Ahlibobwa’s Practice Musings 4-4-23
The opening song of the practice was legendary hip-hop track ‘Hip, Hop, Hooray’ by Naughty by Nature. Will admit I had a harder time keeping track of music this practice. Part of that is because today was a different vibe. Fleck played his weird concoction of industrial metal and pig noises for large parts of practice mixed in with fight songs. So less musical variety today and more noise to distract the players.
Heads up, the sight lines were extremely challenging for practice tonight. Because of that I didn’t get to evaluate LOS play as much as I wanted to. So most of these notes will be about skill players/reps.
Today, they did a new KR drill with no hands. Instead of catching the ball, the goal was to bounce the ball off your chest between the numbers. So basically it was a drill about being in position to catch the kick.
Same guys returning kicks/punts: Tyler Redding, Hoskins, Evans
Lots of calisthenics and active stretching to start practice. From the beginning of calisthenics, Tyler Nubin was dancing during warmups setting a tone for the rest of the team to practice with. PJ was lecturing guys to get into a football position during warmups. Stressing that their effort needs to be elite even in warmups.
Worked on hurry up vs no D (below). They used cards to help call plays/drills today which was interesting.
After this they worked on Punt/PR drills 2-2 plus snapper.
Individual drills/
PJ, 'every ball should be caught, men'
Lanier drop Kramer miss against no D . Others solid
Spencer acrobatic behind him catch . Spencer is really explosive into and out of his breaks. He’s like a more athletic version of CRAB—really excited about this guy!
DB individual drill breaking forward for int.
Team did the same tackle/TE combo block drill and interior line combo block drills. Coach repeatedly said 'head up and strike' to get the players focused on technique.
Did an Endzone route drill against two coaches with bags. Lots of coaching going on from Simon and others. Jameson Geers looking particularly smooth in this drill.
Industrial noise includes chainsaw playing over 'jump around' . Music makes it uncomfortable for the offense trying to communicate. I can’t stress enough how loud and obnoxious the music Fleck plays at practice. Then again, Minnesota has some tough road games this year so they will need to be ready to hostile atmospheres.
RBs did a blitz pickup drill. Nothing to note except good effort and a lot of coaching
Team portion of practice 11 on 11 individual plays:
Nubin stands up Tyler for no gain. D swarming on run plays early in team. Jordan Nubin broke off a big run for the 2s.
They worked on run game with no WRs to make it extra challenging. That was an interesting drill.
Punters Shamburger and Crawford wearing go pros
Awful Pig sounds in the industrial metal now. Truly distracting stuff.
Red zone 7 on 7 individual plays:
Athan:
—Crossing route TD Crooms with good coverage
—Unreal TD pass to Jackson with Watson in coverage
—Threw it away hesitates too long
—Slant TD to Hoskins damn he's fast! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again—Hoskins can fly!
Some Shifting into looks. I’ve seen more presnap motion in two practices this spring than I’ve seen in the first six years of the Fleck tenure combined. Will be interesting to see how much motion they use come fall. Seems like a lot more than we’re used to.
—Good coverage downfield so Athan threw it away
—Lanier torches a fool for a post TD (didn't catch D number)
Kramer:
—Coverage whistle dead
—Nice out route throw dropped by Kallerup—should have been caught hit him between the numbers
—Kramer slant broken up by Bryson!
Individual drills:
OL pass block drill immediately notice Quinn Carroll with a nice stick
DB open field tackling drill run last receiver then squeeze down to make a play
More individual drills:
One on ones:
Athan:
—Drops it in the bucket to Lemeke over Walley for 6
—Complete out route to Jackson
Fleck coaches Dino to keep his shoulders closed and not 'open too early'. Be interested to hear any WRs extrapolate on that.
Kramer and Knuth struggled a bit compared to Athan
—Kramer TD slant to Hoskins with Nubin in coverage
TEAM 11 on 11:
1s vs 1s
—Crooms drop with Green behind in coverage
—Lindenberg nice stick on Grand I think( got hard to see)
—Green knocks ball away from Jackson
—Athan is so mobile it's fun to watch when things break down
Athan perfect 5 yard out to Spencer—impressive, athletic stuff!
—Swing pass Tyler for a loss
Coaches ran a ton of swing passes today. Like, I saw more RB swing passes than I’ve seen in the whole rest of the Fleck tenure combined. Also, a few WR bubbles. Burns is right. The 2023 offense wants to stretch defenses horizontally which is a big shift from what we are used to here.
Kramer:2s
—Swing pass to Evans for big game but he came up limping. Didn’t see him much the rest of practice. Hope he is ok.
—Fake handoff reverse to Hoskins for short gain. They were practicing that action earlier in drills too. And when they do the reverse action it’s always to Hoskins!
Viotto: absolute strike to Dino: what a cannon! Really impressed by Viotto today.
—Tipped pick by Miles Fleming I think?
Pit stop = water and coaching break
Team came in for a huddle, hands in, then broke into 'kickoff/KR competition'
PJ 'compete, compete, compete'
Two on two drill, two runners and two blockers going downfield simulating a kick off
Rough drill for the blockers, but Cade Conzemius had a nice one I noticed,
Watson just torched Dino. Dino had no chance blocking him
TEAM red zone:
Athan:
—pass tipped at the line didn't see by whom?
—Athan out to Tyler nice stop by Walley
—Athan throws it out of bounds past which elicits praise from Fleck for watson’s coverage:
—Swing to Tyler stuffed. But seeing more swing passes than I've ever seen at a Fleck practice
—Striggow (I think) strips athan to end the session
Kramer:
—Shifted to under center then hit Crooms for 6 on a naked boot. The trend of taking more snaps under center continued tonight
—Fumble recovered by jefferies
Viotto:
Sacked by DLine
TEAM middle of field:
Athan:
—Tyler stuffed by jefferies. Jeffries having a big practice. Really impressed with him tonight. Made plays to stand out.
