Gopher Football
Head coach Jerry Kill says he felt he needed every minute of all 15 NCAA-allowed practice sessions with his new team. In addition, the depth the Gophers have at some positions limited what Kill could do with Saturday’s event. So, it was more of a scrimmage and it was pretty vanilla, as well. There’s no need to let the folks at the University of Southern California get an early read on everything the Gophers are planning for the fall.
“It was certainly great to work with the kids over the past practices and get in our 15th and final (spring) practice today,” Kill said. “We’d like to turn around and have 15 more practices, but we can’t. I do think that there is progress being made. Infant steps. A lot of learning, a lot of kids in different situations, positions, etc. But I do think that the learning is taking place. We got a lot repetition and hopefully they’ll continue to get better.”
For the players, they were just happy to get on the field in front of a few thousand fans and show a few things.
“It just felt good to be in front of the fans,” quarterback MarQueis Gray said. “Practice was open all spring, but unfortunately people have to work. But today, it was a great day to be out there in front of the crowd.”
One player in particular was glad to be playing in front of people in TCF Bank Stadium again. Safety Kim Royston missed all of last season after suffering a nasty broken leg during spring ball in 2010. He was granted a sixth year of eligibility by the NCAA and is taking advantage of it.
“I’ve been out for a long time,” Royston said. “Just being back out here with my teammates, back out here with the new coaches, and being part of something new is a great experience. I’m glad I’m part of it.”
Now that spring practice has officially come to a close, the focus turns to the summer. Coach Kill has stressed to his team that their workouts with the strength and conditioning staff over the next three months and the work they do on their own will be crucial to the team’s fortunes in the 2011 season.
“The critical period for these young men is how they are going to react from right now until the end of the summer,” Kill said. “Any success that we hope to have will be in how hard they chose to work in the summertime. Hopefully through our meeting (the team) understands that and what it takes to be successful.”
Kill praised his long-time strength and conditioning coach Eric Klein for being one of the biggest reasons for the success that his previous teams have enjoyed. He said Klein did a good job of preparing the Gophers for spring ball and that he is looking forward to the challenge of getting them prepared for fall camp.
“We have to start from where we left off today and keep climbing,” Kill said. “They’re going to have to do a great job this summer in taking care of business and doing what they need to do to get better. So we will see what they are all about.”
Spring Game Highlights
– Freshman running back Donnell Kirkwood scored the lone touchdown of the roughly 60-play scrimmage. He scored from three yards out.
– New kicker Chris Hawthorne made a pair of field goals. His first was good from 30 yards. But his second, a 50-yarder, drew plenty of reaction from the crowd.
– Royston made a nice play to break up a pass early in the scrimmage. He got up celebrating, clearly happy to be back on the field.
– Gray and Moses Alipate took all the reps at quarterback. Tom Parish sat out the scrimmage with an injury.
– The number of plays run Saturday was roughly half of what the Gophers have run in their previous scrimmages this spring.