With Cobb Gone, Gophers Look To Improve Passing Game
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The University of Minnesota football team is trying to find some things out this spring.
One of the biggest is how the Gophers will function offensively after running back David Cobb's departure. Cobb set a single-season rushing record with Minnesota as a senior.
How important was Cobb to the Gophers last season? In the same year he set that rushing record, Minnesota was eighth from the bottom in the country in passing yards and seventh from the bottom in completions.
So now does losing him by necessity demand more from the passing game this fall?
"Not really. I think every year is different," Offensive Coordinator Matt Limegrover said. "We lose David, but I'd like to think that we recruited well enough that there's some guys in there. David is a special player, but I don't know that he's most special player ever in the history of football to where you can't replace his production. Maybe it's not with one guy, maybe it's two. But the bigger picture regardless of if we lost David Cobb or not, we have to continue to progress in the pass game. That's the bigger issue."
Which brings its own challenges with the Gophers also losing their leading receiver in Maxx Williams, who declared for the NFL Draft.
"With Maxx being gone, Cobb being gone, everybody is rising to the occasion. Everybody is upping their play," tight end Duke Anyanwu said "Nobody is really feeling the pressure like I have to be the guy, because you know, we all have to be the guy."
That's what this time of year, spring practice, is all about: Finding those guys.
"What it always is, you never go into a spring with anything other than that idea," Limegrover said. "The idea that you're trying to find guys that are going to be difference-makers at all positions. Of course we need to get better in the pass game, but we need to have a dynamic left tackle. We need to have a dynamic center, we need to have a dynamic tight end. That's what you need to win Big Ten championships."