Gopher Football is hard at work in spring practice. Tim Brewster has his spring press conference yesterday and he did a Q & A with ESPN's Adam Rittenberg. Here are a few highlights from Part 1 and Part 2.
Obviously there is going to be an open QB competition, but also there is hopefully a timetable on the QB decision.
AR: Do you have a timetable in mind of where you'd like to be at quarterback by the end of the spring?
TB: You'd love to see the position sort itself out by the end of spring practice. You'd love to have your starter in place. We're not going to go into training camp with a quarterback competition. We want to go in with a guy who is our starter, and I certainly think it'll play itself out that way. They're all going to get plenty of opportunity this spring to show what they can do. We're going to have some situations with the quarterbacks where the quarterback will be live [able to take on contact]. We haven't done that in the past. It will give us a chance to really evaluate the position well.
I also find it interesting that Brewster went out of his way to talk about Jimmy Gjere when asked about the offensive line.
I understand that it's not easy for a freshman to come in and contribute, but it's done. You look across the country and there's a number of young guys that step in and help. We're really excited about Jimmy Gjere. He's a very talented young kid. He'll be here in June, he'll be with us all summer. He's weighing 310 pounds now, he's almost 6-foot-8, very athletic.
and the big finish.
AR: You've talked so much about recruiting and how it's a big emphasis. Is there a different feeling now that you recruited most of the guys on this team?
TB: I feel like we've done a good job recruiting, but that's got to translate to the field. We, as coaches, have got to do a great job of developing the young talent. That's the challenge for us. We've got some talented kids. We've got to do our job as a staff, and I feel good about our coaches. We'll get after it and develop these kids. And I think the competition is really going to push our players to take that next step.
- Ryan James at GopherIllustrated takes an early look at what could be an very busy off season for Gopher basketball.
- MN Daily has a good article on athlete gifts at the Big Ten Tournament. Typically conferences give gifts to the athletes participating in the conference tournament, but the Big Ten has decided to abstain from this practice. It will save the conference about $300,000.
- This an outstanding grid of the teams remaining in the Cory Joseph sweepstakes. It looks at each school's playing style, where CJ fits in, the pro factor and the X factor. Assuming Tubby stays here, I really like our chances.