BleedGopher
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Per The Athletic:
CHAMBLEE, Ga. — Three days before, they were on jet skis and diving off small cliffs. The new quarterback revealed his guitar skills. On this night, they were going to an Atlanta Braves game. At this moment, however, they have taken over this small gym, lifting and sprinting and making NBA and NFL players wait.
The scene was Adapt, a gym outside Atlanta that caters to pro and college athletes, where signed jerseys of customers hang on the wall: A.J. Green, Mecole Hardman, Sammy Watkins, Kyle Pitts, Kent Bazemore and others. At one point on this Tuesday afternoon, Green walked in, saw things were too busy and took a seat by a training table, next to Kobi Simmons, most recently of the Toronto Raptors.
A man in an Ohio State shirt came in. It was Bruce Thornton, the point guard for the Buckeyes basketball team. He asked a staffer what’s going on.
Well, not the whole team. But basically all the skill position players: the running back who averaged 133 yards per game last year, the second-team All-Big Ten receiver, the freshman receiver who just transferred from Georgia.
Add in Max Brosmer, the new starting quarterback, who just arrived at Minnesota after four years at New Hampshire and organized this trip. It was a team bonding exercise that, in the age of the transfer portal, is a necessity.
“I have limited time here. I’m only here for a year,” Brosmer said. “A lot of these guys have one more year of college football. We only have a few months before fall camp, so this is a good way to prime everyone to get back in the summer but also to bond off the field because we only have so much time to do it.”
“The whole Minnesota football team is here,” the staffer answered.
In this way, Minnesota is a microcosm of this era of college football, which makes this excursion to Atlanta so interesting.
There’s is urgency: The Gophers are coming off a 6-7 season and are about to play in the bigger and harder Big Ten. Their opener is against North Carolina. And their offense, especially the passing game, was an issue last year: fourth-worst scoring offense in the Big Ten, second-worst passing yards per attempt.
And so into the portal the Gophers went for a new starting quarterback. They found Brosmer, a two-year starter for New Hampshire, which went 6-5 at the FCS level. Can Brosmer, who threw for 3,464 yards with only five interceptions last year, succeed at the FBS level and in the Big Ten? That’s an unknown.
But can he walk into a new locker room and assume leadership? He already has done that, and this trip is a prime example.
“I’ve never done anything like this, and it’s my sixth year,” tight end Nick Kallerup said. “There’s a lot of value in it, especially bonding with some guys that you might not always hang out with. I think it’s been going great so far.”
Brosmer arranged the trip, which began at his parents’ cabin by a lake near Atlanta. The players boated every day, jumped off a 20-foot rock, hung out and played cards. Then they went to the gym for a couple of sessions, followed by throwing sessions at Centennial High School, where Brosmer played. They did some mental training with one of Brosmer’s mental coaches. Then they went to the Georgia Aquarium and a Braves game.
Offseason workouts are always spoken about as an important bonding process at every program. They’ve been going on for years. How much they truly help is hard to measure. But people around the game agree there’s an advantage in players knowing each other well, knowing their tendencies, a quarterback knowing where a receiver makes his cut, a receiver trusting his quarterback.
Teams can build that trust through the years. Or they can crash-course it via a week-long trip.
“I definitely think the quarterback should be the main leader on the team. And we’re here to follow him and support him and have him support us,” said Daniel Jackson, a senior receiver who was second-team all-conference last year. “He caught everybody on the team’s eye. This trip, bonding-wise, the way he established that and promotes that, is great to have in a quarterback.”
This is a benefit of NIL, Brosmer pointed out. The players are paying for this out of their own pockets, and NIL — whether it’s collectives or otherwise — puts more money in their pocket. But the NCAA eventually may allow teams to pay for these kinds of trips, especially with roster turnover continuing.
Tyler Williams is another of the new Gophers, and he’s the newest on the trip: He left Georgia after the spring semester. Williams was a top-100 recruit at Georgia, but didn’t play much as a freshman and saw the Bulldogs bring in three transfer receivers. He entered the portal and heard from Minnesota, where a coach who recruited him out of high school (Lakeland, Fla.) is now a graduate assistant.
At Centennial, the Gophers were going through about an hour of passing drills. During a break, the receivers were arguing.
“Sunday is the start of the week,” one said.
“No, it’s Monday,” another replied.
“No, Sunday starts the week off,” another added.
At midfield, Brosmer turned and shouted at them: “Hey c’mon, let’s start!”
The receivers turned and went to midfield. They go through route drills, Brosmer acting as a player-coach, looking at his phone to keep the plan, directing the receivers.
After another break, they debated whether to leave or keep going.
“We’ve got motions and formations,” Brosmer said. “Want to do it Thursday or knock it out now?”
“Thursday,” one receiver said.
“Knock it out now,” another player said, and that ended up winning out.
Then they retook the field.
“When you come in as a freshman, you made relationships with the coaching staff, you got developed over four years, five years. It doesn’t really happen as much anymore,” Brosmer said. “So doing this stuff is trying to make sure the team atmosphere is still there.”
www.nytimes.com
Go Gophers!!
