All Things 2015 Gophers Spring Practice: Tweets, Links, Analysis, Video & More

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Mitch is who he is. He is never going to be a "sexy" QB - but the coaches like him, the players like him, and he seems to be a good fit for the system the Gophers run. Under Kill, the Gophs are probably never going to have a QB who racks up impressive stats - except for the stat that measures wins and losses. We're talking about a team that won 8 games, was in contention for a division title, and played in a New Year's Day bowl game. If our QB situation was truly as bad as Sonny claims, I doubt the team would have accomplished what it did.

Football is the ultimate team game - you can't separate out one player and blame him for all of the team's problems. Mitch Leidner was a RS Sophomore playing his 1st full season as a D1 Starter - and playing with a less-than-stellar cast of WR's. Let's see what happens this season with some new options in the offense.
 

If Mitch's play continues to improve with his performance against Missouri being the new benchmark we'll be in very good shape.


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Oregon Gopher said:
If Mitch's play continues to improve with his performance against Missouri being the new benchmark we'll be in very good shape.


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Unless he can throw a spiral, he will never improve. :rolleyes:
 

Dr.Don said:
Unless he can throw a spiral, he will never improve. :rolleyes:
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+1. I don't know if I have ever read a more ridiculous take on this board than this stupid "Mitch can't throw a spiral" mission. Well played Dr.


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Even if other teams were selling out the run and leaving our WRs in single coverage, it never made much difference with their lack of ability to get separation and stay open. Hopefully that changes with more athleticism on the field this year. I definitely don't think the blame falls on the QB position.
 








sonnygarcia said:
I'm excited for the season and love what kill & co are doing and that's why it probably irks me more; we could easily win the West with an average QB, we're gonna be that good at most spots next year. If we were still bad at most spots I wouldn't even care about our QB situation.

But you would almost have to purposely sabotage yourself to get a QB situation as dire as ours, so maybe I'm even more shocked than mad. Streveler, McKinzy to follow Liedner! I mean we have brought 1 legitimate QB onto campus so far during Kills time here and that was Nelson. I think the staff deserves more heat about this.
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I think that is where many people are disagreeing with you. The QB situation isn't good, but most don't think it is as bad as you are making it out to be. Leidner has shown he can be a solid QB, he just isn't consistent. I'm optimistic he will take another step forward next season.

McKinzy has transferred by the way.
 

GophersInIowa said:
I think that is where many people are disagreeing with you. The QB situation isn't good, but most don't think it is as bad as you are making it out to be. Leidner has shown he can be a solid QB, he just isn't consistent. I'm optimistic he will take another step forward next season.

McKinzy has transferred by the way.
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The reason he transferred was the competition, .i.e. Jacques Perra.
 

Leidner is good enough for this team to be B1G champs this year.
 

diehard said:
Leidner is good enough for this team to be B1G champs this year.
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+10000

I don't understand the hate that Leidner receives from this "fan" base. Sure....he's not Andrew Luck....but he's not that bad. People focus on the bad plays way too much. They ignore the plays like the one in which he dropped a perfect pass into Maye's hands in order to beat a terrible Purdue team. They ignore the fact that he ran for over 100 yards and had TWO touchdowns against Nebraska....in a winning effort....in their stadium.

You'll cannot be pleased. The same people complaining right now....are the same people who complained about Weber when he was here. Meet reality.
 



stocker08 said:
+10000

I don't understand the hate that Leidner receives from this "fan" base. Sure....he's not Andrew Luck....but he's not that bad. People focus on the bad plays way too much. They ignore the plays like the one in which he dropped a perfect pass into Maye's hands in order to beat a terrible Purdue team. They ignore the fact that he ran for over 100 yards and had TWO touchdowns against Nebraska....in a winning effort....in their stadium.

You'll cannot be pleased. The same people complaining right now....are the same people who complained about Weber when he was here. Meet reality.
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IMHO, with his 6'4" 236-pound frame and the upgrade at the WR position he'll do some terrible damage against opponents.

The TE position is going to be very competitive with Duke & others. Even walk-on Noah Scarver is pushing for a starting spot.

We know he can make punishing runs. That is always a threat with him at the helm.
 

