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Phil Miller is returning to his Big Ten roots to follow Minnesota’s football fortunes for the Star Tribune after a decade of chronicling the NBA and Major League Baseball. The Illinois native began his writing career by covering Utah football for six seasons, and still insists that 12-1 Florida stole the 2009 BCS Championship from the unbeaten Utes.
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Posts about Gophers spring football
Receivers have big day in Gopher scrimmage
Posted by: Phil Miller Updated: April 17, 2012 - 7:11 PM
A good day for Gopher receivers on Tuesday, with Devin Crawford-Tufts, Malcolm Moulton, A.J. Barker, Drew Goodger and John Rabe all making difficult catches during the various scrimmages.
"I will tell you, they've gotten a whole lot better these last two practices," coach Jerry Kill said afterward.
The offense wasn't exactly dominant -- in fact, the Gopher offense had to punt away its first three possessions -- but there were plenty of big plays as spring practices wind down. There would have been more, too, if MarQueis Gray scrambles weren't immediately blown dead once he cleared the line of scrimmage.
Gray connected for gains of 20-plus yards with Crawford-Tufts (a tremendous reach for the ball in traffic) and Rabe on one touchdown drive, the scoring play coming on a 3-yard pass over the middle to Goodger.
On Gray's next series, Barker caught a deep pass that picked up 25 yards or so.
The backup quarterbacks got some snaps, too, and Philip Nelson's were the most productive. On Nelson's first play from scrimmage, he was sacked for an 8-yard loss by Gopher linebacker Jephte Matilus, coming right up the middle, but Nelson got the yardage back plus a lot more one play later. The freshman quarterback hit Moulton on a short route in front of a linebacker, and Moulton broke a pair of tackles to turn the play into a 30-yard gain. Nelson connected with Crawford-Tufts on another decent gain, then completed the 70-yard touchdown drive by scrambling into the end zone by himself.
Linebacker Mike Rallis and running back Devin Wright were among the players out of action, both limited by hamstring injuries suffered last Friday. Neither injury appears serious, but "we won't take any chances," Kill said.
The coach was annoyed by a series of penalties, but blamed the four-day layoff for some of the sloppiness. Late in the practice, Kill got worked up over a personal foul penalty on the offense. "Sometimes you're not as clean as you'd like," Kill said. "Overall, we're getting better and learning a lot about our players."
They'll get an extra chance this week, too. Kill has rescheduled the April 7 practice, cancelled in the wake of Gary Tinsley's death, for this Friday, a no-pads session that the coach said would serve as a rehearsal for Saturday morning's spring game in TCF Bank Stadium.
Dress rehearsal in stadium helps Gophers
Posted by: Phil Miller Updated: April 12, 2012 - 8:17 PM Last Saturday's practice, cancelled in the wake of Gary Tinsley's death, was supposed to take place in TCF Bank Stadium. The Gophers need more time here, coach Jerry Kill decided this week.
So Thursday's session was moved down the street, in order to acclimate the newcomers to the place, and get everybody used to game-day situations. The coordinators observed and called plays from the press box, the quarterbacks read signals from the sideline, referees supervised the action and only Kill was on the field as the ball was snapped.
"Unless we come over here, it's hard to simulate everything. We need to be getting used to down-and-distance situations. There's something about it -- there's always a jitter or two," Kill said. It's much simpler to practice at the Gibson-Nagurski complex, because some players have post-practice classes. But it's worth the extra effort, the coach said.
"Life's about making adjustments," Kill said. "Hopefully we got some good work in, and we'll be sharper tomorrow."
Only a handful of notable plays during the scrimmages, one of which was a beautiful catch-and-run by sophomore receiver C.J. Cesario. And freshman quarterback Philip Nelson avoided a leaping linebacker, then cut to his right and scrambled for at least 25 yards, showing once again his faster-than-you'd-think footwork.
The Gophers spent an extended time Thursday working on punting, a nagging problem over the past few seasons. Specifically, the coaches sent 10 players to rush the punter, challenging them to deflect a punt, and twice they did.
