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Gophers Football Practice Quotes: Olson, Maye, Kill, Zebrowski All Talk Michigan Wolverines
By Alex Van Abbema
http://www.gopherhole.com/news_article/show/423178?referrer_id=
The Gophers enter Big Ten play with a 3-1 record and a big opportunity for a huge road win on Saturday at Michigan. Below are quotes compiled from today’s media session after practice.
Tommy Olson
Breakdowns in pass blocking
We’re still working on pass blocking all the time. I think it’s coming along. We’ve been working on it all offseason, we had a couple breakdowns early in the season, but against San Jose State we just got to running the ball and never really turned away.
Bounced back well from TCU game?
Yeah we came back and probably had the best two Tuesday, Wednesday practices we’ve ever had. We were really flying around, and I think that really had a lot to do with the game.
Chance to get a rivalry trophy?
Growing up you talk about playing in big games like this, and watching Laurence Maroney get in there, and all your heroes growing up. Playing Michigan, that’s huge. And I remember Jake Long he was there, and I thought he was like a God, he was so good. You just got to go out there, play hard, and let the dice fall where they may.
KJ Maye
Tough to stay in the game as a receiver when you’re not being involved in the pass game?
Not really because once we’re out there, we’re playing hard. You get caught up in the game, and caught up in everything. We win and we’re scoring points, so that’s my mindset. I can’t speak for everyone else but that’s my mindset.
Michigan overlooking passing ability after San Diego State game, would that work in Gophers favor?
Yes, definitely. We run the ball so good, we can do play action, different kinds of things. We can run by anybody, we’ve proven that. So we’re just going to go out and do what we do. This could be a perfect game for us to explode as an offense in the passing game. Against a Big Ten team, against Michigan, we won’t be able to run the ball every snap, so of course the passing game’s gotta open up.
More return action with Jones being out?
Yeah, we’re going to play it by ear, the way things have been going we have certain guys that haven’t been on the field that much, and we’ve got different guys that have the same return skills so I’m looking forward to it.
Jerry Kill
Makes Michigan good against the run?
Well they’re good up front. And the coach has been with the Ravens, back in the day and Notre Dame. So they do a lot of slanting up front, and they’ll bring somebody about every snap somewhere, and I think that they’re stronger than they were a year ago up front. And in the secondary is where I’ve seen the real improvement. They’re stiff on the run, but they also do a good job on the back end of putting enough pressure for you not to be able to get down the field. They’ve got their linebacker back from a year ago, and the Glasgow kid, his dad was a team doctor at Northern Illinois and they’ve got both their sons starting. They’re Michigan, but I think they’re better on defense than they were a year ago.
New returner with Marcus out?
Craig James. Craig James will be a freshman returning punts but you ask any of our coaches and he’s a different type of freshman so he’ll do well and he’s an explosive kid, very similar to Marcus.
Status of Mitch and Maxx
Mitch has practiced the last two days, about half of them. I thought he’d be a little bit sore today, but he moved around pretty good. I’m cautiously optimistic but he’s moving around a lot better than last week because he didn’t do much. He’s done better I guess. It was limited, but Maxx practiced for the first time today and moved okay so we didn’t do anything drastic but he did do some things today, which was encouraging.
Status on Alex Keith
I look for him to play now. We’ll see as it goes, and talk to defensive coaches, but from what I’ve seen he’s looked pretty good. Besides from him being out for a while and shape wise, I look for him to have a great opportunity to go. Right now, I feel like he’s got a real good chance at this point in time.
Coach Zebrowski
Leidner’s game last year against Michigan
I can’t remember when we told him, I think we may have told him Friday night or Saturday morning. He didn’t know all week. Surprise is a bad word, but I was just really pleasantly surprised with how well he handled himself, and he just looked relaxed. He came out for a play or two because he got the wind knocked out of him or got knocked on the head, but he came back in and played really well. You take away that last interception and he played really well.
Does it concern you to not have a lot of experience passing the football?
It doesn’t worry me, but if you think about it, with so few attempts, half the stuff you rep in practice you haven’t even run. By this time most teams have run the same pass play 12 times in four games. With that game (San Diego State) it was so weird, we said they were going to play cover one, well we’ll get them on the cover one by running the zone read. But they never changed. We could have created a passing game, but we’re gaining 15 yards a carry it felt like. It would have been nice to have more, but you didn’t need it, or the situation just didn’t call for it, so I guess that’s a good thing in some regards.