—Athan pass low amazing catch by Crooms on the late cross. Great protection by OLine . Really impressive grab by Crooms
—Sack Devon Williams (i think?)on the blitz
—Jah Joyner and Nathan Boe fighting past the whistle on a contentious running rep. Guys are playing hard and occasionally it gets chippy. You like to see that intensity.
Rhyland Kelly still needs to work on his footwork. He's wasting steps and that will cost him if he keeps it up.
—Athan handoff to Evans stuffed cold. DLine definitely got the better of the OLine in this practice
—Motions to an empty backfield then hits Crooms up the seam. Seeing more empty set stuff this spring than I have seen in the past.
—Outside run to Tyler pushed out of bounds into the crowd
—Athan flag pass to Kallerup broken up by Nubin. Nubin is such a special player and makes it look so easy.
—Athan deep fade broken up by DB but coudn’t see who
' 3rd down and 3' yells PJ
'Sticks!' The players answer (this was a common theme. Whenever it’s 3rd down the sideline offensive players yell ‘sticks’ to let the onfield players know they have to convert this down)
—Athan rolls out left and does the thing where he throws it back behind him to the TE in the middle of the play after pretending he's gonna throw it wide. First down gain. Looked just like it did when he pulled it off against Wisconsin. Past Gopher QBs didn’t have the combination of arm strength and agility to make that type of throw on the run.
—Incomplete pass into double coverage on the endzone
Kramer:
Big play! Nickel blitz comes just when they throw the bubble screen outside to Hoskins . Goes for a big one damn Hoskins can fly! When I saw the nickel blitz you knew it was gonna be a big one, and when Hoskins accelerates into space it is an absolutely breathtaking experience.
—Inside run to Williams short gain
—Tyler stuffed
'3rd and six' shouts Fleck. He's shouting out different down and distances to test the team in those scenarios.
—Naked boot great coverage by Watson in the endzone . Watson had a really good practice tonight. He was night and day better than at last week’s practice.
—Walley and WR fall down couldn't tell if it was a PI
Knuth:
Handoff to Nubin on inside zone short gain
Kesich: FG try good.
Deep FG try good!!!
Lewis: 2 PATs good
Not sure why he didn't get any longer kicks?
Last FG Lewis missed
Team scrimmage ones:
—Athan: scramble little gain nobody open
—Athan misses Spencer, offensive sideline players calling for a PI
—Sack striggow with jefferies in the area. Striggow and Jefferies have both flashed this practice multiple times.
—Fake inside zone reverse to Hoskins for a 6ish yard gain. They've run that several times now and always to Hoskins.
—Athan amazing arm strength throwing late across his body into the middle. But he placed it low to be safe.
Tons of swing passes today did I mention that? Like stupid amounts of swing passes. Is swing pass the new inside zone? (Kidding)
—Athan amazing TD pass on the post corner route but couldn't tell who it was to. Athan climbed the pocket sidestepped to his right and threw an absolute dime . Athan is exciting to watch!
Kramer 2s:
—Check down to RB short loss
—Stop route to Evan Redding. Kelly late to rotate in zone coverage
—Great post compete to Dino
—Kramer TD slant but couldn't see who to
—Nubin absolutely separates a WR from the ball late. Amazing hit.
—Spencer is so explosive. Had a play they called dead but the sideline OLs thought he was in
—Kramer TD fade to Jackson beautiful burned Watson (I think?)
Viotto rolling right effortlessly flings it to the receiver in the endzone
Thoughts:
Eastern is yoked. I mean absolutely jacked. Dude looks good out there and I expect big things from him at some point, hopefully sooner than later with Trill leaving.
All coaches coaching a ton. Played more fight songs during team
Feel better about Watson than Kelly, but we need a couple more CBs regardless. Kelly needs a lot of work on his footwork. Dude should be working on his first three steps over and over again as he’s wasting so many steps right now. Watson is a lot more confident out there.
Nubin is arguably the best safety in the whole league. Bryson did some really good things today. Walley is solid. Henderson made some plays again. Other than the one corner, I feel really good about this secondary. Will be absolutely essential to get a couple CB contributors in the portal.
Athan and Kramer looked better today than they did last practice. Athan did some really special stuff out there today.
So far I like Viotto a lot better than Knuth. I think the gap is considerable between the two. Viotto is huge and has a big arm. There’s a lot of ability there. I don’t wanna write Knuth off this early, but I would be gobsmacked if he ever contributes meaningfully for the Gophers. Hope I’m wrong of course.
Wonder what everybody else thinks about Knuth and Viotto?
Spencer was special today. He’s really flashed in these two practices. I think he could make a push for #1WR before all is said and done. He’s big and explosive and coordinated. It’s really exciting to watch Spencer work. That said, Daniel Jackson continues to make plays and is def your #1 WR as of now.
Crooms and Hoskins are both gonna play a lot. Both have gotten a lot of reps and PJ is finding creative ways to get Hoskins the ball. Did I mention I’m high on Hoskins? lol
Post practice PJ speech : 'the longer the game goes, the better we gotta get. We're not there yet. You wanna be better? You gotta be better'
PJ also Basically said the schedule is too tough this year to mess around at all.
PJ really loud and animated addressing the team. Reminds me of how aggressive he was coaching early in his tenure. Wonder what that means? It really does seem more like 2017 PJ than 2022 PJ out there. Wonder what it means that Fleck is so much more animated this spring than last? Something to ponder. Practice then ended with some cheering from the players.
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