Most Improved Player

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Stan The Caddy

Stan The Caddy

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OK...so we have hit the middle of the week and we have a bye. That means 10 days until kickoff. Already this week the GopherHole has discussed coaching candidates, high school games, the new University President, school budgets, DII programs, kickoff time & TV schedules and the weather.

How about a thread about our current football team?

So, with one week left in the season, I thought we could look back and analyze something positive. Who do we think was the most improved player on this year's Gopher team? If you select a freshman, it will have to be their improvement over the course of this season.

In my mind, the answer is pretty clear. The most improved Gopher player is Jeff Wills.

This year you do not notice Wills, which is a good thing. Last year he was a certified train wreck. Overweight and out of shape. Numerous false starts and holding penalities. In addition, speed rushers went right past him.

This year he has done a 180 in my mind. Weber has been under much less pressure this year. Rarely is Wills beat on a pass rush and I cannot remember the last time he had a false start or holding penalty. He lost weight and has become a sold RT in the Big Ten.

Kudos to Jeff Wills.

So, post away. What does everybody else think?
 

Wills is a great pick, but since I don't know enough to judge individual line play I'll nominate McKnight. Learning how to use his body on jump balls and seems to have a great pair of hands.
 

I would say Wills by far, his improvement has been spectacular.
 

For those who are fans of Wills, does he have a realistic chance to be drafted? I understand he would probably be a project, but he has the size.
 

I'll go with Lair. Stepped in for Tow-Arnett without a big dropoff. Needs to work on eliminating drops of catchable balls, but he's a legit Big Ten pass-catching TE.
 


I considered McKnight as well, but Wills has really improved. I think Train Wreck is fair description of how he played at times last year and he is better than servicable now. I am not sure on whether or not Wills is "draftable."

Cannot go with Lair. The TE seems to be a focus of Weber and the offense since the change from the spread the last two years and Lair dropps too many passes. And kickoffs for that matter. Tow-Arnett was much better.
 

Anthony Jacobs. His name has come up a lot in the last couple games. He seems to be around the football quite a bit.
 

To me, it's McKnight. Wills would be next. Lair needs to be more consistent, but he's improved greatly as well.
 

SelectionSunday said:
Anthony Jacobs. His name has come up a lot in the last couple games. He seems to be around the football quite a bit.
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Interesting choice. My eyes have told me that the interior D-Line has improved their play as the year has gone on. Of course I only notice their good plays.
 



I also think Weber has improved his decision making. His accuracy hasn't been great, but he hasn't made the terrible decisions of years past (pick six). With that said he was quite lucky his first past against Illinois wasn't a pick six. If he decides to throw into double (or triple) coverage he tends to put the ball in a place were only his receiver (or no one) can catch it. I really wish his touch on short throws would have made similar improvement.
 

SelectionSunday said:
Anthony Jacobs. His name has come up a lot in the last couple games. He seems to be around the football quite a bit.
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That is an interesting pick. I am not sure if it is more that Jacobs has improved a ton from last year as much as it is that he is getting a ton of PT now. He seemed to be used as more of a floater type of backup and now he is a starting DE. But yeah, he has shown flashes the last couple games of being our best DL.

I think it is Wills as a no brainer. Lair, McKnight and even Gray have also improved from last year. Another name in the mix should probably be Stoudermire. He looks so natural back at CB and I really think he found his role on the team (should have been done as a freshman). Stoudermire's might be more of a most improved player throughout the year sort of thing though.
 

Silvio said:
I also think Weber has improved his decision making. His accuracy hasn't been great, but he hasn't made the terrible decisions of years past (pick six). With that said he was quite lucky his first past against Illinois wasn't a pick six. If he decides to throw into double (or triple) coverage he tends to put the ball in a place were only his receiver (or no one) can catch it. I really wish his touch on short throws would have made similar improvement.
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I know it's probably going to drive some people nuts, but statistically Weber has improved on last season a ton (and actually has more than respectable numbers).

His completion percentage went from 52% to 56%
He has thrown 20 TDs (so far) compared to 13 last year
His INTS have dropped from 15 to 9

Those are SIGNIFICANT improvements.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
I know it's probably going to drive some people nuts, but statistically Weber has improved on last season a ton (and actually has more than respectable numbers).

His completion percentage went from 52% to 56%
He has thrown 20 TDs (so far) compared to 13 last year
His INTS have dropped from 15 to 9

Those are SIGNIFICANT improvements.
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The completion percentage is not a SIGNIFICANT improvement, only 4%. 56% is still below where he needs to be. Now, if his completion percentage was 65%, that would be SIGNIFICANT.