By Alex Van Abbema
http://www.gopherhole.com/news_article/show/423178?referrer_id=
The Gophers enter Big Ten play with a 3-1 record and a big opportunity for a huge road win on Saturday at Michigan. Below are quotes compiled from today’s media session after practice.
Tommy Olson
Breakdowns in pass blocking
We’re still working on pass blocking all the time. I think it’s coming along. We’ve been working on it all offseason, we had a couple breakdowns early in the season, but against San Jose State we just got to running the ball and never really turned away.
Bounced back well from TCU game?
Yeah we came back and probably had the best two Tuesday, Wednesday practices we’ve ever had. We were really flying around, and I think that really had a lot to do with the game.
Chance to get a rivalry trophy?
Growing up you talk about playing in big games like this, and watching Laurence Maroney get in there, and all your heroes growing up. Playing Michigan, that’s huge. And I remember Jake Long he was there, and I thought he was like a God, he was so good. You just got to go out there, play hard, and let the dice fall where they may.
KJ Maye
Tough to stay in the game as a receiver when you’re not being involved in the pass game?
Not really because once we’re out there, we’re playing hard. You get caught up in the game, and caught up in everything. We win and we’re scoring points, so that’s my mindset. I can’t speak for everyone else but that’s my mindset.
Michigan overlooking passing ability after San Diego State game, would that work in Gophers favor?
Yes, definitely. We run the ball so good, we can do play action, different kinds of things. We can run by anybody, we’ve proven that. So we’re just going to go out and do what we do. This could be a perfect game for us to explode as an offense in the passing game. Against a Big Ten team, against Michigan, we won’t be able to run the ball every snap, so of course the passing game’s gotta open up.
More return action with Jones being out?
Yeah, we’re going to play it by ear, the way things have been going we have certain guys that haven’t been on the field that much, and we’ve got different guys that have the same return skills so I’m looking forward to it.
Jerry Kill
Makes Michigan good against the run?
Well they’re good up front. And the coach has been with the Ravens, back in the day and Notre Dame. So they do a lot of slanting up front, and they’ll bring somebody about every snap somewhere, and I think that they’re stronger than they were a year ago up front. And in the secondary is where I’ve seen the real improvement. They’re stiff on the run, but they also do a good job on the back end of putting enough pressure for you not to be able to get down the field. They’ve got their linebacker back from a year ago, and the Glasgow kid, his dad was a team doctor at Northern Illinois and they’ve got both their sons starting. They’re Michigan, but I think they’re better on defense than they were a year ago.
New returner with Marcus out?
Craig James. Craig James will be a freshman returning punts but you ask any of our coaches and he’s a different type of freshman so he’ll do well and he’s an explosive kid, very similar to Marcus.
Status of Mitch and Maxx
Mitch has practiced the last two days, about half of them. I thought he’d be a little bit sore today, but he moved around pretty good. I’m cautiously optimistic but he’s moving around a lot better than last week because he didn’t do much. He’s done better I guess. It was limited, but Maxx practiced for the first time today and moved okay so we didn’t do anything drastic but he did do some things today, which was encouraging.
Status on Alex Keith
I look for him to play now. We’ll see as it goes, and talk to defensive coaches, but from what I’ve seen he’s looked pretty good. Besides from him being out for a while and shape wise, I look for him to have a great opportunity to go. Right now, I feel like he’s got a real good chance at this point in time.
Coach Zebrowski
Leidner’s game last year against Michigan
I can’t remember when we told him, I think we may have told him Friday night or Saturday morning. He didn’t know all week. Surprise is a bad word, but I was just really pleasantly surprised with how well he handled himself, and he just looked relaxed. He came out for a play or two because he got the wind knocked out of him or got knocked on the head, but he came back in and played really well. You take away that last interception and he played really well.
Does it concern you to not have a lot of experience passing the football?
It doesn’t worry me, but if you think about it, with so few attempts, half the stuff you rep in practice you haven’t even run. By this time most teams have run the same pass play 12 times in four games. With that game (San Diego State) it was so weird, we said they were going to play cover one, well we’ll get them on the cover one by running the zone read. But they never changed. We could have created a passing game, but we’re gaining 15 yards a carry it felt like. It would have been nice to have more, but you didn’t need it, or the situation just didn’t call for it, so I guess that’s a good thing in some regards.