Practice was inside today, and I thought it was a little louder and more energetic. Gopher talk -- "the ball is the program," "F.A.M.I.L.Y. means forget about me, I love you," etc. -- was widely heard. Through two practices, I'd say Fleck, Linguist, Wenger, and Simon stick out as the loudest coaches. Kirk Ciarrocca and Robb Smith are both a little quieter, although Smith can get in players' faces.
The Lutheran North group of Dallas Craddieth, Donovan Marshall, Ronnie Perkins, and Devin Ruffin were all in attendance. Ruffin's a big running back. He's pretty built but has a big base, so he could probably add even more weight. Marshall's father I think was the only parent of the St. Louis kid in attendance, or at least the only one I saw standing near them. Mankato West turned IMG quarterback Zack Annexstad was there with his parents to watch his brother Brock. There were several local PWO types there, too. I didn't see any of the state's top talent, though (no Sapp, Alston, Spann-Ford, Aune, Lance, King, Aune, Dennis, etc.). The visitors spent time with Gerrit Chernoff and John Schaekel.
Other visitors were Antonio Johnson, Ed Hawthorne, I think Richard Beeson (a regent), and Glenn Caruso along with much of his UST staff.
Conor Rhoda again took all the snaps first with the offense. I again thought Demry Croft threw the ball best today, barely better than Conor Rhoda. Tanner Morgan wasn't far behind either. Rhoda had a good day throwing out routes and intermediate-length passes. Demry was the most accurate on slants and has the most zip on his pass at this point. Neil McLaurin was better than Tuesday, but I'm still not expecting him to be super competitive for the starting job at this point. Seth Green was better too, and wasn't wobbling balls nearly as much as Tuesday. Although through the two practices I've seen, Rhoda and Croft seem like the top two. The walk-on QB Samuel Pickering didn't get a ton of reps. He seems to lack arm strength.
There's not a whole ton I can take away from running backs when they're not hitting them. Shannon Brooks and Rodney Smith went untouched on their first carries in 11v11, and Femi-Cole never seemed to be able to get much yardage, although that was probably largely due to the line. I'll try to watch Femi-Cole's movement closer in future practices. To me, and granted I don't see all practices and only a few of his reps per practice, sometimes he looks great and hits the hole hard and other times he looks stiff and I question if he'll ever be a Big Ten back.
Holland, Carter, and Still were taking reps with the first team. Matt Simon was working with the receivers a lot on getting separation off the line. Holland like everyone's been thinking will probably benefit from the coaching change. Remember, he impressed everyone in spring and fall practices and the spring game but never saw the field under Brian Anderson. He's physically the part for the most part and can get good separation, but I think he could improve his initial get-off. Matt Morse is excellent in and out of his breaks. I'm not sure that he'll ever see the field now that the Gophers have more scholarship players in the slot, but he's always impressed for a walk-on in practice. Mark Williams' move to receiver now looks pretty permanent. Joe C said he also may play some defensive backs. He's a smooth athlete and in one of the very few reps I saw of his, he made a one-handed catch away from his body. Eric Carter of course I expect to make an impact, but he had a couple drops today.
The Gophers still only have five active offensive lineman, although several of the injured players looked like they were moving fairly well. Noah Kuehn, who just recently quite the team, has been pretty active helping out in practice. There wasn't a whole ton of hitting, and not a lot you could take away from the lineman. The defensive lineman got the best of them but that's obviously expected against underclassman without subs.
The first team defense looked like Devers/Martin and Coughlin standing up on the edges with DeLattiboudere (and sometimes Jackson in the middle) and Stelter in the middle. Celestin and Barber were the two linebackers. The defensive backfield had Thomas (generally boundary) and Shenault (generally field) at corner and either Winfield or Ayinde at nickel. Fleck talked to Thomas at one point for not having his chin up and then not responding to Fleck right away. I thought both looked good in coverage. McGhee and Huff/Winfield were at safety. I think Winfield's a great fit in the nickel but the question is do you have a second safety to start next to McGhee then? Fleck/Linguist both got on McGhee a couple times today and tried to encourage him to be more of a vocal leader.
Rodney Smith, Duke McGhee, Shannon brooks, Tyler Johnson, Matt Morse, and Troy Dipre all caught punts. Carpenter missed two of roughly ten kicks that I saw. Fleck put up gold lines on the hung-down cloth field goal inside the regular maroon lines so because not hitting field goals down the middle is clearly not #elite enough. Conner Olson did some long snapping, which I think is new. Fleck would spray Jacob Herbers down his back with water as the snap came in when he was holding for Carpenter.
