Full Recap of Jerry Kill's Fall Practice Press Conference

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Full Recap of Jerry Kill's Fall Practice Press Conference
By Nadine Babu

http://www.gopherhole.com/news_article/show/274075?referrer_id=331171

The leadership that has taken place with the kids this summer had been good, they've done a good job in the classroom, and we've definitely taken some strides. I look at where we were two years ago, where we're at now, we're moving the program forward. Our expectations are to be better. We need to keep on moving the program forward.

· Our strongest group is our linbacking crew, and Aaron Hill has done a great job. On the inside, with Jack Lynn and Damian Wilson, there's some depth there inside. We may have more depth than we think. Athletically, we're gifted there. We need to coach them up, and we basically have 2 guys with a whole lot of experience.

· Because of nickel packages and dime, you better have some secondary players. Texas Tech was a great example of how we did that.

· I really like the development of Cedric Thompson, and all of our safeties have put on 5-10 pounds.

· Where Eric Klein tells me that this is the first time that he's put us in a better chance to have success, that's good.

· With Coach Mason and those great offenses, they were able to run the ball. We need to do that in the Big 10.

· Offensively the Gophers have had the big tight ends.

· We may start one, maybe two seniors, that's it. We're still a young team. Sometimes that's good, because they don't know any better.

· Philip Nelson and Mitch feel really good about the development. They're all high on a couple of these freshman kids (WR's)

· I have a good relationship with Devin, so I thought that could happen; we prepared for him running track.

· Don't forget Andre McDonald too.

· If you have a guy that can do much and Chris Streveler is a pretty intelligent guy. Those other two need to stay healthy. As far as improving our skill level and strength level on offense, we've done that, now we need to coach them up.

· Marcus (Jones) is going to play corner. That's his natural position, we tried to make him play receiver.

· Jamel Harbison did some good things in the spring. They are both healthy.

· Jonah Pirsig - we still need to decide what to do with him. We need to see what progression he has, and make a decision. We're leaning towards bringing him in.

· We've got to do a better job of getting our kids ready and staying healthy.

· The key to success is staying healthy. We need to do a good job of that at practice and watch what we do.

· Inside, we're really big, which is good. You're thick inside. We're feeling pretty good. On the edge, we feel decently strong there too.

· On recruiting - I feel pretty much like my second at Northern Illinois. I feel good in the shift in what the kids are doing. They have worked hard. It all starts academically, and keeping players eligible. We've taken great strides in that.

· We need to win more Big 10 games, which hasn't been done in a while. We need to kick more field goals.

· Mitch is like a lot of our team, a little young and a little inexperienced, but it's sometimes good because they don't know any better.

· We're going to leave a couple of positions out of camp, and bring more in with punters to find out who is going to be that guy that will punt that ball on a consistent basis.

· All of our kickers, everyone has a coach, so if we don't screw them up, we'll be all right.

· If one can kick it out of the endzone every time, we'll use him. If we have someone else that can kick field goals, we'll use another guy. We can use a lot of different guys.

· When I took the job here, Ra'Shede was questionable and whether or not he'd be in school. Where he was, vs. where I see him now is tremendous. According to our strength staff, Ra'Shede has done a great job this summer. He's in as good of shaped, and as focused as he's been since I've been here. Right now, I've been really pleased with Ra'Shede Hageman, and our strength staff has done a tremendous job. We've had help, I'm not too proud to reach out.

· Aaron Hill and Josh Campion have been the strong leaders, and Phillip and Mitch. I've liked what I've seen out of Brock Vereen, Donnell Kirkwood. Ra'Shede has stepped out a lot. We'll determine captains before the season starts. You get too many people talking, and no one listens, so we're finding out who will listen to who.

· There are a lot of tweaks with the no huddle system.
 


I can't wait to see who emerges as our kickers. Lots of possibilities.

I remain worried about our center position.
 


Couple things I found interesting:

1. Calling LB the strongest position when that is one that we (myself included) seem to have some of the most questions about.
2. Moving Marcus Jones to CB. Not sure if they put him there at all in the spring but not surprised to see them make this move as WR just didn't seem like a good fit for him. Hopefully they can take advantage of his athletic ability at the CB position and he will feel more comfortable playing there.
 


Our strongest group is our linbacking crew, and Aaron Hill has done a great job. On the inside, with Jack Lynn and Damian Wilson, there's some depth there inside. We may have more depth than we think. Athletically, we're gifted there. We need to coach them up, and we basically have 2 guys with a whole lot of experience.

