I was able to make it to TCF this morning to catch the Gopher scrimmage. I did not stick around to watch the Brewster press conference but here were my thoughts on today's scrimmage.
The Good
- Donnell Kirkwood - the freshman was very impressive today. He does not have great top end speed but he gets to full speed quickly, bursts through the hole he's given and he is just shifty enough that it is hard to get a direct hit on him so he always seemed to be falling forward on tackles. I doubt he'll be taking the lion's share of carries but he has a bright future as a Golden Gopher.
- Johnny Johnson - He was the defensive MVP. He has three monster hits and although he was the one in coverage on McKnight's deep touchdown, the coverage couldn't have been any better. He was stride for stride and right on McKnight, Weber's pass was just perfect on that play. Johnson was impressive.
- Adam Weber - looked confident and was accurate. They really ran the ball a lot today but Weber was solid. No interceptions and 2 TD passes. I looked back at last year's fan fest and the TDG recap. Weber looked good except for the 3 picks he threw. Today was different he was solid and didn't make mistakes. Personally I don't think he needs to do what he does better, he just needs to make fewer mistakes.
- Offensive Line - The first group was solid and for the first time in a long time there were no glaring negative standouts. I'd be lying if I told you I watched their footwork and angles and dominance, but really it came down to If you don't notice the OL then they are doing their job.
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Kenny Watkins - and I'm not sucking up to our newest commenter, he was in and around the ball early and often. I don't know that he'll start and I didn't see anything that would show me that he's guaranteed of anything but he was good today and had a lot of tackles.
- MarQueis Gray - as a WR. I know that Brewster insists he's our future at QB, but he is a natural at receiver. He is big, he was smooth, he has big hands that go and grab the ball and he runs very well after the catch. Maybe he'll be a good QB over the next two years but he could be playing on Sundays in a couple years if he moves to WR full time.
- Mike Rallis - once again he was always around the ball. He didn't make any big plays and I don't know how many tackles he had but he is going to be a good Gopher LB this fall.
Wish I Had Seen More
- Kyle Theret - didn't play until the third or fourth series. His first play was a big hit that forced a fumble but his few snaps was concerning.
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MarQueis Gray - at QB Gray was inconsistent at best. He missed an open TE down the middle for a sure TD, he hung a WR out to dry and he fumbled a snap. On the other hand he hit Stoudermire on a slant for aTD and he had one nice deep ball that apearred to be a very good pass but the DB tackled the WR for pass interference so we don't know if it was going to be caught.
- Defensive Line - Some other Gopher sites came up with nice things to say about the DL but I didn't see anything that stood out. I was hoping to see somebody make a make a few plays but nobody did. Not that anybody was bad or that they aren't capable, but I didn't see anything today.
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Brandon Green - was another I was expecting to see more of today and he was hardly on the field.
It is really hard to get anything meaningful out of this. The playbook is vanilla and usually it is the #1 offense vs. the #2 defense and vice versa. But today's performances are really very little of a legit indicator of what we can expect to see this fall.
For Brewster post game press conference, check out FBT's video.
Many more videos at Gophersports.com.