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University of Minnesota Athletics
Defense Shines as Gophers Break Camp at St. John's
8/11/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. The Minnesota football team closed out its week of practices at St. John’s University Saturday morning with a two-hour workout in shells at Clemens Stadium.
After drilling through high heat and humidity in full pads on Friday, cooler temperatures greeted the Golden Gophers when they arrived at the Johnnies’ football complex after a series of thunderstorms rolled through the Collegeville region overnight.
The change in weather and early start, however, did nothing to dampen the Gophers’ enthusiasm as the team worked at a quick pace through much of the morning.
After being pushed by the offense during the past two workouts, Minnesota’s defense was again stifling Saturday and dominated the majority of the team sessions with defensive backs Jamal Harris, Michael McKelton and Josh Robertson all snaring interceptions.
In fact, the offense did not complete consecutive passes through much of the second half of the workout until quarterback Adam Weber hooked up with freshman wide receiver Trey Herndon and then senior wide receiver Ernie Wheelwright on back-to-back plays.
Weber’s connection with Herndon was especially nifty, as Jacksonville, Fla., caught the ball in stride on a slant and was able to scoot past the defense. Weber closed the session following his completion to Wheelwright with a nice 30-yard scramble for another big gain.
Overall, head coach Tim Brewster said he was liked what he saw from the Gophers during their first week of training camp on both sides of the ball, but indicated that plenty of work remained ahead of the team.
“I feel like we got a lot accomplished all week,” Brewster said. “We threw a lot at (the players) again as we continue implement the game plan. We are making good progress and I like the progress we made offensively this week.”
In particular, Brewster singled out Minnesota’s quarterbacks as one of the units that made solid strides.
“I think that (the quarterbacks) are really competing well,” said Brewster. “I’m impressed with all those guys. I think Adam Weber has probably made the biggest jump from spring to now and he’s really doing a nice job. Tony (Mortensen) is also doing a nice job and those two are competing their tails off. We’ve got great competition at that position.”
Minnesota ended the team portion of the practices a little early and worked on conditioning over the last 20 minutes as the Gophers pushed through a strenuous series of gassers.
The hard work was a fitting cap to the week for Minnesota and Brewster couldn’t say enough about the how productive the experience had been for the team.
"We want to thank St. John’s University,” Brewster said. “What a great week and a great to start our camp. The attention to detail and the environment is so conducive to helping us win. We’ve had an awesome week here.”
The Gophers will return to the Twin Cities Saturday afternoon and reconvene for their first on-campus practice on Sunday at 4:30 p.m. The first series of two-a-day practices are slated for Monday.
