Ahlibobwa’s Practice Musings 3-28-23
As always, sight lines aren’t always great as football players are huge and space in the practice facility is limited. Was hard for me to see the QBs and WRs during some individual drills.
Here is a in no way complete list of songs that played during practice today:
‘Dirt’ Key Glock
‘Can’t Tell It All’ Hulvey, Lecrae, & KB
‘Blood’ EST Gee
‘Tyler Herro’ Jack Harlow
‘Under Pressure’ Queen
‘What’s My Age Again?’ Blink 182
‘Highway to the Danger Zone’ Kenny Loggins
Fight Songs:
‘On Wisconsin’
‘The Texas Aggie War Hymn’
‘Forward Rebels’ (Florida State)
‘Oregon State Fight Song’
‘Yeah Alabama’
Theme of the Day: Dotting Is and Crossing Ts:
The first session of practice was focused on performing the correct assignments on the correct play. Plays were executed at about half speed and no throws were made. Instead the QBs pointed at the target they would have thrown to. I noticed that even during this part of practice Coach Harbaugh was extremely active, briefly tutoring his QBs after nearly every rep.
Worth noting that on a lot of these reps Lewis was at RT and Carroll was at RG.
Without Morgan our QB room is huge. Kramer is over 6 feet tall and he looks tiny out there compared to Athan, Knuth, and especially Viotto (who is huge for a frosh).
Gophers did one of my fav punt return drills. Players have a ball in each hand and then attempt to catch a punt while holding the two balls. Fleck was coaching a lot during this drill shouting ‘elbows in, elbows in’ to several players.
Guys I saw returning punts: Hoskins, Tyler, and Evans
After this, offense faced off against defense in the old school drill: Offense gets a ballcarrier and a couple blockers. Defense gets 3 defenders, and you gotta get it done between the hashes. Offense vs. Defense first one to win 5 reps. Believe it was 2-2 before the defense took over and won the last few reps.
Gophers then broke up into groups for individual drills. For this portion of practice the interior linemen worked together in one spot, while the Tackles and TEs worked together right in front of where I was standing.
The focus of both groups was combo blocks. Two guys with tackling dummies faced off against two blockers who worked on their responsibilities. Lot of coaching taking place between reps. During these drills DLs were working on something similar.
A couple moments during this drill. Spencer Alvarez got ibuprofen from one of the student trainers. Also, a coach asked JJ Guedet if he needed water since he’s ‘always sweating so much’. Nick Kallerup agreed and said to Guedet ‘You probably sweat more than I do’.
Fleck was chirping a lot today. Tons of coaching after reps especially for WRs and QBs. Cade Conzemius had a tough practice and Fleck gave him some good coaching after one of at least three balls I saw him miss. I will say that Conzemius caught a nice slant from Knuth during the team portion portion later in the practice.
QBs:
So many plays from under center! It was wild. Minnesota looks like they are committed to having a package under center that’s more than a gimmick.
I personally like that, as I hate how deep the RB is lined up in the shotgun on short yardage plays. Will be exciting to see that develop.
Was weird watching the Gophers without #2 out there. FWIW, Kramer is the clear #2 right now. I would say part of that is his experience and familiarity with the offense. But I will also say Kramer threw as well as I’ve seen him throw. In addition, Knuth had a tough practice out there today. Even on routes with no defense Knuth was behind including routes like swing passes. Knuth also missed a deep throw badly in team that was short of the receiver by 15 yards. He also threw a terrible pick to Coleman Bryson later in team.
Athan missed a few balls, but he looks like he’s in command out there, dropping some absolute dimes during team. He hit Elijah Spencer for a sideline route in between the CB and Safety that was just poetry. Athan also was sharp in 7 on 7 hitting four in a row at one point, including an out route to Crooms and a post to Jackson.
Viotto intrigues me a lot. He throws a beautiful, effortless ball and there’s no question the arm talent is real. Honestly, it’s just one practice but today left me a lot more excited about Viotto than I am about Knuth.