Kill said redshirt freshman Peter Mortell, a Green Bay., Wis., native, impressed him, particularly on his last punt, which traveled at least 50 yards in the air. "Right now, he's showing me he'll sit in there during difficult times. He doesn't get real nervous," the coach said. "He's certainly shined in that area."
Practice report: Professors loved Tinsley, too
Posted by: Michael Rand Updated: April 11, 2012 - 1:12 PM Jerry Kill received a surprise visit on Tuesday, but a heartwarming -- and heartbreaking -- one.
One of Gary Tinsley's professors, Frank Plachecki, and several of his students showed up at Kill's office with flowers, as an offering of condolence for the football players' death, and a few memories of their classmate.
"They came over and told me what a tremendous asset [it was] having Gary in class, and how hard he worked on the education side of it," Kill said. "They talked about him being an entrepreneur, how he was such an inspiration in his classes. ... Fellow students, not athletes. So I think that tells a little bit about Gary Tinsley."
The Jacksonville, Fla., native will be awarded a diploma posthumously next month at Minnesota's spring commencement, a B.S. in business and marketing education that Tinsley was within a couple of weeks of completing. "He is a tremendous role model for us to look at and say, 'Hey, this is what it's all about. We could all step it up and be like Gary.' "
His teammates are dealing with several reminders, too. "No matter where we go, we're going to hear or see something about GT," said quarterback MarQueis Gray. "Even checking my email, I've had my professors and other professors emailing me about how good a student GT was outside the football field. When I come to the complex, I see signs on the door. It's been a grieving process, and we're just happy we have so much support."
The Gophers returned to the football field on Tuesday, though it wasn't necessarily easy for some of them. "It's still kind of hard, because he's not here," said senior receiver Brandon Green. "But when we step across the white lines, we've got to come out and perform. That's what we got a scholarship to do."
They performed pretty normally on Tuesday, starting with a team prayer in one end zone, then getting in a two-hour workout in cold, windy weather. The play of the defensive backs was as subpar as the weather, apparently, because practice was interrupted at one point while the entire secondary corps did up-downs, the jog-in-place-then-plunge-to-the-ground exercise that Kill used as punishment far more frequently last season.
Only a few plays of note, one of them an impressive double-cut run through traffic by running back James Gillum. Matter of fact, Gillum had several nice runs, but part of that was because he was getting so many reps. Donnell Kirkwood did not practice, and David Cobb went inside with an athletic trainer after only a few plays. He returned just before practice ended with ice around a knee.
Best play of the day came on the very first snap of the scrimmage portion: Gray threw a 10-yard out to Green along the left sideline, but Michael Carter timed it perfectly and picked it off in stride, an easy defensive touchdown.
A little later, Max Shortell looped a perfect pass over two defenders and hit Malcolm Mouton in stride, about a 25-yard gain.
The Gophers will practice again Thursday afternoon (3:15 p.m.), then move to TCF Bank Stadium on Friday night (7:15). Both are open to the public. The funeral will take place Saturday at Noon ET at Abyssinia Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Fla. Burial will follow at Edgewood Cemetery.
Dungy makes routine practice "Uncommon"
Posted by: Phil Miller Updated: April 3, 2012 - 9:00 PM The Gophers' theme for the 2012 season is "Uncommon." That's how they want to work, that's how they want to play, and that's what they want to be.
On Tuesday, the football team met the inspiration for that theme. Tony Dungy, the former Gopher quarterback who went on to coach the Indianapolis Colts to victory in Super Bowl XLI, addressed the current Minnesota players before Tuesday's practice.
"It's something I've talked about several times, and nobody embodies that message more than Coach Dungy. He's a pretty special person," said Gophers coach Jerry Kill. "I admire the way he lives his life."
So much so, that Kill has assigned the entire team to read Dungy's book, "Uncommon: Finding Your Path to Significance," something he did at Northern Illinois in 2009, when the book was initially published. The Gophers read and discussed the first four chapters before spring practice, and Kill intends to do the same with the rest of the book when drills are done.
Nothing in the book can match the excitement of meeting such a coaching legend, though.
