Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Golden Gopher Basketball Non Conference Schedule Announced


The Golden Gopher's basketball team recently announced it's non conference schedule for the upcoming season. It's lacking the big time opponent that Tubby Smith annually schedules, but that should be okay for this young team. Here's the entire non conference schedule.

Nov. 1 -- Bemidji State (exhibition);
Nov. 7 -- Augustana (exhibition);
Nov. 11 -- Bucknell;
Nov. 14 -- North Dakota State or South Dakota State;
Nov. 17 -- Fairfield;
Nov. 21 -- Mount St. Mary's;
Nov. 24-27 -- Old Spice Classic (Orlando, Fla.; opening game vs. DePaul followed by Texas Tech or Indiana State);
Nov. 30 -- Virginia Tech;
Dec. 3 -- USC;
Dec. 6 -- Appalachian State;
Dec. 10 -- St. Peters;
Dec. 13 -- Central Michigan;
Dec. 22 -- North Dakota State or South Dakota State.

Gopher Volleyball Team Ranked 12th in Coaches Poll


The Coaches poll for college volleyball was released earlier this week and the Gophers are ranked 12th to start the season! Can't wait to watch them win it all and hoist the National Title trophy! Here's the poll in its entirety from the American Volleyball Coaches Association's website.

1

Penn State (54)

1486

32-5

1

2

Southern California (5)

1424

29-5

3

3

California (1)

1354

30-4

2

4

Texas

1313

27-6

4

5

Nebraska

1221

29-3

7

6

Stanford

1150

27-4

5

7

Washington

1112

24-9

6

8

Illinois

1066

24-9

9

9

Florida

1031

29-2

8

10

Hawai'i

976

29-3

13

11

UCLA

903

22-9

12

12

Minnesota

810

26-9

10

13

Purdue

739

24-11

11

14

Northern Iowa

619

30-3

14

15

Colorado State

533

26-5

16

16

Oklahoma

485

23-11

21

17

Duke

465

27-7

18

18

Iowa State

430

20-9

25

19

Dayton

334

28-4

15

20

San Diego

315

24-6

17

21

Ohio State

256

24-12

19

22

Long Beach State

234

25-8

NR

23

Tulsa

193

31-3

20

T-24

Michigan

170

23-10

NR

T-24

Tennessee

170

25-7

24




Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Gophers Attempting to Rebuild Pass Rush


The Minnesota Golden Gopher team had pretty much no pass rush this past season. They recorded only 9 sacks, which ranks for the worst in the nation among FBS teams. New defensive coordinator Travis Claeys has made it one of his top priorities to get that sack total way up next season. It will be really interesting to see how he does that exactly.

The team returns three starters from the defensive line, but Anthony Jacobs led the starters who are back in sacks with only 2 in 2010. Here's how returning linebacker Mike Rallis sees it all playing out:

"The main thing is, this staff isn't going to pigeon-hole guys into one thing. They're going to mix it up, put different guys in position to make plays," said Rallis, who has been doing speed work this summer in preparation. "If everyone can blitz, the offense doesn't know who's coming."

I'm really interested to see how this works. If Claeys can get that defensive line to generate any pressure on the quarterback it will say a ton about Jerry Kill's coaching staff because this group didn't do anything last year.

Jerry Kill Brings New Attitude to Gopher Practices


I was reading an article in the Startribune the other day, and I saw something really interesting about the way new head coach Jerry Kill runs his practices. He described the style of his practices as "controlled chaos." Although that is an oxy moron, I like that Kill has the team practicing with urgency and at a fast pace.

The team has three different huddles of offense and defense huddle before each play. They have three little games going and the practices go at a never ending pace. Here's why Kill says he believes in the system:

"You learn a lot more by doing something than by standing and watching," Kill said. "We'll get everyone moving, then look at the film later."

It's a good thing they are moving at a quick pace, because these players will need to have learned a whole lot by the time they play at the colliseum against USC September 3rd.

Golden Gopher Football Team Looks Stronger


Golden Gopher assistant Eric Klein oversees the football team's strength and conditioning program. He has been so successful with his program over the years while he was an assistant with Jerry Kill that the new Gopher head coach calls Eric Klein "the reason for my success."

It will be interesting to see how much bigger and stronger these players are this year. Starting quarterback Marqueis Gray said that he weighs 245 pounds when he played at 225 pounds last season.

It's reasonable to believe that Klein will have a much easier time getting even better results from the gopher athletes than he did with the Northern Illinois players because the Gophers have bigger and stronger athletes to begin with, who have a lot more potential.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Trevor Mbakwe Bounds Toward Team USA

Trevor MbakweTrevor Mbakwe, after a controversial year off the court, has maintained his talent on the court as one of the best players in the Big Ten and the best player on the Gophers basketball squad. Mbakwe is now continuing his legacy as one of the 14 finalists in the competition to make the 12-man Team USA roster for the 2011 World University Games that will take place in China.

Under Tubby Smith, Mbakwe's averages were all on Big Ten leaderboards with 13.9 points per game, 10.5 rebounds per game, 1.5 blocks per game and a .582 field goal percentage.

If Mbakwe can make the Team USA roster, he will continue his progression towards an elite player in the country.

Mbakwe is one of two players on the potential roster that is from the Big Ten conference.

Monday, August 1, 2011

Gopher QB Adam Weber Signs with Broncos

Adam WeberThe Denver Broncos picked up Minnesota Gophers quarterback Adam Weber as an undrafted rookie free agent on Tuesday morning.

Weber was a four-year starter for the Gophers from 2007 through 2010. Weber completed 57% of his passes and had a 72:51 touchdown-to-interception rate.

Weber will be greeted by current Broncos wide receiver and former Gopher, Eric Decker.

What would you like to see more of on this blog?