STrib: U's Leidner seeks calm amid the competitiveness

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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per Joe:

But in a week featuring some impressive Big Ten quarterback play, last Thursday’s 42-20 nonconference victory over Eastern Illinois wasn’t exactly a statement game for Leidner. He had a shaky first quarter and finished 9-for-17 passing for 144 yards and one touchdown.

“He’s such a competitive kid,” offensive coordinator Matt Limegrover said Tuesday. “I think he wanted to go out and win the Super Bowl on his first five throws. Eventually he got calmed down. That’s kind of how the whole offense went.”

“He’ll be fine,” Kill said of Leidner. “I thought he settled down in the second half. … When you’re the guy, it’s a lot different. He’ll get better each week.”

http://www.startribune.com/sports/gophers/273692801.html

Go Gophers!!
 

The coach quotes make it sound like the U lost

why are the coaches are compelled to state 'mitch will be fine' after the U won the game?
 

wait!what? said:
why are the coaches are compelled to state 'mitch will be fine' after the U won the game?
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They are probably reading the GopherHole posts documenting his apparent implosion on Thursday.
 


u may be correct. I may be correct in stating that Mitch is heading for the season ending mysterious 'hand injury' that afflicts struggling QBs at all levels.
 


Unless they are working on sliding or having Mitch change, he just needs to play ball. I'm more worried about him getting hurt doing something he is not used to doing.
 

I really hope Leidner pulls it together. He looked shaky at the spring game. According to others, he looked shaky at the August scrimmage. And he looked shaky for a large part of last Thursday. It's starting to become a trend. He really needs to come out and put up some decent passes this weekend to gain some confidence and momentum for TCU. The OL needs to do their part, too.
 

BJN said:
I really hope Leidner pulls it together. He looked shaky at the spring game. According to others, he looked shaky at the August scrimmage. And he looked shaky for a large part of last Thursday. It's starting to become a trend. He really needs to come out and put up some decent passes this weekend to gain some confidence and momentum for TCU. The OL needs to do their part, too.
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I agree the OL needs to play better. However, the Gophers are 8-3 when Mitch plays and 4-1 when he starts a game. Yes he needs to play better, but is it really a trend?

After week #1 here is his rank out of 14 in B1G.

6th in QB Rating
7th in Completion %
5th in yds/attempt.
8 QB's threw at least one interception last week.
 

The need to get Mitch involved in the running game early, as soon as he takes a hit he seems to calm down, he is physical player and I believe a little physicality early will settle him. We cannot be to worried about injury, for this offense to be effective we also need the threat of the QB to run.
 



wait!what? said:
why are the coaches are compelled to state 'mitch will be fine' after the U won the game?
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Because after the first quarter most people were thinking boy this could be a long season, by the end of the game it became there was improvement, if this continues who knows things could turn out okay.
 

BJN said:
I really hope Leidner pulls it together. He looked shaky at the spring game. According to others, he looked shaky at the August scrimmage. And he looked shaky for a large part of last Thursday. It's starting to become a trend. He really needs to come out and put up some decent passes this weekend to gain some confidence and momentum for TCU. The OL needs to do their part, too.
Click to expand...

He's still young. Some of our best QB's were shaky until years 4 and 5 in the program.
 

In my opinion, a QB needs 5-6 starts to show what he can do. Mitch isn't quite there yet.

My view is that to be effective he'll need to do the little things almost perfectly. That begins with no turnovers.
 

BJN said:
I really hope Leidner pulls it together. He looked shaky at the spring game. According to others, he looked shaky at the August scrimmage. And he looked shaky for a large part of last Thursday. It's starting to become a trend. He really needs to come out and put up some decent passes this weekend to gain some confidence and momentum for TCU. The OL needs to do their part, too.
Click to expand...

I think we need to give him some more time, Connor Cook was not great his first game of his RS So. campaign either. He went 6 of 16 for 42 yards against Western Michigan. I think Mitch will settle down by the Big Ten schedule, I am worried about TCU though.
 



mavgopher12 said:
I think we need to give him some more time, Connor Cook was not great his first game of his RS So. campaign either. He went 6 of 16 for 42 yards against Western Michigan. I think Mitch will settle down by the Big Ten schedule, I am worried about TCU though.
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I believe Cook was benched at one point before it "clicked".
 

Spoofin said:
I believe Cook was benched at one point before it "clicked".
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He also never had a 300 yard game until the B10 Championship game, and followed that up with another 300 yard game in the Rose Bowl.

Those two games were also #'s 2 and 3 on the greatest number of attempts in his career. He completed 60% and 61.1% of his passes those two games.
 

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