With less than three weeks to go before the season opener, the Gophers football team is ready for a dress rehearsal. And that comes Saturday in the form of the first live scrimmage of training camp.
Coach P.J. Fleck has plenty of questions he hopes to answer, and he'll do that with trial by fire.
"We're gonna test them in all areas and put them in every situation possible," Fleck said after Friday's open practice at the Gibson-Nagurski Football Complex. "Put as much heat and as much pressure on them as we can and see who performs at a high level."
He was saying that about his entire team, but it applies most importantly at quarterback, the position more than any other that will define the Gophers' season.
Third-year sophomore Demry Croft and fifth-year senior Conor Rhoda are competing for the starting job, and the scrimmage should go a long way in determining which QB Fleck chooses to take the first snap in the Aug. 31 opener against Buffalo.
"Obviously, [Saturday] is a huge step in that direction for whoever's gonna take this team over and prove that this is their job," said Rhoda, who has made one start in his career, in a victory over Maryland last year.
Added Croft, who redshirted last year after playing in three games as a true freshman in 2015: "I just want to see what I need to work on and what the team needs to work on. It's a little pre-taste of what we need to get done."
Croft and Rhoda, though coveting the same job, are trying to push each other.