Rittenberg talks to Tim Davis!

by JG2112 on Feb 19, 2009 12:47 PM CST

Our favorite ESPN Big Ten blogger, Adam Rittenberg, recently conducted an interview with Gopher football's offensive line coach / running game coordinator Tim Davis. It is linked to here:

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/bigten/0-2-1308/Checking-in-with-----Minnesota-s-Tim-Davis.html

Here are a couple of my thoughts:

(1) C'mon Rittenberg. It's not likely - I can GUARANTEE with 100% certitude that the effect of Davis's presence won't be felt until the 2009 season.

(2) Thinking back to the season, Brewster must have really been shaken by that final month. He realized his spread offense, for lack of a better term, stunk, so he decided to shift the paradigm by figuring out how to push Dunbar out and get a power-game offense in Minneapolis.

(3) The sixth question posed by Rittenberg indicates that Brewster, by operating the spread, was running an offense he didn't like and wanted to get rid of it. It begs the question on how easy it will be for him to continue to recruit high-impact Texas kids to Minnesota without a spread attack. With an outdoor stadium and many options in their own backyard, we may return to being a team that needs to be solid locally (obviously, that's started) and just pick up the occasional warm-weather talent.

Of course, Purdue and Michigan's recruiting success suggests otherwise, but I think Minnesota is perceived as a whole other level of cold-weather football.

(4) I would not be surprised if the Gophers ran a boring, grind-it-out style offense similar to Iowa this fall, as the team gets used to the new system. I wonder, also, what that will do to skill position recruiting.

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Recruits

More importantly than what type of offense we run is winning games. Winning will help us recruit more than anything and if this gives us a better chance to win I am all for it. Spread QB’s haven’t made the jump to the NFL as easily as Pro-style QB’s and I am sure recruits are taking notice of that too. We don’t seem to have the personnel to run the spread effectively, maybe we just don’t have the offensive personnel to run any offense. Bottom line is an improved O-Line. Our whole season rides on how much improvement we can get out of our offensive line. There is nowhere to go but up from a dismal 2008 season and we need it to go up a LOT!!!!!

by Narby on Feb 19, 2009 5:03 PM CST reply actions

I don't want to dive into this.....

….but I’m willing to. 95% of college quarterbacks don’t go pro. Of those who do, and are currently in the NFL, I’m willing to say quite a few of them played in a spread in college. Including Tarvaris Jackson. Including Drew Brees. Including Jeff Garcia. Including (when he’s back) Michael Vick.

There are a large number of spread QBs now in the NFL that stink just as bad as pro-style QBs. So few have to even make the transition that I don’t think anyone can say definitively that, for example, Adam Weber’s pro prospects have now improved because Davis and the pro-style is here. Especially given that Tebow, Bradford, McCoy, and Reesing, among others, are ahead of him in the 2010 QB queue.

Speaking of, where does this leave MarQueis Gray? As a WR?

I do agree that the O-line is the key. If they can clear lanes for Bennett and Eskridge (um, not exactly the power running backs I’d want, but okay), we can control the clock. I highly doubt an improvement on last year’s record based on schedule alone though.

by JG2112 on Feb 19, 2009 6:50 PM CST up reply actions

Gray

I don’t see any reason he can’t still play QB. Ohio State doesn’t run a spread offense and they still have an athletic QB. Stupid ACTs. I would have liked to have seen what he would have done last year in some key situations (think Northwestern or Wisconsin—we could have won those games). Maybe the spread wouldn’t be dead now.

by rencito on Feb 20, 2009 3:54 PM CST up reply actions

Only if he can throw the ball like Pryor.

although Pryor is a master of the sling-shot wounded duck. But his downfield passes (about 9 a game) were largely due to teams putting 9 in the box to stop Beanie and the other RBs. If our running game is stout Gray could play. But, Moses Alipate looks more the pro-style QB than Gray.

by JG2112 on Feb 24, 2009 10:21 AM CST up reply actions