Gophers football 2021 spring practice: 5 things to watch

As far as I have been able to surmise, the award is essentially to highlight the player (or players) who worked the hardest that week. So it means he's working hard during practices!

Also, just fair warning, the board can be hot and cold on players sometimes. Hopefully everyone will love Brady and he'll have an amazing career as a Gopher, but don't take it too personally if someone here has some less-than nice things to say if Brady makes a mistake.
Yes Sir I understand, that's pretty much the same on most boards. I don't take it personally. Hopefully he will do well and be an asset to the team.
 

Wonder how strong he'll be after not working out for quite a length of time. I wonder if he can pump iron or is completely restricted?
Gotta believe he can do a lot of upper body exercises and I am sure they have ways to help him work out his lower body as well while recovering. As long as he can get back into it around the start of fall camp he should be in a position to help the team during the season, even if it might be in a limited role initially.

Thankfully we have the kind of depth along the o-line that should make it possible for the coaches not to feel rushed trying to get him back out there.
 

Can the team start the season looking solid which we haven't seen the past few years? Would love to not lose 100-13 against Ohio St playing like we normally do the first few games of the year.
 

2020 saw Morgan begin his Leidner slide. Morgan cannot go full leidner in 2021.
 



I would hope so 8 healthy OL isn't even a two deep or enough to run a scrimmage.
There are 20 on the roster so there are plenty to have scrimmages. 14 if you take Dunlap and Freshmen off the list.
 

There are 20 on the roster so there are plenty to have scrimmages. 14 if you take Dunlap and Freshmen off the list.
I believe there are only four freshman. Karter Shaw is the Utah St transfer who is expected to compete right away for playing time in a similar sense as JMS has done previously.

20 is too many, in my opinion. That's four full lines.

You want a full two lines of 1's (starters) and 2's (mix of true backups and guys who will rotate in). Then the rest are all scout team, that you'd like to be true freshmen and maybe a few more who didn't make it up to the 2's in their second year.


Assuming Dunlap will not go this spring, I'm making a wild guess that the 1's and 2's are:
LT - Schlueter
LG - Andries/Olson
C - JMS
RG - Olson/Adries
RT - Faalele

LT - Guedet
LG - Axel Ruschmeyer
C - Shaw
RG - Beier? Cooper?
RT - Ersery

Which leaves these guys to rotate in on the 2's:

LT - Martes Lewis? Tyrell Lawrence?
LG - Jackson Ruschmeyer?
C - Boe
RG - Cooper? Beier?
RT - Martes Lewis? Tyrell Lawrence?



Right there, that's already very crowded. Lot of fighting and scrapping for reps!
 

I would hope so 8 healthy OL isn't even a two deep or enough to run a scrimmage.
There are a lot more than 8 OL who are healthy; probably at least 18 healthy OL for scrimmage purposes. The 8 OL I referred to meant those, other than Dunlap (who brings it to 9; 10 if you count Utah transfer, Shaw) who have meaningful game experience under their belts already. We've got a number of good young OL guys, healthy, who haven't seen meaningful game action yet because of short 2020 season. This is a very deep and experienced OL. I hope we can take advantage of it in the 2021 season.
 

I believe there are only four freshman. Karter Shaw is the Utah St transfer who is expected to compete right away for playing time in a similar sense as JMS has done previously.

20 is too many, in my opinion. That's four full lines.

You want a full two lines of 1's (starters) and 2's (mix of true backups and guys who will rotate in). Then the rest are all scout team, that you'd like to be true freshmen and maybe a few more who didn't make it up to the 2's in their second year.


Assuming Dunlap will not go this spring, I'm making a wild guess that the 1's and 2's are:
LT - Schlueter
LG - Andries/Olson
C - JMS
RG - Olson/Adries
RT - Faalele

LT - Guedet
LG - Axel Ruschmeyer
C - Shaw
RG - Beier? Cooper?
RT - Ersery

Which leaves these guys to rotate in on the 2's:

LT - Martes Lewis? Tyrell Lawrence?
LG - Jackson Ruschmeyer?
C - Boe
RG - Cooper? Beier?
RT - Martes Lewis? Tyrell Lawrence?



Right there, that's already very crowded. Lot of fighting and scrapping for reps!
Aside from spring practice, showing up fall practice this year are: Cameron James (.8768), Saia Mapakaitolo (.8763) and Logan Purcell (.8673). Because of the COVID deferral, we are loaded at OL. We'll lose some experience, maybe a lot of experience, after the 2021 season, but we'll still have a lot of bodies who have been getting ready to step up.
 







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