With the Big Ten regular season now at its halfway mark, the Gophers are taking the bye week as an opportunity to heal up and refocus after last weeks loss at Illinois. It isn’t taking the team long to get back on track at practice with rival Iowa waiting in the wings on November 8. Here is a recap of today’s player interview responses from the media.
Coach Kill:
Adjustments that need to be made:
I think the most important thing is that we’ve got to execute, and also get healthy. We’ve got three or four people who are banged up pretty good, and we’ve got to rehab them. Then the rest of it is that it’s a good time to go back to the fundamentals. All the things that you feel like you need to improve on, and you can really focus. And then just execution. This game comes down to execution, and that’s what we’ve focused on the most. And it’s been short, but it’s been crisp, and good workouts. The big thing is now, the preparation going in to the Iowa game, and we’ve done that. The last bye week, we didn’t do as much, but we’ve started preparing for Iowa and done some things Wednesday and Thursday. We feel like we’re a bit ahead of schedule.
Like having two bye weeks?
This year I do. Because of all the stuff injury wise. And I think going into our last four games, it’s good. And like I’ve told our kids, is that, it’s like the playoffs really. The last four games and the way it’s all lined up, so you’re in the playoffs and you got to get ready for the first game.
Matchup up with Iowa better than last two scores have shown?
The first half of both those ball games, I mean outscored a whole bunch, and didn’t score much. You know, it’s a bad start. You can’t get off to that. So Iowa is always going to be good, they’re always going to be good up front, and the one thing we’ve got to do is we’ve got to come out and execute right off the bat. We can’t wait until the second or third quarter to get going. We need to get out of the gate better. I can tell you that right now, that’s going to be a big key to the game. We got to get some production, and play well in the first quarter. We just have to. Because that’s when the games have become quickly out of hand.
How Kill is spending his Saturday:
Working. Working, there ain’t no doubt. There are two important things. I’m going to somebody’s funeral that’s meant a whole lot to Jerry Kill and his program, and to the academics. And that’s Regent Dave Larson, and that’s the most important thing I’ll do on Saturday. And then the second most important thing I’ll do is get ready for Iowa. But the most important thing is to honor somebody that from day one walked in and knew that we had situations academically, and we had to get things straightened out. He stepped up. We lost a good man, that man’s done a lot for a lot of people, and a lot of athletes out in the working world.
Mitch Leidner:
Leidner loves proving people wrong?
Oh yeah. People think that the season’s over for us, and we think that we’re just getting going. We’ve got four big games left and we’re excited for them.
Factor of Fruechte coming down the stretch:
Yeah, he’s going to be a big factor for us, and he only continues to get better every single day. The intensity and work ethic he brings every single day, he outworks everybody and that’s what sets him apart right now.
Isaac Fruechte:
Had to correct a lot of things from last week?
Not so much. I think we just had to get back to fundamentals, get back to our technique. Just work on kind of the small detail things to hone in on this last four game stretch.
Seniors feel a need to talk, make sure team is in right place mentally?
We had a little talk. Nothing more than usual. I mean, it’s business as usual, coming out here. Coach Kill and his staff always does a great job of getting us ready to work. Especially on our off week.
Long touchdown:
You know, just had a simple post pattern, obviously Illinois was kind of keying in on David Cobb. The o-line gave us great time, and Mitch threw a great ball. It was as simple as that I guess.
Being part of play action:
Just communicating with Coach Z, and coach Anderson, and up to the box with coach Limegrover, we felt confident with our play action pass game, and it was really nice to be able to talk with the coaches and kind of have feedback into what we were running.
Leading, helping younger receivers:
Yeah, most definitely. Working with those guys, you want to have a lasting impression on the program, and help the program really grow. So being able to do that with the young guys is really important to help the program get better and help the young guys get better.