CBS: Post-spring Top 25 (Gophers part of group "Just outside the velvet rope")

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CBS: Post-spring Top 25 (Gophers part of group "Just outside the velvet rope")

Dennis Dodd of CBS has an updated Post Spring Top 25, and the Gophers are part of the next group:

Just outside the velvet rope: UCF, Florida, Houston, Louisville, Marshall, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Northwestern, Oklahoma State, Ole Miss, Oregon State, Penn State, Washington.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefoo...e-top-25-welcome-back-to-the-top-spot-alabama

Go Gophers!!
 

Wisconsin: In Year Two, Gary Andersen is the new Bret Bielema, who was the old Barry Alvarez. The Badgers will continue to run it and try to squeeze out some quality quarterback play. We get a quick barometer in the opener against Wisconsin in Houston.

It's nice to see Wisconsin play itself in Houston for the opener.
 

It will be interesting to see how we respond with expectations, entering the season with a colorable argument being made that we should be thought of as one of the top 25 teams. This is a whole new ballpark from "well, hopefully we qualify for a bowl game".
 

worst qb situation in 10 yrs and there is top 25 talk?
 



wait!what? said:
worst qb situation in 10 yrs and there is top 25 talk?
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It didn't stop us from winning 8 games last year and Liedner and Steveler going into this year is no worse then Nelson and Liedner going into last year. One bad spring game and it is the worst QB situation in 10 years.
 

Fair enough article. I don't think it's overly optimistic to think a win over TCU bumps the squad into the rankings.
 

BJN said:
Fair enough article. I don't think it's overly optimistic to think a win over TCU bumps the squad into the rankings.
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That would be expected if we beat TCU. We would be in everybody's top 25 if that pass hadn't slipped through Wolitarsky's hands.
 

die hard gopher said:
It didn't stop us from winning 8 games last year and Liedner and Steveler going into this year is no worse then Nelson and Liedner going into last year. One bad spring game and it is the worst QB situation in 10 years.
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Nelson gone makes the qb situation at MN worse. maybe you concur - considering the names are spelled Streveler and Leidner and your subtle joke is that they are unknown.
 



Mitch this year is in almost the exact same place as Nelson was last year. Nelson started more games as a first- year player, Leidner played in more. Each one had thrown for more than 200 yards just once at the same point in their careers. Backup in each case was a RS freshman, third string a true frosh.
 

wait!what? said:
Nelson gone makes the qb situation at MN worse. maybe you concur - considering the names are spelled Streveler and Leidner and your subtle joke is that they are unknown.
Click to expand...

Nelson being gone makes the qb situation worse than it would have been this year had he stayed. It still leaves us in almost exactly the same spot as we were last year. And if Wolitarsky doesn't miss that catch in the endzone, everyone on this board is super high on Leidner for his late game heroics.
 

top 25 hopefully closer and closer

I actually like that one guy should get a god majority of the reps in practice. Now if Leidner gets injured I may eat my words.
Just noting their passing statistics from last year with Nelson having an additional year of experience.
Nelson 50% comp, 1300 yards, 7.02 per completion 9td to 6 int. rating of 119.
Leidner 55% comp, 619 yards, 7.94 per comp, 3td to 1 int. 131 rating.
Then throw in rushing numbers:
Nelson 364y, 3.9 per carry, 6td's.
Leidner 407y, 4.0, 7 td's.
On paper Leidner had a better year as freshmen than Nelson the soph. did. We are bringing back a lot on both sides of the ball and if we could just get to average, a big leap, at the passing game I say we are a solid top 25 team.



bleedsmaroonandgold said:
Nelson being gone makes the qb situation worse than it would have been this year had he stayed. It still leaves us in almost exactly the same spot as we were last year. And if Wolitarsky doesn't miss that catch in the endzone, everyone on this board is super high on Leidner for his late game heroics.
Click to expand...
 

march madness said:
I actually like that one guy should get a god majority of the reps in practice. Now if Leidner gets injured I may eat my words.
Just noting their passing statistics from last year with Nelson having an additional year of experience.
Nelson 50% comp, 1300 yards, 7.02 per completion 9td to 6 int. rating of 119.
Leidner 55% comp, 619 yards, 7.94 per comp, 3td to 1 int. 131 rating.
Then throw in rushing numbers:
Nelson 364y, 3.9 per carry, 6td's.
Leidner 407y, 4.0, 7 td's.
On paper Leidner had a better year as freshmen than Nelson the soph. did. We are bringing back a lot on both sides of the ball and if we could just get to average, a big leap, at the passing game I say we are a solid top 25 team.
Click to expand...

