jeered and called a traitor. Reigning olympic champion and world record holder in the Decathlon. Wonder why he was called a traitor and jeered?

(Update: link didn't work so notes are copy-pasted here.)

Here are some of my observations from Saturday:
At this point of the season coaches usually say the defense is ahead of the offense. Overall I came away from the hour-long scrimmage more impressed with the offense than the defense.

The offensive line – specifically the interior of Connor Mayes, Tyler Moore, and Vincent Calhoun had very little trouble opening up space up the middle. Early on they opened holes that created seven and eight yard runs right at the heart of the defense. Even the second and third team guys - notably the trio of Jared Weyler, Connor Olson, and Matt Leidner - had most of their success inside. As the day wore on the interior defense improved, but a four-yard gain was a victory for the interior of the Gophers' defense.

As good as the run blocking was, the pass blocking – while generally reliable, did show some holes. They missed a couple of blitz pickups and also gave up some pressure from the outside. Freshman Winston DeLattiboudere was one of the defensive linemen who would have gotten a sack if quarterbacks were live. The other, Tai'yon Devers got to the quarterback with a nice outside pass rush.

Quarterback Mitch Leidner did not have much of a chance to show off his arm, only letting loose on a throw a handful of times, but based on last year's injuries, his mobility was encouraging.

The quarterback who was most impressive was Seth Green. Green hit his first four passes including the first deep ball.

One of Green's completions went to Adam Mayer who took a short pass in the flat, broke a tackle and used his speed to get down the sidelines for a big play. Later Green threw a beautiful post pattern to freshman Tyler Johnson. The play covered thirty yards.

Quarterback Connor Rhoda connected on the other deep ball down the sidelines to Melvin Holland Jr. for a 35-yard touchdown.

With running back Shannon Brooks out for at least a couple more weeks, others had a chance to take advantage of an often dominate run blocking exhibition by the offensive line. Kobe McCrary received many first team reps, but the most impressive run came from Carlton Djam. The play was designed to go to the right, but Carlton showed great vision and cut back across the formation for a ten-yard gain. He was able to make the run because freshman tackle Sam Schlueter collapsed the right side of the defensive line. However, Carlton later put the ball on the ground after he ran through yet another big hole up the middle.

Outside of two balls, the defensive backs were the strength of the defense. They gave up a handful of short completions, but especially when it was the ones against the ones, Leidner rarely had anywhere to throw. The Gophers' defensive backs look to be strong again, but one area of concern that I came away with was the receivers unable to get any separation – especially the ones.

The first defensive back who made a nice play was Zo Craighton. He was locked up in man coverage down the sidelines and was step for step with the receiver. Later in the day, Ray Buford broke up a potential touchdown pass by batting away a pass in the end zone.

The biggest downer of the afternoon took place early in the day. One of the prized freshman from this past recruiting class – linebacker Carter Coughlin went down with a leg injury and did not return.

Link: Claeys gives his scrimmage thoughts + notes on McCrary, injuries, QBs, and more

U of M alum, billionaire Minnesotan. Owner of Hubbard Broadcasting (KSTP, etc.). Any idea if he donates to the U and football? Sounds like some of the posters on this board.

According to the Star Tribune he is expected to be out 3-5 weeks. Time for the next guys up. Not good news to go along with the Sherels deal. Can we ever get any breaks?

The whole crew extremely impressed with Rutgers. Dinardo says they have depth on both lines of scrimmage; Griffith likes their RBs. All 3 analysts like both of Rutgers' QB options. Rutgers implementing the Urban Meyer-esque 'power spread'. Griffith likes one of their DBs a lot, Austin?

Rutgers' achilles heel last year was the LBs and secondary. Rutgers' new HC, Chris Ash, is a secondary specialist--had success at Ohio State, Arkansas, Wisconsin. LBs have one starter back and then a lot of guys who haven't played. Unclear what kind of depth they have at receiver.

Bottom Line: Dinardo called it 'the best practice we've seen this fall other than Ohio State'. Dinardo very bullish on Rutgers, thinks they could win 'a lot more games than anybody expects.

