Yesterday was the first day of full pads at Gopher practice and we have several updates from around the usual Gopher info spots.
Fringe Bowl Team was there and has a little bit of video.
The introduction of pads is also the beginning of huge hits and today was no exception: the showstopper blows came courtesy of Brendan Beal, who blew up Lamonte Edwards in the flat, and Michael Carter who destroyed Marcus Jones on a short screen. Yes, that’s not a typo — Carter is no longer one of Jerry’s "special kids" and participated in his first spring practice this season lining up with the 2′s.
Dan Owan of GopherIllustrated.com was there and gave great individual evals on several players.
During one on one drills between the WR/DB, Tyrone Bouie looked very sharp. Was the only DB to shut his opponent down long enough for that rep to end with no pass.
Phil Miller was obviously there and he pointed out the inconsistency of the quarterbacks.
MarQueis Gray was alternately overthrowing and underthrowing receivers, and said afterward he was unhappy with his adjustment to the higher intensity. "It wasn't a good practice. I have to be better Thursday,"
(...and this...)
Moses Alipate connected with Da'Jon McKnight on a long pass at one point, but Alipate's next throw was intercepted. That kind of day.
Marcus Fuller was there and tells us about the "board drill" which pits linebackers against offensive linemen. Like the Oklahoma Drill without a ball carrier.
The highlight of Minnesota's first full pads practice Tuesday was redshirt freshman tackle Johnathan Ragoo losing a battle with junior linebacker Keanon Cooper...
Cooper shot out like a rocket toward Ragoo when the whistle blew and used his leverage to plow right through the manchild. That made Kill furious at his big lineman, and he had him do it over. Ragoo held his own the second time but still ended on the ground.
Click on those links and read their full descriptions of yesterday's practice, there are some really good nuggets throughout.
- Phil Miller also has a nice story on MarQueis Gray's battle for the starting job.
- This is a day old but if you missed the Pioneer Press profile on Curran Delaney you should really ready it.
- The STrib has a "Your Voices" blog post about Jews and Minnesota baseball. It is an interesting retrospective of Gopher Baseball in the late 70s.
- Forbes did an assessment on financials for Big Ten Men's Basketball. There are some very interesting observations in here.