I’m doing the Gophers preview for Athlon magazine again this spring and the deadline is about 10 days away. The magazine, as usual, asks us to give what the two-deep will look when the season starts.

This is easily the hardest year to project a two-deep since I’ve been covering the team, especially for the defense. The Gophers signed 31 players and many of them are expected to either start or be key backups. I think you will see four new starters in the secondary, possibly two new starters at wide receiver and maybe one or two new starters at linebacker.

 But it’s hard to know how it will all play out until everyone gets to campus and puts on pads and start to hit.

– I’m heading over to the first practice of spring later this afternoon. Media is not allowed to watch but we can do interviews afterward. I’ll be writing about the defense for tomorrow. I was talking to Deon Hightower the other day  and he said something that amazed me. Hightower will be playing under his fourth defensive coordinator in Ted Roof. He had Greg Hudson for one year, David Lockwood for two, Everett Withers last season and now Roof in his final season. I can’t imagine that happens too often, where a player will have four different coordinators in their career.

– The Virginian-Pilot newspaper had an update on running back recruit Kevin Whaley that quoted police as saying they don’t believe the shooting was random. Whaley was shot in the leg outside a nightclub around 2 a.m. Police spokesman  Adam Bernstein told the newspaper that an incident inside the club might have proceeded the shooting and that police don’t believe it was a “random drive-by.” Bernstein said the police are getting little cooperation from anyone in their investigation. Gophers coach Tim Brewster said Tuesday that he talked to Whaley and he is in good spirits.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 27th, 2008 at 11:19 am and is filed under All, Gophers football. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.