Gophers football: Five storylines for fall camp: TwinCities.com

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NEW COORDINATORS

Both Jay Johnson and Jay Sawvel will revamp schemes on both sides of the ball this fall.

Johnson, the new offensive coordinator from Louisiana-Lafayette, could install more pistol formations and read-option plays, to quicken the pace.

“I’m not for speeding it up all the time,” Claeys said in Chicago. “I don’t think the game was meant to be played continuous. … But at the same time I think we need to be more diverse in what we do with the running game.”

Sawvel, the new defensive coordinator after being promoted from Gophers secondary coach, has been exploring ways to create mismatches on blitz packages.

“It’s game-to-game type stuff,” Gophers linebacker Jack Lynn said. “It’s what the offense is not good at picking up. You just kind of take from other teams.”


http://www.twincities.com/2016/08/04/five-storylines-for-gophers-fall-camp/

 

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NEW IDENTITY?

In his first full season at the helm, Gophers coach Tracy Claeys says he isn’t concerned with putting a personal mark on the program he inherited from Jerry Kill.

“Somebody can come in here and watch us practice (and say), ‘It’s the same as Jerry Kill,’ and that’s a hell of a compliment to me,” Claeys said. “I’m not worried about what people recognize being different from me, or whatever. That’s far from my thoughts.”

There will be some differences, though. At Big Ten media days in Chicago last week, Claeys expressed a necessity to make sure he has the best guys available on game days, which likely means fewer live periods of hitting in practice than under Kill.

“You can’t afford to lose guys in practice,” Claeys said.