I know what you're thinking - DWG doesn't cover football after TRE quit like a little girl. And you're right, we generally don't and that's only because I don't know what I'm talking about - not really. The only football preview I think I've ever written here was this year's Iowa game and that's because I was feeling all #HATEWEEK-y and then I didn't even watch the game because I was at a Meat Raffle in Aitkin. But this week I stumbled into some tickets and will be taking my son to his first Gopher Football game (he's 3 so he won't remember it anyway) but since I'm going I'm also going to write some kind of a short preview because then I will at least know more players on Nebraska than just Taylor Martinez who is actually hurt according to the internet so that sucks I guess.
Despite the Martinez injury which sounds made up, the Huskers are still an eleven point favorite even on the road against your favorite team. That's because even without Martinez they've been killing teams - really bad teams (So Dak State, Illinois, and Purdue) - but even so killing is killing as Jason Voorhees always says. Mainly they've been able to kill teams because they have an awesome rushing attack and they have two back-up QBs who can both play. Looks like the Huskers generally just play both until they figure out which one sucks and then they let the other one finish out the game. And again, it doesn't really matter who is at QB because they're just going to give the ball to one of their three awesome RBs over and over again. The Huskers are like the Gophers in that they want to run the ball like, all the time, and only pass when absolutely necessary, except the Huskers are the varsity version of that while the Gophers are the junior high squad.
And.......I'm already bored with this. I hope the Gophers win but they probably won't because Nebraska is a lot better even without their QB. I think I heard Leidner has a tummy ache so that means Philip Nelson will start which is probably good because even though Leidner is like giving the ball to an alligator Nelson is better thrower guy which the Gophers will need against Nebraska. Probably. I don't know. I'm more of a David Cobb guy. Starting to look awfully shifty out there. Is he the next Gary Russell? Yes, clearly.
- Real quick, the Cardinals are looking an awful lot like the 2006 Tigers tonight. You remember 2006, a magical season when Justin Morneau won the AL MVP, and how the Tigers looked to have the World Series wrapped up before it even started. St. Louis snuck into the playoffs with just 83 wins but then outlasted everybody else to make the World Series while the Tigers won 95 games and went 7-1 against two other 93+ win teams to make it and looked poised to stomp the Cards. Then the games started (because they aren't played on paper you know, nerd) and then in the five games the Tigers made at least one error in every game and had two games with 2 or more errors, throwing the ball all over the place, giving easy runs to the Cards, and ended up losing to an inferior team by playing like idiots.
Now the Cards have already made two errors with plenty of other mistakes including a pop-up that didn't make the pitcher's mound that fell in for a "hit." It's a total repeat of 2006 except instead of a somewhat likeable team being the beneficiary of the meltdown instead this time it's Satan's team.
Even better? In 2006 I bet on Detroit. In 2013? I bet on St. Louis. Gambling is so stupid and I hate it and you and your family.
Showing posts with label mitch leidner. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mitch leidner. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Let's Talk Football
If you follow a little too closely on Twitter, you're aware that our football guy, TRE, has left DWG to pursue other opportunities. This means that we have no football guy. However, this being HATE WEEK with the HATED Iowa Hate-eyes coming to town means I really need to put something down about the game. I don't follow college football per se, but I do watch most Gopher games and plenty of other games because I'm an avid follower of College Football Spreads and a big fan of gambling. As such, I'm going to try to write something about Saturday's game. Please be gentle.
The hated jerks from Iowa come to TCF as about a one point favorite, which means this could be a hell of an entertaining game as long as the Gophers win. Those dudes are 3-1 which is great because the Gophers are 4-0 which means Minnesota is clearly the better team. Their loss was to Northern Illinois who I thought was supposed to be pretty good because they have that quarterback who I've heard of, but they almost lost to Eastern Illinois who I don't think is a FBS team which means Iowa must be really shitty. Plus I found some power rankings that had Iowa at #72 and Minnesota at #41, so, you know, CHAMPIONSHIP!
One other important thing when evaluating competition is to look at how the team has played, not just the results. Since I have not seen one minute of Iowa football against a non-Gopher team in the last, say, 5-6 years, I'm going to solely have to rely on stats, which seems pretty dumb but I have no other options plus as they say in math "Numbers Never Lie."
The first thing that pops out at me is that Iowa can play some defense, ranking 19th in the country in yards allowed per game. Of course they played Western Michigan and Missouri State as two of their opponents and those teams are terrible, but you know what they say about how those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw shoes. The worst part is they're mostly good at defending the running game (12th) and not as good at defending the pass (46th) but that doesn't matter since the Gophers don't throw the ball nor should they.
