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University of Minnesota Athletics
Spring Practice Report: Sunny Sixth Practice
4/3/2011 12:00:00 AM | Football
The pace of Saturday's Golden Gopher football practice at TCF Bank Stadium wasn't quite at the tempo head coach Jerry Kill would have preferred. But with it being Kill's first time coaching the Gophers in the stadium, he put the blame for the tempo on himself.
"The only thing that was awkward about being in the stadium was I didn't know where to go to practice," Kill said. "You get out there and get going and I forget where I'm going. So that slowed the pace of it down a little bit."
After five straight practices indoors and knowing where everything was supposed to be at Rod Wallace Field, Coach Kill was only half-joking about not knowing where everything was when they got to the stadium.
What wasn't a joke was the weather for Minnesota's first outdoor workout of the spring. Kill and his Gophers enjoyed working out under a bright early April sun and temperatures in the mid-50s.
"It was great to be outside, it's great weather," Kill told the media, before kidding them about their attire. "I wore my shorts out here. You guys are all in jeans, so I'm a lot tougher than you guys. But it was a beautiful day. It was nice to be out here."
As for the actual work on the field, the Gophers held their first scrimmage of the spring, going live for about 45 minutes.
"It's a learning experience," Kill said. "It's the first time that we did practice, we did two huddles, then we went one huddle, we went different situations. They've never been involved in that. I think there were some great learning moments. There were great teaching moments in practice today. I think we'll learn from those teaching moments."
One of those moments was turned in by linebacker Keanon Cooper. He didn't give up on a play, chased down a ball-carrier and stripped the ball for a fumble. That play stood out to Kill, who mentioned it a couple times in his post-practice comments to the media.
"It's a long, long journey," Kill said. "We're going to take one step at a time. All we're going to do is try to learn to play hard. We've got to do what Cooper did today. If we can get everybody to play like Coop did on that play ... that's football right there. He played hard. We've got to get everybody to do that. That doesn't happen overnight."
Numerous times throughout practice, Coach Kill stopped play and had an entire defensive or offensive unit, a certain position group and even single players perform up-downs. In general, this was when there wasn't enough hustle to the line of scrimmage, or if a mental mistake was made. Coach Kill was asked if the first scrimmage posed a little shock to the players about how serious he is about hustle, getting in and out of the huddle, etc.
"You haven't been in the film room," Kill said. "They understand. Again, I'm sure it's different. Right now I have to teach the pace we want. They're learning right now. They're processing things. We've got to get them up and around and things. I've been coaching this way for 28 years. I'm liable to yell at you if you get in the way. That's just coaching, it's not personal."
Wide receiver Da'Jon McKnight might be looking for starting blocks in the huddle from now on, after the number of times the offense were on the wrong end of a set of up-downs.
"You've got to come out fast, like a track meet," McKnight said. "If not, it's going to be up downs. So, we're coming out the huddles fast."
The Gophers will have a couple days off from practice to recover from today's scrimmage - and the up-downs. They will be reviewing film of today's session over the next couple days, before returning to the field at the Gibson-Nagurski Football Complex at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Media Roundup
A look the today's coverage of Gopher Football in the media:
- The Pioneer Press says QB MarQueis Gray had a strong scrimmage Saturday .
- The Pioneer Press' Bob Sansevere asks questions, RB Duane Bennett answers them .
- The Star-Tribune's Phil Miller writes that the Gophers are learning Kill's tempo .
-By Andy Seeley, Associate Director of Athletic Communications
