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University of Minnesota Athletics
Blog: Gophers Ready for Spring Practice
3/22/2010 12:00:00 AM | Football
According to Gopher football head coach Tim Brewster, spring football practice at the University of Minnesota is going to be a fairly straightforward affair. Brewster met with the media Monday morning, on the eve of first of 15 spring practice sessions.
"(There is) nothing complicated about what we're going to try to get done this spring," Brewster said. "We're going to go out each and every day, we're going to compete like crazy and show great passion to finish. That's something that we haven't done as a football team as well as we'd like to do ... finish football games, finish plays."
Brewster spoke to the team Monday morning and used the example of losses to border rival Wisconsin in the past two seasons to emphasize the need to finish.
"Two years in a row, we were up at halftime against Wisconsin and didn't finish the game," Brewster said. "We've got to do a better job of finishing everything we do. So that's a mantra, a motto, for us as we prepare to go into next season. That's something we're going to talk about each and every day."
Minnesota head football coach Tim Brewster has already begun thinking
about Middle Tennessee State, the Gophers' 2010 season-opening
opponent. See what he had to say about the Blue Raiders Monday.
Brewster he expects to see a great deal of competition throughout the spring, with plenty of starting positions and plenty of playing time up for grabs.
"The thing that I'm most excited about with our team is the competition that we're going to have this spring," Brewster said. "We've got competitive situations across the board on offense and defense. There is going to be daily competition. That's so exciting for me as the head football coach, because that's something that you strive to develop in your program. Basically what I've told our team is 'If you want to be a starter on our football team, go win the job.'"
There are 22 red-shirt freshmen and 16 sophomores on the spring roster. Combined with 27 true freshmen set to arrive this summer, there will be a ton of youngsters to coach and develop in the preparation for the 2010 season.
"We're going to be a young football team, but I feel there is a lot of talent," Brewster said. "It's going to be fun to see some of these kids who have red-shirted, who are young in the program, to see our coaches coach them and turn them loose to go compete and win a job to help our team."
The NCAA allows college football teams to practice 15 times during the spring. Minnesota's first spring practice will be Tuesday afternoon at the Gibson-Nagurski Football Complex. The Gophers will practice again Thursday afternoon and Saturday morning to wrap up their first week of spring work.
The Gophers' annual Spring Game will be held at 1:30 p.m. April 24 at TCF Bank Stadium. Admission to the Spring Game is free.
-Andy Seeley