Still think it is Wills.:)
 



Yeah, you are right about the completion percentages, but the other two are significant improvements.
 

We still both agree that Wills is a no brainer.

Good points on Troy too.
 

The biggest difference with Weber is that most of his stats this year have come in garbage time. Last year, the Gophs were in more game towards the end so he didn't get to pad his stats against student managers and trainers.....
 

Lair, Wills, Mcknight are the top 3 IMO.

Weber is greatly improved, but he still isn't as good as he was the first 6 games of his sophomore year, so I don't know if you can give him the most improved.


I have been as big of a Weber hater as anyone, he might be the team MVP though.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
That is an interesting pick. I am not sure if it is more that Jacobs has improved a ton from last year as much as it is that he is getting a ton of PT now. He seemed to be used as more of a floater type of backup and now he is a starting DE. But yeah, he has shown flashes the last couple games of being our best DL.

I think it is Wills as a no brainer. Lair, McKnight and even Gray have also improved from last year. Another name in the mix should probably be Stoudermire. He looks so natural back at CB and I really think he found his role on the team (should have been done as a freshman). Stoudermire's might be more of a most improved player throughout the year sort of thing though.
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I agree on the Stoudermire assessment. He has playmaking ability on the offensive side of the ball, but he never seemed totally comfortable as a wide receiver. From my untrained eye, Allen clearly looks better at WR than Stoudermire ever did.

Brewster should have red-shirted all of his first full class. Most of those guys are just starting to get it now. It would have been nice to have them all for an additional year.
 

Yeah, I am not 100% sure if Brew kept Stoudermire at WR out of neccesity or if he became enamored with his playmaking ability. He obviously was explosive with the ball in his hands (as seen on his KO returns), but he never made good adjustments to the ball, didn't look comfortable running routes and didn't have good hands. I would have been ok with Stoudermire being a CB and getting to play a little bit in some gimmic type plays or even if he would have been put at RB.

I agree about that class with Kirksey, Edwards, Tinsley, McKnight, Stoudermire, Eskridge and Lair should all have an additional year. If these guys were all listed as Sophomores people would be really pumped about our future. I think that blame needs to be divided between BRew and Mason.
 

Some of those guys had to play right away. Mainly Eskridge. I think Brew really messed up with McKnight, considering the kid hardly played high school football, then was barely used his freshman year even after Decker was hurt. It was a complete waste. Same with Tinsley, he rarely saw the field as a frosh and was a perfect RS candidate.

I agree that if Troy, McKnight, Tinsley, Edwards & Kirksey were RS sophomores, we would feel a little better about what is going on.
 

I agree Stan. Pinnix got hurt and Eskridge was thrown in there.

The stars didn't line up and there's some blame to Mason, but I put most of this one on Brewster. He just got too impatient. Of course, if he'd have gone 1-11 again, the well may have been totally poisoned going into Year 3.
 

In my mind, there is no question that Wills is the most improved player. My vote for the "player who could have helped the team a hell of a lot sooner" would be a tie between Anthony Jacobs and Marqueis Gray (at QB). "Most hyped, but MIA on the field" would go to Hageman and Garin....although I think both will make progress going into next year. Finally, my vote for the "young player I can't wait to see more from next year" is a tie between Kirkwood, Olsen, and KGM. Boom. There it is!
 

50PoundHead said:
I agree Stan. Pinnix got hurt and Eskridge was thrown in there.

The stars didn't line up and there's some blame to Mason, but I put most of this one on Brewster. He just got too impatient. Of course, if he'd have gone 1-11 again, the well may have been totally poisoned going into Year 3.
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Pinnix and Eskridge were never on the same team. The year Pinnix got hurt, Bennett was moved into a full time roll.

The year Eskridge "burned" his RS there were ZERO RBs on our roster who were older than Sophomores. The only other Sophomores were Bennett (who got hurt in the 2nd game of the year), RJ Buckner (who is at best a special teams player) and Jay Thomas (who was far too banged up to do more than return kicks). Eskridge's RS needed to be burned in 2008.


Not redshirting McKnight was really Brews only mistake, IMO. Everyone else was in a position where they saw pretty significant PT either in game action or playing a ton of special teams because our teams were so thin. It's easy in hindsight to say that we should have just kept losing with the rosters we had, but Brewster went to back to back bowl games (albeit crappy ones).

Brewster made a litany of errors but I think his hand was forced in playing most of these kids earlier than we would have wanted.
 

