Golden Gopher Basketball Non Conference Schedule Announced

The Golden Gopher's basketball team recently announced it's non conference schedule for the upcoming season. It's lacking the big time opponent that Tubby Smith annually schedules, but that should be okay for this young team. Here's the entire non conference schedule.

Nov. 1 -- Bemidji State (exhibition);
Nov. 7 -- Augustana (exhibition);
Nov. 11 -- Bucknell;
Nov. 14 -- North Dakota State or South Dakota State;
Nov. 17 -- Fairfield;
Nov. 21 -- Mount St. Mary's;
Nov. 24-27 -- Old Spice Classic (Orlando, Fla.; opening game vs. DePaul followed by Texas Tech or Indiana State);
Nov. 30 -- Virginia Tech;
Dec. 3 -- USC;
Dec. 6 -- Appalachian State;
Dec. 10 -- St. Peters;
Dec. 13 -- Central Michigan;
Dec. 22 -- North Dakota State or South Dakota State.

Gopher Volleyball Team Ranked 12th in Coaches Poll

The Coaches poll for college volleyball was released earlier this week and the Gophers are ranked 12th to start the season! Can't wait to watch them win it all and hoist the National Title trophy! Here's the poll in its entirety from the American Volleyball Coaches Association's website.

1	Penn State (54)	1486	32-5	1
2	Southern California (5)	1424	29-5	3
3	California (1)	1354	30-4	2
4	Texas	1313	27-6	4
5	Nebraska	1221	29-3	7
6	Stanford	1150	27-4	5
7	Washington	1112	24-9	6
8	Illinois	1066	24-9	9
9	Florida	1031	29-2	8
10	Hawai'i	976	29-3	13
11	UCLA	903	22-9	12
12	Minnesota	810	26-9	10
13	Purdue	739	24-11	11
14	Northern Iowa	619	30-3	14
15	Colorado State	533	26-5	16
16	Oklahoma	485	23-11	21
17	Duke	465	27-7	18
18	Iowa State	430	20-9	25
19	Dayton	334	28-4	15
20	San Diego	315	24-6	17
21	Ohio State	256	24-12	19
22	Long Beach State	234	25-8	NR
23	Tulsa	193	31-3	20
T-24	Michigan	170	23-10	NR
T-24	Tennessee	170	25-7	24

Gophers Attempting to Rebuild Pass Rush

The Minnesota Golden Gopher team had pretty much no pass rush this past season. They recorded only 9 sacks, which ranks for the worst in the nation among FBS teams. New defensive coordinator Travis Claeys has made it one of his top priorities to get that sack total way up next season. It will be really interesting to see how he does that exactly.

The team returns three starters from the defensive line, but Anthony Jacobs led the starters who are back in sacks with only 2 in 2010. Here's how returning linebacker Mike Rallis sees it all playing out:

"The main thing is, this staff isn't going to pigeon-hole guys into one thing. They're going to mix it up, put different guys in position to make plays," said Rallis, who has been doing speed work this summer in preparation. "If everyone can blitz, the offense doesn't know who's coming."

I'm really interested to see how this works. If Claeys can get that defensive line to generate any pressure on the quarterback it will say a ton about Jerry Kill's coaching staff because this group didn't do anything last year.

Jerry Kill Brings New Attitude to Gopher Practices

I was reading an article in the Startribune the other day, and I saw something really interesting about the way new head coach Jerry Kill runs his practices. He described the style of his practices as "controlled chaos." Although that is an oxy moron, I like that Kill has the team practicing with urgency and at a fast pace.

The team has three different huddles of offense and defense huddle before each play. They have three little games going and the practices go at a never ending pace. Here's why Kill says he believes in the system:

"You learn a lot more by doing something than by standing and watching," Kill said. "We'll get everyone moving, then look at the film later."

It's a good thing they are moving at a quick pace, because these players will need to have learned a whole lot by the time they play at the colliseum against USC September 3rd.

Golden Gopher Football Team Looks Stronger

Golden Gopher assistant Eric Klein oversees the football team's strength and conditioning program. He has been so successful with his program over the years while he was an assistant with Jerry Kill that the new Gopher head coach calls Eric Klein "the reason for my success."

It will be interesting to see how much bigger and stronger these players are this year. Starting quarterback Marqueis Gray said that he weighs 245 pounds when he played at 225 pounds last season.

It's reasonable to believe that Klein will have a much easier time getting even better results from the gopher athletes than he did with the Northern Illinois players because the Gophers have bigger and stronger athletes to begin with, who have a lot more potential.

Trevor Mbakwe Bounds Toward Team USA

Trevor Mbakwe, after a controversial year off the court, has maintained his talent on the court as one of the best players in the Big Ten and the best player on the Gophers basketball squad. Mbakwe is now continuing his legacy as one of the 14 finalists in the competition to make the 12-man Team USA roster for the 2011 World University Games that will take place in China.

Under Tubby Smith, Mbakwe's averages were all on Big Ten leaderboards with 13.9 points per game, 10.5 rebounds per game, 1.5 blocks per game and a .582 field goal percentage.

If Mbakwe can make the Team USA roster, he will continue his progression towards an elite player in the country.

Mbakwe is one of two players on the potential roster that is from the Big Ten conference.

Gopher QB Adam Weber Signs with Broncos

The Denver Broncos picked up Minnesota Gophers quarterback Adam Weber as an undrafted rookie free agent on Tuesday morning.

Weber was a four-year starter for the Gophers from 2007 through 2010. Weber completed 57% of his passes and had a 72:51 touchdown-to-interception rate.

Weber will be greeted by current Broncos wide receiver and former Gopher, Eric Decker.