Demry Croft taking a break from Minnesota Football

Minnesota head coach P.J. announced that backup quarterback Demry Croft is taking a break from the Gophers and won’t be with the team against Middle Tennessee State because of personal reasons.

At this point, it’s unclear who the backup will be. The next two players on the depth chart are redshirt freshman Seth Green and true freshman Tanner Morgan. Seth Green will be the backup per Fleck. Conor Rhoda was announced as the Gophers starting QB yesterday following his performance in the Oregon State game.

UPDATE:

Any Greder of the PiPress has some additional Fleck quotes in his post that are worth reading:

“He is dealing with some personal issues that are way, way more important than football, so it’s my job as a head football coach to get him what he needs,” Fleck said. “We are going to help him any way that we can. I’m not going to get into that, in respect to his privacy and his personal life.

“But like I said at the beginning, if you do not do the right thing academically, athletically, socially and spiritually, and you do not uphold the high, high expectations of our culture on and off the field, you will not play, and it does not matter who you are.”

[snip]

Fleck did not explain whether respecting Croft’s privacy and doing the right thing from his introductory comments on the issue can be looked at collectively.

“I want to respect his privacy as much as I can, but again, I’ve made myself clear from Day 1 when I walked in the door that nothing is more important than the culture,” Fleck said. “If you need help in other ways, whatever those ways are, it’s my job as an educator to get you those resources. And that is what I will continue to do for every kid on this football team, if they need that, whether that is a learning specialist or whatever it is. Nothing ever will sacrifice the culture. Winning won’t either, or having two quarterbacks; that will never compromise our culture.”