The Lutheran North group of Dallas Craddieth, Donovan Marshall, Ronnie Perkins, and Devin Ruffin were all in attendance. Ruffin's a big running back. He's pretty built but has a big base, so he could probably add even more weight. Marshall's father I think was the only parent of the St. Louis kid in attendance, or at least the only one I saw standing near them. Mankato West turned IMG quarterback Zack Annexstad was there with his parents to watch his brother Brock. There were several local PWO types there, too. I didn't see any of the state's top talent, though (no Sapp, Alston, Spann-Ford, Aune, Lance, King, Aune, Dennis, etc.). The visitors spent time with Gerrit Chernoff and John Schaekel.
Other visitors were Antonio Johnson, Ed Hawthorne, I think Richard Beeson (a regent), and Glenn Caruso along with much of his UST staff.
Conor Rhoda again took all the snaps first with the offense. I again thought Demry Croft threw the ball best today, barely better than Conor Rhoda. Tanner Morgan wasn't far behind either. Rhoda had a good day throwing out routes and intermediate-length passes. Demry was the most accurate on slants and has the most zip on his pass at this point. Neil McLaurin was better than Tuesday, but I'm still not expecting him to be super competitive for the starting job at this point. Seth Green was better too, and wasn't wobbling balls nearly as much as Tuesday. Although through the two practices I've seen, Rhoda and Croft seem like the top two. The walk-on QB Samuel Pickering didn't get a ton of reps. He seems to lack arm strength.
There's not a whole ton I can take away from running backs when they're not hitting them. Shannon Brooks and Rodney Smith went untouched on their first carries in 11v11, and Femi-Cole never seemed to be able to get much yardage, although that was probably largely due to the line. I'll try to watch Femi-Cole's movement closer in future practices. To me, and granted I don't see all practices and only a few of his reps per practice, sometimes he looks great and hits the hole hard and other times he looks stiff and I question if he'll ever be a Big Ten back.
Holland, Carter, and Still were taking reps with the first team. Matt Simon was working with the receivers a lot on getting separation off the line. Holland like everyone's been thinking will probably benefit from the coaching change. Remember, he impressed everyone in spring and fall practices and the spring game but never saw the field under Brian Anderson. He's physically the part for the most part and can get good separation, but I think he could improve his initial get-off. Matt Morse is excellent in and out of his breaks. I'm not sure that he'll ever see the field now that the Gophers have more scholarship players in the slot, but he's always impressed for a walk-on in practice. Mark Williams' move to receiver now looks pretty permanent. Joe C said he also may play some defensive backs. He's a smooth athlete and in one of the very few reps I saw of his, he made a one-handed catch away from his body. Eric Carter of course I expect to make an impact, but he had a couple drops today.
The Gophers still only have five active offensive lineman, although several of the injured players looked like they were moving fairly well. Noah Kuehn, who just recently quite the team, has been pretty active helping out in practice. There wasn't a whole ton of hitting, and not a lot you could take away from the lineman. The defensive lineman got the best of them but that's obviously expected against underclassman without subs.
The first team defense looked like Devers/Martin and Coughlin standing up on the edges with DeLattiboudere (and sometimes Jackson in the middle) and Stelter in the middle. Celestin and Barber were the two linebackers. The defensive backfield had Thomas (generally boundary) and Shenault (generally field) at corner and either Winfield or Ayinde at nickel. Fleck talked to Thomas at one point for not having his chin up and then not responding to Fleck right away. I thought both looked good in coverage. McGhee and Huff/Winfield were at safety. I think Winfield's a great fit in the nickel but the question is do you have a second safety to start next to McGhee then? Fleck/Linguist both got on McGhee a couple times today and tried to encourage him to be more of a vocal leader.
Rodney Smith, Duke McGhee, Shannon brooks, Tyler Johnson, Matt Morse, and Troy Dipre all caught punts. Carpenter missed two of roughly ten kicks that I saw. Fleck put up gold lines on the hung-down cloth field goal inside the regular maroon lines so because not hitting field goals down the middle is clearly not #elite enough. Conner Olson did some long snapping, which I think is new. Fleck would spray Jacob Herbers down his back with water as the snap came in when he was holding for Carpenter.
