long haul

Just for some perspective...Andrew Luck is a pretty good quarterback. Presently he is getting roasted for poor play with an inferior line and an 0 and 2 start. I'm guessing the Colts will improve and so will the Gophers.
 

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