"That was a great experience being in there," said offensive lineman Ed Olson. "He was talking about character, on and off the field, [how] we've got to be role models. It was a great message for us -- he was saying, don't base your whole life on football. There is more to life than football, spiritually, socially, on and off the field."
"He played for some great people here," Kill said, referring to Dungy's coach, Cal Stoll, during his stint at Minnesota quarterback from 1974-76. "I've always said, he's what you should be coaching the game of football. It was great for the kids to hear from somebody of their own."
Dungy's presence was the highlight of a rather routine day of practice. The defense closed the drills on a high after holding the offense without a first down on three straight second-and-8 drills, the last two on short third-and-1 runs that were stuffed at the line.
Defense holds Gophers without big-play day
Posted by: Phil Miller Updated: March 31, 2012 - 7:52 PM The forecast called for sunny and 70, but the Gophers got 45 and windy on Saturday. Maybe it depressed the offense.
The Gophers' defense had a good day on the turf of TCF Bank Stadium, where roughly 500 spectators, including dozens of high school football coaches who took part in a clinic Saturday morning, watched the Gophers run their first full-tackling scrimmage of the spring.
The drives didn't include many memorable plays, which was Tracy Claeys' goal as the day began. "We kept the ball in front of us. I was pleased with that," Minnesota's defensive coordinator said. "We made a big emphasis out of containment, of keeping everything in front. That's what it's going to take for us to win, and we didn't have any big plays today."
Of course, part of the reason was by design -- Claeys and coach Jerry Kill wanted to gauge the tackling ability of their secondary, so the quarterbacks were instructed to look for quick, short passes.
"A year ago, we didn't tackle in the secondary as well as we needed to. So we designed the practice for a lot of quick-throwing balls -- get the ball out, get it on the edge fast -- so we could see the corners and the safeties tackle," Claeys said. "I don't think we missed too many today. I'm pretty pleased with how those guys did."
In fact, the biggest play of the practice was a defensive one. With MarQueis Gray at quarterback (and under pressure several times from a juiced-up pass rush), defensive end Ben Perry suddenly dropped into coverage on a zone blitz.
Consider Gray surprised.
"He got me on that play. I'm not going to make any excuse -- he made a good play," Gray said of the throw, which landed directly in Perry's arms and, with the defensive howling from the sideline, was quickly turned into a touchdown by the sophomore. "Otherwise, I would have said I didn't get a good grip on the ball or I wouldn't have thrown it to him. But he made a good play -- and it won't happen again."
Well, "don't let it happen again" is sort of the point of spring practice, a chance for coaches to iron out all the mistakes. For instance, on the first play of the 11-on-11, running back David Cobb was stopped at the line of scrimmage, and Kill, upset at the route he took, screamed, "Vertical! Vertical! Vertical!" before quickly subbing in James Gillum.
Gray and sophomore Max Shortell got most of the snaps, as usual, but freshman Philip Nelson got an unusually long look on Saturday, too. My initial impression was that he seemed to be rushing on a lot of plays, but perhaps that had something to do with the short-pass emphasis. And when Nelson tucked the ball and ran, he displayed surprisingly quick feet for a 225-pound quarterback.
Other observations:
-- A big hit on a running back by linebacker Lamonte Edwards;
-- An interception by Mike Rallis during the skelly drills (I think it was Rallis; my view was blocked by a high-school coach who I assume once played offensive line);
-- A series of mediocre (or worse) punts during special teams, a situation not helped by the wind, but one that has to worry Kill;
-- A sack and forced fumble by defensive end Thieren Cockran, who appeared embarrassed (or worried that he was in trouble) after accidentally running into Shortell;
-- The presence of ex-Gophers Kim Royston and Duane Bennett, the latter of whom joined the running backs in their post-practice huddle to offer some suggestions;
-- Claeys walking the half-mile to the stadium from his office before practice, rather than riding with the team;
-- And, as several observers have noticed this spring, defensive lineman Scott Epke sure doesn't look like an 18-year-old freshman.
The Gophers get two days off now before resuming spring drills at 3:15 p.m. Tuesday on their Gibson-Nagurski practice field.
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