Gophers Spring Game report and analysis thread

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mynabull said:
I specifically noted Hayes and McAvoy (can't remember which of the two) as getting some decent playing time.

That's it for the O. If anyone wants, I can write up something quick about the D too.
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Yes, please write more. It would be a bonus to get some play out of the McAvoys.
 

imthewalrus said:
I totally agree that this is a statement year for Kill and his staff. And, for me: it starts and ends with the need to beat the stinking badgers. This will be kill's 4th attempt at wisky and he NEEDS to find a way to beat them. Enough is enough!

I also agree that especially with the large salary increases: Coach Kill and his staff must at least equal last year's 4 Conference win record.

And: to be a successful season they MUST go into Madison and WIN. Am I asking a lot? Yes, I am. The time for the talk and the hype and the hope has come and gone. It is time to beat the stinking badgers and at least 3 other Conference Teams. It would be a real PLUS to beat both iowa and wisky in the same season. Both these teams physically beat my Gophers up in 2013. It is time for Coach Kill and his staff to physically put a beat down on iowa and wisky in 2014.

Two quarterbacks have been run off during the past couple of seasons. It is time for this coaching staff to start putting their quarterbacks in situations in which they can succeed. The talk of a "multiple" quarterbacks philosophy by the Coach starts to ring empty when none of the quarterbacks are able to have a lot of success. The quarterback who led the team during their 4 game conference winning streak last season apparently was not of importance enough for Coach Kill and his staff to fight to retain and now the new three-headed quarterback system will be what is available...ALL that is available and experience at the qb position will once again be sadly lacking.

The Coaches need to come up with at least 4 Conference wins and one of those wins NEEDS to be at wisky in 2014. Otherwise, where is the program heading? I'm pulling for all 3 of our quarterbacks and Coach Kill and his staff. But: they do need to show me with enough Conference wins. And, this year, a bowl win would help too. I really do want to believe things are headed in the right direction...but I need to see consistency, at least a mid-level finish in the Conference and a nice bowl win to bolster my belief system would help a lot too!
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What if they win five conference games and lose to Wisconsin? I can see wins against Purdue, Illinois, NW, and Iowa. What if they beat Michigan
 

mynabull said:
First post...
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0aNtajn.gif
 

As a point of confession, I did focus more on the skill-players than anything else. Maybe it's the allure of offensive prowess, but here's some quick notes I took about the defense.

1) Ndondo-Lay seemed to be making a name for himself out there. He was disruptive, and knifed himself in the backfield on a couple of occasions. Looks to be a solid player if he can get some PT.

2) Hard Legania was hard to miss. He looked like an enormous MarQueis because of the flowing dreads, but he also asserted himself as well. He was disruptive at times, and had some nice TFLs. Ekpe (can't remember which) also had some nice blow-ups in the backfield.

3) Once again, the second-string DBs looked great yesterday. Jalen Myrick was speedy, and blanketed himself on Drewski after initially getting beat. He has some nice closing speed for sure. Marcus Jones also looked the part. I think Travis ended up playing a couple snaps, but I didn't see much else from the starting DBs. Once again, props to Sawvel and the rest of the staff for really bolstering the unit. Steven Montgomery had some playing time-- not sure how that comments on his development from last year where here he was lighting it up in the Spring.

3) With the 1st D out, a lot of the younger LBers got some playing time. Couple names that were consistently mentioned included De'Niro Laster (or "Lanter", as the announcer kept saying), Ray Dixon, and Chris Wipson. Wipson had a nice blow-up tackle on a running play that got some cheers. I saw Matilus line up a couple times as a rushing LB/Hybrid DE-- not sure if that's indicative of a new wrinkle on the defense or not.

4) The defense gave up big chunks of yards, but held solid in the short-yard and goal-line situations. I suppose the complete opposite of a traditional 4-3, so take that for what you will.

I didn't think it was nearly as defense-dominant as others have mentioned. Then again, since there wasn't really much of a game-like structure to the scrimmage (no teams, seemingly extra downs), it's really hard to take anything too concrete out of it.
 