The crew thinks DJ Durkin will help Maryland make an immediate upgrade on D. Terps have a JUCO transfer CB with good size (6'1") to put across from the smaller but incredibly explosive all-conference CB/Returner Will Likely.

Dinardo says there are power spreads and then there are teams that are all about the spread. Rutgers is the former and Maryland is the latter. Said Maryland is putting a ton of emphasis on forcing the opposing D to defend the entire width of the field. Dinardo made sure to mention that he likes power spreads but hates more wide open spreads because he believes it hinders development along the DLine.

The guys think Hills will win the QB spot. Hills likes to scramble and will run the ball a lot. Maryland wants to be a run first spread a la Oregon.

The guys think Maryland has some nice pieces, and they are impressed with how recruiting has gone so far. However, you can tell that the crew thinks Rutgers is a far better squad and Maryland will take its lumps this year.

Sounds to me looks Rutgers better than I personally anticipated, while Maryland looks pretty mediocre and beatable.

Destiny Pitts out of Detroit, a top 60 on ESPN, committed to MN. She should help continue with Minnesota's strong guard play

http://www.espn.com/high-school/girls-basketball/recruiting/player/_/id/222208/destiny-pitts


Mods, why can we not embed from approved sites anymore???

I saw Carter Caughlin come off the field limping today. And later on he had a ice bag on his knee and later on his ankle. And at the end of the scrimmage he had someone looking at it again and wearing an ice bag on his knee again. Does anyone know what happened to him, and if it's serious?

Funny there are no comments on the Borton article in the Sunday STRIB.

remember my term over coaching? Of course you do....don't we have a lineman that is getting days off? Y'all jumped on 55.....Kill over coached and overworked these kids in practice. Yes....
I said it then and now it is confirmed. We had kids missing games and were never carried off the field in game day. Practice! We talking about practice! You can overdo practice.

Colton Beebe, Brandon Lingen, Cody Poock, Shannon Brooks, Isaiah Gentry, and Antoine Winfield Jr. were all out with injuries. Coney Durr and Matt Morse may have been out too.

Blaise Andries and 2018 QB Trey Lance of Marshall were in attendance and spent time with Morgan Liggett and others.

With the scrimmage later today, the coaches didn't want to beat the players up too much. Practice was only about 45 minutes long and almost entirely special teams work. There was no tackling, so I couldn't really gauge who did well as a returner.

Despite his move to punter, Ryan Santoso is still doing kickoffs. He looked good as a punter and really gets a lot of hang time.

Phillip Howard, Drew Wolitarsky, and Jalen Myrick returned punts. There may have been a couple more, too.

Jonathan Femi-Cole, Kiondre Thomas, Rodney Smith, Jalen Myrick, Ray Buford, and KiAnte Hardin were all returning kicks.

Kickers were fairly inconsistent. Both Emmit Carpenter and Justin Juenemann missed kicks. Juenemann is small and very skinny but gets a lot of power in his kicks.

Scott Ekpe blocked a kick.

While most of the rest of the team was working on punt coverage and returns, the quarterbacks were working on their dropbacks and making ten yard throws. Mark Williams impressed with his quick release.

No recruits at today’s practice that I saw.

Isaiah Gentry and Matt Morse were in orange jerseys. Cody Poock and Eric Carter were also out.

DeMarcus Williams had a great day. Not all of his balls look pretty, but they were getting to the intended target. In a two-minute drill, he picked up about 50 or 60 yards in just 40 seconds. He threw a perfect strike to Ko Kieft for a 20-30 yard gain and near touchdown. Williams has great poise and looks very comfortable in the pocket. His performance today was very encouraging.0 I’m looking forward to watching him at the scrimmage.

Seth Green looked confident and made several nice throws. He knows where he wants to go with the ball and looked better than the last open practice. Green connected with Tyler Johnson and others a couple times. He did well splitting zones. During the skeleton part of practice, he hit Drew Wolitarksy in-stride from about 20 yards out, over Drew’s shoulder where the defender couldn’t get it.

Mitch Leidner had a good day, with the only real bad pass that sticks out in mind being a forced pass to the flats that was easily jumped and picked off by Damarius Travis. Rashad Still then made a play and stripped the ball from Travis.

