The original plan was for the first scrimmage of spring camp to be held under the lights at TCF Bank Stadium on Friday night. Mother Nature, however, had different plans. With a fresh batch of snow covering the ground outside, the Gophers took to Rod Wallace Field inside the Gibson-Nagurski Complex for the contest. Despite the chilly conditions outdoors, the competition quickly heated up.
Redshirt freshman Mitch Leidner stole the show early, spreading the ball around to a myriad of receivers, including a sideline connection to KJ Maye for a big gain. Later on, Leidner found Victor Keise in the back of the end zone from about 10 yards out. In the end, the Lakeville South product completed an impressive 9 of 11 passes with the one touchdown. Quarterbacks coach Jim Zebrowski was pleased with the young quarterback’s performance.
“I was really happy with Mitch. He had a couple of mental errors, a little emotion, but I really thought he did a great job of getting us down the field. He was composed and made some good throws. I’m really excited about him”
He also made some noise with his legs. The freshman QB finished with five carries for a handful of yards. During one of the early series, Leidner drifted slowly towards the boundary, searching for an open target. When none came available, he pulled the ball down and weaved his way to pay dirt, opening the scoring for the scrimmage. Offensive Coordinator Matt Limegrover took notice of Leidner’s dual-threat showing.
“He’s a great example of a guy that if you just looked at the stopwatch you would not think he was a very good runner,” said LImegrover. “Mitch is that rare case that when he puts the pads on he maintains if not gets a little better. I can’t quite explain it but he knew that in order to be in our offense he was going to have to run better and be more athletic and I give him credit because I think he’s worked on it and it’s showing.”
Another player that impressed early was junior running back David Cobb. The Killeen, Texas native broke free for a would-be 40 yard touchdown but the play was brought back on a holding call in the open field. Cobb didn’t let that slow him down, punching into the end zone from the goal line to officially pick up a score later. Despite last year’s leading rusher Donnell Kirkwood not participating, the entire running back corps had an impressive showing. Cobb, Rodrick Williams, James Gillum and Cole Banham all found their way into the secondary to break off big gains. Limegrover talked later about the play he saw from his group of ball carriers.
“Obviously it isn’t a complete game situation but it’s tackling and blocking and those types of things. It was a great opportunity to up the reps,” Limegrover continued, “and be able to start to call that herd a little bit and say these are the ones that we can count on.”
The defensive players weren’t going to let the offense have all the fun Friday night, though. The unit started the scrimmage off with a few three-and-outs and from then on could be found in the backfield at various points throughout the night giving the quarterbacks fits. Lamonte Edwards, Alex Keith and Jephte Matilus were among those who recorded sacks, though the quarterbacks were not allowed to be taken down. Then, near the end of the night Damarius Travis and James Manuel combined on a crushing blow to stop Rodrick Williams in his tracks short of the goal line, which, considering the sophomore running back’s 5’11”, 228 pound frame, is a pretty impressive accomplishment. Defensive Coordinator Tracy Claeys came away impressed with the physicality he witnessed.
“This is the first day we’ve tackled,” Claeys said. “I think we’re playing more physical. We’ve had some collisions and done some things that haven’t happened since we got here. All of that is positive, we just have to be more consistent with it.”