Did Andre McDonald play today?....and my thoughts from the day

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kuhlmanalex

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I was just wondering if I missed something? I seen that we played plenty of recievers but I don't think I noticed him on the field at all today? Anybody know the reason? Just a few quick notes from the game since I'm posting:
*Holy crap do we have a lot of interchangable recievers
*I am excited about the future of KJ Maye...not really based on much today but I think we will be a major piece of our future
*I like how aggressive our D has been with blitzes....and DJ Wilhite is playing extremely well
*It doesn't seem like Gillum can ever get any space...I don't know if it is him or if he just ends up getting the ball when the line lets up or what. I just don't remember ever really seeing what he can do because he never has any space
*Gray is a stud. I know some people like the traditional throwing quarterback but for a college qb I think he is going to have a dynamite year. It was great watching him run over the dback on the run
*We are sooooo much better than last year. I know that it is two games that we should win...but it just seems to be better football.
*I really liked what they did going into the fourth quarter with that gopher dance and then the Clear my Throat song going into the next song (forgot what it was) It seemed like it got some energy into the stadium
*I thought our student section looked fairly large today...could be wrong
*I expected to notice DCT more but I think it is in large part to the spreading of the ball...Fruechte has a chance to be very legit
*I really really enjoy watching this team and can't wait for the rest of the season. I hope we come out and play well the next two weeks going into the big ten season.
*Please tell me Iowa and Wisconsin are both going to lose...that would cap a good Saturday...and if WI could get shut out that would be sugar on top.
Sorry if some of this has been posted.
 

Yea, isn't it too bad Q lost so much speed since last year... lol With that kind of speed and power, stud is the WORD!
 

McDonald had an infection from turf toe
 

Good stuff, I will just add my thoughts:
- Offensively, we still have some things to work on, but overall played very well.
- 3rd down conversions were much better
- I've been impressed with Barker so far both as a WR and punt returner. He's not extremely fast or anything but has really become a solid player for us.
- Brandon Green still doesn't have a catch. Not a huge deal in the sense of the offense as a whole, I was just hoping he'd have a big year this years because he's had such bad luck in his career.
- Today was proof again that we have improved tremendously in team speed and athleticism (especially on defense). I don't know if it's because of better athletes on the team, or an improved strength and speed program. I tend believe it's a little of both.
- The defensive line is better than we've seen in awhile. I know the opponents have not been extremely strong so far this year, but we haven't been able to get pressure on these type of teams in the past. Wilhite and Hageman were beasts today.
-Sacks and turnovers. 4 more sacks and another INT today. Love it.
- Wells continues to impress. He's all over the field.
- I wasn't impressed with our LB play at times today. I'm concerned about our MLB play during conference games.
- Just 3 penalties, that's excellent
- Punting was much better. I'll take 40-45 yards and no return every time.
- Nice to have a blowout for once. Also nice that we were able to play a lot of guys because of the blowout.

Overall, very good game that was fun to watch. Keep improving! We've seen some other of our future opponents struggle today. Some of those games may be more win-able than we thought. Let's take care of W. Michigan first!
 

Yup, Western Michigan and especially Syracuse will be tough. Syracuse held their own against USC today. They definitely are weak on the defensive side of the ball, but they can score. Let's take it one game at a time. If I can say 3-0 at this time next week I'll be a happy man.
 


Western Michigan is up big at half over Eastern Illinois. E. Illinois won just 2 games last year so take it with a grain of salt. Western has thrown for 299 yards in the 1st half.
 

GophersInIowa said:
Western Michigan is up big at half over Eastern Illinois. E. Illinois won just 2 games last year so take it with a grain of salt. Western has thrown for 299 yards in the 1st half.
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My biggest worry is that the Gophers will be flying high after this win. They haven't seen success like this before, even if it was a blowout vs. an FCS team. Western Michigan is MUCH better than New Hampshire. If we are focused and play our game we'll win. If we are asleep we will lose. Same with Syracuse.
 

afurry91 said:
My biggest worry is that the Gophers will be flying high after this win. They haven't seen success like this before, even if it was a blowout vs. an FCS team. Western Michigan is MUCH better than New Hampshire. If we are focused and play our game we'll win. If we are asleep we will lose. Same with Syracuse.
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Western Michigan is a pretty good football team. Their game with Illinois was closer than the score might indicate. They outgained Illinois, they just couldn't stop turning the ball over.

I think Western Michigan is still the best team on our non-conference schedule.
 

We've a way to go, but I'm happy to see this.. And after seeing NDSU beat Colorado State, if we can continue our upward trend of football, I wouldn't mind seeing more rematches with the Bison to put them in their place.
 



The next two games will be a good gauge as to how much this team is improving.

