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Another great step up in coverage over 'CCO. Lots of good info and interesting nuggets in this from KFAN:
Emptying The Notebook: USC Trip
Justin Gaard
[email protected]
At the weekly press conference tomorrow, I’m going to ask Jerry Kill if he was surprised at the number of players that cramped on Saturday. Given how hard the players were worked in fall camp, and the emphasis all teams place on hydration, I was surprised how many guys needed to get worked on. It was very sunny at the Coliseum on Saturday, but I wouldn’t call it oppressive heat (for all emails that would like to point out I wasn’t playing D1 football and I was just standing around, [email protected]). The temperature was about 75 degrees most of the afternoon, and the Gophers had sideline fans going the entire game. My unofficial list of cramps: MarQueis Gray, Kim Royston, Eric Lair, Christyn Lewis Joey Balthazor and Brock Vereen. I wasn’t on the USC sideline at all, but I wonder if some of their players had similar issues.
Speaking of Vereen, I came away very impressed with how the California kid took the battle to USC all-everything receiver Robert Woods in the 2nd half. Obviously, Woods had a monster day (17 catches, 177 yards, 3 touchdowns), and many of the catches in the 1st half were with Vereen in coverage (I counted 4 tackles by Vereen on Woods in the 1st half, most others were made by safeties). In the 2nd half Vereen really showed up. He forced a Woods fumble (which Woods recovered) and did a great job of fighting off a Woods stiff-arm attempt to make a big tackle in the 4th quarter. Vereen finished with 10 solo tackles on the day (13 total), and should gain a lot of confidence with how he played after halftime.
It will be interesting to see how this quarterback thing shakes out. It’s not breaking any news that Max Shortell is a much more confident and polished passer than MarQueis Gray. The biggest challenge I see regarding MarQueis: Will he feel comfortable enough to just play. It’s obvious, even in practice, that he’s still thinking a bit too much. He’s not letting his natural gifts just take over. On the Gophers second possession of the game, Gray was tackled for loss 3 straight times. I know there were communication issues on the sidelines with the headsets not working, but it was a series were the quarterback was just too tense. The final play of that series was recorded as a 1-yard loss. It could have been a 10-yard gain had Gray just started running a split-second sooner. It looked to be a designed draw and Gray hesitated just a bit: USC’s Nick Perry was just able to reach him from behind and trip him up. We saw in the 2nd half how Gray’s running can impact a game, he just has to get more comfortable making decisions back there.
As for Shortell, you can’t help but be impressed with what he did Saturday. One reason I think he looked so comfortable is that he’s been put in similar situations (besides 80,000 people being there) in practice. I knew the Gophers would come out throwing when Shortell went in because they’ve done that before. During the final scrimmage of camp the Gophers practiced 2-minute drill situations. I went back and checked my notes; the 2-minute period Gray ran included about the same running plays as passing plays. When Shortell came in to work with the 2nd-string, it was all passes. It is a small sample, but they’ve let the kid throw in scrimmage situations at every practice I’ve been to. Probably a reason he looked as comfortable as he did.
Another Shortell nugget from that scrimmage: Troy Stoudermire told us that Shortell does lock in on his target every once in a while, so it’s sometimes easy to intercept him. I’m guessing that’s a problem most young quarterbacks have and something that only gets better with time.
Other notes from the sideline/trip:
-It was nice to meet Shelley Smith of ESPN/ABC (ding!). She was very cool, sorry to hear Lane Kiffin was such a tool to her after the game.
-Justin Conzemius made his way to the sidelines in the 4th quarter and he was pumped up! He told me he hadn’t been as emotionally invested in a Gopher game since the Michigan game in 2003. It was cool to see the former Gopher try to get the Gopher fans loud on a big USC 3rd down in the 4th quarter. It’s great that the former players are re-investing in the program.
-If you listen to the radio broadcasts, you’re going to really like Assistant Head Coach Bill Miller. He will join me coming out of the locker room at halftime and is an absolute character. I’m looking forward to his unvarnished opinions of the action just before the 2nd half.
-Linebacker Keanon Cooper almost killed his head coach: Late in the 2nd quarter, Cooper was sprinting off the field in a massive personnel change, Kill was sprinting down the sidelines trying to call a timeout. Neither saw each other and Cooper ran right into his coach. Kill stayed hunched over with his hands on his knees for about 30 seconds trying to catch his breath. It could have been much worse. Kill was back to normal pretty quickly though, just in time to yell at the official for not giving him the timeout!
-In his final talk before the road trip, Kill informed his players that the "big-guys" (lineman) fly in 1st-class on road trips. Kill wants the players to be as comfortable as they can be on the trip so they are ready to go for the game. This is pretty rare; 1st-class in most programs is reserved for school officials, coaches, etc. Not on Coach Kill's plane. He told his players he will take care of them if they play hard for him. One of the school officials relegated to coach class because of the new policy? New University President Eric Kaler.
-When I found out that wireless was available on the team plane home, I decided to take some Gopher questions via Twitter to kill some time. We got a ton of questions, it was really fun. Let's plan on doing that every roadtrip from here on out: follow me at @jgkfan, and we'll talk after the Michigan game on October 1st!
