B1G Ten Media Days, lots of links.
To kick things off, Tim Brewster was in Chicago and talked a lot about his former players.
The Gophers upset Illinois and Iowa to finish the 2010 season under interim coach Jeff Horton, victories "that I think spoke volumes about the program and the direction we had it headed, volumes about what we were doing there," Brewster said. "The way they finished the season -- remember, we had 11 new starters on defense -- it shows you that group of kids was coming together. I couldn't have been more proud of my guys."
I think those two wins at the end of the year did speak volumes, but it may not have said what Tim Brewster thinks it said.
- Phil Miller says Gray is looking bigger and is preparing hard for the upcoming season as the team's unquestioned starting QB.
Klein devised special shoulder-strengthening calisthenics for him to prepare for his new job, and he makes more than 200 throws, on all kinds of routes and distances, at every workout. "It gets tired a little bit," he said of his throwing shoulder. "But it's not sore."
Miller has several other notes in his blog entry
"He throws the ball very well," Kill said, "much better than what people think." - ESPN's Rittenberg has One Good Thing for every team in the league. Gray is the best thing we have going for us right now.
- Kill talked about having the right defensive players in the right places and getting this group ready for success.
"I think the big key for us is to make sure our people understand the defensive scheme we have in front of them. Are we going to be able to be exactly like we'd like to be right off the bat? Probably not. We don't want to ask kids to do something they can't do. The critical thing in coaching is to take the kids you have and make sure you give them the chance to be successful. I think that's what we have to do defensively."
This defense will be better than people anticipate, but getting into the top half of the Big Ten will be a real challenge. - There will be 17 new rule changes this year in college football. The most controversial will be how taunting and excessive celebration will be handled.
- Jerry Kill is winning over Gopher Nation.
- Marcus Fuller reminds us that we have to take it easy with Da'Jon McKnight as he is returning from injury and other good nuggets in his blog entry.
- Jonah Pirsig has offers from Wisconsin, Iowa and Ohio State. He'l be deciding this week where he wants to take his talents. This would be a major recruiting coup for Jerry Kill if he can land the big tackle from Blue Earth.
- Speaking of a recruiting coup, congratulations to Indiana on stealing the #1 QB in the country away from all the major programs in college football.
It isn't very oftenYourarelyNEVER see Indiana land a kid with offers from Alabama, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Michigan, USC and a lot of others. - This is old but the Fan's Justin Gaard interviewed Isaac Hayes after his commitment to the Gophers.
- Iowa and Nebraska are manufacturing a rivalry and calling it the Heroes Game. This whole thing is just weird to me. Maybe they end up having an outstanding and passionate rivalry, but for now it is being absolutely forced. I love rivalries and many of the trophies that have come about over time but I wish people didn't feel like you had to create one to drive marketing and ticket sale opportunities. If it develops into a great rivalry that is great for those schools and the B1G Ten, but maybe it is just good game without a manufactured marketing rivalry.
- Finally the Gopher practice schedule has been announced with several practices open to the public!