Spring Game

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DarrenTheGreek said:
The new RBs
The new WRs
The new secondary (both CB and S)
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Should be an interesting Fall camp this year as we saw a lot of new faces make an impression today, but we didn't even get to see some of the new talent, as there are still a number of players who didn't early enroll. Add this bunch to the mix and things get even more interesting:

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LeftofThaDial said:
29 carries for 24 yards rushing for the teams combined.
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Not super surprised as we weren't going to risk any injury with Darius and the highly touted RB out of TX - Estrada isn't on campus yet. I think with his background, I'd be surprised if PJ gives him a shot at #2 if he looks good this Fall. These are his Senior stats playing for El Paso in the large school 5A Division last year:
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So, at that level of TX football, you are playing against high college-level talent every game.
 

99Gopher said:
Not super surprised as we weren't going to risk any injury with Darius and the highly touted RB out of TX - Estrada isn't on campus yet. I think with his background, I'd be surprised if PJ gives him a shot at #2 if he looks good this Fall. These are his Senior stats playing for El Paso in the large school 5A Division last year:
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So, at that level of TX football, you are playing against high college-level talent every game.
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I followed Estrada’s SR year closely, excited to see him, it’s not the running backs I’m concerned with. I know spring games aren’t set up to showcase a rushing game, but after last year I’m still really concerned about OL play.
 


One of my favorite days of the year I was happy to have a spring game back. Took the opportunity to introduce my pre-school twin grandkids to The Bank they were awed and loved it. The first thing that struck me was I remember when we played Cal way back in the day when Decker got knocked out while catching a TD pass I remember looking at their OL and hoping that someday we would have kids that looked as big and athletic as those. Actually think our younger OL look just like that. The older kids who have played already not so much, but it was encouraging. We play five DB’s so going into the season you probably wanna have what seven-eight kids that can really play. I worry about that. I also worry about the OL while the Cal looking kids wait their turn, but how much of their perceived issues are because we run such a predictable offense everybody knows what play is coming? Overall, we have some really stud looking type kids all across the board at all positions, I do think PJ has increased the talent overall on the roster. On game day, he just needs to change his best to put them in the position to where they can thrive. Not his strength and it’s really held us back IMO.
 

I came away quite pleased! I’ve been making every radio call this week starting with “go-pher ” to plant the bug in everyone’s brain
 


LeftofThaDial said:
29 carries for 24 yards rushing for the teams combined.
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At least, hopefully it now continues to stand out as major emphasis #1 to fix in fall camp. Gotta get better O-Line play. Maybe there were some starting O-Line members who didn't participate today or did so sparingly??
It ain't the RB's.
 



60's Guy said:
At least, hopefully it now continues to stand out as major emphasis #1 to fix in fall camp. Gotta get better O-Line play. Maybe there were some starting O-Line members who didn't participate today or did so sparingly??
It ain't the RB's.
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So obviously our quarterback is not gonna be a running threat and we don’t really do the RPO anymore so why are we in shotgun 100% of the time? If I was a DC I would salivate trying to stop the run against us. We run like three different plays out of the shotgun. Lineup under center and pound the ball with some variation on the type of play calls.
 

Bring back the Axe said:
This doesn't make me optimistic for the return of a strong running attack this year
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We have talent in the RB room even with those stats I thought looking at the game live. Several of the RB’s flashed. We threw about 10 screen plays today for whatever reason, and some of it was during those plays so didn’t translate to running stats.
 

Sounds like the transfer WRs showed out. Moore definitely looks the part physically, could we have a surprisingly good WR group? I was admittedly pessimistic about the transfer adds outside of Perry Thompson.
 




BadassMotherFlecker said:
Drake looked way faster on a scramble than he ever did last year.
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Assume the play you are referring to is at the 2:00 mark of the video that was posted. He did show a little more burst, never going to be confused for a running QB but I am sure he has spent a lot of time working on his mobility in the off season.
 

mggoph said:
www.thedailygopher.com

Gopher Football wins the spring game, 5 takeaways

Gophers remained undefeated in Spring Game
www.thedailygopher.com www.thedailygopher.com

If you take out the quarterbacks, the Gophers rushed 19 times for 34 yards.

Still not good though.
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There are legit reasons to be concerned about the running game last year but I wouldn't put much stock in spring game numbers good or bad.

Taylor didn't play
The presumed starting o-line was split between the two rosters
Mixing and matching lots of combinations
Going against a defense that knows our plays and almost certainly running a vanilla playbook due to the game being televised.
 

LeftofThaDial said:
I followed Estrada’s SR year closely, excited to see him, it’s not the running backs I’m concerned with. I know spring games aren’t set up to showcase a rushing game, but after last year I’m still really concerned about OL play.
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Yeah, I don't disagree with OL concerns. They really didn't show us much today and we might not have any idea where that line is until after game 1. We'll get the usual coach speak in Fall camp, so I think there will be a lot of question marks until we actually see it on the field.
 

It was a fun time. I thought Drake looked great. Fun to see some of the new receivers in action as well.
 

Sounds like Drake got passed up by Lansu on the depth chart. Or maybe not.....
But it sounds like Lansu looked pretty good. Nice play by Shik too.
 


Cobra said:
Sure hope they lose the surrender white helmets for the 2026 regular season.
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They have had 3 helmets in the rotation in the PJ era. A change would probably mean bringing back either black (or another color if they ever change up to black alternates) or chrome gold (which doesn't go well with the welcome infusion of gold into the current set).

I think they'll keep the white helmets for some time as they compliment the white trim on the current set really well.
 

It is difficult to get a feel for the improvement of our offensive line when you don't have your best guys playing together for a Spring Game. Plus our best lineman, Greg Johnson, is recovering from off-season surgery. We have 4 starters returning so I want to believe those 4 guys will be MUCH better this season. We won't really know if the trenches are improved until our first few games of the season. I know there is a strong empahsis on running the football and stopping the run in the off-season so hopefully we will witness that in 2026. One thing I do know is that this might be the most depth Fleck has ever had. We appear to have a great WR room and a lot of great linebackers. And, we might have a great kicker in the making with Daniel Jackson. I thought there were a ton of positives from the Spring Game and I cannot wait to get the full team on the field this fall and see what looks good on paper, transfer to the field. Go Gophers!
 

BTChamp said:
Sounds like Drake got passed up by Lansu on the depth chart. Or maybe not.....
But it sounds like Lansu looked pretty good. Nice play by Shik too.
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I try not to get too excited especially after how great that big fella from Bloomington looked at QB (Moses Alipate) in the spring game. I thought for sure he was going to be the real deal. Would be nice but I have my expectations tampered since then. Fun to see some of the young fellas ball out though! If the Oline can come together this could be a good team!
 









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