Emptying The Notebook: USC Trip
Justin Gaard
[email protected]
At the weekly press conference tomorrow, I’m going to ask Jerry Kill if he was surprised at the number of players that cramped on Saturday. Given how hard the players were worked in fall camp, and the emphasis all teams place on hydration, I was surprised how many guys needed to get worked on. It was very sunny at the Coliseum on Saturday, but I wouldn’t call it oppressive heat (for all emails that would like to point out I wasn’t playing D1 football and I was just standing around, [email protected]). The temperature was about 75 degrees most of the afternoon, and the Gophers had sideline fans going the entire game. My unofficial list of cramps: MarQueis Gray, Kim Royston, Eric Lair, Christyn Lewis Joey Balthazor and Brock Vereen. I wasn’t on the USC sideline at all, but I wonder if some of their players had similar issues.
Speaking of Vereen, I came away very impressed with how the California kid took the battle to USC all-everything receiver Robert Woods in the 2nd half. Obviously, Woods had a monster day (17 catches, 177 yards, 3 touchdowns), and many of the catches in the 1st half were with Vereen in coverage (I counted 4 tackles by Vereen on Woods in the 1st half, most others were made by safeties). In the 2nd half Vereen really showed up. He forced a Woods fumble (which Woods recovered) and did a great job of fighting off a Woods stiff-arm attempt to make a big tackle in the 4th quarter. Vereen finished with 10 solo tackles on the day (13 total), and should gain a lot of confidence with how he played after halftime.
It will be interesting to see how this quarterback thing shakes out. It’s not breaking any news that Max Shortell is a much more confident and polished passer than MarQueis Gray. The biggest challenge I see regarding MarQueis: Will he feel comfortable enough to just play. It’s obvious, even in practice, that he’s still thinking a bit too much. He’s not letting his natural gifts just take over. On the Gophers second possession of the game, Gray was tackled for loss 3 straight times. I know there were communication issues on the sidelines with the headsets not working, but it was a series were the quarterback was just too tense. The final play of that series was recorded as a 1-yard loss. It could have been a 10-yard gain had Gray just started running a split-second sooner. It looked to be a designed draw and Gray hesitated just a bit: USC’s Nick Perry was just able to reach him from behind and trip him up. We saw in the 2nd half how Gray’s running can impact a game, he just has to get more comfortable making decisions back there.
As for Shortell, you can’t help but be impressed with what he did Saturday. One reason I think he looked so comfortable is that he’s been put in similar situations (besides 80,000 people being there) in practice. I knew the Gophers would come out throwing when Shortell went in because they’ve done that before. During the final scrimmage of camp the Gophers practiced 2-minute drill situations. I went back and checked my notes; the 2-minute period Gray ran included about the same running plays as passing plays. When Shortell came in to work with the 2nd-string, it was all passes. It is a small sample, but they’ve let the kid throw in scrimmage situations at every practice I’ve been to. Probably a reason he looked as comfortable as he did.
Another Shortell nugget from that scrimmage: Troy Stoudermire told us that Shortell does lock in on his target every once in a while, so it’s sometimes easy to intercept him. I’m guessing that’s a problem most young quarterbacks have and something that only gets better with time.
Other notes from the sideline/trip:
-It was nice to meet Shelley Smith of ESPN/ABC (ding!). She was very cool, sorry to hear Lane Kiffin was such a tool to her after the game.
-Justin Conzemius made his way to the sidelines in the 4th quarter and he was pumped up! He told me he hadn’t been as emotionally invested in a Gopher game since the Michigan game in 2003. It was cool to see the former Gopher try to get the Gopher fans loud on a big USC 3rd down in the 4th quarter. It’s great that the former players are re-investing in the program.
-If you listen to the radio broadcasts, you’re going to really like Assistant Head Coach Bill Miller. He will join me coming out of the locker room at halftime and is an absolute character. I’m looking forward to his unvarnished opinions of the action just before the 2nd half.
-Linebacker Keanon Cooper almost killed his head coach: Late in the 2nd quarter, Cooper was sprinting off the field in a massive personnel change, Kill was sprinting down the sidelines trying to call a timeout. Neither saw each other and Cooper ran right into his coach. Kill stayed hunched over with his hands on his knees for about 30 seconds trying to catch his breath. It could have been much worse. Kill was back to normal pretty quickly though, just in time to yell at the official for not giving him the timeout!
-In his final talk before the road trip, Kill informed his players that the "big-guys" (lineman) fly in 1st-class on road trips. Kill wants the players to be as comfortable as they can be on the trip so they are ready to go for the game. This is pretty rare; 1st-class in most programs is reserved for school officials, coaches, etc. Not on Coach Kill's plane. He told his players he will take care of them if they play hard for him. One of the school officials relegated to coach class because of the new policy? New University President Eric Kaler.
-When I found out that wireless was available on the team plane home, I decided to take some Gopher questions via Twitter to kill some time. We got a ton of questions, it was really fun. Let's plan on doing that every roadtrip from here on out: follow me at @jgkfan, and we'll talk after the Michigan game on October 1st!
