All Things 2019 Gophers Spring Football Thread (Tweets, Articles, Video and More)

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per Greder:

Minnesota Gophers football coach P.J. Fleck isn’t injecting an underdog, us-against-the world mentality into his team going into the 2019 season. Quite the contrary.

“People think we’re going to be good; some people don’t think we are going to be good,” Fleck said Tuesday after Minnesota’s fifth spring practice. “I’m going to err on everybody thinking we’re going to be good, so we are going to train our players: Here’s what’s coming.”

That means embracing the inclusion of Minnesota in too-early top 25 projections, pointing to their high amounts of returning production and being circled as a program capable of building on three wins in the last four games, including an upset of Wisconsin in Madison and blowout of Georgia Tech in the Quick Lane Bowl.

The message of handling expected improvement on top of a 7-6 record in 2018 was a focus of the team meeting Tuesday. It’s with an eye to be prepared for the season opener against South Dakota State on Aug. 29.

“How can you handle the stress, the pressure, the expectation, the fear and the doubt and the success?” Fleck said. “… We’re not going to sneak up on anybody.”

https://www.duluthnewstribune.com/s...bracing-everybody-thinking-were-going-be-good

Go Gophers!!
 

BleedGopher said:
Fox 9: Gophers have swagger, Winfield Jr. 'blessed' to be back

PJ Fleck thinks there's a chance the University of Minnesota football team is turning a corner.

He’s talked at length this spring about when the metaphoric light turns on for both a team and a player. He hasn’t said what that moment is yet for the Gophers or even if it’s happened yet. If the Gophers find themselves to be an annual contender for a Big Ten championship, they can point to the end of the 2018 season as that moment.

The strong finish appears to have translated into a swagger at spring practice. The music is loud, the energy is high and the scene is chaotic for a college football program, and that’s just the way Fleck likes it. They returned from Spring Break on Monday and held their second open workout Tuesday afternoon.

“I like the way our guys our working, I think that’s five really good practices put together. I love the way they’re working, that’s what I’m looking at,” Fleck said. “You can start to feel this team being a player-led team. You can start to feel the players taking ownership of each other and that’s fun.”

http://www.fox9.com/sports/gophers-have-swagger-winfield-jr-blessed-to-be-back

Go Gophers!!
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Must have been reporter's first practice. I've never seen Fleck's practices as chaotic. Up tempo for sure but they are well run. Great mix of mini scrimmages and drills. In the last practice, I thought overall they looked as good as they did at the end of Fall practice last year. Sounds like Fleck feels the same.
 

GoGoGopher12 said:
OK and whatever.

I interjected on this topic because I felt the board needed some actual insight instead of the typical assumptions I had been reading. I simply challenged the false notion that a freshman, any freshman would be on the same level one week into spring practice as veteran QBs. It's a common sense assertion and to challenge or disagree pretty much shows a lack of knowledge on the subject.

I've seen Clark play. I've seen Morgan play. I've seen Annexsted play. Mechanically speaking, Clark is ahead of them. In terms of velocity, Clark is ahead of them. In terms of accuracy/ball placement, Clark is ahead of them although I suppose it could be argued the variance in competition could factor here. Both incumbents have a full spring or two under their belts and each have one-half a season of game experience to their advantage. I haven't seen Kramer play so I can't really give much insight. His highlight film looks pretty solid but as someone mentioned, everyone looks good in their highlights.

I'll slip back into the shadows now and will no longer challenge false assumptions. GoGophers.
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Welcome to GH and you don’t need to be quiet. It is good to hear from contributors that may know what they are talking about as opposed to posters that are just taking a break from playing fortnight.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 

alchemy2u said:
Welcome to GH and you don’t need to be quiet. It is good to hear from contributors that may know what they are talking about as opposed to posters that are just taking a break from playing fortnight.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
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It’s pretty ridiculous to assert a new guy coming out of HS will waltz into the starting position. No need to coddle the new guy. He can school us later this year if his prediction turns out to be correct.
 

Pompous Elitist said:
It’s pretty ridiculous to assert a new guy coming out of HS will waltz into the starting position. No need to coddle the new guy. He can school us later this year if his prediction turns out to be correct.
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You mean like Annexsted did last year?

For the record, I never asserted anyone would waltz into a starting position. There’s a whole lot more to being a QB than throwing mechanics and arm strength.
 


alchemy2u said:
Welcome to GH and you don’t need to be quiet. It is good to hear from contributors that may know what they are talking about as opposed to posters that are just taking a break from playing fortnight.
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Provide any evidence that he knows what he's talking about. I can say I'm an expert in topic XYZ, but that doesn't mean anything.

Oh, and sick Fortnite burn - you're so clever.
 

