BleedGopher
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per Sid:
With the spring game over, Gophers football coach P.J. Fleck had more reason to be optimistic this year than he had when he took over the job a year ago.
Fleck talked a lot this spring about how the additions from the 2017 and ’18 recruiting classes have given the team depth in his second season.
You could see that a number of the players from those classes, including the seven early enrollees from 2018 and the freshmen who redshirted in 2017, will be key parts of the Gophers this season, as those players were on the field in big numbers on Thursday.
Last year around the time of the spring game the Gophers roster was so depleted that they couldn’t even run two teams on the field and had to do more of a scrimmage. They had 22 players injured last year and couldn’t field a decent offensive line.
A big reason for that is that the 2015 recruiting class, which had helped the Gophers win the 2016 Holiday Bowl over Washington State, lost 18 players through suspension, transfers, academic issues and other reasons, which really hurt the depth for the Gophers.
On Thursday, the Gold team defeated the Maroon team 24-20, and Fleck pointed out the obvious — the Gophers are going to rely on a lot on the underclassmen who make up 77 percent of the roster.
That young group will look to try to improve the record this year after the Gophers went 5-7 last season and ended the year with losses to Northwestern and Wisconsin with a combined score of 70-0.
“We have a very young football team, as you got a chance to see [Thursday],” Fleck said. “I’m sure the commentating as you went through, I think there is only nine scholarship seniors and maybe 12 juniors, something like that. We’re really young and every time there was a play made, ‘Hey, a tackle by a redshirt freshman or a true freshman or a true sophomore.’ But I’m really proud of our guys and the spring they had. We’re going to finish up on Monday and be done with spring.”
http://www.startribune.com/gophers-...mbers-in-p-j-fleck-s-second-season/479783193/
Go Gophers!!
With the spring game over, Gophers football coach P.J. Fleck had more reason to be optimistic this year than he had when he took over the job a year ago.
Fleck talked a lot this spring about how the additions from the 2017 and ’18 recruiting classes have given the team depth in his second season.
You could see that a number of the players from those classes, including the seven early enrollees from 2018 and the freshmen who redshirted in 2017, will be key parts of the Gophers this season, as those players were on the field in big numbers on Thursday.
Last year around the time of the spring game the Gophers roster was so depleted that they couldn’t even run two teams on the field and had to do more of a scrimmage. They had 22 players injured last year and couldn’t field a decent offensive line.
A big reason for that is that the 2015 recruiting class, which had helped the Gophers win the 2016 Holiday Bowl over Washington State, lost 18 players through suspension, transfers, academic issues and other reasons, which really hurt the depth for the Gophers.
On Thursday, the Gold team defeated the Maroon team 24-20, and Fleck pointed out the obvious — the Gophers are going to rely on a lot on the underclassmen who make up 77 percent of the roster.
That young group will look to try to improve the record this year after the Gophers went 5-7 last season and ended the year with losses to Northwestern and Wisconsin with a combined score of 70-0.
“We have a very young football team, as you got a chance to see [Thursday],” Fleck said. “I’m sure the commentating as you went through, I think there is only nine scholarship seniors and maybe 12 juniors, something like that. We’re really young and every time there was a play made, ‘Hey, a tackle by a redshirt freshman or a true freshman or a true sophomore.’ But I’m really proud of our guys and the spring they had. We’re going to finish up on Monday and be done with spring.”
http://www.startribune.com/gophers-...mbers-in-p-j-fleck-s-second-season/479783193/
Go Gophers!!