Coach Kill is a Fan's Coach
I was looking at Minnesota's spring info a little bit (as well as their recruiting. Only 1 2014 guy so far, but he's a 4-star RB with a really nice highlight real. That's all we need is for Minny to go back to the school of no name guys with an RB that owns everyone). Anyhow, I came across this little gem through their twitter feed. Sometimes, it makes me regret that Michigan has such a huge fanbase that things like this are impossible.
Kill just screamed to bring all 200/300 fans at practice on to the field to put "pressure" on the FG unit. Classic twitter.com/NSandell/statu…
— Nate Sandell (@NSandell) April 20, 2013
Always essential.
Iirc didn't Urban Meyer do this too? I know for a fact plenty of teams do similar things, I don't think Minessota"s "small" fanbase (which I think you are underestimating) has as much to do with it as Kill and other coaches being more open with their practice than Hoke.
You couldn't just shout for the fans in attendance to come on the practice field at a Michigan practice. It'd be no less than 1,000, methinks. It would have to be more organized.
Maybe I'm wrong about that, but I like the move either way. I really like Kill. I think he's a very genuine guy. I hope he can find some Glen Mason style success at Minny.
April 20th, 2013 at 10:53 PM ^
JK has always stuck me as a top-notch kind of guy as well. I have no problems rooting for him whenever we're not playing him, because he seems to genuinely care about the players and the school. I wish him (almost) all the best.
No, Urban Meyer did something way more awesome and intense and SEC-like.
what did he do?
The details aren't important. He's Urban Meyer.
You probably wouldn't have been able to tell what he was doing anyway, as it was running at a fast-paced, SEC speed.
Minnesota does have a small fanbase, at least if you look at how many people go to the games. TCF Bank Stadium seats 50,000, and they did not sell out every game last year.
I think most coaches dislike open practices, for the simple fact that they don't want to reveal too much. But at a school like Minnesota, where they're trying to build fan support, it may be necessary. If Kill were at Michigan, I bet he wouldn't bother.
That's all we need is for Minny to go back to the school of no name guys with an RB that owns everyone).They had good backs under Mason, but the real key to their offense was their small-but-agile line that excelled at cut blocking.
That is the most in depth analysis I have ever heard on Minnesota football
I hope Minnesota can get back on their feet and build up a decent program. Anything the B1G can do to add depth in the conference is a good thing. The gauntlet our basketball team went through this year definitely helped us make a postseason run; with football going to playoffs, the more quality opponents the better. Besides, one of the last good Minnesota teams I remember is 2003, and that was one of the most fun 4th quarters I've seen.
April 20th, 2013 at 11:01 PM ^
Obligatory:
"students dont show up for games, why would they show up for practice? We should just shrink the student section. Get off my lawn"
April 21st, 2013 at 11:03 AM ^
students have their own life to exist in and watching another student practice a sport is somewhat comical.
April 21st, 2013 at 12:57 AM ^
That's kind of cool.
I wil lsay that Kill has done quite a bit to make the Minnesota program accessible to its fans, from what I hear. I believe that all spring practices have been open to the public for his tenure to date, which I am sure they enjoy. It's another way of creating a family atmosphere around a program really.
That, and having 200-300 people staring down the FG unit is definitely one way to practice working under pressure, I would think.
April 21st, 2013 at 11:21 AM ^
We'll only see them twice a decade or so. It's almost a moot point what goes on over there now.
April 21st, 2013 at 11:50 AM ^
When we go to a nine-game schedule in 2016, we'll then play three of the seven teams in the West every year. That works out to playing Minnesota about 43% of the time, but it will be slightly more than that because we won't face Purdue that often (due to its protected game with Indiana). Hopefully they'll find a way for every school to play everyone else at least once in a four-year span.
If we just would have stayed as a 12-team league and gone with geography, it would have been simple: with an eight-game schedule, you'd play your five divisional opponents and three of the six in the other division each year. With a nine-game schedule you'd play four of the six in the other division each year. But no, we had to have non-geographic divisions and protected cross-division games.
More evidence that Kill was a "better hire" than Hoke, at least in the mind of Minnesota's AD.
Watch out. A little more Global Warming and Minny is going to be a national power again.
Climate Change.