Am I to understand that our linebackers, heretofore presented as a weakness (or at least an unknown quantity) on defense, are now to be considered a strength? If so, this means two things.

1. Those who pointed out that loses the best players in our weakest unit doesn't make us worse were right.

2. Our defense is going to be much better than predicted.
 

" Our strongest group is our linbacking crew"

Is it possible that Coach Kill and Staff know more than the novice GH'er does?
 

Thanks to Brewster I can no longer hear or read anything football related with the word "tremendous" being used and believe it. It was all good until the Hageman talk. Son of a bitch.
 

Is De'Vondre Campbell on campus and he is going to play linebacker? Seems like Wilson is mentioned more but I thought Campbell was more highly regarded coming out of recruitment.
 



Is De'Vondre Campbell on campus and he is going to play linebacker? Seems like Wilson is mentioned more but I thought Campbell was more highly regarded coming out of recruitment.[/QUOTE]

recruitment is based on the past. IS is the present based on what our Coaching Staff sees. Period.
 

Yeah that has nothing to do with it. He's just very light (215 lbs) Wilson was to fill a need now. Campbell is a project (and only a sophmore) but with a higher upside.
 

Is De'Vondre Campbell on campus and he is going to play linebacker? Seems like Wilson is mentioned more but I thought Campbell was more highly regarded coming out of recruitment.

Wilson participated in spring practice Campbell did not so that probably explains why he hasn't been mentioned all that much. He's on campus.
 

Wilson participated in spring practice Campbell did not so that probably explains why he hasn't been mentioned all that much. He's on campus.

Am I the only one that is slightly disturbed that Wilson and Lynn are "neck and neck" at starting MLB? Either Lynn is very, very good for a Freshman or Wilson is not exactly the shining recruit the staff was hoping for when he came in. I guess I was expecting more from Wilson, but it's early yet. Nothing against Lynn, but Wilson has played a lot more football.
 



We have 13 linebackers, mostly underclassmen. This to will change. We need another 3-4 linebackers this year to fill out next years roster and to prepare for the future, IMHO.
 

Couple things I found interesting:

1. Calling LB the strongest position when that is one that we (myself included) seem to have some of the most questions about.
2. Moving Marcus Jones to CB. Not sure if they put him there at all in the spring but not surprised to see them make this move as WR just didn't seem like a good fit for him. Hopefully they can take advantage of his athletic ability at the CB position and he will feel more comfortable playing there.

We are all entitled to our own beliefs and opinions but I learned fairly quickly to go with Kill's and his coaches opinions over the opinions posted here at the Gopherhole. I, like you, was surprised about the strength of the linebacker comments but I have no reason to believe that anybody here is in a better position to make that judgement. I know that you are not necessarily challenging that but I am always a little surprised by fans not realizing how little we really know as to what is going on during this time of year.:confused:
 


" Our strongest group is our linbacking crew"

Is it possible that Coach Kill and Staff know more than the novice GH'er does?

Is it possible that he meant the linebackers are the strongest in the weight room????
 

Pretty sure he meant that our linebackers are the strongest group in terms of leadership. He mentioned Hill as one of the team's leaders and with Manuel also being a senior, we do have some experience in that group. I don't think he meant they're our "best" position on defense.
 

Pretty sure he meant that our linebackers are the strongest group in terms of leadership. He mentioned Hill as one of the team's leaders and with Manuel also being a senior, we do have some experience in that group. I don't think he meant they're our "best" position on defense.

makes sense
 

Am I the only one that is slightly disturbed that Wilson and Lynn are "neck and neck" at starting MLB? Either Lynn is very, very good for a Freshman or Wilson is not exactly the shining recruit the staff was hoping for when he came in. I guess I was expecting more from Wilson, but it's early yet. Nothing against Lynn, but Wilson has played a lot more football.

Jack Lynn will be a really good player by the time he's done. From watching a few spring practices, he's physically much bigger than what you would think: 6'3", he has added a lot of weight, moves well, and has good instincts. Plus he's been in the program for a year and Wilson was learning everything on the fly this spring. My concern for MLB is that neither one of these guys has ever seen the field in a D-1 game, so experience and nerves could be a factor.
 

fewer offensive 3 and outs. nelly overthrowing wrs in the endzone. spotting teams 7 points.
 

I also got the idea that Kill was talking about the linebackers being the "strongest" group in terms of how they performed during the off-season workouts, weight room, etc.

But, considering the somewhat shaky LB play the Gophs have had the last couple of years, it wouldn't take much to be considered an improvement this season.
 




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