News and comments on Gophers football:
Offensive coordinator Matt Limegrover said today that MarQueis Gray is still the No. 1 quarterback. Limegrover said there is not a clear enough distinction between the abilities of Gray and freshman Max Shortell to make a change in the No. 1 status of Gray.
Gray, a junior, has started all four games this season. He was only 5-of-12 passing for 52 yards and no touchdowns last Saturday against North Dakota State. Shortell, who has surprised most everyone with his first season of play, has participated in each game and against the Bison was 4-of-8 passing for 71 yards and one touchdown.
As of today head coach Jerry Kill remains at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester as doctors try to figure out how to control his seizures. Defensive coordinator Tray Claeys will be the coaching staff leader if Kill can’t be in Ann Arbor Saturday for the Michigan game.
“I expect him to be there,” Claeys said. “I will be shocked if he’s not there.”
The inept and embarrassing performance by the Gophers Saturday night in their 37-24 loss to FCS power North Dakota State provoked a blunt assessment by assistant head coach Bill Miller.
Miller, interviewed on WCCO Radio’s Sports Huddle last Sunday, criticized the collective effort of the team. “Very simply, North Dakota State took the fight to us. What we’re trying to change here is the mentality. How you approach the game. …It’s very disappointing.”
The North Dakota State loss was the second in five years to the Bison and follows last season’s loss to FCS South Dakota. The Gophers, who begin the Big Ten season against Michigan, compiled a 1-3 nonconference record including losses to 3-0 North Dakota State and 1-3 New Mexico State.
“We gotta recruit more tough kids, more physical kids,” Miller said. “I am not saying our guys here are soft, but we didn’t play with the mentality that you have to play with. The bottom line in this game ─ North Dakota State took the fight to us ─ and that’s got to be our mentality. It isn’t right now. …”
Kill, Miller and the other staff members are in their first season at Minnesota. Their success will be determined by not only improving the fight in the Gophers, but also the mental focus to play with minimal mistakes including penalties and the ability to execute the fundamentals of blocking and tackling.
The critics among the public are already being heard including questions about the coaching. That won’t surprise Kill or anyone else who understands how emotional things can become when a team is losing most Saturdays, and turns in a performance like the Gophers did against North Dakota State.
It’s been a difficult beginning for Kill, trying to regain his health and improve the Gophers. Supportive Gophers fans will take a deep breath and embrace a two or three year perspective while trying to envision the sort of success Kill had at other coaching stops turning around programs.
That assignment in patience has been asked of Gophers fans way too many times over the decades but in late September of 2011 it’s reality.