Offensively Iowa is pretty terrible which plays into the Gophers' hands because their defense completely sucks. They are god awful at throwing the football, and despite their QB (Jake Rudock) clearly being more of a runner guy than a thrower guy they still like to sling that pill like he was Mox. I'm guessing it's mostly little slants and screens though because I don't really think Kirk Ferentz (he's still the coach, right?) is an idiot, just a jackass. When they do throw it's probably going to Kevonte Martin-Manley (terrible name) who has 20 catches and nobody else has more than 7 thanks to "One Read" Rudock. Their tight end only has seven catches which is weird because Iowa really seems like a team who would use their tight end a lot.
Iowa main running jerk is Mark Weisman who if I remember correctly is white so he's probably not very fast. He averages 4.9 yards per carry which sounds kind of fancy but this is college and all the Gopher running guys are laughing at him, including both QBs. There other two running backs are Damon Bullock (too tall at 6-1) and Jordan Canzeri who is only 5-9 so he's probably really fast and brittle. They are terrible.
As for the Gophers they don't throw the ball unless they have to which is a pretty good strategy I think because I'm not certain they even have any wide receivers. Sticking to running it with David Cobb and Rodrick Williams, both perfectly proportioned to be running backs, and Mitch Leidner who I'm betting will grow up to be a lumberjack or an alligator wrestler or something seems like a solid plan of attack. Unfotunately, like I mentioned before up there, Iowa is pretty decent at stopping the run probably because they're all so fat and ugly. This means at some point Leidner is going to have to throw the ball in the air. Will this be successful? NO ONE CAN SAY! Leidner has never had to throw the ball as far as I recollect because he usually is too busy running people over and stomping on their heads.
Basically what's going to happen is Iowa's shitty offense is going to clash with the Gophers swiss cheese defense and Iowa will probably score about 21 points. Simple enough, right? The Gophers just have to score more, and to score more they'll need to hit on a few passing plays. The difference in the game will be if they can do it, and I'd guess they probably can since they have Mitch Mother Fucking Leidner.
No guarantees, so I'm only going to make one prediction: there are going to be a lot of people running into each other and falling down.
Also if you ask WonderbabyTM what Iowa is like she will answer "it smells like poop." From the mouths of babes. Also it really does smell like poop. And poor people.
The hated jerks from Iowa come to TCF as about a one point favorite, which means this could be a hell of an entertaining game as long as the Gophers win. Those dudes are 3-1 which is great because the Gophers are 4-0 which means Minnesota is clearly the better team. Their loss was to Northern Illinois who I thought was supposed to be pretty good because they have that quarterback who I've heard of, but they almost lost to Eastern Illinois who I don't think is a FBS team which means Iowa must be really shitty. Plus I found some power rankings that had Iowa at #72 and Minnesota at #41, so, you know, CHAMPIONSHIP!
One other important thing when evaluating competition is to look at how the team has played, not just the results. Since I have not seen one minute of Iowa football against a non-Gopher team in the last, say, 5-6 years, I'm going to solely have to rely on stats, which seems pretty dumb but I have no other options plus as they say in math "Numbers Never Lie."
The first thing that pops out at me is that Iowa can play some defense, ranking 19th in the country in yards allowed per game. Of course they played Western Michigan and Missouri State as two of their opponents and those teams are terrible, but you know what they say about how those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw shoes. The worst part is they're mostly good at defending the running game (12th) and not as good at defending the pass (46th) but that doesn't matter since the Gophers don't throw the ball nor should they.
Offensively Iowa is pretty terrible which plays into the Gophers' hands because their defense completely sucks. They are god awful at throwing the football, and despite their QB (Jake Rudock) clearly being more of a runner guy than a thrower guy they still like to sling that pill like he was Mox. I'm guessing it's mostly little slants and screens though because I don't really think Kirk Ferentz (he's still the coach, right?) is an idiot, just a jackass. When they do throw it's probably going to Kevonte Martin-Manley (terrible name) who has 20 catches and nobody else has more than 7 thanks to "One Read" Rudock. Their tight end only has seven catches which is weird because Iowa really seems like a team who would use their tight end a lot.
Iowa main running jerk is Mark Weisman who if I remember correctly is white so he's probably not very fast. He averages 4.9 yards per carry which sounds kind of fancy but this is college and all the Gopher running guys are laughing at him, including both QBs. There other two running backs are Damon Bullock (too tall at 6-1) and Jordan Canzeri who is only 5-9 so he's probably really fast and brittle. They are terrible.
As for the Gophers they don't throw the ball unless they have to which is a pretty good strategy I think because I'm not certain they even have any wide receivers. Sticking to running it with David Cobb and Rodrick Williams, both perfectly proportioned to be running backs, and Mitch Leidner who I'm betting will grow up to be a lumberjack or an alligator wrestler or something seems like a solid plan of attack. Unfotunately, like I mentioned before up there, Iowa is pretty decent at stopping the run probably because they're all so fat and ugly. This means at some point Leidner is going to have to throw the ball in the air. Will this be successful? NO ONE CAN SAY! Leidner has never had to throw the ball as far as I recollect because he usually is too busy running people over and stomping on their heads.