People need to quit saying that Nelson had an extra year of experience. Both players set foot on campus the same time, and were at the same number of practices. The reason Nelson played in 6 games his freshman year and Leidner didn't is because the staff felt Nelson was better.

Stats are also relatively meaningless, since Nelson played the entire or almost entire game against the 3 toughest defenses we faced last year (Michigan St., Iowa, Wisconsin).
 



bleedsmaroonandgold said:
Nelson being gone makes the qb situation worse than it would have been this year had he stayed. It still leaves us in almost exactly the same spot as we were last year. And if Wolitarsky doesn't miss that catch in the endzone, everyone accept wait!wait? on this board is super high on Leidner for his late game heroics.
Click to expand...

FIFY - I agree with you and I don't have a problem with wait!wait?'s opinion but he posts it every time he can. I think by now we all get it that he doesn't like Leidner and he thinks we are in trouble at the QB position.
:horse:
 

John Galt said:
People need to quit saying that Nelson had an extra year of experience. Both players set foot on campus the same time, and were at the same number of practices. The reason Nelson played in 6 games his freshman year and Leidner didn't is because the staff felt Nelson was better.

Stats are also relatively meaningless, since Nelson played the entire or almost entire game against the 3 toughest defenses we faced last year (Michigan St., Iowa, Wisconsin).
Click to expand...

There is a big difference between having 6 Big Ten starts under your belt and having a season of practice reps under your belt. Yes, the staff felt Nelson was better then, but when comparing Nelson to Leidner last year, Nelson had already had a chance to get acclimated to real game situations in the B1G and Leidner was still doing it for the first time.
 

Killjoy said:
FIFY - I agree with you and I don't have a problem with wait!wait?'s opinion but he posts it every time he can. I think by now we all get it that he doesn't like Leidner and he thinks we are in trouble at the QB position.
:horse:
Click to expand...

I'll stop. in Aug. i will probably start popping off again about the QB situation but until then, i'll knock it off.
 

I personally felt worse in 2007 when the three quarterbacks on the depth chart had one career start between them and none of them were recruited to run that particular offense.
 


John Galt said:
People need to quit saying that Nelson had an extra year of experience. Both players set foot on campus the same time, and were at the same number of practices. The reason Nelson played in 6 games his freshman year and Leidner didn't is because the staff felt Nelson was better.

Stats are also relatively meaningless, since Nelson played the entire or almost entire game against the 3 toughest defenses we faced last year (Michigan St., Iowa, Wisconsin).
Click to expand...


So are you saying that the 7 games Philip played in his freshman year was not more experience than sitting on the bench and going through the same amount of practice?

I am in the camp that Mitch now is as good or better than Philip was at this time last year(the only difference is that Mitch is a year older at this point in his eligiblity)

I absolutely loved Philip too but as things go he is not here any longer. Mitch does have more options available to himi with better line better RB's and has to be getting better WR's so that will also lean the STAT's his way when comparising the players.
 

Am I the only one that leidner is destined to be overtaken by Rhoden-McKinzie?... I mean, this guy came in, had one spring practice season. And after just a handful of practices, came out and had a great spring game. But more to the point; He wasn't just statisticaly impressive (which he was), but the way he delivered the ball, moved around and his overall level of poise are impressive given his short time in our system. When he plays it just looked fluid & natural. You see the intangibles there, the passes just look to be easy to him, zip on the ball, eyes always scanning to make plays even as he's moving around... If u have 15ish total practices and look just as good or better the the "anointed starter", it makes you wonder how long leidner will be able to justify himself starting if he's still completing passes at a %50-%55 rate?
 

Lordshawesome said:
Am I the only one that leidner is destined to be overtaken by Rhoden-McKinzie?... I mean, this guy came in, had one spring practice season. And after just a handful of practices, came out and had a great spring game. But more to the point; He wasn't just statisticaly impressive (which he was), but the way he delivered the ball, moved around and his overall level of poise are impressive given his short time in our system. When he plays it just looked fluid & natural. You see the intangibles there, the passes just look to be easy to him, zip on the ball, eyes always scanning to make plays even as he's moving around... If u have 15ish total practices and look just as good or better the the "anointed starter", it makes you wonder how long leidner will be able to justify himself starting if he's still completing passes at a %50-%55 rate?
Click to expand...

Streveler will be in before him. If we can get by by only playing Phil and Mitch with being able to RS Streveler then there is no reason why we wouldn't do it with Mitch and Streveler with Rhoden-McKinzie taking a RS. We learned the hard way with Shortell and Phil transferring that you have to RS you're QBs.
 

