Gophers Jerry Kill is making the rounds on the radio interview circuit.
Jerry Kill on replacing David Cobb and Maxx Williams…I feel good about the guys we have. That’s the part of recruiting. The better your program is, the better players you will lose, but we have guys that can step in. Rodrick Williams is a guy that has a chance to play at the next level and we have a stable of RBs who can step in. Brandon is an athletic TE like Maxx, Duke is an athletic TE like Maxx and we’ll improve at receiver and we’ll be much more athletic there.
Jerry Kill on who is stepping up at receiver…KJ Maye had a very good season last year and he has continued to improve. That’s important to us. Wolitarski has to stay healthy, but we have some young kids that we redshirted last year in Isaiah Gentry who has all time talent. Desmond Gant is a 4.4 guy, a big physical guy. We’ve got some young talent that we redshirted that we feel like they are ready. And Melvin Holland also, so we’ve got some guys who are more athletic than we’ve had. We have more playmakers.
Jerry Kill on the Gophers secondary…I believe we have one of the better secondary’s in the country. They are very athletic, very good, we’re deep there. We have good prospects that came in, that’s definitely the strength of our defense. We have five guys on the defensive side of the ball who we think will get drafted. That will be our strength. We feel like our QB will have a good year. We also redshirted Jeff Jones who will contribute. We are more athletic all around.
Jerry Kill on Mitch Leidner’s progress…I think Mitch will be consistent. He’s a great competitor. He’s hard on himself. Bringing in Adam Weber helped, and getting him to the Manning Camp helped. Confidence does a lot of good. We think he’ll have a very good year and we have better players around him.
Jerry Kill on special teams…We have some good skills on special teams with Jalen Myrick who has proved he can go the distance. Craig James is very good. Pete Mortell is a very good punter and our kicker can flat out kick the football. We are just like everyone else we just have to stay healthy.