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In a surprising move the Minnesota Golden Gophers have fired new Head Coach Jerry Kill before who came over from Northern Illinois before he even coached a game. Taking his place will be a very young Head Coach from Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada who brings with him a flexbone option offense. Due to such short notice Turner will keep Offensive Co-ordinator Mike Limegrover but Turner will be calling the plays as Limegrover needs to learn the new offense and Defensive Co-ordinator Tracy Claeys returns and will be in charge of the defense.
Coach Turner said at the press conference "Im very pleased to be here at Minnesota and hope everyone is patient espicially with the offense as everyone will be learning a new system and because some of the players arent exactly built for this system. I look forward to my challenge here and I have to get to work, thanks for your time."
Lets take a look at the 2011 Golden Gophers Offense
QB
Jr Marqueis Gray will be the starter and is a perfect fit for this offense, Gray mainly was a WR and a wildcat QB in his first 2 seasons at Minnesota and will be the centerpiece to the offense with his 90 spd, 74 btk, 71 car. The QB is the most important part of this offense as hes making the reads to give, keep or pitch and does take a lot of punishment, if Gray can learn the offense he should be very important to Minnesota the next two seasons. Backing him up will be RS Fr Tom Parish and RS So Moses Alipate. Fr Max Shortell will be giving advice to transfer as he will likely not see the field if Turner remains at Minnesota and may be even cut.
BB
RS Sr Duane Bennett will start at B Back but this position may see a few players to see who is best suited for it. This is the second most important spot on the offense as it is needed to run inside for a lot of tough yards and also takes a lot of punishment. Decent blocking skills also comes in handy.
AB
RS Fr's Lamonte Edwards and Donnell Kikwood will start at A Back and will be asked to usually run outside either on options, tosses, sweeps but also to help in the passing game as receivers. Blocking also is a nice attribute on runs. Sr WR Da Jon Mcknight will back them up as he's a solid runner.
WR
Sr TE Eric Lair and Jr TE John Rabe will start at WR as they are receiving TE's and will help in the run game blocking. Sr WR Da Jon Mcknight will be the slot WR and possesses good size and speed.
TE
TE isnt used in the passing game and backup OL's will play here.
OL
In Turner's system the offensive lineman are asked to be athletic as they are often blocking into the 2nd and 3rd levels on run plays. This will be a position to watch and a position of importance in Turner's first year of recruiting.
Defense
DL
The Gophers have a decent DL with RS Fr LE Ben Perry and RS Jr and RS So RE's DL Wilhite and Matt Garin playing at End and are deep with 6 DT's lead by RS Sr Anthony Jacobs and RS So Ra Shede Hageman.
LB
The Gophers boast 4 solid LB's lead by Sr MLB Gary Tinsley RS Jr ROLB Keanon Cooper, RS So MLB Brendan Beal and RS Jr LOLB Mike Rallis
DB's
The Gophers have a solid secondary but will lose 3 starters CB Troy Stoudermire, FS Kim Royston and SS Shady Salamon they will also lose backup FS Christyn Lewis who backs up at both S spots and is the 5th CB. Minnesota will need to hopefully bring in some recruits for the secondary in Turner's first year.
Special Teams
Sr WR/AB Da Jon Mcknight will handle kickoff and punt returns. RS So Chris Hawthorne will handle the kicking duties and is a very poor kicker. RS So Dan Orseske will handle the punting.
Coach Turner said at the press conference "Im very pleased to be here at Minnesota and hope everyone is patient espicially with the offense as everyone will be learning a new system and because some of the players arent exactly built for this system. I look forward to my challenge here and I have to get to work, thanks for your time."
Lets take a look at the 2011 Golden Gophers Offense
QB
Jr Marqueis Gray will be the starter and is a perfect fit for this offense, Gray mainly was a WR and a wildcat QB in his first 2 seasons at Minnesota and will be the centerpiece to the offense with his 90 spd, 74 btk, 71 car. The QB is the most important part of this offense as hes making the reads to give, keep or pitch and does take a lot of punishment, if Gray can learn the offense he should be very important to Minnesota the next two seasons. Backing him up will be RS Fr Tom Parish and RS So Moses Alipate. Fr Max Shortell will be giving advice to transfer as he will likely not see the field if Turner remains at Minnesota and may be even cut.
BB
RS Sr Duane Bennett will start at B Back but this position may see a few players to see who is best suited for it. This is the second most important spot on the offense as it is needed to run inside for a lot of tough yards and also takes a lot of punishment. Decent blocking skills also comes in handy.
AB
RS Fr's Lamonte Edwards and Donnell Kikwood will start at A Back and will be asked to usually run outside either on options, tosses, sweeps but also to help in the passing game as receivers. Blocking also is a nice attribute on runs. Sr WR Da Jon Mcknight will back them up as he's a solid runner.
WR
Sr TE Eric Lair and Jr TE John Rabe will start at WR as they are receiving TE's and will help in the run game blocking. Sr WR Da Jon Mcknight will be the slot WR and possesses good size and speed.
TE
TE isnt used in the passing game and backup OL's will play here.
OL
In Turner's system the offensive lineman are asked to be athletic as they are often blocking into the 2nd and 3rd levels on run plays. This will be a position to watch and a position of importance in Turner's first year of recruiting.
Defense
DL
The Gophers have a decent DL with RS Fr LE Ben Perry and RS Jr and RS So RE's DL Wilhite and Matt Garin playing at End and are deep with 6 DT's lead by RS Sr Anthony Jacobs and RS So Ra Shede Hageman.
LB
The Gophers boast 4 solid LB's lead by Sr MLB Gary Tinsley RS Jr ROLB Keanon Cooper, RS So MLB Brendan Beal and RS Jr LOLB Mike Rallis
DB's
The Gophers have a solid secondary but will lose 3 starters CB Troy Stoudermire, FS Kim Royston and SS Shady Salamon they will also lose backup FS Christyn Lewis who backs up at both S spots and is the 5th CB. Minnesota will need to hopefully bring in some recruits for the secondary in Turner's first year.
Special Teams
Sr WR/AB Da Jon Mcknight will handle kickoff and punt returns. RS So Chris Hawthorne will handle the kicking duties and is a very poor kicker. RS So Dan Orseske will handle the punting.