BleedGopher
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Anyway. Bet you’re all wondering how Saturday’s football scrimmage went. Me too. If your name wasn’t Sid Hartman you weren’t allowed to watch it. But, judging from some of the folks I talked to after it was over, here are some impressions:
–The defense remains ahead of the offense. This comes straight from Adam Weber, whose first throw was intercepted.
”It was kind of one of those messed-up plays,” Weber said. ”I’m still trying to get a feel for some of the plays. I truely believe that when we start executing we’re going to be a very, very good offense.”
–There were, overall, about 100 snaps. Weber took all the first-team offensive snaps, with MarQueis Gray taking all the snaps with the No. 2 offense, and providing the day’s best offensive play — a 63-yard touchdown pass to Brodrick Smith that came on a pump fake that got Smith one-on-one with a corner. He caught the ball and ran another 40 yards or so for the score.
Smith is one of a number of players trying to use spring ball to get a leg up on the competition. Eric Decker is playing baseball and Hayo Carpenter won’t be here until fall. That means Smith and the rest of the sophomore class of highly-recruited receivers are trying to get a head in the playbook and earn future minutes.
”This is our chance to shine,” Smith said. ”Our chance to get out there and compete every day. We’re learning every day. At night, when we get home, instead of getting on the computer, we’re in our playbooks.”
–More Weber on the offense: ”Offensive-wise, we didn’t compete well with the defense,” he said. ”They straight-up kicked our butts today. … There is a lot of thinking going on our there. A lot of people are not quite sure on some things. I’m not sure exactly where a guy is going to be, the timing of a play. All those things where, once we start to feel comfortable with the offense, we’ll start rolling.”
–Cedrick McKinley and Anthony Jacobs each had a couple sacks from the defensive end spot. I talked with McKinley briefly after the scrimmage and he said his goal is to better the 10.5 sacks Willie VanDeSteege totaled last season. Saturday the Gophers defense, as a whole, managed double digits in tackles for loss.
–John Nance also saw some time at quarterback. Kevin Whaley had double-digit carries, with DeLeon Eskridge and Shady Salamon each getting a handful. Receptions were fairly evenly spread among the receivers, tight ends and running backs.
–Kicker Eric Ellestad made his only field goal attempt.
One other note. The scrimmage had several high-level recruits in attendance. Brian Billick was there, as was Vikings head coach Brad Childress. As expected, Hartland (Wis.) Arrowhead High School quarterback Tom Parish made his committed verbally to the Gophers at the scrimmage.
http://blogs2.startribune.com/blogs.../?location_refer=Homepage:PromoScroller:Blogs
Go Gophers!!
–The defense remains ahead of the offense. This comes straight from Adam Weber, whose first throw was intercepted.
”It was kind of one of those messed-up plays,” Weber said. ”I’m still trying to get a feel for some of the plays. I truely believe that when we start executing we’re going to be a very, very good offense.”
–There were, overall, about 100 snaps. Weber took all the first-team offensive snaps, with MarQueis Gray taking all the snaps with the No. 2 offense, and providing the day’s best offensive play — a 63-yard touchdown pass to Brodrick Smith that came on a pump fake that got Smith one-on-one with a corner. He caught the ball and ran another 40 yards or so for the score.
Smith is one of a number of players trying to use spring ball to get a leg up on the competition. Eric Decker is playing baseball and Hayo Carpenter won’t be here until fall. That means Smith and the rest of the sophomore class of highly-recruited receivers are trying to get a head in the playbook and earn future minutes.
”This is our chance to shine,” Smith said. ”Our chance to get out there and compete every day. We’re learning every day. At night, when we get home, instead of getting on the computer, we’re in our playbooks.”
–More Weber on the offense: ”Offensive-wise, we didn’t compete well with the defense,” he said. ”They straight-up kicked our butts today. … There is a lot of thinking going on our there. A lot of people are not quite sure on some things. I’m not sure exactly where a guy is going to be, the timing of a play. All those things where, once we start to feel comfortable with the offense, we’ll start rolling.”
–Cedrick McKinley and Anthony Jacobs each had a couple sacks from the defensive end spot. I talked with McKinley briefly after the scrimmage and he said his goal is to better the 10.5 sacks Willie VanDeSteege totaled last season. Saturday the Gophers defense, as a whole, managed double digits in tackles for loss.
–John Nance also saw some time at quarterback. Kevin Whaley had double-digit carries, with DeLeon Eskridge and Shady Salamon each getting a handful. Receptions were fairly evenly spread among the receivers, tight ends and running backs.
–Kicker Eric Ellestad made his only field goal attempt.
One other note. The scrimmage had several high-level recruits in attendance. Brian Billick was there, as was Vikings head coach Brad Childress. As expected, Hartland (Wis.) Arrowhead High School quarterback Tom Parish made his committed verbally to the Gophers at the scrimmage.
http://blogs2.startribune.com/blogs.../?location_refer=Homepage:PromoScroller:Blogs
Go Gophers!!