GoGoGopher12 said:
You mean like Annexsted did last year?

For the record, I never asserted anyone would waltz into a starting position. There’s a whole lot more to being a QB than throwing mechanics and arm strength.
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Go on...
 

Pompous Elitist said:
It’s pretty ridiculous to assert a new guy coming out of HS will waltz into the starting position. No need to coddle the new guy. He can school us later this year if his prediction turns out to be correct.
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Well, it is pretty ridiculous to jump all over a new poster that is just trying to give some insight and some first hand experience with one of our new freshman.
 

dpodoll68 said:
Provide any evidence that he knows what he's talking about. I can say I'm an expert in topic XYZ, but that doesn't mean anything.

Oh, and sick Fortnite burn - you're so clever.
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I will when you provide any evidence that you know what you are talking about!
 



GoGoGopher12 said:
You mean like Annexsted did last year?

For the record, I never asserted anyone would waltz into a starting position. <b>There’s a whole lot more to being a QB than throwing mechanics and arm strength.</b>
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Right. Spirals.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 


alchemy2u said:
Well, it is pretty ridiculous to jump all over a new poster that is just trying to give some insight and some first hand experience with one of our new freshman.
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He’s a big boy. This is the friendly reply he gave to another poster questioning Clark’s howitzer dominance in comparison to the other guys.

Clark must have digressed quite a bit then from his high school playing days. I sure hope it's not Ciarrocca teaching those high floater passes that I saw Tanner and Zach throwing all last season because Clark certainly wasn't. That, or you really don't have much of an eye for QB'ing. I'll go with the latter.
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To his credit, he did mention above that “superior mechanics” and arm strength aren’t necessarily a QBs most important traits.

It’s very possible Clark comes in and looks like an NFL prospect but none of us have seen anything other than grainy hudl highlights with an almost comically clean pocket in a TX high school league. I’m skeptical anyone can directly project someone coming out of high school into a starting gig in the Big Ten as a true freshman due to the huge jump in defensive speed and the natural learning curve. Obviously historically there have been some that could jump in and have great success but the odds are not high IMO. If I’m wrong then I’ll happily eat crow - bookmark this page.
 




Spann-Ford is enormous. I walked by him at the state fair this past summer and he was big then; he looks like he added even more muscle.
 

Have we heard yet whether the Spring Game this year will be a "true game" with two captains doing a sandlot pickem' or draft for squads?

Seems like this worked well last year (but didn't get to attend with the moved date).
 

BilldGopher said:
Have we heard yet whether the Spring Game this year will be a "true game" with two captains doing a sandlot pickem' or draft for squads?

Seems like this worked well last year (but didn't get to attend with the moved date).
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I believe Fleck said in his opening press conference for spring ball that they plan on doing something similar this year again.
 


per KSTP:

Gophers head football coach P.J. Fleck is happy these days that it's football season, well at least spring football season. Minnesota has held three practices open to the public and the team has their spring game on April 13. KSTP Sports was with the Gophers at Tuesday's practice.

"Today it was balance, and competition was high. We hit a ton of situations, hit every situation we possibly could have, including the two minute and different scenarios in the two minute. It was well worked by our coordinators and our staff, so we're getting there," said Fleck.

Two players that'll be asked to take a big leadership role this season are seniors Tyler Johnson (WR) and Thomas Barber (LB).

"The leadership role I'm not there yet. That's just one thing I want to improve on and keep getting better at. He (Fleck) said it's gone up, but it's not there yet and that's one I'm working on every day," said Barber.

https://kstp.com/sports/gophers-fleck-johnson-barber-spring-practice/5303290/

Go Gophers!!
 

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"As a Minnesotan, all I could think of growing up was winning Goldy's Cup"...

I must agree. Its all I still think about...
 

Well, it looks like the weather is gonna cooperate for the "spring" game. :rolleyes:

Sunny and 60, and I'm probably there. Frosty and 40, I'll see if it's on TV. Guess I'm a fair-weather fan.

JTG
 


The show must go on. One thing I like about Fleck is he understands fans want a game. He will make it happen.
 

Game moved indoors and no longer open to public due to the weather, per an email I just got:

The University of Minnesota football team will play its annual Spring Game presented by Abbott at 11am on Saturday, April 13th at the team's indoor football facility at Athletes Village. It was previously announced that the game would take place at TCF Bank Stadium, but with impending weather the decision was made to move the game to Minnesota's world-class Athletes Village.

Due to limited crowd space, the game will no longer be open to the public, but it will be streamed live on BTN2GO and aired live on the Gopher Radio Network. The game will also air on tape delay at 4pm on BTN.
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Go Gophers!!
 

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Go Gophers!!
 

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