MNRideorDieChick said:
In my mind, there is no question that Wills is the most improved player. My vote for the "player who could have helped the team a hell of a lot sooner" would be a tie between Anthony Jacobs and Marqueis Gray (at QB). "Most hyped, but MIA on the field" would go to Hageman and Garin....although I think both will make progress going into next year. Finally, my vote for the "young player I can't wait to see more from next year" is a tie between Kirkwood, Olsen, and KGM. Boom. There it is!
Click to expand...


I agree with this entire posting. I can't understand why it took so long to play Jacobs and to get Gray some snaps at QB.

Those three will be exciting to see what happens with them (I would actually lump Hageman in with that group as well).

I am kind of curious about KGM. The guy has gotten HUGE. When he arrived on campus he was probably 225ish, and he is 275 now. If he gets much bigger he might become a DT as well.

He is also a track and basketball guy who put up impressive numbers as a TE/WR in HS and it almost makes me wonder if he might end up at TE. We won't have a ton of depth there next season and both of our other TEs will be SRs. I just can't think that it might not be a terrible idea to think about moving him to the other side .
 

Art Vandelay said:
The biggest difference with Weber is that most of his stats this year have come in garbage time. Last year, the Gophs were in more game towards the end so he didn't get to pad his stats against student managers and trainers.....
Click to expand...

Nice job overlooking the endless number of drops the receivers have had. Nice job going with your reach though.
 

I've got to go with Lair, didn't he have just 1 reception last year?
 

Worst drop off would be Kirksey. Being suspended for a game as a captain is pathetic. And most improved is Eskridge. He has transformed into a great running back and really gotten mature.
 

Eskridge has been working hard and transformed himself into a serviceable running back, but he is nowhere near a "great running back".

I was also expecting more out of Kirksey (As most of us were), but his production is up from last season (in more playing time).

I think more than a ton of players regressing, our biggest problem is that we didn't have any of our players step up that we had hoped (Michael Carter, Garin, Wilhite, KGM, and I will put Kirksey and Edwards into that mix).

About the only player that I was expecting some good things from who stepped up to about where I thought he'd be is Gary Tinsley.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
Eskridge has been working hard and transformed himself into a serviceable running back, but he is nowhere near a "great running back".

I was also expecting more out of Kirksey (As most of us were), but his production is up from last season (in more playing time).

I think more than a ton of players regressing, our biggest problem is that we didn't have any of our players step up that we had hoped (Michael Carter, Garin, Wilhite, KGM, and I will put Kirksey and Edwards into that mix).

About the only player that I was expecting some good things from who stepped up to about where I thought he'd be is Gary Tinsley.
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I think this is a really good post. I thought Michael Carter would step up this year and I thought out of Wilhite, KGM, Hagamen, and Garin we would find one guy who would uprgrade our pass rush. I certainly am not giving up on any of those guys. I also thought Kirksey/Edwards would not be as consistent as Brown/Small, but would make more plays. If you add in Royston getting injured and the two Lackawanna DB's never making it in to school, that's a lot of projected help on D that did not come through for various reasons.


As for most improved? I think it goes to Jeff Wills and I hope his father is able to see this thread. Big Jeff got a lot of criticism last year and his dad showed a lot of class in posting here. I think the more run based offense benefits Jeff, but he also clearly has improved his feet and technique in pass protection.

I don't know if it belongs in most improved, but what Gray has been able to do as a WR after playing QB for most of his life should not be minimized.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
Pinnix and Eskridge were never on the same team. The year Pinnix got hurt, Bennett was moved into a full time roll.

The year Eskridge "burned" his RS there were ZERO RBs on our roster who were older than Sophomores. The only other Sophomores were Bennett (who got hurt in the 2nd game of the year), RJ Buckner (who is at best a special teams player) and Jay Thomas (who was far too banged up to do more than return kicks). Eskridge's RS needed to be burned in 2008.


Not redshirting McKnight was really Brews only mistake, IMO. Everyone else was in a position where they saw pretty significant PT either in game action or playing a ton of special teams because our teams were so thin. It's easy in hindsight to say that we should have just kept losing with the rosters we had, but Brewster went to back to back bowl games (albeit crappy ones).

Brewster made a litany of errors but I think his hand was forced in playing most of these kids earlier than we would have wanted.
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Bob, thanks for correcting me. I now remember that Pinnix was only here for Brewster's first year. I guess I was thinking of Bennett going down.

Agree that the defensive line play has been the biggest regression I've seen this year. Of all the non-starters who played a considerable amount of time last season, I thought Edwards and Kirksey were the most certain to meet the performance level of the guys they were replacing.
 

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