Minnesota to Start Spring Practice on March 20

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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Per the U:

The University of Minnesota football team will start spring football practice on Thursday, March 20.

The Gophers will have two open practices – one for members of Dinkytown Athletes and one for the general public – this spring.

The practice for Dinkytown Athletes members is at 4:15 p.m. on Tuesday, March 25 and is scheduled to be at the team's indoor facility at Athletes Village. Dinkytown Athletes will communicate directly with its membership about registering to attend practice. Dinkytown Athletes is the Official NIL Collective of Gopher Athletics, and fans can learn more about membership and Dinkytown Athletes by visiting DinkytownAthletes.com.

The open practice for the general public will be at 4:15 p.m. on Tuesday, April 15 at the team's indoor facility at Athletes Village.

Times and locations of both practices are subject to change.

Both practices, which are sponsored by Dinkytown Athletes, will feature a diaper drive. Minnesota first hosted a diaper drive in 2017 and Gopher fans have donated more than 135,000 diapers in the last eight years. All fans attending the practices are encouraged to bring disposable diapers. The diapers will be donated to the Diaper Bank of Minnesota, which provides diapers to families in need through partner agencies in the Twin Cities.

Go Gophers!!
 

BleedGopher said:
Per the U:

The University of Minnesota football team will start spring football practice on Thursday, March 20.

The Gophers will have two open practices – one for members of Dinkytown Athletes and one for the general public – this spring.

The practice for Dinkytown Athletes members is at 4:15 p.m. on Tuesday, March 25 and is scheduled to be at the team's indoor facility at Athletes Village. Dinkytown Athletes will communicate directly with its membership about registering to attend practice. Dinkytown Athletes is the Official NIL Collective of Gopher Athletics, and fans can learn more about membership and Dinkytown Athletes by visiting DinkytownAthletes.com.

The open practice for the general public will be at 4:15 p.m. on Tuesday, April 15 at the team's indoor facility at Athletes Village.

Times and locations of both practices are subject to change.

Both practices, which are sponsored by Dinkytown Athletes, will feature a diaper drive. Minnesota first hosted a diaper drive in 2017 and Gopher fans have donated more than 135,000 diapers in the last eight years. All fans attending the practices are encouraged to bring disposable diapers. The diapers will be donated to the Diaper Bank of Minnesota, which provides diapers to families in need through partner agencies in the Twin Cities.

Go Gophers!!
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No Spring game? Fans mean less and less.
 


I used to love following CFB off seasons due to recruiting and drama/gossip about depth charts and position battles. I'd scour twitter and forums to see if anyone had attended a random spring practice to see how X player looked. Now it's almost..."wake me up on August 14th"

Still love hanging in here with you guys, though
 

Great Plains Gopher said:
No Spring game? Fans mean less and less.
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I disagree with that comment. There's not a huge difference between open practice and the Spring Game. The biggest distinction lies in the number of plays run and the presence of live quarters. If you're trying to identify potential starters for the upcoming season, open practices provide that insight. More schools are shifting to this approach, and as a Gopher fan, I'm fine with it. Plus, it adds an element of surprise for our opponents since they won’t know exactly what to expect when facing us. I think most of would agree, that last year's team surprised us and was fun to watch. Hopefully, it's the beginning of new norm. If I had to trade not having a Spring Game and having a repeat of last year team, I'll take the latter every time.
 


dbrad29 said:
I disagree with that comment. There's not a huge difference between open practice and the Spring Game. The biggest distinction lies in the number of plays run and the presence of live quarters. If you're trying to identify potential starters for the upcoming season, open practices provide that insight. More schools are shifting to this approach, and as a Gopher fan, I'm fine with it. Plus, it adds an element of surprise for our opponents since they won’t know exactly what to expect when facing us. I think most of would agree, that last year's team surprised us and was fun to watch. Hopefully, it's the beginning of new norm. If I had to trade not having a Spring Game and having a repeat of last year team, I'll take the latter every time.
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The spring game was fun. Not that an open practice isn’t but it’s not anywhere close to the same. It really doesn’t matter because it’s in the rearview mirror, but it’s one less fun opportunity related to gophers football than we used to have.
 

Gopherchase said:
The spring game was fun. Not that an open practice isn’t but it’s not anywhere close to the same. It really doesn’t matter because it’s in the rearview mirror, but it’s one less fun opportunity related to gophers football than we used to have.
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I went to a couple of spilring games. At least for me they were not very entertaining. I basically just took my kids so they could meet the players afterward. Last time we went we arrived just in time for the autographs and skipped the game. To each their own, but for me it's not a loss.
 


GopherGrit said:
Coaches are scared for getting poached by programs that can offer fat NIL deals.

New reality :(
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A lot of teams are moving away from spring game. Too afraid of "tampering" and stealing players. New reality of transfer portal and NIL.
 



Great Plains Gopher said:
No Spring game? Fans mean less and less.
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One thing is certain about the spring football thread each year... it takes about two seconds before someone chimes in with the bitching about the lack of a spring football game (closely followed by a post about how great Nebraska's spring game is). I am an avid fan, but there is no way I am making the 3 hour drive to Mpls to watch the glorified scrimmage anyway.
 

Crosby said:
One thing is certain about the spring football thread each year... it takes about two seconds before someone chimes in with the bitching about the lack of a spring football game (closely followed by a post about how great Nebraska's spring game is). I am an avid fan, but there is no way I am making the 3 hour drive to Mpls to watch the glorified scrimmage anyway.
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Feel good to get that off your chest?
 

zman said:
Feel good to get that off your chest?
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Nah I agree, the annual tradition of complaining about it gets tiresome. Especially since there’s about 5 teams (including us) in the big ten alone forgoing their spring game this year. I bet it’ll be even more next year
 

Kitzmann57 said:
A lot of teams are moving away from spring game. Too afraid of "tampering" and stealing players. New reality of transfer portal and NIL.
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How much do you think the threat of injury has to do with the decision?
 




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