I'm starting to think the Big Ten is going to be very unpredictable this year.
 

Probably not a great test, but I was pleasantly suprised with the dline and the wide receivers. They were open all day again. Gray had a few nice passes, but unfortunately there still some plays where he held the ball too long or looked to run instead of pass. Don't get me wrong, Gray's overall play was much better. Just want him to hit these open receivers.
 

Agree with the observations and thoughts. Might add the Seal guys were awesome as usual.

Regarding all of the posts about attendance and how to fix it, you string days like yesterday together. Beautiful stadium, exciting plays, mistake-free football, and a win makes for a very happy crowd and a festive atmosphere. Hard to imagine, but enjoyed myself a whole lot more than a couple of those early games last year. I can't believe anyone who was at a Gopher game for the first time yesterday won't want to come back--student or general public--and they'll be telling others how much fun they had.
 

My only issue with this game was too many missed tackles again early in the game. UNH moved the ball due to missed tackles and the defense needs to improve in this area.
 



Mulligan said:
Agree with the observations and thoughts. Might add the Seal guys were awesome as usual.

Regarding all of the posts about attendance and how to fix it, you string days like yesterday together. Beautiful stadium, exciting plays, mistake-free football, and a win makes for a very happy crowd and a festive atmosphere. Hard to imagine, but enjoyed myself a whole lot more than a couple of those early games last year. I can't believe anyone who was at a Gopher game for the first time yesterday won't want to come back--student or general public--and they'll be telling others how much fun they had.
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Good comment, Mulligan. It is amazing how much fun people had thanks to the beer tents. :)
 

Eldred's punting style will never get you huge kick (at least without a roll), but you will get excellent hang time and accuracy. His kicks are high and turn over beautifully.

Barker is fearless as a punt returner. He caught one with a defender less than 5 yards away. Fearless.
 

afurry91 said:
Yup, Western Michigan and especially Syracuse will be tough. Syracuse held their own against USC today. They definitely are weak on the defensive side of the ball, but they can score. Let's take it one game at a time. If I can say 3-0 at this time next week I'll be a happy man.
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Bob_Loblaw said:
Western Michigan is a pretty good football team. Their game with Illinois was closer than the score might indicate. They outgained Illinois, they just couldn't stop turning the ball over.

I think Western Michigan is still the best team on our non-conference schedule.
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We'll see. Neither team has faced a defense as athletic as ours. Syracuse could easily get beat next week at be 0-3 when they get here. WMU was AWFUL against Illinois, awful. They have to play us here. We'll see.
 

highwayman said:
Eldred's punting style will never get you huge kick (at least without a roll), but you will get excellent hang time and accuracy. His kicks are high and turn over beautifully.

Barker is fearless as a punt returner. He caught one with a defender less than 5 yards away. Fearless.
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Reckless would be another word for it. He's going to get lit up and turn it over sometime if players get that close in the B1G.
 

highwayman said:
We'll see. Neither team has faced a defense as athletic as ours. Syracuse could easily get beat next week at be 0-3 when they get here. WMU was AWFUL against Illinois, awful. They have to play us here. We'll see.
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Syracuse played USC today. Unless you were being totally sarcastic and I just missed it pretty sure they are more athletic on defense then we are.

As to thoughts after the first 2 games:
Pretty much echo what most have been saying. New Hampshire was totally outmached from a size and speed standpoint but the bottom line is we won the game and it wasn't close which has not been the case around here for a while. I will be interested to see how we do against a defense that has the ability to somewhat limit Gray's ability to run the ball. Kirkwood has clearly been the best back, hopefully he can avoid the injury bug. A go to receiver has yet to emerge but they have preformed pretty solid as a unit and there seem to be some decent options there, again will be interesting to see if they can get open against a quality defense but so far so good. Rabe has been a TD machine so far. O-line has been ok not sure how they will hold up against Big Ten competition.

Defense has been getting a consistent pass rush which has been nice to see. Again they have had a size advantage over the two o-lines we have faced to this point but still good to see them getting to the QB and forcing mistakes. DB play has been solid and it is nice to see guys that can catch back there at the very least. LB's have not stood out to this point, could be an issue going forward.

Special teams is a mixed bag. The kid that punted today looked good. Hopefully he can prove to be consistent and take a lot of stress off of that part of the game. Wettstein was a little erratic, not totally sold on him as a kicker but seems to be the best option we have.

Next two weeks will give us a pretty good idea what to expect once the conference season gets here. Western is solid and Syracuse has played decent in two losing efforts. Both games are winnable so being 4-0 at the end of the non-conf season seems very doable at this point however I don't think either of the remaining games will be the layup yesterday was. New Hampshire was clearly outgunned in this one.
 

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