CHAMBLEE, Ga. — Three days before, they were on jet skis and diving off small cliffs. The new quarterback revealed his guitar skills. On this night, they were going to an Atlanta Braves game. At this moment, however, they have taken over this small gym, lifting and sprinting and making NBA and NFL players wait.
The scene was Adapt, a gym outside Atlanta that caters to pro and college athletes, where signed jerseys of customers hang on the wall: A.J. Green, Mecole Hardman, Sammy Watkins, Kyle Pitts, Kent Bazemore and others. At one point on this Tuesday afternoon, Green walked in, saw things were too busy and took a seat by a training table, next to Kobi Simmons, most recently of the Toronto Raptors.
A man in an Ohio State shirt came in. It was Bruce Thornton, the point guard for the Buckeyes basketball team. He asked a staffer what’s going on.
Well, not the whole team. But basically all the skill position players: the running back who averaged 133 yards per game last year, the second-team All-Big Ten receiver, the freshman receiver who just transferred from Georgia.
Add in Max Brosmer, the new starting quarterback, who just arrived at Minnesota after four years at New Hampshire and organized this trip. It was a team bonding exercise that, in the age of the transfer portal, is a necessity.
“I have limited time here. I’m only here for a year,” Brosmer said. “A lot of these guys have one more year of college football. We only have a few months before fall camp, so this is a good way to prime everyone to get back in the summer but also to bond off the field because we only have so much time to do it.”
“The whole Minnesota football team is here,” the staffer answered.
In this way, Minnesota is a microcosm of this era of college football, which makes this excursion to Atlanta so interesting.
There’s is urgency: The Gophers are coming off a 6-7 season and are about to play in the bigger and harder Big Ten. Their opener is against North Carolina. And their offense, especially the passing game, was an issue last year: fourth-worst scoring offense in the Big Ten, second-worst passing yards per attempt.
And so into the portal the Gophers went for a new starting quarterback. They found Brosmer, a two-year starter for New Hampshire, which went 6-5 at the FCS level. Can Brosmer, who threw for 3,464 yards with only five interceptions last year, succeed at the FBS level and in the Big Ten? That’s an unknown.
But can he walk into a new locker room and assume leadership? He already has done that, and this trip is a prime example.
“I’ve never done anything like this, and it’s my sixth year,” tight end Nick Kallerup said. “There’s a lot of value in it, especially bonding with some guys that you might not always hang out with. I think it’s been going great so far.”
Brosmer arranged the trip, which began at his parents’ cabin by a lake near Atlanta. The players boated every day, jumped off a 20-foot rock, hung out and played cards. Then they went to the gym for a couple of sessions, followed by throwing sessions at Centennial High School, where Brosmer played. They did some mental training with one of Brosmer’s mental coaches. Then they went to the Georgia Aquarium and a Braves game.
Offseason workouts are always spoken about as an important bonding process at every program. They’ve been going on for years. How much they truly help is hard to measure. But people around the game agree there’s an advantage in players knowing each other well, knowing their tendencies, a quarterback knowing where a receiver makes his cut, a receiver trusting his quarterback.
Teams can build that trust through the years. Or they can crash-course it via a week-long trip.
“I definitely think the quarterback should be the main leader on the team. And we’re here to follow him and support him and have him support us,” said Daniel Jackson, a senior receiver who was second-team all-conference last year. “He caught everybody on the team’s eye. This trip, bonding-wise, the way he established that and promotes that, is great to have in a quarterback.”
This is a benefit of NIL, Brosmer pointed out. The players are paying for this out of their own pockets, and NIL — whether it’s collectives or otherwise — puts more money in their pocket. But the NCAA eventually may allow teams to pay for these kinds of trips, especially with roster turnover continuing.
Tyler Williams is another of the new Gophers, and he’s the newest on the trip: He left Georgia after the spring semester. Williams was a top-100 recruit at Georgia, but didn’t play much as a freshman and saw the Bulldogs bring in three transfer receivers. He entered the portal and heard from Minnesota, where a coach who recruited him out of high school (Lakeland, Fla.) is now a graduate assistant.
At Centennial, the Gophers were going through about an hour of passing drills. During a break, the receivers were arguing.
“Sunday is the start of the week,” one said.
“No, it’s Monday,” another replied.
“No, Sunday starts the week off,” another added.
At midfield, Brosmer turned and shouted at them: “Hey c’mon, let’s start!”
The receivers turned and went to midfield. They go through route drills, Brosmer acting as a player-coach, looking at his phone to keep the plan, directing the receivers.
After another break, they debated whether to leave or keep going.
“We’ve got motions and formations,” Brosmer said. “Want to do it Thursday or knock it out now?”
“Thursday,” one receiver said.
“Knock it out now,” another player said, and that ended up winning out.
Then they retook the field.
“When you come in as a freshman, you made relationships with the coaching staff, you got developed over four years, five years. It doesn’t really happen as much anymore,” Brosmer said. “So doing this stuff is trying to make sure the team atmosphere is still there.”
How one college football team is bonding in the transfer portal era
CHAMBLEE, Ga. — Three days before, they were on jet skis and diving off small cliffs. The new quarterback revealed his guitar skills. On this night, they were going to an Atlanta Braves game. At this moment, however, they have taken over this small gym, lifting and sprinting and making NBA and...
www.nytimes.com
Go Gophers!!