I don't know how anyone could say after watching all of last year anything other than "Leidner kinda sucked". Now, his play in the passing game against Missouri was solid but even then he still turned it over and his signficant ball security issues will need to be eradicated regardless of how he throws the it this coming year. If at the end of next year if it turns out that "Leidner was OK" that's all we need.
 

sonnygarcia said:
who cares about efficiency, when the other team is playing only to stop the run and leaving receivers with single coverage (not to mention the majority of your passes are roughly 5 yards) you should have a good efficiency rating. When you rank 121 out of 128 in passing that is troublesome. That shows that the coaches aren't throwing the ball because they know they can't succeed at it. Goods teams stop the run and know they can stop the Gophers.


And mocking me about a spiral...... that's kind of important. Ask a WR what kind of a ball they'd rather catch, a spiral or a wobbler, let me know what they say. Also, when you need to drive a ball into a tight window, would you have better success doing that with a spiral or a duck?
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Good teams stop the run?

Did you catch the National Championship Game?

Also, did you catch the Gophers/OSU game? We ran the ball really well that game (200+ yards, 5.0ypc).
 

Indi1006 said:
I don't know how anyone could say after watching all of last year anything other than "Leidner kinda sucked". Now, his play in the passing game against Missouri was solid but even then he still turned it over and his signficant ball security issues will need to be eradicated regardless of how he throws the it this coming year. If at the end of next year if it turns out that "Leidner was OK" that's all we need.
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"Leidner kind of sucked" had us playing for the B1G Ten West Crown during the final game of the regular season. I'll hang up and listen while you tell me the last time we were that close to winning anything similar.
 

ML7 didn't suck last year, he was inconsistent last year. You can focus on a small sample and make a case either way. Looking at the whole pic and he had us playing for a B1G championship and on NYD. Not too bad. See what you want to see - spiral or not [emoji1]

Seems like a good thread to discuss how he looks in Spring Practice this year......


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e.bigelow said:
"Leidner kind of sucked" had us playing for the B1G Ten West Crown during the final game of the regular season. I'll hang up and listen while you tell me the last time we were that close to winning anything similar.
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Irrelevant. This is really about how much farther the team would have gone with better QB play. I don't know why it's considered to be "hating" on Leidner. I'm a huge Leidner supporter going I to '15, but I still can't deny that QB play left something to be desired, and you wonder what could have been.

That's the debate. Nobodies debating how many games the team won with Leidner.

The debate is silly, but it's a debate nonetheless. Both sides are annoying broken records at this point. Leidner will be better this year, and "sucked at times" last year. Bottom line. Nothing else will be accomplished by either side, so let's put it to bed.
 

Well, almost by definition, we would be more successful if we had better QB play...which puts us in the same boat as every school that doesn't win the National Title. When discussing Leidner, the critics conveniently overlook his impact in the running game...every time he runs for 6+ yards (for example) is just like completing a pass. I won't sit here and claim he's an elite passer, but he's the best we have. For as insane as Mr. Mankato (sonnygarcia) is, he does have an argument about the overall QB talent (passing wise) that this crew has brought in...but it pretty much is in line with the last 30 or so years. It's not like we were "QB-U" before these guys came along. Let's see what one of their QBs can do as an upper-classman before we come to any grand conclusions.
 

Silly me, I came here to see some update from today, but instead got a heated debate about our QB's performance last year.
Let's keep the thread on track boys.
 

AuEGO4 said:
Silly me, I came here to see some update from today, but instead got a heated debate about our QB's performance last year.
Let's keep the thread on track boys.
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The next practice isn't until after the players spring break is over in at least a week, maybe two.
 

die hard gopher said:
The next practice isn't until after the players spring break is over in at least a week, maybe two.
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Oh cool, well then continue to talk about whatever you want on this thread for the next week while the kids are on spring break. I would like to share my favorite waffle recipe...

s/
 


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Go Gophers!!
 

e.bigelow said:
"Leidner kind of sucked" had us playing for the B1G Ten West Crown during the final game of the regular season. I'll hang up and listen while you tell me the last time we were that close to winning anything similar.
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And Trent Dilfer led the Ravens to a Super Bowl Championship....
 

I learned to appreciate Leidner's toughness this year. No QB this side of Tim Tebow could have absorbed the blows he took and made it through the entire season. Despite how bad our passing game was at times, we still won 8 games. If Mitch improves a little and the WRs are who they're being advertised to be, the passing game could be ok and we could be looking at a 9-10 win season.
 


All Things 2015 Gophers Spring Practice: Tweets, Links, Analysis, Video &amp; More

MadtownGopher said:
Wut?
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It's one of his unreal views from the Presidential Suite at the best resort in Cancun. Also, a dream for him.


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