Also left practice feeling like Kramer has made some strides. He threw an absurd fade route to Jackson that was right on the money for a big catch that had people pumped up.
WRs:
Fleck left no doubt about his pecking order at WR. At one point during team Daniel Jackson caught a post route and got absolutely lit up by Tyler Nubin. Fleck stopped practice and shut the music off so he could coach an important moment. Fleck first praised Jackson for a fantastic catch and said ‘That’s how a #1 receiver makes plays’. So if you’re wondering who WR #1 is, don’t wonder any longer—it’s Daniel Jackson.
Fleck went on to say that Nubin’s play to get in position was fantastic and also worthy of a #1 safety. Fleck then said, ‘but, that’s a penalty. And now you’re sitting out the rest of the game because of where you hit the receiver. And now that throws us off our rhythm and we don’t want that’.
You wonder why Fleck has one of the least penalized teams in the country? It’s because he makes a big deal out of it when guys commit penalties in practice.
Crooms looked solid in the slot although he had one bad drop I saw. But his burst is pretty solid into and out of his breaks. Thought he had a decent day. Elijah Spencer looks like the real deal. He made a couple explosive plays including the aforementioned sideline grab.
I get Crooms is the starter, but I have to say one thing….
Kristen Hoskins is practicing like a guy who **really** wants to play. So what do I mean? Well, dude is finishing all his reps at full speed. Even when he’s ‘down’ he’s finishing his reps. On one swing pass Hoskins was stuffed but reversed field and outran everybody to the backside of the play. In reality, he’s going down on that play but dude is playing with the intensity that he’s not going down on any play and he’s showing off unique speed in the process.
I am buying Kristen Hoskins stock after one practice. And yes again, I realize Crooms will be the starter. But Hoskins showed a lot of fire and impressed me.
Cade Conzemius struggled mightily today, but I still have high hopes for him in the future.
OLine: hard to get much of a read on line play today, but did think it was notable that initially Lewis was at RT and Carroll at RG. We will see if that sticks a week from now at that practice.
TEs caught quite a few balls in the early sessions of team and it was weird without BSF out there. But it gave a chance for Kallerup and some other guys to get reps.
It’s also worth stating once again how far we’ve come. I remember watching spring ball in the Brewster years and we didn’t have a fraction of this size and talent on the roster. The guys playing on the line of scrimmage are absolutely massive. I remember the first time I saw Nathan Boe and thought there is no chance he will ever play here. He was so slight. Now, he’s a damn behemoth. We have good length and athleticism at most other positions too.
RB: Sean Tyler is fast, quick, and seems to have good balance. And he better have all those things in spades because damn dude is skinny! I mean, he’s the smallest RB to start for the Gophers since redshirt frosh Rodney Smith and Tyler looks smaller than that even. That said, his Western Michigan highlights are amazing so I’m pumped for the Sean Tyler era.
Bryce Williams looks good. He had a breakaway TD run in the one of the early team sessions that was really impressive. Zach Evans is jacked and looks ready to contribute. Darius Taylor is thin, but got reps today. Will have to monitor the RB competition closely as it seems like 2-3 guys could play real minutes.
DBs: Our safeties look great. Walley looks great. Henderson made a really nice pass breakup on a slant during team. Somebody not sure who had a beautiful breakup on a deep ball to Lemeke Brockington. Will check other’s notes to see who that was but looked good.
Am nervous about corner. Neither Rhyland Kelly nor Tariq Watson looked ready for primetime today. Gonna have to get at least one CB out of the portal, if not two.
One fun thing came during a punt coverage/slash return drill featuring three each from the kick and return teams Tyler Nubin took his helmet off and just started coaching everybody. He must have had the green light from the coaching staff cause he continued to coach hard for the duration of the drill.
To get a sense for the vibes, when PJ isn’t playing straight music he plays a lot of loud industrial sounds over the top of music. For awhile it sounded like pigs were squealing over industrial metal while ‘On Wisconsin’ played. Surreal stuff.
minnesota.rivals.com
