Gopher Football NOTES

Training Camp has started up in Collegeville. That statement in and of itself is not news and if you didn't already know that then you somehow accidentally stumbled in to Gopher Nation. But below are some tidbits of info picked up from around the web...

• A few simple rules - #1 (and #2) - No Cell Phones, No Computers! #3 freshmen cannot address the media until after their first game.
  
• Offseason conditioning has stepped up a notch or two. Brewster places heavy emphasis on the power clean. Upon Coach Brewster's arrival the Golden Gophers had exactly 4 members of the football team who could clean 300 or more lbs. After Brewster put the screws to strength coach Mark Hill, the team started cleaning. Last week they tested the power clean again and the team had 39 players cleaning over 300 lbs. "One of the things that I truly believe in is that the power clean is the most important lift that you can do as a football player. I think the power clean lets you know explosiveness; it's an aggressive lift, a mindset, and a technique. It says more about a guy for football more than any other lift you can do." In all honesty this is impressive to me and I do believe this will make us an overall better team. Right away? Will it translate to wins in 2007? Probably not, strength can only make up for so much lack of top notch talent, but hopefully you'll see some better tackling, bigger hits and overall better athleticism on the field (ability to cover ANYBODY would be nice).
  
• Freshman Watch
• S-Curtis Thomas(pictured right) - the defensive backfield is probably the only position that is thinner than the WR, and the Gophers may have stumbled upon some luck as Thomas looks like the early starter at free safety. Thomas has impressed in his first day of camp and hopefully will bring some stability to the defensive backfield.
• WR/Ret-Harold Howell - this diminutive WR is fast. One of the fastest kids in the state of Florida last year should have an immediate impact as a PR/KR. His size may make it more difficult to contribute as a WR right away but Double H is someone to keep an eye on. Coach Brewster..."Harold Howell is a dynamic young athlete, and to say that I'm excited would be understating it tremendously,"
• WR - Ralph Spry - GopherIllustrated reporter, Zach Johnson, says that Spry has great hands, body control and ability to adjust to the ball in the air. Look for Spry to develop into a solid 3rd WR in the spread offense. I am in the camp that both Wheelright and Decker will have very big years but in order for this offense to be successful we have to have a legit QB and a trustworthy WR3.
  
• QB-Clint Brewster - After 1 day of camp Brewster is getting praise from his teammates. Rival QB, Adam Weber, says that Brewster is further along in his first day of camp than Weber/Mortensen were during spring practices. Brewster does have an advantage of running this offense in high school. He has also been given praise for a live arm with a quick release. I'd be surprised if Brewster is your starting QB (at least until Mort or Weber struggle), but this QB competition will be interesting.
• New Helmets - the new helmets were on display for the first practice. This cropped pic of transfer LB Logan U'u was the best I could find.
  
• QBs - after spring practices there were not a whole lot of glowing reports about the QBs fighting for the vacant stall behind center. Neither Tony Mortensen nor Adam Weber took steps towards establishing themselves as the starter. In a nutshell both looked OK but neither was overly impressive. While neither has taken off yet (through 1 whole day of practice), both did look better. "The quarterbacks showed more command of the spread offense and appeared more relaxed in no-pads team drills." Baby steps is what we need, nobody is expecting Matt Leinart to lead us this season, but lets show some competence and play making ability.
• ALL OTHER BIG TEN FANS/PLAYERS NEED TO QUIT READING NOW...The offense unveiled a new option play, there the QB pitches to the WR not the RB. Fascinating and probably unstoppable.
• Lots of wins vs. not very many (zero) wins - the picture on your right (for those of you who don't know) is Gopher Coach Tim Brewster with zero career wins as a head coach standing next to St. John's head coach John Gagliardi who has 419 career wins at the collegiate level. Brewster should be able to catch him as he will get 12+ games every year, plus eventually a Big Ten Championship game and hopefully a small D1 playoff system. So in several years Brewster can start racking up 16-0 seasons. 27 seasons of that and he'll be the all time winningest coach in college football.