Cosgrove and Lee Will Have Our Defense Ready For The Challenge!

[Stargenes]

Instead of reading Steele and Sporting News projection on the GOPHERS Football Team when they can't even figure out who the projected starters are, read actual interviews of the coaches done by someone who has insight and well founded opinions based in facts:

Doogie's interview of Co Defensive Coordinator and DB coach Ronnie Lee.

http://1500espn.com/sportswire/Gophersbyposition_Primary_focus_on_secondary

 

[littlebigboy]

Good article, missed any word on Kyle Henderson.

 

[littlebigboy]

Doogie covered him, but not Lee, I thought he was as good as Carter.

 

[Stargenes]

Doogie covered him, but not Lee, I thought he was as good as Carter.

Now lets not get too free with our comments. Henderson is a nice surprize but I would not start comparing him to Carter. If you pay attention to technical things like backpedal, feet quickness and change of direction hip pivoting, Carter is about as smoothe as they come. Henderson does give us good depth because Coach Lee will not hesitate to use him if needed. However, I expect to see him more in Special Forces than in planned defensive sets unless we get some injuries. He may well be an option when guys get dinged up a bit throughout the season.

 

[Art Vandelay]

Instead of reading Steele and Sporting News projection on the GOPHERS Football Team when they can't even figure out who the projected starters are, read actual interviews of the coaches done by someone who has insight and well founded opinions based in facts:

Doogie's interview of Co Defensive Coordinator and DB coach Ronnie Lee.

http://1500espn.com/sportswire/Gophersbyposition_Primary_focus_on_secondary

We hear the same thing every year from he coaching staff. Rememer when Brewster said the defense will play like their hair is on fire?
That lasted about half way through the Spring Game.

I'll believe it when I see it.

 

[gophmeister]

We hear the same thing every year from he coaching staff. Rememer when Brewster said the defense will play like their hair is on fire?
That lasted about half way through the Spring Game.

I'll believe it when I see it.

What's he supposed to say? People like you are either stupid or simply jerks.

 

[gophmeister]

On another topic. Doogie again brings up Mike Leach...again! I honestly don't think if, perish the thought, Brewster were to get the boot, there would be much interest on either side. Is Leach just Doogie's pipe dream or is there talk among connected people about making a play for Leach? My guess is such a move would take sacks and sacks of money and a lot of promises. My guess would be we'd also see a lot players transfer too.

 

[Gopher Gold]

What's he supposed to say? People like you are either stupid or simply jerks.

All of the above.

 

[Ole]

On another topic. Doogie again brings up Mike Leach...again! I honestly don't think if, perish the thought, Brewster were to get the boot, there would be much interest on either side. Is Leach just Doogie's pipe dream or is there talk among connected people about making a play for Leach? My guess is such a move would take sacks and sacks of money and a lot of promises. My guess would be we'd also see a lot players transfer too.

This is another indicator of a troubling side of Doogie's fandom. He LOVES offense, craves it, is obsessed with it. It bothers me about his writing, because basically if the game isn't exciting, it's a failure in his mind. It's got to be an NFL thing from his years at KFART.
BTW Leach would not come here for many reasons, lack of regional recruiting speed, weather, low profile program, MONEY!, and pretty much it's known he's going to Maryland after Friegen is canned this year. He's good buds with the CEO of Under Armor who's a big Maryland alum donor.

As for the D, back on topic,
Just what exactly hasn't been good about our D the last few years, I've seen them play their hearts out, play like their hair is on fire, put up really great games for two seasons under Brewster. This is maybe one of the very few things that has been said and delivered. You should believe because you've seen it already. No reason to think it will drop off. If you really want to check out last year's D coming in, Lawrence was not a full timer in 08, Tripplett was a special teamer, Campbell was back but had switched positions the previous year. Sherels and Simmons were back, so was Theret, Royston hadn't started though, Small and Brown were back but the DE's weren't rock solid starters in 08. That's 6 returning STARTERS, and a bunch of unknown/part timers in their first full gig. Not a big leap to where we're at now.