The Spring Scrimage

I am amazed that there are some people here putting way to much stock in a spring scrimmage. It really doesn't mean that much for so many reason including who was actually playing at the time. The spring scrimmage is not where who the starter quarterback is going to be will be determined. It will be determined this August at fall practice and like this spring, Leidner is the clear favorite. I watched several of the spring practices and Leidner clearly outperformed Roden-McKinzy. As a matter of fact he Roden-McKinzy struggled at times. The reality is that the quarterback position is by far the most difficult to transition from high school, given the greater demands and complexity of the college game.

I like Roden-McKinzy but he needs and deserves time to mature without having unreasonable expectations placed on him now. Let's see what he does this fall before we crown him the starting quarterback.
 

I remember the spring game at St. Thomas, when Weber made some bad throws, and Gray came in and threw some beautiful deep balls. A lot of people (including me) were proclaiming Gray as the better passer and suggesting that Weber would not last as the starter. Look how that turned out.

Based on everything Kill has said about Leidner being a team leader, he IS the QB unless he gets hurt. I expect Leidner to play about 90%+ of the time - only coming out if he is gassed/shaken up.

Now, how he does with that playing time remains to be seen. I worry about his physical style possibly leading to injuries. But if he's not hurt, he's taking the snaps.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
I remember the spring game at St. Thomas, when Weber made some bad throws, and Gray came in and threw some beautiful deep balls. A lot of people (including me) were proclaiming Gray as the better passer and suggesting that Weber would not last as the starter. Look how that turned out.

Based on everything Kill has said about Leidner being a team leader, he IS the QB unless he gets hurt. I expect Leidner to play about 90%+ of the time - only coming out if he is gassed/shaken up.

Now, how he does with that playing time remains to be seen. I worry about his physical style possibly leading to injuries. But if he's not hurt, he's taking the snaps.
Click to expand...

So are you saying Roden-McKinzy didn't win the starting quarterback position by his performance during the spring game? Dr.Don and I are really proud of you.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
I expect Leidner to play about 90%+ of the time - only coming out if he is gassed/shaken up.
Click to expand...

I don't disagree with your post but I do hope you're wrong about one thing. Mitch will come out every time we're up by four touchdowns which I hope happens a few or more times this season.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
I remember the spring game at St. Thomas, when Weber made some bad throws, and Gray came in and threw some beautiful deep balls. A lot of people (including me) were proclaiming Gray as the better passer and suggesting that Weber would not last as the starter. Look how that turned out.

Based on everything Kill has said about Leidner being a team leader, he IS the QB unless he gets hurt. I expect Leidner to play about 90%+ of the time - only coming out if he is gassed/shaken up.

Now, how he does with that playing time remains to be seen. I worry about his physical style possibly leading to injuries. But if he's not hurt, he's taking the snaps.
Click to expand...

It does seem that Kill hyped up Leidner way more last year as a threat to Nelson then he is hyping up Streveler as a thread to Leidner this year.
 


I'm guessing whoever is the best play action passer will be the guy. Play action seems to be the cornerstone of our passing attack.
 

Unless the offensive coordinator makes some massive changes in his offensive philosophy, it is entirely possible that it will not matter so very much which quarterback is starting or is playing. Much depends on the offensive line. Much depends on the development of the receiving corps. Much depends on how often the quarterbacks will have their numbers called as the ball carrier. Much depends on the ability of the quarterbacks to stay healthy.

This is going to be a continuation of the: "...gotta get physical..." campaign that we witnessed during the 2013 Conference Campaign, I would guess. The offense has quite a way to go in that regard.

Come on offensive line! Get it done.

The key games to watch, in my estimation, are the game at Michigan, the match-ups with iowa, Ohio State, Nebraska and wisky. Not only do these games make up 5/8ths of the Conference schedule, but they are the teams the Gophers have to overtake in their ability to play physical football.

These battles will be won...and lost on the line of scrimmage. Is the offensive line of my Golden Gopher Football Team ready to dominate Michigan, iowa, Nebraska, the Ohio State and wisky?

I really do believe it is as basic as that. Until the offensive line can start "owning and dominationg" and dictating the outcome in the games with at least three of those teams, the Gophers will do very well to win a bowl invitation. At that point in time, when the offensive line can start dominating, it won't matter too much just who lines up behind the center or in a "gun" formation.

Good luck to ALL the quarterbacks on my Golden Gopher Football Team. And..."give 'em hell offensive line!
 

I checked into this thread because of wren.

Yep.
 

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