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University of Minnesota Athletics
Spring Game Quotes
4/26/2008 12:00:00 AM | Football
University of Minnesota Football Spring Game
POSTGAME QUOTES
April 25, 2008 - Metrodome
Head coach Tim Brewster
Opening statement
“I had a great time and my kids had a blast. It was a good spring practice. We did a lot of the things necessary to improve our football team. I like what we are doing defensively and our kids are starting to play with an edge. I think it was a great display of defense by our team. Offensively I thought we did some good things as well. Adam Weber continues to be a solid quarterback in this system. I am disappointed we missed some field goal opportunities, but I was very pleased overall about what I saw tonight.”
On the offense:
“We are very thin at the receiver position and very thin at runningback, but Duane Bennett showed some very good things. I was not pleased that the ball was put on the ground and ball security is the No. 1 issue for our offense. We need to take care of the football and value the football.”
On Tramaine Brock:
“Tramaine is having a great spring across the board. He gives us tremendous leadership. He’s a good football player and he gives us an element of toughness and speed to our defense. He is also a tremendous gunner on our punt team. Between he and Marcus Sherels, we are going to have two of the best gunners that I’ve ever been around.”
Quarterback Adam Weber
“Right now we are trying to execute our offense. It would have been nice to have a few more big plays out on the field, but we just went on how the momentum of the game was going. We didn’t really get things going, but it was fun to end spring ball the way we did.
“If anyone says they are satisfied on how we competed today, they aren’t telling the story. We are pretty far behind in practice, but that is what fall camp and the summer is for. We are going to continue getting better and when August 30th comes around, we are going to be a pretty good team.”
Running back Duane Bennett
“We pressed the ball today and the defense performed well. Overall, I thought we did some pretty good things. Hopefully, we will continue to improve into the fall season. We need to stop shooting ourselves in the foot; we need to take opportunities to make plays. When those opportunities come, we need to take full advantage of them. We need to stop the penalties and the fumbles.”
Linebacker Steve Davis
“I think (the game) went really well. Guys were out there having fun and that was the most important thing. The defense played really well. We got a couple of turnovers. The second and third team got a chance to make some plays. Overall, the game went well.”
On improvements since last season:
“You can see that guys know what they are doing out on the field. It is more comfortable for guys to run around and make some plays and last year we had a new system coming in. We had good spring practices going into the spring game. We just came out for the fans and had some friends.”
On the fall season:
“I feel like we can always get better. We are not were we want to be right now. As far as the defensive standpoint we have the whole summer to work.”
Defensive End Willie VanDeSteeg
“We obviously had a lot to prove. We were one of the worst defenses in the country last year. We got a new defensive coordinator. It was exciting to prove to everyone how we could play and we know what we are doing. I think we showed everyone that the defense is going to be a lot better next year.”
On the fall season:
“We actually talked about that in the locker room. We talked about how we have a long way to go because we weren’t good last year, we were 1-11. A lot of us have been to bowl games in the past and that is where we want to go to. We need to keep taking steps all through the summer. We have captain practices and senior practices starting. There are a bunch of us seniors on defense that want to get some practices going right away. We need a couple of weeks off to rest our bodies but we will still be lifting. When the two-a-days start, we just have to be ready to roll.”
On his senior season:
“We want to come out with a bang. Obviously I want to go to a bowl game, I have been to three bowl games since I have been here. We want to come out and win games. We played a lot of tight games and we want to win it in the fourth quarter.”