Demry Croft was accurate running the two-minute drill. Conor Rhoda had an up-and-down day.

There wasn’t tackling today, so there’s not a lot to report on that’s not already known with the running backs. Kobe McCrary impressed with his pass blocking. James Johannesson still might have a ways to go in terms of blocking. He doesn’t seem to pick up blitzes as well as Rodney Smith and Kobe McCrary yet. McCrary also looked good catching passes. The QBs looked to him quite a bit when they were under pressure.

With Eric Carter out, Brian Smith got reps with the first team throughout practice, although he dropped several passes. He runs decent routes and has good size and speed, but we’ll see if he sticks with the first team tomorrow after today’s drops. Drew Wolitarsky, James Johannesson, and Rashad Still also all dropped passes they should have had today. Still’s drop was over the middle and almost led to a pick.

Tyler Johnson continues to look good. He just looks like a natural, even though he’s never played the position before. Johnson has long arms and thus a large catch radius, and he showed that off today hauling in a pass from Rhoda. He also caught a nice pass from Green.

Register’s routes look much crisper than last year.

The second team wide receiver group today was Melvin Holland, Adam Mayer, and Hunter Register. Mayer had a great catch over the middle from Croft. He stuck out last year at camp, too. I wouldn’t be surprised if he plays in the slot some this year when Carter needs a breather during the season.

Garrison Wright was practicing today (he was hurt before) and looked just fine. Donnell Greene was also on the field, but I didn’t see him play at all. He was probably just taking mental reps and getting accustomed to it all. The second team was Schlueter (LT), Olson (LG), Leidner (C), Weyler (RG), Oseland (RT), and they struggled a little bit, which should be expected since most of them are a year or two younger than their competition. Of the second team, Weyler looked best. Connor Olson has added some good weight. His position was up in the air heading into fall camp. I’m not sure if he’ll stick at guard or not, but that’s the only position I can remember him staying it through two practices.

Brandon Lingen was again held out today. Colton Beebe took more of his reps with the first team than last practice. Ko Kieft is playing tight end for the first time, but you wouldn’t necessarily know it. He had a couple nice passes today, including the catch from Williams mentioned above.

Vincent Calhoun looked good again today. The defensive tackles did well last practice, but there were times when Calhoun shut down Merrick Jackson and sometimes others today.

Steven Richardson was again working mostly with the second team and blowing everyone up. Winston DeLattiboudere and Jerry Gibson continue to do well rushing the passer. DeLattiboudere bull rushing Schlueter and Gibson getting by Oseland are two plays that stick out in my mind. The second team offensive line’s struggles made it tough for Demry to have much time to throw. He never had more than two seconds before he was trying to escape pressure.

With the linebackers, there’s only so much you can tell when they’re in shorts. Jon Celestin continues to impress and make plays in the backfield. Kamal Martin gets caught up in trash sometimes, but he can really run. He’s physical, too, which for some reason I wasn’t necessarily expecting from him. I didn’t see Carter Coughlin get any reps with the first team today. There was a play today when Rodney Smith tried to bounce a run outside and I think he was kind of surprised by Coughlin’s speed.

Kiondre Thomas didn’t work with the first team at all at the last open practice, but did so today and looked very good. Like most of you have seen on film, Thomas has good length, speed, and plays physical. He has excellent closing speed, as well. I’d definitely expect him to play this year.

KiAnte Hardin was shutting down the second team receivers. I’m sure it happened several times, but I don’t remember a single ball being thrown his way in the skeleton part of practice.

Kunle Ayinde worked with first team again. Duke McGhee impressed me, so we’ll see how much he pushes Ayinde for first team reps. He’s always impressed physically with his speed and big hitting ability, but today he also made a couple nice plays on the ball in the air.

To end the first team’s two minute drill (actually 1:30 minute drill), Emmit Carpenter missed a field goal. In the second (or maybe third) team’s two minute drill, Justin Juenemann nailed a 52-yard field goal that would have been good from another 5-10 yards out.

