Will you look at that...it's April- and there's no snow on the ground! Amazing, but true.
I thought we already knew this a couple of weeks ago, but just in case you missed it, former Gopher basketball player Colton Iverson is transferring to Colorado State. Enjoy the Rockies, Colton (I thought the Rocky Mountains would be a little rockier than this. That John Denver is full of...).
Tubby and the Gophers are tracking Duluth East star Johnny Woodard.
Bob Sansevere is back with another wildly popular installment of "Q&A". The guest this time around is none other than Gopher football coach Jerry Kill. Jerry says his most pleasant surprise of the spring, but STILL won't commit to him as the starter for the fall. Jerry, I love you, I really, really do, but nobody believes Max Shortell is going to come in and win the job from MarQueis in a couple of weeks this summer. Not even Max Shortell believes it. The Timberwolves have a better chance of winning the NBA title next year than that happening.
Backup QB Moses Alipate is down to 265 pounds but still has a big problem. He came into camp way overweight at 281, and while he's dropped weight, the coaches would apparently like to see him shed another 10-20 pounds. His teammates have jokingly called him "Baby Jared" after former Kentucky QB Jared Lorenzen, who tipped the scales at 300 pounds, and earned the nickname "The Hefty Lefty". Alipate seems committed to doing what the coaching staff has asked of him to play quarterback:
"Whatever is going to help the team win is what we're going to have to do. If that means going out and playing another position to help the team, then I'm willing to do it."
While I believe him, and love to see the commitment he's showing to the U...I still have to wonder if he stays here if he can't play QB. Barring catastrophe Gray will be the starter for the next two seasons, at which point Moses will be a 5th year senior. Unless they want to change the offense for him, I just think no matter how much he slims down, he's not going to be the right type of quarterback for the offense Kill and Limegrover want to run. Yet he has by far the strongest arm on the team, and could be good in a pro-style system. We'll see.
Finally, we chatted a bit about Gopher hockey yesterday and the state of Don Lucia and the coaching staff. Roman has a long blog post about separate radio interviews with Lucia and AD Joel Maturi. It's all good stuff, but the real meat of the story comes from comments by Maturi, where he says the extension he plans to give Lucia will be similar to the one he gave Tim Brewster. The Brew extension cost the U very little money to get out of if they fired him, which they eventually did. If Lucia gets a similar deal it'll mean that IF Lucia doesn't at least get the team back to the NCAA's next season, that a new AD can fire him at little cost to the university and bring in a new coach. Since Maturi doesn't seem prepared to fire and hire yet another coach, I guess this is the best Gopher hockey fans can hope for. Well, that and the hope Maturi still does some firing and hiring on his own staff.