And I stalk GopherHole obsessively, so I figured I'd input something for once :)
 




ruppertflywheel said:
How many of you were at the Spring Game at the Dome when Holtz coached? They made it an event. I still have the mug they gave away. ( 50,000 attended ) About 5,000 fans this year; the same last year. Is it:
A. Overall lack of interest in Gopher football?
B. Kill's venue for the Spring Game?
C. Twins at Target Field?
D. Fans getting amped for the hockey finals?
E. The Masters?...( Don't laugh, that's why myself and a couple of buddies stayed away )
F. People opening up their cabins? ( Again, don't laugh. Brainerd/Nisswa area was extremely busy yesterday)
Summary. ...I'll say all of the above to varying degrees. With letter " A " being the primary reason. It is what it is until
until the Gophers do something beyond playing in a minor Bowl game in a sh-t hole like Houston, Texas.
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There are a number of reasons one could get into. However, I believe the inconsistency with date held and structural changes over time simply don't make them appealing to many. This is not only for Gopher fans but also for many across the country. Further, the 5,000 was double that of Oklahoma State's (2500) and 3204 less than Wisconsin's (8204) according to http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2014/4/7/5590714/spring-game-attendance-numbers-2014

I think there were 8,400 in attendance last year. That was the highest since the Holtz game you referenced.
 

After re watching the game you could see Jeff Jones and coach Kill having a talk at the end of the game.
 



Standing next to Cockran, I wouldn't call him slight. He's a different guy than the skinny kid that came onto campus. Wouldn't shock me if he is all conference. Edwards looked really small to me. I thought he was built like Warrick Dunn, but he reminded me more of Sproles. To be fair, Sproles was a hell of a college RB.
 

Breakin' The Plane said:
Standing next to Cockran, I wouldn't call him slight. He's a different guy than the skinny kid that came onto campus. Wouldn't shock me if he is all conference. Edwards looked really small to me. I thought he was built like Warrick Dunn, but he reminded me more of Sproles. To be fair, Sproles was a hell of a college RB.
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Cockran was all conference last year.
 


GophersInIowa said:
I saw that Jameis Winston had 56 pass attempts in their spring game yesterday. I'm wondering if all our QB's made that many attempts combined? Seems like some of the teams still play it like a true game where as our coaches have made it into just a practice. Nothing wrong with that, just why I can see many people not really interested.
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Some of those passes were at the cheerleaders
 



Breakin' The Plane said:
They let the kids (and adults) run onto the field through the tunnel after the game. That was cool. However, that was about it for the kids. I remember coming to TCF when it first opened for practice and they had a bounce house and all kinds of games for the kids. It was a better experience for families. All yesterday was was a practice with rap music blaring the entire time. Kill stated after early in his career here, that he wanted to make the Spring game an event, with local celebrities coaching teams. He didn't want to do it right away because he thought the team wasn't deep. Even with all the guys hurt, they could have made yesterday into some type of game.
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Yeah, they really need to make the game into more of an event. More than a glorified scrimmage at least. Activities before and after would really help. Of course......winning on a consistent basis would help the most. Caught the beginning of the OSU spring game. Stands looked packed.
 

ruppertflywheel said:
How many of you were at the Spring Game at the Dome when Holtz coached? They made it an event. I still have the mug they gave away. ( 50,000 attended ) About 5,000 fans this year; the same last year. Is it:
A. Overall lack of interest in Gopher football?
B. Kill's venue for the Spring Game?
C. Twins at Target Field?
D. Fans getting amped for the hockey finals?
E. The Masters?...( Don't laugh, that's why myself and a couple of buddies stayed away )
F. People opening up their cabins? ( Again, don't laugh. Brainerd/Nisswa area was extremely busy yesterday)
Summary. ...I'll say all of the above to varying degrees. With letter " A " being the primary reason. It is what it is until
until the Gophers do something beyond playing in a minor Bowl game in a sh-t hole like Houston, Texas.
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You hit me with 'F', the boy and I went up to my folks place on West Twin Lake, betwen Nisswa and PL, so I watched on my phone with the btn2go app. Otherwise, I might've taken him to this event. We'll def be attending next year.
 