Link: Mitch Leidner on his foot, Melvin Holland, Brian Smith, Ko Kieft, and more

Oregon State Beavers practice report: First scrimmage features 'give and take'
Oregon State fall camp practice report
Friday, Aug. 12
Full pads (scrimmage)
Open to the media and public
All players (except newcomers) and coaches available for interviews

Highlight

The 1-on-1 matchup that was the most fun to watch was between cornerback Treston Decoud and wide receiver Seth Collins. After Decoud snagged a Mason Moran interception while covering Collins about midway through the scrimmage, Collins came back with a leaping 38-yard grab over Decoud to set up an Art Pierce three-yard touchdown run.

"We do this every day in practice," Decoud said. "We want to be great. We push each other every day, and we're gonna keep pushing each other for us to be great."

Ten observations

1. Overall, Andersen said the 72-play scrimmage featured a lot of "give and take," which he considers a positive at this point in camp. He highlighted the physicality and contested balls, along with the playmaking ability from Collins and Jordan Villamin (who had a 41-yard catch down the sideline on the first drive). However, Andersen said the Beavers are "still missing some layups on offense and defense."

2. Pierce continues to show explosiveness as young back, while junior college transfer Tim Cook turned on the power when he plowed through redshirt freshman safety Jalen Moore on one run and later executed a huge lead block on a Paul Lucas score. However, Andersen said that while the backs behind starter Ryan Nall have made strides during camp, they're "nowhere near" where they need to be from a physical standpoint. Coaches kept Nall out of goal-line drills just to give others reps in that situation.

"We need to find who the other back is that's gonna come in and slam the ball in there and get those tough yards," Andersen said. "When you think you've got them stopped for one (yard), they end up getting three or four. That's definitely still a work-in-progress."

3. After getting fairly overpowered by the offense during Tuesday's goal-line portion of practice, the defensive line appeared to hold up much better during that period Friday. Andersen continued to rotate players by design, in hopes of continuing to build depth.

"My goal right now is to not have three starters, but to have six starters on the D-line," Andersen said. "Hopefully that depth chart says 'or' all the way across on those three front kids."

4. A lot of that goal-line work also included interior defensive linemen Kalani Vakameilalo and Elu Aydon lining up at tight end — sometimes at the same time to create quite the jumbo package. It's the first time I've seen that so far in camp. They both only blocked on that set of plays.

5. Freshman quarterback Mason Moran got some reps with the second-team offense, where it matched up with a lot of first-team defenders. And it did not go that great. That's the period where Decoud got his interception. Trent Moore snapped the ball over Moran's head. Linebacker Manase Hungalu knocked a pass away in traffic on third down. And Decoud flustered Moran while coming hard on a corner blitz. Big learning experience for the young signal-caller.

6. Speaking of air-mailed snaps, I don't recall seeing any between Yanni Demogerontas and Darell Garretson Friday after some issues in earlier practices. However, Kammy Delp also got some reps at center with the second unit.

7. A random second-team personnel grouping: Linemen Phillip Napoleon, Noke Tago and Paisa Savea, linebackers Keegan Firth, Hamilton Hunt, Kyle Haley and either Doug Taumoelau or Andrzej Hughes-Murray. Yeah, a lot of guys were getting reps. The linebackers also really showed how they will set up closer to the line of scrimmage before the snap, something coaches have emphasized this season with the athleticism they've added. I particularly noticed a decent amount with true freshmen Shemar Smith and Hughes-Murray.

8. Notable guys that I noticed were held out the scrimmage due to injury: Receiver Victor Bolden and offensive linemen Sean Harlow and Will Hopkins. Can you tell which sideline I was sitting behind?

9. This was OSU's eighth practice, which means they've gotten into what Andersen dubbed Friday as the "dog days" of camp. Garretson talked about fighting through those workouts both physically and mentally.

"There's gonna be those days where we're gonna have to grind it out, and that's what fall camp is set up for," he said. "It's not supposed to be easy. I think we're doing an alright job. We just got to make sure guys are getting in the weight room and doing recovery work with the strength coaches or getting into the training room and utilizing all the tools that we have there. If guys start doing that, then we can really start to eliminate those bad days."