 

[Bayfieldgopher]

Gopher fans have low standards when it comes to D expectations. Last years D was better than what we have seen for awhile but still ranked #7 in BT play. When we field a D that allows under 20 ppg BT then we will have something that is essential to be in contention on the last Saturday in November. I still think that could happen in 2011 assuming no major shakeups occur in the meantime. The only Sr. contributor's are DB's Theret, Royston & Collado and they may all timeshare this Fall with newbies. Now if we can just get the offense jumpstarted.

 

[gophmeister]

BTW Leach would not come here for many reasons, lack of regional recruiting speed, weather, low profile program, MONEY!, and pretty much it's known he's going to Maryland after Friegen is canned this year. He's good buds with the CEO of Under Armor who's a big Maryland alum donor.

If you really want to check out last year's D coming in, Lawrence was not a full timer in 08, Tripplett was a special teamer, Campbell was back but had switched positions the previous year. Sherels and Simmons were back, so was Theret, Royston hadn't started though, Small and Brown were back but the DE's weren't rock solid starters in 08. That's 6 returning STARTERS, and a bunch of unknown/part timers in their first full gig. Not a big leap to where we're at now.

Leach is going from arid to humid? Interesting.

You make a good point about the defense from last year. We were middle of the pack last year with an anemic offense. If Horton can get any consistency out of his guys we might even do better defensely. A lot of our touchdowns were the end result of big defensive plays and could have had more.

 

[Kratos3]

The defense was simply on the field for too long last year. No sustained drives by the O, the D is gassed by the end of the game.

Also, don't compare Kyle Henderson to Michael Carter.

 

[RodentRampage]

After years of worse than attrocious defenses, I will take the 2009 Defense without reservation. This defense did pretty well despite having no offensive support. If the 2009 defense was paired with the good offenses of the past, that defense would look quite good.

 

[Sean Lumpkin]

The defense was simply on the field for too long last year. No sustained drives by the O, the D is gassed by the end of the game.

Also, don't compare Kyle Henderson to Michael Carter.

Why not? I'm not saying he's "better" than Carter, I give Carter his due, but how many stars did Marcus Sherels from Rochester JM, or the Barber's from Wayzata have coming out of the Classic Lake? Willie Vandesteeg from GSL? I'm not actually sure. Someone please tell me. How many stars did Rallis from Edina have compared to Reeves or Cooper? Just asking. I've been following this team for over 40 years, I know a little bit. Keep in mind that Henderson, who played Offense on the scout team last year while he sat, only started learning the Defense during Spring camp. I love the local guys who surprise.
Drum roll please...."I predict that when camp starts, Henderson will be one of the starting corners."

 

[Bayfieldgopher]

No question the offense was very enemic in 09 and put a lot of pressure of the D. However, I will not give the 09 D a free pass as better play could have resulted in 2 to 3 more W's. My dream is to field a D that can keep the team in the game in spite of how the O plays. There were games where the D was on the field way too long mostly due to the O. The Iowa and ISU games were two games where the D did their part with very little help from the O.

Against Wisky, we actually outplayed them and had a significant TOP at half and the lead. But the D had no answer to Wisky's running game the second half.

Against the Illini, We allowed conversions on 3&17 and 3&13 that led to an Illini score against their second string QB. TOP was slightly in favorof Illini the first half so one can assume the D was not gassed. The INT gift from Weber certainly did not help but we couldn't stop an offense without Juice.

In the bowl game, same problem with 3rd and long as ISU converted two 3&14's on one TD drive and also made good on a 3&14 and 3&11 during the game. And their other scoring drive was way too easy. Yet the D only allowed 14 points which is about all one could ask for.

Those games were very winnable and a stronger performance by the D could have resulted in a better record.

 

[KoolAid]

We hear the same thing every year from he coaching staff. Rememer when Brewster said the defense will play like their hair is on fire?
That lasted about half way through the Spring Game.

I'll believe it when I see it.

