University of Minnesota Athletics
Camp Blog: Practice 14
8/21/2009 12:00:00 AM | Athletics
The University of Minnesota Golden Gopher football team practiced mostly indoors at the Gibson-Nagurski Complex, but still got in a bit of work outdoors as well Thursday.
The Gophers spent time doing some individual fundamental work, spent time on Special Forces and did a fair amount of situational scrimmaging. Contact was somewhat limited, as the team worked out in shells, but it was still a crisp workout.
On offense, the Gophers got a nice run from Duane Bennett on the first play of the team portion of practice. Defensively, Garrett Brown had a defensive lineman’s dream. A few plays into the scrimmage, Brown read a screen pass, picked it off and ran it back for a score.
Wide receiver Troy Stoudermire continues to show numerous moves. Stoudermire has a lot of “shake” when he has the ball in his hands. Later in the workout, quarterback Adam Weber found wide receiver Brandon Green on a long hookup in seven-on-seven drills. Another highlight for the offense were a couple long drives near the end of practice.
The defensive secondary had a good day. Safety Kyle Theret and cornerback Traye Simmons both tallied nice pass break-ups. Cornerback Ryan Collado has had a solid camp and has continued to receive praise from the coaches. The best play for the secondary was a leaping interception in the back corner of the end zone by cornerback Marcus Sherels.
Following practice, head coach Tim Brewster talked to the media about Saturday’s Gopher Game Day Preview.
“As a coaching staff and as a team, we’re preparing for Saturday,” Brewster said. “We want to go out and do a nice job for our fans. Our players are going to go out and go 100 miles an hour and play hard in that stadium.”
See more of Coach Brewster’s comments about Saturday in the video below, which also includes some action from the individual sessions from Thursday’s practice.
Saturday’s events are slated to begin at 1 p.m. with the Gopher Victory Walk. Gates for premium seat-holders also open at 1 p.m. The main gates will open at 1:30 p.m. The scrimmage will begin at 3 p.m. and will consist of four 12-minute quarters with a running clock. There will be a 15-minute halftime.
Before we call it a night, let’s answer a couple questions from the mailbag:
James from Apple Valley wants to know about the offensive line. He asked specifically about the center and right guard positions. At center, it looks to me like Jeff Tow-Arnett and Trey Davis are the front-runners for the position. Tow-Arnett is fully-recovered from knee surgery last winter, while Davis has had a very good camp. At the left guard spot, I've seen a lot of Chris Bunders. But I've also seen Ryan Ruckdashel and D.J. Burris working there. All five of the offensive linemen mentioned above have a great deal of experience.
Jackson from Savage asked about MarQueis Gray. Here's Jackson's email: "I’m curious on your thoughts about MarQueis Gray in preseason camp. After watching the spring-game I am excited to see what he can add this year. Brewster has mentioned that he will get on the field some right from the start this year, but I have not heard much about his camp – your thoughts?"
From everything I've seen in camp, MarQueis Gray has been very solid this summer. His athletic ability is amazing and he's throwing the ball very well. Coach Brewster has said that he plans to get MarQueis on the field early and often because of his play-making ability and I fully expect that to happen.
That's it for tonight. The Gophers have a two-a-day tomorrow.
-Andy Seeley
