Gophers offensive coordinator Matt Limegrover was on KFAN yesterday. Here is a recap. This isn’t verbatim, but its close:
Matt Limegrover on recent hiking trip and how his health has improved…We were out on a family trip and we did a massive 13 day trip, headed out West, headed to Yellowstone, people were talking about Inspiration Point. It was a pretty significant hike to get there, had to go vertically, and in the back of mind I knew this would be a challenge and I thought there was no way I could do this three years ago when I weighed 415 lbs and now at 255 what a difference it makes to be able to do that and take some pictures with my Son, and the smile on his face and taking pictures with him was priceless. That was a victory that day.
Matt Limegrover on what Leidner has improved on from Citrus Bowl to now…Mitch will be the first one to tell you that our expectations have raised as they have for himself. Last year was his first year starting and he had ups and downs. There were times when he looked like a million bucks and there were times when he didn’t look comfortable. Coach Kill and Coach Z have been working with him on being more consistent. The highs and lows need to be more consistent. The game vs Iowa where we scored like we did and then games we struggled to get first downs. It starts with the QB and we need to be more consistent and get it at a high level. That’s been the huge catch phrase with Mitch, improving on the big things and little things.
Matt Limegrover on what Leidner learned at the Manning Passing Academy…Any time you have an opportunity to do something like that, be around your peers and be around a guy like Peyton Manning, you can’t help but bring great things back. He came in the staff room and went through his experiences and it goes along with his maturation. He wasn’t in aww of everything, he was respectful, but he was around great college and pro guys. That was a great experience with him and you can see it. He knows he belongs but still has a lot of work to do.
Matt Limegrover on replacing David Cobb…I think what you’ll end up seeing, you know we were so fortunate with what David brought the last two years. Prior to that it had never been a one man show at tailback. We want to make sure we have guys in there that are fresh. When you get a guy like David you ride that, but we’re in a different situation. Rodrick Williams has done a fantastic job. A light bulb went on with David Cobb, and we’ve seen the same transformation with Rodrick, with how he takes care of business off the field, how he has attention to detail. There will be a group of young guys, you see some things they do and get excited. I don’t know if it will be turning around and handing to Rodrick 30 times a game, but we’ll have some choices. We’re going to have a committee of guys to give the ball to.
Matt Limegrover on big time question marks heading into camp…As a coach you’d love to think you are completely locked in, we try to do as much of that as we can, we’re planners and organizers, but you also have to be prepared for (change). We’re talking about 18-21 year old young men and sometimes a guy you think you’ll count on, but you have to be prepared to adjust. If I were to tell you we didn’t have any question marks I’d be lying to you. We have a plan for the 29 practices leading up to TCU.
Matt Limegrover on Jeff Jones…We’re definitely going to find ways to get him on the field. In all honesty I hope the RB room is so crowded that we can really let Jeff focus on receiver and really get him settled in. I was blown away with how quickly he picked up jumping back from WR to RB, but I want to make sure we’re not getting too cute with him and his development. That’s a good question to have, with how we’ll get him incorporated and get him the football. We’d love to get him to specialize in one position, but if he can handle moving around we’ll do that too.
Matt Limegrover on playing TCU in the opener…One nice thing about it is kids are kids, and sometimes no matter what you say as a coach that you need to respect this opponent, sometimes kids have the tendency to say the non-conference schedule we can ease our way in. I don’t think there is anybody that walks in to the building thinking we can ease into our schedule. Having played them last year there is always a fear of the unknown, not that we’re super comfortable this year, but to feel like we have a little preparation helps.
Matte Limegrover on positive recruiting news this offseason…I think when we first got here there were so many things that were holding us back that we had to fight through. It is kind of like me doing that hike at 415 compared to 255. I can do it now because of what’s happened over the last 3-4 years and I think the same thing with recruiting. When we first got here we were selling a dream as all we had was a blueprint, but what’s happening now is we aren’t where we want to be with the end result, but we have the upward move, but now we’re selling the dream but also already have the foundation. That’s in the classroom, on the field, in the community. We’re at that point now with the upward trajectory but we know we need to keep building. We’ve got some momentum, playing on New Years Day, we know we need to start winning the bowl games.