Sorry everyone, but I agree with Art here.

Granted, I think this defense has a lot of talent, but let's have their play on the field do the talking

 

[Unregistered User]

Sorry everyone, but I agree with Art here.

Granted, I think this defense has a lot of talent, but let's have their play on the field do the talking

Great...So we can count on you taking a break from this board until the first kickoff, right?

 

[Ole]

Sorry everyone, but I agree with Art here.

Granted, I think this defense has a lot of talent, but let's have their play on the field do the talking

Great defenses have an edge, great defensive players play with emotion, they talk trash, they destroy the other team. They idea that football players need to shut up is silly to me.
As far as I'm concerned you can have it both ways and the good ones usually do. Talk and walk, preferably all over the other team's faces on the way to the ball carrier.

 

[bkrownd]

Great defenses have an edge, great defensive players play with emotion, they talk trash, they destroy the other team.

More importantly they also have discipline, conditioning and solid fundamentals. Those are required, not optional. Train first, tackle next, talk afterwards.

 

[Doogie]

On another topic. Doogie again brings up Mike Leach...again! I honestly don't think if, perish the thought, Brewster were to get the boot, there would be much interest on either side. Is Leach just Doogie's pipe dream or is there talk among connected people about making a play for Leach? My guess is such a move would take sacks and sacks of money and a lot of promises. My guess would be we'd also see a lot players transfer too.

gophmeister: I took a portion of a blog I wrote for startribune.com from a few months ago... was trying to emphasize the point that I am becoming a softy compared to others in town in regards to this year's team and Brewster's future.
Thanks for taking the time to read.

 

[KoolAid]

Great...So we can count on you taking a break from this board until the first kickoff, right?

Nope

 

[Doogie]

This is another indicator of a troubling side of Doogie's fandom. He LOVES offense, craves it, is obsessed with it. It bothers me about his writing, because basically if the game isn't exciting, it's a failure in his mind. It's got to be an NFL thing from his years at KFART.
BTW Leach would not come here for many reasons, lack of regional recruiting speed, weather, low profile program, MONEY!, and pretty much it's known he's going to Maryland after Friegen is canned this year. He's good buds with the CEO of Under Armor who's a big Maryland alum donor.

As for the D, back on topic,
Just what exactly hasn't been good about our D the last few years, I've seen them play their hearts out, play like their hair is on fire, put up really great games for two seasons under Brewster. This is maybe one of the very few things that has been said and delivered. You should believe because you've seen it already. No reason to think it will drop off. If you really want to check out last year's D coming in, Lawrence was not a full timer in 08, Tripplett was a special teamer, Campbell was back but had switched positions the previous year. Sherels and Simmons were back, so was Theret, Royston hadn't started though, Small and Brown were back but the DE's weren't rock solid starters in 08. That's 6 returning STARTERS, and a bunch of unknown/part timers in their first full gig. Not a big leap to where we're at now.

Ole: Love you as always... definitely appreciate great offense, but prefer winning above all else. Leach is a winner that is attainable if measurable progress isn't made by Brew and company this year.

 

[Ole]

Ole: Love you as always... definitely appreciate great offense, but prefer winning above all else. Leach is a winner that is attainable if measurable progress isn't made by Brew and company this year.

Dude, I seriously want to love your writing, I really honestly do. I would feed you beer and ribs before games at the Bank if you walked by. The more Gopher Football discussed the better, these interviews have been pretty great.

I just don't get the offensive obsession. You've brought up the offensive numbers from the end of the season time and time again, and you've brought up Leach, who resume' is about wide open passing football and not much else several times.

The road to winning can be found by several methods, and IMO we already walked the dominating offense road. We had it, we gave up big leads, we missed extra points, we mismanaged gameclocks, etc. I'm fine with trying to work on building around a solid D and special teams that give us good field position and don't miss easy points. If we have an offense that's what will put us over the top, but defense gets us to the brink.

 

[Sportsfan24]

Ole: Love you as always... definitely appreciate great offense, but prefer winning above all else. Leach is a winner that is attainable if measurable progress isn't made by Brew and company this year.

