Coach Jerry Kill returned to the Sports Huddle today after taking the day off last Sunday for a day of traveling. Kill’s responses and comments to queries by Sid Hartman and Dave Mona are as follows:
1) Sid wanted to know if he had given the players a few days off. He had visited the weight room last week but there weren’t any players present: “No. Our kids have been lifting and having morning workouts,” replied Kill. He gave the times of the multiple lifting periods and said the players have been working hard this summer.
He added, “This is the time we have two coaches in the office.” The coaching staff is in the process of taking time off before the fall season begins. He said the year can be a grind for the coaches with regular season duties, recruiting activities and preparations for spring ball and their summer camps.
2) Sid asked about 3 or 4 Minnesota high school players opting for other schools: Kill responded to Hartman’s question by saying the following: “I can’t say a whole lot (NCAA rules on recruiting) . . . Some kids want to leave and get away from home . . . We’re not doing anything different . . . We’ve done well with the border schools (Wisconsin and Iowa - keeping in-state players from signing with the rival schools) . . . We’re working hard at it (recruiting).” During his response to Sid’s question, Kill acknowledged that Notre Dame has a history of success of recruiting Minnesota players. He also mentioned Ohio State in his comments.
3) Dave Mona mentioned the opening game with Eastern Illinois and he wondered about the team’s preparations for the start of the upcoming season: Kill said the coaches have studied film on the team’s first four opponents as well as the teams that they lost to last year. However, he expects TCU will present a challenge because of having a week off before the Minnesota game and the Horned Frogs will keep much of their playbook under wraps in their first game, “TCU will do some different things.”
Kill said they’re now getting ready for two-a-day practices (developing a schedule for the workouts). He also said that they spend the last fifteen minutes of workouts going over details of teams that they’ve lost to in the past. (I took his final comment was focused on teams that they’ve had difficulty with in recent years, i.e. Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan. Although not mentioned by name, his remarks appeared to be directed at the Badgers.)
4) Sid followed up Dave’s question with a similar query: Kill said the coaches watch a lot of film, “You study your people on film and work and visit with outside help.” In answering Sid’s question, Kill spent a brief moment talking about the need to visit with other coaching staffs (relationships developed) in making improvements in your work processes.
5) Dave Mona asked if there were any surprises in the Gophers weight room: “Strength coach has done a great job,” replied Kill. However, he said it’s difficult to single out any one person. Not surprisingly, however, he said the incoming freshmen have shown great improvement, “Stronger than they were a month ago.” He also said the weight room and the summer workouts and the upcoming fall practices are big adjustments for the incoming freshmen players.
6) Dave asked if the fall practices will be open to the public as they have been in the past: “We’ll do it similar to last year,” said Kill. He gave a brief schedule of the opening practices that’ll be open to the public as well as a scrimmage. They’ll shut down the open (public) practices and get ready for Eastern Illinois following the public scrimmage.
7) Sid, once again, raised the topic of position changes: “Maybe freshmen . . . won’t know until fall practices,” said Kill; however, as to returning players he doesn’t see any changes except in the offensive line, but they’d be subtle changes, i.e. tackle to guard and vice versa. He wants the linemen to be able to switch positions in the offensive line and they want to have nine players ready to play in the offensive line. (The injury bug that plagued the team two years ago showed the importance of depth and flexibility in line play.)
8) Dave Mona asked the final question and cited player profile articles in recent weeks and one specifically related to Jeff Jones’ eligibility: Kill’s response was general in content, “Personal situations . . . a lot of things can happen . . . can’t be determined until cleared through (NCAA) clearinghouse . . . may not know until end of July (or the start of fall practices).” (It didn’t sound to me as though he was avoiding the question, but, rather, that he wanted to respond in general terms and not focus on any one individual. IMO, he sounded hopeful in his response without being specific in personnel matters.)
Go Gophers!!
1) Sid wanted to know if he had given the players a few days off. He had visited the weight room last week but there weren’t any players present: “No. Our kids have been lifting and having morning workouts,” replied Kill. He gave the times of the multiple lifting periods and said the players have been working hard this summer.
He added, “This is the time we have two coaches in the office.” The coaching staff is in the process of taking time off before the fall season begins. He said the year can be a grind for the coaches with regular season duties, recruiting activities and preparations for spring ball and their summer camps.
2) Sid asked about 3 or 4 Minnesota high school players opting for other schools: Kill responded to Hartman’s question by saying the following: “I can’t say a whole lot (NCAA rules on recruiting) . . . Some kids want to leave and get away from home . . . We’re not doing anything different . . . We’ve done well with the border schools (Wisconsin and Iowa - keeping in-state players from signing with the rival schools) . . . We’re working hard at it (recruiting).” During his response to Sid’s question, Kill acknowledged that Notre Dame has a history of success of recruiting Minnesota players. He also mentioned Ohio State in his comments.
3) Dave Mona mentioned the opening game with Eastern Illinois and he wondered about the team’s preparations for the start of the upcoming season: Kill said the coaches have studied film on the team’s first four opponents as well as the teams that they lost to last year. However, he expects TCU will present a challenge because of having a week off before the Minnesota game and the Horned Frogs will keep much of their playbook under wraps in their first game, “TCU will do some different things.”
Kill said they’re now getting ready for two-a-day practices (developing a schedule for the workouts). He also said that they spend the last fifteen minutes of workouts going over details of teams that they’ve lost to in the past. (I took his final comment was focused on teams that they’ve had difficulty with in recent years, i.e. Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan. Although not mentioned by name, his remarks appeared to be directed at the Badgers.)
4) Sid followed up Dave’s question with a similar query: Kill said the coaches watch a lot of film, “You study your people on film and work and visit with outside help.” In answering Sid’s question, Kill spent a brief moment talking about the need to visit with other coaching staffs (relationships developed) in making improvements in your work processes.
5) Dave Mona asked if there were any surprises in the Gophers weight room: “Strength coach has done a great job,” replied Kill. However, he said it’s difficult to single out any one person. Not surprisingly, however, he said the incoming freshmen have shown great improvement, “Stronger than they were a month ago.” He also said the weight room and the summer workouts and the upcoming fall practices are big adjustments for the incoming freshmen players.
6) Dave asked if the fall practices will be open to the public as they have been in the past: “We’ll do it similar to last year,” said Kill. He gave a brief schedule of the opening practices that’ll be open to the public as well as a scrimmage. They’ll shut down the open (public) practices and get ready for Eastern Illinois following the public scrimmage.
7) Sid, once again, raised the topic of position changes: “Maybe freshmen . . . won’t know until fall practices,” said Kill; however, as to returning players he doesn’t see any changes except in the offensive line, but they’d be subtle changes, i.e. tackle to guard and vice versa. He wants the linemen to be able to switch positions in the offensive line and they want to have nine players ready to play in the offensive line. (The injury bug that plagued the team two years ago showed the importance of depth and flexibility in line play.)
8) Dave Mona asked the final question and cited player profile articles in recent weeks and one specifically related to Jeff Jones’ eligibility: Kill’s response was general in content, “Personal situations . . . a lot of things can happen . . . can’t be determined until cleared through (NCAA) clearinghouse . . . may not know until end of July (or the start of fall practices).” (It didn’t sound to me as though he was avoiding the question, but, rather, that he wanted to respond in general terms and not focus on any one individual. IMO, he sounded hopeful in his response without being specific in personnel matters.)
Go Gophers!!
