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University of Minnesota Athletics
Camp Blog: Leadership Shining Through
8/12/2009 12:00:00 AM | Football
GopherSports.com is providing a daily blog from the beginning of fall camp until the week of the season-opener at Syracuse, set for Sept. 5. Check back here often for updates from throughout preseason camp. Associate Athletic Communications Director Andy Seeley will be penning most of these blogs. If you would like to ask a question about preseason camp, have a request for something you'd like to see in the blog or just a comment on the blog, feel free to send Andy an e-mail at aseeley@umn.edu.
You can follow us on Twitter, as well @GoldenGopherFB. We'll also be uploading video content to our YouTube Channel. Golden Gopher head football coach Tim Brewster stresses leadership with his captains, veterans and upperclassmen. Coach Brewster spoke about that leadership throughout summer workouts and captains' practices. Through the first two days of camp, it has been obvious that it has carried over from the summer.
During Tuesday's workout, I witnessed two instances of great leadership from a pair of seniors. I'm positive they weren't the only Gophers providing leadership Tuesday, but these two examples jumped out at me.
Early on in practice, linebackers coach John Butler was putting his charges through a drill with a blocking sled. There is an example of this drill in the video below. What we didn't catch on video, unfortunately, was senior co-captain Simoni Lawrence going out of his way to help walk-on freshman Aaron Hill learn the proper way to successfully complete the exercise. You won't see a senior captain give his time to a walk-on like that in just any program.
The other leader I noticed was senior cornerback Traye Simmons. On numerous occasions, I saw Simmons coaching up the younger cornerbacks. He seemed especially intent on helping freshman Michael Carter during some of the team work and seven-on-seven drills.
"We want the young guys to feel at home," Simmons said. More of his comments on the subject and also on his day in practice and the defense in general can be seen in the video below, which also includes some action from practice.
Practice #2 Highlights/Notes:
- On the first play during some situational scrimmage work, the first-team defense showed great coverage downfield and defensive tackle Garrett Brown got free for a sack of quarterback Adam Weber.
- The passing game is coming along. Junior Hayo Carpenter showed some very sticky hands on a couple of passes that maybe shouldn't have been caught. One day after a dropped pass on what could have been a big gain, sophomore Brandon Green made a great diving catch along the far sideline for a 30-plus yard gain. Last but not least, in seven-on-seven drills, senior Eric Decker got free down a seam in the defense and out-ran the secondary to the end zone.
- Simmons had a big day defensively. If you couldn't hear the question in the video or didn't watch it. Simmons put together quite a nice sequence late in practice, during some team scrimmage work. In the span of four plays, he tallied a pick and a pass break-up. Simmons grabbed the interception on a tipped ball and got the PBU by knocking away a pass that looked like it would surely come down in the hands of Decker.
- Defensive play(s) of the day: Definitely the above noted sequence by Simmons.
- Offensive play(s) of the day: It could be either the diving grab by Green or one of the tough catches made by Carpenter.
- From the mailbag: No questions to answer today. But I do want to give a shout-out to loyal readers Dana in Maryland and 14-year-old Cole in Faribault. Please feel free to click on my email address above and give questions or comments. I'll try to answer anything I can.
- Up next: Pads will pop for the first time in the 2009 Preseason Camp. The Gophers are allowed to practice in shells (helmets and shoulder pads) for the next two days. That means we're that much closer to live action Wednesday.
-Andy Seeley
