Minn Practice Thoughts

I watched the Minn practice on the BTN and here are my thoughts...

Nice looking stadium. Interesting that it is only 50k. Not that they need more but for a B11 team that is the second smallest (only NW smaller, 250 less than #9 Indiana) and quite a bit less than #8 (Purdue 12.5k more).

Their O wasnt very impressive. Now it was a bland scrimmage so you cant take too much but talent wise Decker seems like the only threat (a big one at that). I think as he goes, so does Minn. Good news is that Shafer did stop him last year. Mich held Decker to one catch for -3 yards. And Minn was held to 6 points, 8 1st downs, and under 200 yards. Not bad for a Mich team on a 5 game losing streak and playing on the road. That being said we dont have the talent that Mich does.

Also Minn has a new OC so it wont be the same for Shafer. It is interesting that Brewster chose to go from Spread to Pro Style. It is the opposite of what everyone else is doing. I wonder if the NFL coach in him prefers the pro set. Also I wonder if moving from a dome to an outdoor stadium in a cold environment had something to do with that. It is also interesting that he chose to pick a young OC with zero experience. Jedd Fisch is only 33 years old. He has been around some good O minds but even if he is the next great thing, he will make rookie mistakes. Which of course is great news for us as it will be his first game.

Last year Minn was last in the B11 in rushing and nothing from this scrimmage makes me think that will change. The first team O couldnt run the ball on the second team D. Not good. I also noticed that the OL was a bit further off the LOS than normal. Didnt matter if it was a run or a pass. Their 3 pt stance was well behind the C and even the TE was closer to the LOS. That helps with passes but has to hurt running. Which could explain why they cant run. They have a new OL coach I wonder if this is new. It should play right into Shafers hands as he wants to push the LOS back on every play.

As to the play calling it was bland. Now this was a no frill scrimmage but that could be their O if they indeed are going pro style. It reminded me of Pariani. Runs that went nowhere, short passes, a few reverses, and even a screen. I hope this analogy holds true. They did take a few deep shots though. But going back to the screens I would definitely gameplan against that. NFL guys love screens and Shafer is an aggressive DC. I would be a little worried about that.

Weber threw 3 INTs against a base 2nd team D. Last year he only threw 8 INTs. But the year before he threw 19. I wonder if going under C again will hurt him. And what will happen with some pressure? Their other QB Gray was unimpressive as a passer. He has a weird motion and threw a wobbly pass. But I am sure they will have him in a few times in a wildcat set.

It is hard to tell what their D will be since they were pretty base. And they have a new DC. Last year they forced a bunch of TOs. Was that luck? Scheme? Talent? And how will the new DC effect that number? They did get 3 INTs on Weber so maybe things wont change.

Special teams provided some good tape for Casullo to dissect. They had some real nice returns but how much of that was the returner vs the coverage? On the PRs they made the first guy miss and then there was no one else near. Now you have to give the guy credit for making the first guy miss. Did he make it look easy or was it easy? After that it was just bad coverage. Also it was interesting that there were 3 fumbles on returns. Stoudermire seems dangerous but the rest of the STs seemed very sloppy, which could be an opportunity.

You cant really take too much from the scrimmage schemewise but besides Decker I wasnt all that impressed with the athletes. We could beat this team.