Sid Hartman: Leidner played hurt

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Leidner played hurt

Those who have been critical of Gophers quarterback Mitch Leidner should know he suffered an MCL sprain in the first game of the season with Eastern Illinois, missed the Middle Tennessee game and then played with pain in the remaining 10 games.

“Mitch is a tough kid,” said Gophers physician Dr. Patrick Smith, who has been with the Gophers football program for 30 years. “Mitch played handicapped and with pain all season.”

Smith also talked about how tough a kid running back David Cobb was. Cobb played after pulling a hamstring in the Nebraska game and not practicing all week.

“He worked hard in his rehab,” said Smith. “I think [Gophers trainer] Ed Lochrie did a great job rehabbing him. He deserves all the credit for it, and got him ready to play.”

http://www.startribune.com/sports/vikings/284277581.html?page=all&prepage=1&c=y#continue

Go Gophers!!
 

Perhaps we should not have been playing him if he has been hurt all season. I suppose we will be going into next year hearing about how he has made huge improvements in throwing the ball and it's going to be different next season (like we heard this season). I think Mitch has done an OK job, but if he could pass the ball worth anything, we win 1 or 2 more games.
 

If you're satisfied with 6-8 wins Leidner is your QB. If you want a chance at 9-12 wins we need a change. If that means exploring the options of a JC QB, so be it. If you were at any of the Spring and Fall practices you saw Leidner have up and down days in passing. If you were at the Spring Game most of the Gopher fans I talked with agreed: " Houston, we've a problem " I think Croft is at least two years away. So we've Strevy , the pure passer Parra, and the duel threat kid from Kansas who took a RS. I honestly think we should go after the QB from UAB who dropped football. He is eligible to play immediately. Guys, I'm not trying to throw Mitch under the truck. I love his grit, determination, and leadership, but he has had three years in the system and he has not improved to the level we need.
Heck, we saw QB's from lesser schools come into TCF who were light years ahead of Mitch in the passing game. Do we need better receivers? Absolutely. Still, we saw throws from Mitch that were
right out of backyard football between families on Thanksgiving. Brian Cupito was not a read option QB, but I think he would have won that Wisconsin game for us. I have faith in Kill and the staff that they will get done, but I don't think it will be with Mitch.
 


Leidner made some really horrible passes this fall. He also made some throws that give you enough belief that he can get the job done next year. I think it will be very, very hard to beat him out of the position in the fall simply based on his toughness, his ability to run the read option and the fact that he will have 2 more years ahead of him. It's hard to imagine the turnover in qb's in our program and we're 8-4 in back to back years with our talent in the Big10.

I really do think that there are more problems to our passing game then Leidner. He had no time in the pocket against Wisconsin-none. He didn't try to just bail like we have seen from the likes of Ponder-he did take some vicious hits in the pocket making throws. Our receivers have to get better, our line has to pass protect better and we need to find ways to get Leidner engaged early. Boy, the pass protection was terrible...I blame that equally on Leidners' success throwing the ball as his mechanics. Hard to step into throws when your being blasted by DL.
 



Just like all the Vikings that were hurt injured in the Atlanta game in 1998. All players play with injuries and soreness.
 

Hammer em' said:
Leidner made some really horrible passes this fall. He also made some throws that give you enough belief that he can get the job done next year. I think it will be very, very hard to beat him out of the position in the fall simply based on his toughness, his ability to run the read option and the fact that he will have 2 more years ahead of him. It's hard to imagine the turnover in qb's in our program and we're 8-4 in back to back years with our talent in the Big10.

I really do think that there are more problems to our passing game then Leidner. He had no time in the pocket against Wisconsin-none. He didn't try to just bail like we have seen from the likes of Ponder-he did take some vicious hits in the pocket making throws. Our receivers have to get better, our line has to pass protect better and we need to find ways to get Leidner engaged early. Boy, the pass protection was terrible...I blame that equally on Leidners' success throwing the ball as his mechanics. Hard to step into throws when your being blasted by DL.
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+ 1,000,000 The difference in that game IMO was due to a difference in the passing game. However the key to that was protection. We got basically no pressure on Stave all day. He had all the time in the world. Mitch was getting absolutely hammered on several of his throws. We need better pass protection on the O-side and more QB pressure out of our front four.
 

Are you kidding? The coaches are not going to move away from Mitch after all they put into him. He can run the ball and throw a good enough ball deep. This is what the coaches want from the position. The O line did not get it done vs. Wisconsin and that is what the offensive staff will take note of. Against good Big Ten defensive teams like Wisc. and OSU, Mitch was under heavy pressure most of the time when a pass play was called.

Mitch has not been great, but the staff will not dump him, since they do not think he is the root issue of failings against very good defensive teams.
 



oak_street1981 said:
Are you kidding? The coaches are not going to move away from Mitch after all they put into him. He can run the ball and throw a good enough ball deep. This is what the coaches want from the position. The O line did not get it done vs. Wisconsin and that is what the offensive staff will take note of. Against good Big Ten defensive teams like Wisc. and OSU, Mitch was under heavy pressure most of the time when a pass play was called.

Mitch has not been great, but the staff will not dump him, since they do not think he is the root issue of failings against very good defensive teams.
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I can't say this with 100 percent certainty, but Coach Kill and staff will play the guy who is best. With those in the program now (and coming in next year) it's likely Mitch is the guy going into the season. All this talk about "going the JUCO route" to find an impact QB who will solve all our passing woes is borderline non-sense. Those guys just aren't out there.

I hope Croft can come in next year and provide some much needed competition (or maybe CS can improve during the offseason) but going to a JUCO will not likely bring in someone who can beat out Mitch.
 

Hopefully our redshirted wide receivers, and an improved Wolitarsky/Jones will help our QB out too. It's hard to tell how much we can blame Mitch, when we arguably have the worst or 2nd worst receiving corps in the conference.
 

DougMN said:
Perhaps we should not have been playing him if he has been hurt all season. I suppose we will be going into next year hearing about how he has made huge improvements in throwing the ball and it's going to be different next season (like we heard this season). I think Mitch has done an OK job, but if he could pass the ball worth anything, we win 1 or 2 more games.
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Maybe the plan wasnt to play him with an injury, but after watching Streveler, they realized the hopes of the season were on the shoulders of Leidner
 




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