I enjoyed your article Doogie, it was a good read. Personally, I would not want Leach anywhere near the program, he is a bully. Real men can lead without resorting to the tactics he did. He set a dangerous president by what he did to the James kid. Regardless of whether James was a "Richard" or not he told the rest of the players to forgo safety and play because if you do not you will be locked in a shed. I am sure the players got the message. That will not make anyone tough. It WILL make them jeopardize their personal safety to appease the coaching staff.

From a X's and O's stand point if the Big Ten has learned anything the past 5-7 years, its that wide open football is better suited for the southern teams. Our athletes are better suited for smash mouth and ball control football. The Big Ten teams (Wisconsin, Iowa) that play that type of football win more games than they loose come bowl time.

 

[Bayfieldgopher]

Sorry everyone, but I agree with Art here.

Granted, I think this defense has a lot of talent, but let's have their play on the field do the talking

Make it three. My hope is Brewster is putting the pieces together for an effective D. A group that will rank in the top 3. Its been a long time since we have seen that and its a long and difficult road ahead to get there.

 

[Stargenes]

Make it three. My hope is Brewster is putting the pieces together for an effective D. A group that will rank in the top 3. Its been a long time since we have seen that and its a long and difficult road ahead to get there.

I agree that building the Defense is the proper avenue to getting this team on the championship track. However, I think the pieces are here and are falling into place. The defense will be top three in 2011. The key is trying to get middle of the pack this year.

 

[GopherGod]

I agree that building the Defense is the proper avenue to getting this team on the championship track. However, I think the pieces are here and are falling into place. The defense will be top three in 2011. The key is trying to get middle of the pack this year.

Do you mean the gophers will be top three in defense in their division in 2011 or in the big ten? I just don't see that happening at all as they are not bringing in enough elite level athletes in comparison to some of the other programs and they also do not have defensive coaches that have proven that they can build or maintain a consistent elite level defense.

 

[GhostofBronko]

Great defenses have an edge, great defensive players play with emotion, they talk trash, they destroy the other team. They idea that football players need to shut up is silly to me.
As far as I'm concerned you can have it both ways and the good ones usually do. Talk and walk, preferably all over the other team's faces on the way to the ball carrier.

So you wouldn't have a problem with a D player talking about how he can't wait to be the first to run across the field and grab the Axe?

 

[Stargenes]

Carter and Watkins are Special!

Do you mean the gophers will be top three in defense in their division in 2011 or in the big ten? I just don't see that happening at all as they are not bringing in enough elite level athletes in comparison to some of the other programs and they also do not have defensive coaches that have proven that they can build or maintain a consistent elite level defense.

You have to look at the guys already hear along with the transfers that will be available during the '11 Spring and Fall. It is an exciting puzzle to put together but it is amazing how well it is starting to fit. Keep in mind, every player on a great team does not have to be 3,4 and 5 star players coming out of high school. But yes, I am anticipating the Gophers to field one of the best defenses in the Big Ten in '11. Guys like Beal will solidify the well developing talent we already have. And I just think you are wrong about the coaching staff. You are definitely underestimationg Cosgrove and Lee and how effective they are together. Moreover, Coach Hill does a fantastic job building lean athletes with great football power and quickness. His training translates very well in aggressive defensive play. Look at what he has done with Carter and Watkins; they went from 165 and 187 to 185 and 200 lbs respectively and they have gotten even faster. Also, they don't look like they have an once of fat on them. Pay attention to the LBs: Singleton, Cooper, Reeves, Rallis and Hill; they are all extremely powerful looking and fast. Like Pete Carrol said to his USC National Championship team just before the game, "TEAMS WIN." I am suggesting to you that we are building a strong defensive squad as a whole.

 

[AhliBobwa]

I´ve writen ad nauseum already about our incredibly talented Defense. anyone who denies that we have the talent to field a solid D this year, and a top 25 Defense next year is a troll or isn´t paying attention.