Spokesman-Review: Minnesota QB Mitch Leidner’s successes come with turnovers

per the Spokesman-Review:

Two years ago Alex Grinch left his job as the safeties coach at Missouri to coordinate the Washington State defense, trading the South and sundresses for the Pacific Northwest rains and the chance to turn around a unit that sorely needed help forcing turnovers.

And yet, two years later and Grinch is still spending his December putting together a game plan for Minnesota quarterback Mitch Leidner.

The two last faced off in the 2015 Citrus Bowl, when Leidner was just a sophomore and Grinch’s No. 16 Tigers beat Leidner’s No. 25 Golden Gophers, 33-17.

“They’ve adapted a little offensively since that time,” Grinch said. “They’ve put a little more on his plate. They’re running more effectively. His ability to, after they’ve established the run, to throw the ball downfield really makes that offense run.”

In that game, Leidner completed 14 straight passes, a school record, and even caught a nine-yard pass. He finished with 258 yards and a touchdown on 21-of-31 passing.

Grinch sees the same characteristics on tape now that he saw two years ago – namely a big, strong-armed quarterback who can make plays with his feet. In his three and a half years as a starter, Leidner has scored nearly as many touchdowns running the ball (33) as passing it (35).

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2016/dec/22/minnesota-qb-mitch-leidners-successes-come-with-tu/

Go Gophers!!

Hope Mitch can pick this Grinch's plans apart.

My view is that Leidner suffers from self-imposed pressure to do too much himself. He strikes me as an indefatigable competitor. I'd guess on a good, balanced team, he'd have been an outstanding quarterback. Think of a good pitcher on a team that can't score runs -- he tries to hard to be perfect and fails occasionally due to that pressure. And of course the constant pecking by the he-can't-be-good-he's-from-a-Minnesota-high-school flock doesn't help either.

FanSinceTheFifties said:

My view is that Leidner suffers from self-imposed pressure to do too much himself. He strikes me as an indefatigable competitor. I'd guess on a good, balanced team, he'd have been an outstanding quarterback. Think of a good pitcher on a team that can't score runs -- he tries to hard to be perfect and fails occasionally due to that pressure. And of course the constant pecking by the he-can't-be-good-he's-from-a-Minnesota-high-school flock doesn't help either.

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Not sure there are a lot of people that fall into that category. Most fans were ready to anoint Nelson as the chosen one before he stepped on campus and even though Seth Green played his senior year out of state he spent most of his high school career in Minnesota. Leidner's problem and the fans problem with him isn't the fact that he is from Minnesota, it is because he is just a very ordinary QB who can do some good things and can do some really reallly really really bad things from time to time.

MNVCGUY said:

Not sure there are a lot of people that fall into that category. Most fans were ready to anoint Nelson as the chosen one before he stepped on campus and even though Seth Green played his senior year out of state he spent most of his high school career in Minnesota. Leidner's problem and the fans problem with him isn't the fact that he is from Minnesota, it is because he is just a very ordinary QB who can do some good things and can do some really reallly really really bad things from time to time.

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Yep. Just sort of magnifies it since he's one of us...hoping for bowl game Mitch to show up.

Successes?