Minnesota Football: Some Saturday morning thoughts
by JDMill on Jan 21, 2012 9:52 AM CST
in Gopher Football
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PrintI'm not a fan of waking up on Saturday mornings and not having any college football to look forward to for the day, but at least on this Saturday morning we've got some things to talk about.
New Jerseys
The new uni's were unveiled yesterday and the collective response seems to be a bit of a sigh of relief. There was some concern that things were going to be over the top with this unveiling, but Nike stuck with maroon, gold and white, and a pretty classic look.
Personally, I'm a big fan of more classic looking jerseys, and these jerseys are right up my alley. I'm a big fan of the all-maroon and the all-white looks and I am ecstatic with the fact that there doesn't seem to be an all-gold look. I actually don't care for the gold jerseys at all, but like the gold pants, maroon tops look.
Okay, enough fashion talk... okay, one more. Very cool how the bricks were incorporated into the numbers.
Coaching Staff
That silence you hear? That would be the coaching staff NOT experiencing turnover.
Recruiting
There's a difference between recruiting in Brewster's days vs recruiting these days. Kill's staff is putting on plenty of miles, but the difference seems to be that they aren't trying to be flashy about it, and they are working to land the right kind of players instead of the right names. Heard any reports of Kill taking a helicopter to Hopkins to see Andre McDonald play?
Speaking of McDonald, while I'm sure that Coach Kill would be happy to have McDonald join the program, I bet he's no fan of the games that the Hopkins WR has been playing during his recruiting. His antics are, of course, nowhere near what we saw with the Seantrel Henderson saga, but the commit/de-commit game and all the talk of where he'll be going is nothing but a distraction away from what kind of a player he is.
One thing is for sure, if McDonald does choose to stay home and play for the Gophers, he's not going to get any special treatment from the Coach.
Lastly, even without McDonald, Kill has landed 6 of the top 10 (according to Rivals) players in the state.
Attrition
It's early in the off-season (sigh) and we haven't heard much about players leaving the program yet. We did learn, however, that Wisconsin native Tom Parish has decided to leave the U of M. Parish was a big "get" in the 2010 class as he was the 2nd rated prospect in Wisconsin that year, and a highly rated dual-threat QB across the nation. But Parish slipped down the depth chart when Max Shortell impressed everyone through camps last year.
Here's hoping Parish lands someplace where his talents are well-used!
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Special treatment
Actually, Kill has spoken in the past about how he does treat players differently depending upon their temperament/personalities. I think that because Kill talks old-school, there’s a perception that he’s a Bear Bryant/Bobby Knight type of coach. I think he’s more of a “player’s coach” than a lot of people think.
I don’t think that treating players differently depending on temperament/personality is the same thing as what I’m talking about. I’m talking about someone getting special treatment because of their # of recruiting stars, not based on what kind of person they are.
"We're talking about unchecked aggression here, Dude."
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To me,
McDonald would be a really shocking “get”….because he’s so flaky. Note I didn’t say “amazing” get. Just very surprising. He rubs me as the kind of kid who thinks he’s too big time for Minnesota. Then again, he chose Vandy…so maybe I don’t know what the fuck I’m talking about. Until he signs the paper, I don’t expect to know where he’s going. If he knew what was good for him, he’d either commit to MInnesota, or express no interest. To me he’s another Sentreal, though not as good. Sentreal was a blue chip of all blue chips (at the time he was recruited, pre-injuries and transfers). This kid in the scheme of things is a good receiver who needs to prove himself.
I really don’t like wishy-washy guys. Like that QB who ended up at ND recently. Kid committed to multiple schools over the past year…Indiana was one of them. Kids like that need better parenting to educate them and help them along the way. You commit, you attend. That’s what my boys will hear from me.
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