Basically what's going to happen is Iowa's shitty offense is going to clash with the Gophers swiss cheese defense and Iowa will probably score about 21 points. Simple enough, right? The Gophers just have to score more, and to score more they'll need to hit on a few passing plays. The difference in the game will be if they can do it, and I'd guess they probably can since they have Mitch Mother Fucking Leidner.
No guarantees, so I'm only going to make one prediction: there are going to be a lot of people running into each other and falling down.
Also if you ask WonderbabyTM what Iowa is like she will answer "it smells like poop." From the mouths of babes. Also it really does smell like poop. And poor people.
Friday, August 2, 2013
Minnesota Gophers Football: QB 2013 Preview
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| Strev-Mitch-PhillyDawg |
In 2012, the Gophers started the season in a somewhat comfortable position. With senior QB MarQueis Gray back at quarterback there was hope that he would live up to high expectations and have a big final season with the Gophers. Of course, it all went to hell and we ended up with true freshman Philip Nelson picking up the pieces and starting in his first bowl game; a very close loss to Texas Tech.
Injuries forced Jerry Kill to adjust and thanks to a solid defense and some early wins, the Gophers ended up 6-7. In the end Philip Nelson got 7 games under his under his belt and gained valuable experience. This is especially important since the Red Romper Max Shortell decided to transfer to Jacksonville State when he saw that he wasn't Chandler Harnish-y enough.
| 2012 Passing | ||||||||
| Player | GP | ATT | COMP | PAC% | PAYD | PAYA | INT | PATD |
| Peter Mortell | 2 | 1 | 1 | 100.0 | 5 | 5.0 | 0 | 0 |
| MarQueis Gray | 11 | 59 | 34 | 57.6 | 472 | 8.0 | 2 | 5 |
| Max Shortell | 7 | 116 | 65 | 56.0 | 853 | 7.4 | 5 | 6 |
| Philip Nelson | 7 | 152 | 75 | 49.3 | 873 | 5.7 | 8 | 8 |
| KJ Maye | 11 | 1 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 |
Nelson led the Gophers in passing yardage, TDs and INTs despite completing just 49.3% of his passes. Nelson also ran for 252 yards (184 net) which is an important piece of Matt Limegrover's offense. Last year we saw him Leroy Hoard his head into the line repeatedly like a fullback.
His consistency obviously needs to improve in order for the Gophers to reach new heights in 2013. At times his touch was immaculate and he was able to put the ball right in the receivers hands. Check out the touch on these long passes against Purdue last season:
Ah glory day - man they were great that game. By all accounts Nelson has been a leader in the off-season and continues to improve in practices. Kill mentioned that with Nelson getting some experience last year and Mitch Leidner and Chris Streveler behind him, "[W]e feel good about our quarterback situation and we feel like that's going to be a strength down the road here." Nelson was on point in the Gopher spring game, completing 10-10 passes in the first half and 13-17 for the game (thanks to some awful drops). His 179 yards passing exceeded each of his last 4 starts in 2012. He also ran for 31 yards int he spring game.
Red-shirt freshman Mitch Leidner is the back-up to Nelson. He's listed at 6'4" and a beastly 233 pounds out of Lakeville, MN. Leidner is a guy that gets a ton of credit from coaches for his work ethic and ability in practice.
Matt Limegrover describes Leidner's improvement in the running game (source): "But he's a great example of a guy who, if you just looked at the stopwatch, you would not think he's a very good runner," Limegrover said. "Mitch is that rare case when he puts the pads on he maintains if not gets a little (faster). I can't explain it. He knew to be able to run our offense he had to be able to run and be more athletic. I give him credit because he really worked on it."
Recently the coaching staff has given more and more indications they want to use Leidner from time to time in games. "You don't want your starter getting hit all the time," coach Jerry Kill said at his pre-camp news conference Tuesday. "If there's a deal where you can sprinkle somebody in there, then that helps you later on down the road." Henceforth, we shall call Mitch "The Sprinkle".
It gets a little murky after the top two. Freshmen Chris Streveler and Donovahn Jones are possibilities, but they are also going to be tried at WR. This scares me for our WR group considering we have several with experience that are seemingly brushed aside. Streveler is a 6'2", 209 lb dual threat type QB out of Marian Central Catholic in Illinois. As a senior he combined for 48 total TDs with just 4 INTs. He had 1200+ rushing and nearly 2700 passing yards. At this point he's more of a runner than QB, but he's a freshman.
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| Streveler at the Spring Game |
Donovahn Jones is a 6'3" 190lb quarterback out of Stockbridge, GA. Jones is also a 3 star guy according to Rivals and a dual threat QB. He had 1600 passing and 600 rushing as a senior. He also caught a few passes, so maybe he has some receiving skills that can be honed. Ideally, neither of the freshman QBs are relied upon so they can be red-shirted this season. If both Nelson and Leidner go down, we're screwed, people.
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