10. Friday's scrimmage was called "Family Fun Night," complete with an autograph session and a showing of the movie "Remember the Titans" on the Reser Stadium video board. But it was clear that 5:30 p.m. on a Friday with temperatures above 90 degrees was not exactly the most ideal time for such an event. I even had trouble getting there, leaving my place at 3 p.m. and arriving in Corvallis at 5:35 p.m. It took me 90 minutes just to get from Portland to Wilsonville.

Scrimmage stats

SCORING PLAYS
Darell Garretson 5-yard rush (Garrett Owens kick)
Paul Lucas 10-yard rush (Garrett Owens kick)
Art Pierce 3-yard rush (Garrett Owens kick)

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING (No-Yds-TD)Tim Cook 5-38-0; Ryan Nall 7-29-0; Art Pierce 9-9-1; Darell Garretson, 1-5-1; Paul Lucas 2-14-1; Trevon Bradford 1-3-0

PASSING (Att-Comp-Int-Yds-TD)
Darell Garretson 16-10-95-0; Marcus McMaryion 7-5-0-74; Mason Moran 8-3-1-34

RECEIVING (No-Yds-TD)
Trevon Bradford 3-16-0; Seth Collins 4-76-0; Xavier Hawkins 1-4-0; Timmy Hernandez 2-11-0; Hunter Jarmon 1-6-0; Jordan Villamin 2-45-0; Ryan Nall 1-8-0; Tim Cook 1-10-0; Kyle White 2-7-0; Art Pierce 1-20-0

DEFENSE

INTERCEPTIONSTreston Decoud 1

Quotable

Andersen on the development of the Beavers' young outside linebackers: "They're definitely drinking out of a fire hose right now, and hopefully those waters will settle a little bit as we go through time. But they're good-looking kids ... they've come in and competed hard."

Coming up

The Beavers will be right back to practice Saturday evening, before taking Sunday off.

-- Gina Mizell | @ginamizell

2017 increases have been nixed.

FYI below...


Dear Supreme Ruler Full Measures,

Please know how much we appreciate your loyalty and support of our more than 700 student-athletes representing this University and state.

We want to thank you for renewing your football season tickets and your contribution to the scholarship seating program, which provides scholarships and support for our student-athletes.

We wanted to update you on the scholarship seating plan at TCF Bank Stadium that was announced in the fall of 2014. Specifically, this plan called for increases to donation levels for the 2015, 2016 and 2017 football seasons.

We have decided not to implement the planned 2017 increase and we will keep the scholarship seating donations at their current levels. When forecasted in 2014, there was a need to raise scholarship seating donation levels through the 2017 season. Currently, we do not feel we must continue with the final year of planned increases.

If there are future changes to the scholarship seating program, we will update you. For more information about the scholarship seating program, please visit GoldenGopherFund.com. If you have any questions, please call the Gopher Athletics Sales and Service department at (612) 624-8080 (option 1).

Thank you again for your support. We look forward to seeing you at Gopher events this upcoming academic year.

Go Gophers!

Mark Coyle
Director of Athletics
University of Minnesota

This guy is cracked. Unbelievable.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/11/opinions/obama-isis-opinion-bergen/index.html

Link: Claeys on injuries, McCrary, Santoso, and more

eliminates the US. It just keeps getting bad when we compare the US vs Scandinavian countries.

To make matters worse, the coach for Sweden (native Swede) brought the US women's team to glory and now eliminates them.

The US has not impressed me for over a year now; they just are not the same as before.

Gotta cheer for Canada even more now.

I'm not giving up a nut to swim in a lake.

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/1656015

Really hoping and praying for Mike to recover. Fingers crossed, etc.

Link: Fall Practice: Photo Gallery #3

I am probably totally off base, but I wonder if this kid will rise to the top of the heap in the d-back group. Can't beat the genes though I said that about RS3 in basketball and that did not turn out so good. I am thinking this kid runs like the wind and his dad was one of the best open field tacklers at CB that I have seen. Maybe that makes no difference but I am interested in how this kid develops in the next 4-5 years.

Link: Nate Pomeday to leave staff

Evan Daniels tweeted out that basketball assistant Nate Pomeday has accepted a position with a school in the American Athletic Conference.