Gophers Jerry Kill announced that WR Andre McDonald will not play this semester.
Fresh off a season opening win versus UNLV, Gophers Football Coach Jerry Kill addressed the media recapping the season opener and previewing the U’s first road game on Saturday versus New Mexico State. Kill also addressed the eligibility of Gophers WR Andre McDonald and announced that he would not play this semester.
The Gophers travel to New Mexico State on Saturday night at 7pm CT and try to avenge a loss to them from in 2011. Those who follow lines, will see online football betting sites that the Gophers opened up as 21 point favorites.
GopherHole’s Nadine Babu captured Kill’s press conference notes below:
• Thanks everyone for coming, we appreciate you coming out and seeing us this afternoon. We’re excited to improve our football team, taking them from week one to week two. We had a good workout yesterday and Saturday, we worked on correcting some things we need to correct.
• We’ll have to be very disciplined in what we do defensively.
• It’s like anything, you have a close game, then you have big plays (how they pulled away), when you get the momentum going, you can’t get it back.
• I think we need to do a better job of coaching, I’m not going to talk about players or blame the players.
• Right now, what we have to worry about is what we can control. We’re going on the road with a very young football team, we started about 5 seniors last game.
• I think you watch film (to judge progress), film don’t lie. When you play you need to be able to execute at all positions.
• As the offensive line goes, we could see if someone wasn’t as crisp as they need to be. We have some depth, it’s just depth that hasn’t played a lot.
• Our health is never perfect. You’ve gotta be lucky in that deal. You don’t want to lose your tailback, we need to see how long he takes to heal. Derrick Wells is back at practice, but we have 3-4 guys we need to get healed up.
• He’s a tough kid, he’s different, and Drew is unique, he practiced yesterday when I didn’t think he would.
• Update on Andre McDonald – right now, he’s not going to play for us this semester. That’s all I’m going to say on that.
• You take the kickoff return, it couldn’t be drawn up any better, Marcus Jones was great, we also have many tremendous blocks, that’s what you want. There’s a lot of good things in the coverage teams and the kicking teams. You can’t miss a PAT field goal. There are plenty of areas to improve. Marcus Jones, coming off what he’s gone through, and be a success, that’s a good thing. You like good things happening to good people.
• We lacked execution on the goal line, little things like that you can’t do and be productive, I take responsibility for that.
• I feel optimistic about Kirkwood, he’s basically lived in here the past 3 days (in the team room), I feel good about his comeback abilities. He’s gotten stronger.
• You’ve got a lot of kids that aren’t even set in college football when playing no huddle
• I just put on film and go to work, I think that’s what all coaches do. You enjoy wins, it was great in the locker room, you enjoy the moments. But then the next day, you go to work. As a coach, as soon as you get done talking to them, you go home, sit in your chair, you’re getting ready for tomorrow. You don’t get a chance to enjoy the win. We had the advantage of playing on Thursday night. When the kids come in, you teach them, it’s no different than a classroom.
• In college football, Northern Illinois going to Iowa – I think Iowa is a better football team than they were a year ago.
• David Cobb – he had a good game, I think he played pretty solid. He ran the ball pretty strong and physical. You’ll see a lot of Roderick too, he’ll be well toned and ready to go.
• I would tell you this – it was pretty warm, but it’s a different type of temperature. We’re going where it’s dry, we were worried about our big guys that are 300 pounds. I guess we better get used to it, we’re going to be traveling to Texas and playing in it next year. That’s why we play a lot of kids. In the 1st half, we played 5 or 6 corners, 8 D. Lineman, in the 1st quarter or so. If we don’t have depth, we don’t win the UNLV game, because of the heat.
• RB Rodrick Williams Jr. missed 1st half vs UNLV because he was late to a team meeting day of the game.
• Here at MN, we’re always adjusting, practicing at different times, so it’s just like playing on the road. We practice about every time you can think of practicing. That’s what we did at Northern and Southern.
• We’re still dealing with 18-22 year old kids, getting them on time. In the NFL, they just fine you a lot of money if you’re late.
• Yesterday was our best practice as far as running backs go since I’ve been here.
• We need to educate our team on getting better, if we don’t’ turnover the ball, don’t have penalties, have no mistakes in the kicking game, and we’re going to be in every game.
• Maxx Williams is a good player. He’s smart, his Daddy played, his Mom was a great athlete, he’s gifted. He’s 6’4 and almost 200 lbs and was a QB out of school. He’s got instinct, that’s something you can’t coach, he’s just got it.
• On no huddle teams – the advantage of it, is you train your kids and get plays off without defense settled in. When you make people process quicker, it makes it tough on them. The disadvantage of it, is defensively, you see 48-46 scores, it hurts the defense because they never get to practice it. Football has its cycle, the no huddle thing has certainly caught on. It’s difficult to play great defense with no huddle. There are different speeds of no huddle. Some wait to see the defense get set, and go. Nick Saban won’t run a no huddle, I can tell you that.
On August 29- Sept 18th, there’s an auction in honor of Gary Tinsley. www.32auctions.com It’s giving back to students who need scholarship $. Last year, they were able to give 14 scholarships out from this auction.