GophersInIowa said:
I saw that Jameis Winston had 56 pass attempts in their spring game yesterday. I'm wondering if all our QB's made that many attempts combined? Seems like some of the teams still play it like a true game where as our coaches have made it into just a practice. Nothing wrong with that, just why I can see many people not really interested.
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Winston completed 27 (48%). He did throw for almost 400 yards, but it was bomb after bomb after bomb for the media.

On another note, Whiskey's game ended up 6-0, an actual "game". Spring gamepracticeevents just don't mean squat.
 

Buck_Buchanan said:
There are a number of reasons one could get into. However, I believe the inconsistency with date held and structural changes over time simply don't make them appealing to many. This is not only for Gopher fans but also for many across the country. Further, the 5,000 was double that of Oklahoma State's (2500) and 3204 less than Wisconsin's (8204) according to http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2014/4/7/5590714/spring-game-attendance-numbers-2014

I think there were 8,400 in attendance last year. That was the highest since the Holtz game you referenced.
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The 50,000 attendance for the Spring Game under Holtz was an anomaly. Fans were really excited about the Lou Holtz hire, it was pretty much a one-time thing. Minnesota's attendance this year was around #36, which really isn't bad at all. There are a few teams that have big attendance for their Spring Game, but really only a few.
 

highwayman said:
Winston completed 27 (48%). He did throw for almost 400 yards, but it was bomb after bomb after bomb for the media.

On another note, Whiskey's game ended up 6-0, an actual "game". Spring gamepracticeevents just don't mean squat.
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They must use some goofy scoring system. I didn't have the sound on, but they showed highlights on BTN and I counted at least two TDs, so I don't know how they arrived at 6 points.
 

Breakin' The Plane said:
They must use some goofy scoring system. I didn't have the sound on, but they showed highlights on BTN and I counted at least two TDs, so I don't know how they arrived at 6 points.
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They probably had Badger grads keeping score.
 



imthewalrus said:
So, perhaps the same thing was happening during that 13 quarter stretch last season when my Gophers didn't score a TD. Perhaps Limegrover and his fellow Coaches just need some more time to develop a cohesive and effective offensive line. And, a cohesive and effective offensive line HAS to be able to run block AND pass protect. This 2014 season will be their fourth season. How much longer do they need to put together the offensive line? Quarterbacks NEVER thrive when there are problems with the offensive line. In the mean while: the quarterbacks catch most of the heat for the coaches who are in charge of putting together the offensive line from the "fans" on the message boards. And as the quarterbacks are dissed in the media and by the fans: the coaches somehow get richly rewarded with praise and with much more pay.

It is high time for the Coaches to put together a cohesive and effective offensive line that has the ability to block for the run...and the pass. In Conference play it becomes too hard to win football games without being able to run the ball AND pass the ball. That will be especially true in order to beat the stinking badgers in 2014. Get to work Coach Limegrover. You have to power...you call the plays...you got a nice pay day! Now get the job done with the offensive line!
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Wren, Weber still sucks.
 

Breakin' The Plane said:
They must use some goofy scoring system. I didn't have the sound on, but they showed highlights on BTN and I counted at least two TDs, so I don't know how they arrived at 6 points.
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They had a controlled scrimmage first and then played an actual game. The highlights were probably from the scrimmage.
 

jaymil said:
They had a controlled scrimmage first and then played an actual game. The highlights were probably from the scrimmage.
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You're right. I saw Clement score on a run and one of their QBs score on a scramble. Turns out thst those plays came from the first half, when tackling wasn't allowed.
 


RodentRampage said:
The 50,000 attendance for the Spring Game under Holtz was an anomaly. Fans were really excited about the Lou Holtz hire, it was pretty much a one-time thing. Minnesota's attendance this year was around #36, which really isn't bad at all. There are a few teams that have big attendance for their Spring Game, but really only a few.
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Agree on all accounts.
 



Oregon Gopher said:
Weber of his 1st 2 years maybe contend for the West Division- certainly not the Weber of his last two years.
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Weber against MSU on Halloween night, yes. Otherwise, no. The way folks remember things is so comical. Let's start the "if only we still had DCT" thread again while we are at it.
 

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