Fall Camp Preview: Gopher Offense

and some work out team team chemistry for sure I think as much time as we have together like I said in kind of past um interviews it's we have very limited time together and um as much time as we can spend together as possible that's kind of been our Focus as a unit U making sure that we're we're spending the extra time all together and not just being individual um I think that's what our you know our key kind of unit is to success is this year when you first got here with gr Harbo you at a 101p what type of level would you say that you're at now with him and how you understand what you want this off to be yeah I think I think we've gotten extremely close over the past you know five months um you know I think a lot of it is because we spend so much time together in in the room to generally speaking we I mean I'm in there all day long um on my own on my own time and um I think you know just honestly just talking to each other and you know on a personal level but also as a football level builds it all together in kind of one relationship um I think that you know you know we we a lot of the stuff that we talk about is you know not just football but it's like all right hey how's your weekend this weekend it's it's more of a conversational piece um that translates a lot on the football field because you know ultimately he's going to be in the mic you know for the whole game um and you know understanding how he thinks is going to help our team as a as a sex success leader or sorry as a unit this year um because ultimately if I'm on the same page as him then our whole offense will be on the same page PJ talked about the acemic their Ro to come here you on do here and how did that play into your decision yeah um so I started off at New Hampshire as Premed I did biomedical science um and that was something I looked into you know coming here to Minnesota um you know I started off kind of with you know the general classes at Minnesota for the past spring um which helped a lot kind of get me acclimated to the to the school and I'm still looking into TOA classes right now um I still haven't got that solidified yet I've been extremely busy but um I'm getting that getting that solidified after going through it in practice spring there what is giving you the confidence right now to kind of think to yourself you know what I think this offense is starting to come together what's kind of giving you that confidence yeah um I think it's the drive that everybody has and the want to get better um I think that's the the key you know piece that a lot of teams don't have sometimes when they're not successful um is people are just like kind of going through the motions and I think you know what our offense and our team has done really well this this summer has has been attacking every every single day with that mindset um because at this point like again we have like 49 days or something till our first game we have a few weeks to fall camp like um the guys understand you know what limited time we have um and I think that's been such a huge piece that's played into our success so far in the summer and will ultimately give us success in the fall uh Yes actually I do feel great um obviously I'm in everything going for a go so I feel great one of the things we talked with the coaches about in the spring was trying to figure out the workload for you looks like have they given you a number in mind for touches per game they're trying to get you to um there hasn't really been a number but um I think we are looking to do a committee Back Field um we got great guys all around obviously you guys see we brought in so much talent into the room so I don't think it'll be a oneman show or anything I think it'll be a committee you mentioned the new faces what are your early Impressions here um I love them uh I'm close with all of them actually I hang out with them almost every day playing the game just chilling you know just having fun so the guys outside of the outside of football are great in an in football I mean we're just brothers what was decision toay at close um no there wasn't really a decision to make in in like all reality um I knew I wanted to come back I mean I love it here um it's a great opportunity I mean obviously we run the ball so there was really no question in my mind to leave here cuz I mean they put me in the best position to be great and then like I mean I just love the guy so it just never really crossed my mind what were the biggest things you learned in your first season R the ball 10 um I learned that everybody does their job so I mean you got to really you got to really like make plays happen um because everybody's going to be in the right fits everybody's going to be in the right spot so uh the biggest thing is you have to also do your job and that's for me to make people Miss break tackles so that was like the biggest thing do you have the Michigan game circle on your cter I mean I wouldn't necessarily say just Michigan Circle I mean I feel like it's a great opportunity to play everybody I'm I'm excited for the season in general um but obviously I'm from Michigan so it's a great opportunity to One play in front of family at Michigan so I probably have a lot of family there and then also I mean it's always fun to play in your home state like always be great to beat the team that you know that we play against like that I've been watching my whole life so I made it be fun uh I'm really excited for everybody honestly Daniel you recently hosted a free football camp with the kids back home what inspired you to do that uh so I haven't quite thrown it yet it's uh coming up July 20th so really excited about that but kind of what prompted me to do that was my Majors if people who know are is youth studies so kind of like revolving around Youth and like giving back to Youth and kind of growing up like I used to like do stuff like that go to little camps just get active and I think like just me personally that's one one way I can get back to my city and just like young people as a whole so you're going to be the number one player people try to take away each week in the passing game and maybe last year coming into this year you weren't so how have you kind of try to take on that mentality of knowing the imposing defensive coordinator they going to be trying to come make sure I don't get my target right I looked at at that as like a challenge and and not to compare this to anything like high school or anything but you know there comes to a point where you're obviously like you know a good player in high school and like teams try to and I always like think back like like I used to love that challenge back in high school where it's like everyone knows it's coming to me but I'll still make a way or something like that but uh just taking that challenge head on you know doing whatever I can to help the team reach success whether that be you know me making a play if I if if need be or or or whoever or if that means you know running a route to get somebody else open so it's just it just it comes with the game and uh it's just exciting for me if it's going to click for Elijah this year compared to last year what has to happen he just contined to be himself I mean Elijah is a excellent great player and uh I think a lot of players weren't able to really truly see his like fullest potential uh but I mean a lot a lot of great talk and a lot of you know great things coming up for him this upcoming year but I think just continually being himself in that confidence is obviously going to be a main thing for receivers in hold but I think definitely like continuing to be confident and playing confidently qu everyone qu U guard tackle do you know yet what you're going into the season has um I've been repping mostly a guard but you never know I'm I'm ready to play either whatever the team needs me for Quin what are your general impressions of summer workout so far um I've really enjoyed summer workouts this year we've really come together as an offense as a team you know working together holding each other accountable especially that's been the big thing this off season this summer uh going into the season so we've been doing a really good job of building the team up before Camp starts what's been your initial impression of Alum AI he's been working his tail off I haven't really seen him in pads or anything so it's hard to tell you know how he'll do on the field but you know I trust the coaches to bring in guys who are ready to compete and he's shown that in in offseason training you guys had five regular season wins last year lot of Vegas projectors pick around that this year how do you feel about those I don't read into that stuff you know I only believe what we believe in as a team you know we're we're ready to go out and compete every single week we want to win every single game and you know that that shouldn't be you know we shouldn't be thinking anything short of that um going into this season's tough schedule but we've got a lot of talent a lot of skill what type of identity do you feel the offensive line is starting to to build in the offseason here I think we're starting to build a more dominating identity you know we've got a heck of a Back Field you know and a quarterback that can do it all so we just need to give those guys time give them space to to be special start off with a pretty big game last year with that last the last kick against now a good team in North Carolina coming in as well just what how do you prep prepare for a good team like that right away yeah I mean we we prepare for every team the same way right you know they're they're coming in to beat us and we're not going to allow that to happen especially on our own turf um first game of the season it's going to be a big one it's going to be hot um but we're all very excited we know they're going to be really good I know they're losing a few guys but they're G to replace them for sure and um you know they're really good defense last year and I'm sure it's going to be the same way so uh as we prepare for that it'll be a fun way to start the season