Gopher Gloom

Ahh, what a satisfying Friday evening in Minneapolis! Tonight, Kyle Sexton (K-Sex), Caboose, Mom, Pops, and I attended the Gopher Spring game. I must admit, I was really looking forward coming into tonight's game to seeing some of the Juco recruits picked up by Brewster & Co. during the off season and seeing how various players had developed. Overall, tonight's inter-squad scrimmage was a bit of a snooze and didn't provide much in terms of confidence for the coming season. Some thoughts:

• The Gophers were wise to recruit all those wide receivers. Judging by how slow our current receiver corps looked against our defensive secondary we will need all the speed Vincent Hill and Brandon Green can provide, although it should be noted starting WR Erik Decker was not playing tonight.
• Gophers and quarterbacks do not mix. Webber was unimpressive. Mortenson was disappointing. Pittman was injured. Brewster was unpolished. Marqueis Gray was still in Indiana. Suffice to say, tonight's game did not leave me confident about our QB situation.
• The D-line is showing promise. Anthony Jacobs has bulked up to a solid 285 and if he can maintain the speed that made him an elite defensive end recruit back in 2007, he should be a monster in pass rushing downs. Derrick Onwuachi looked good at right defensive end. VanDeSteeg looks to have recovered from last year's broken wrist and should provide good balance to the line. If we can get some size at the defensive tackle position, the line should be much improved from last year.
• Can Duane Bennett stay healthy? No doubt he's quick and has some good moves to shake tackles, but I keep getting the feeling he's about 10 pounds too light to survive the Big Ten season intact.
• We need corners. Marcus Sherels showed promise tonight, but Ryan Collado seems hopelessly lost. Hopefully Traye Simmons, Tim Dandridge, and Simoni Lawrence can make big contributions as freshmen.
• Ben Kuznia was an animal tonight. I'm putting the over/under at him being second team All Big Ten in 2008 at 40%.
• The linebackers looked solid. Sam Maresh, Gary Tinsley, and Spencer Reeves should make this group even better.
• Harold Howell fumbled the first punt of the game and allowed an interception on his next time out on the field. Yikes.

Let's hope the new freshmen can provide some much needed talent to this team!