Gophers spring football practices in 2023 provided foreshadowing at quarterback.
Athan Kaliakmanis struggled to adjust to the rigors of the all-consuming position to start that year, and it was a precursor to his inconsistent play that fall and ultimately his transfer to Rutgers.
Fast forward two years, and redshirt freshman quarterback Drake Lindsey enters into a similar heir apparent spot as Minnesota began spring ball on Thursday. Max Brosmer, last year’s starting QB, had advice for his likely successor.
“Understanding you won’t be perfect every single day is really important, especially at quarterback because it feels like everything falls on you, and a lot of times it does,” Brosmer said Wednesday after the U’s Pro Day. “You have to be the face of the program and the face of the offense. You are going to mess up. You are not going to be perfect, and taking little things that you can work on and apply them to each practice and stacking days is really important, especially for a young buck, too.”
Head coach P.J. Fleck is putting a different kind of pressure on Lindsey: it’s being cast as a position battle with new Georgia Tech transfer Zach Pyron and, to a lesser extent, Dylan Wittke, a Virginia Tech transfer a year ago.
“We are replacing an NFL player,” Fleck said of Brosmer. “We’ve got a lot of guys that are going to compete to do that, to win that job. That is going to be really interesting to watch those quarterbacks go after it.”
Fleck said in spring practices reps will divvied up between QBs in different groups, not necessarily with first-, second- and third-string designations.
“This isn’t a progression and an ease into your reps,” Fleck said. “Whoever takes advantage of (their) reps and does well in those reps will get more reps. … The season is only a few months away; we’ve got to get moving. We are always being evaluated. Every single play to every single day. That is what we do as coaches. If you are doing well, you will move up. If you are not doing well, you are going to move down.”
Offensive coordinator Greg Harbaugh said with a change a quarterback coming for next fall, the U must get better in the run game and, in turn, ease the load on the signal caller.
“Everyone is going to look at us (and say)’ we don’t have a quarterback,’ ” Harbaugh said Thursday. “My approach with Drake was to just continue to grow him. He took huge strides from spring ball last year to where he is at right now. A lot of that is because he had a great guy in front of him that he could learn from in Max.”
Lindsey played only 20 snaps last season, mostly at the end of the 48-0 blowout of Rhode Island. He had three snaps in a special package during the win over Virginia Tech in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl. He kept his redshirt by playing in only four games.
Pyron, who has played 19 total games across three years for the Yellowjackets, needed to be taught everything about the U offense since he enrolled in January.
“Zach was totally different; I had to start at ground zero,” Harbaugh said. “Me and (and offensive analyst) Keegan O’Hara had to sit down and we had to start with formations, snap count and go all the way up. Now he has caught up to speed on all of that.”
Running back Darius Taylor, who had 1,336 yards from scrimmage last season, knows more will be on his shoulders during his junior year. He will also share the rushing load with Marshall transfer A.J. Turner and possible Washington transfer Cam Davis.
“The biggest thing is leadership,” Taylor said Thursday. “We know we got some guys come in, leading those guys to be able to hold their own. Not put too much stress on Drake, let Drake come into his own. He has done a great job of that. He has been doing good commanding the offense, along with Zach. Dylan has done a great job.
“Letting those guys breathe and be able to focus on what they have, going through their progressions without my (running back) room asking questions. The biggest thing is leadership and helping the guys out so everything goes smooth.”
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