Minnesota's Max Brosmer & Daniel Jackson on Offensive Training Camp guys thanks for taking some time to join me take me through what it's like going through this offense right now and going against the defense uh every day iron shoers iron and uh like for me personally going against like guys like Wall-E is uh truly like a special gift for me cuz like I've been going to against him for three years so being able to sharpen that iron for him and for myself it's like is nothing better than that if you can play against the best corner and you can do that every day and get reps you know saying learn learn grow uh succeed sometimes fail and then just come back the next day so different environment for you this year very different y tell me about it yeah uh it's been a blast I think uh coach fle and his staff are doing an amazing job of you know putting us in new um environments and um and different situations for us to adapt um like we were practicing the stadium today and um you know personally for me it's it's a new a new spot and I get to play with my team and and what you know where they've been playing for a few years and this is my first time in in the home stadium so um you know I'm I'm doing my best to to get used to it and um these guys are rallying up with me and making sure that I can do my best with them on this on this team and um run the offense the best for our ability it seems that you've acclimated very well into this team why has that been able to work for you yeah I think it's honestly I give all the credit to my teammates for that um you know anyone can come in here and um it's it's a a decision for the team to to trust and take someone in that quickly within a few months um as they did and I'm very grateful for that um and it's it's super challenging to to lead new guys and um they've made it a lot of fun and as challenging as it is you know I'm having to blast every single day doing it with these guys what are some of the characteristics he brings to the table to help you guys really bring him in because it's you know well obviously the first one as a leader and uh like and as him coming in like you can see that off the backat like he's a great leader Commander takes the offense by the ropes and like also but you get to see like being around him like he's a funny guy he's cool he's just he's cool to be around nice to be around and he makes you better truly in in every aspect as a person and as a football player so it's just really nice to have him here we talk about and we hear people talk about as well how you have a command of the offense what does that look like for you um checks in the checks in the Huddle like oh alert for this oh yeah you're you're the hot on this like just pre- snap just seeing what the defense can possibly do and make sure everybody's on the same page so like we're not wasting the Reps at practice and in the game where we're not was wasting to play cuz we going to get those back let's talk about technology a little bit Yeah you get to hear your coach for a little bit very cool how does that change I mean you obviously very successful now all of a sudden you all you have communication how do you think that's going to change the way you play the game yeah it's it's really cool having um kind of a voice in your head you know talking to you with the play um it makes things uh very efficient as well especially for a transfer coming in um not having to learn you know the whole signal Playbook but also being able to communicate through what you're hearing in your ear to your teammate um in the Huddle um you know I think that number one like I said efficiency number two is um being able to to talk about situations as well like with Coach Harbo um with the amount of time that we're allotted on the on the headset it's like um you know hey third and four here remember to check the sticks and and be alert for this coverage um that's something that I can you know relate to my guys um before you know we get in the Huddle and after we get after we break the Huddle but also gives me good reminders like hey this is what we're seeing here all right cool let's go you you taking your offensive line out oh yeah yeah sure you you including the receivers and the tight ends in that group as well we've done some fun stuff so far tell me what have you done uh so yeah this this summer and spring we did some trips down to Georgia um we did it was very fun you know I thought it was very fun you could ask Daniel um we did a lot of stuff we trained we went to the lake um we went to the aquarium one day we did um some community outreach in my high school um that was a lot of fun and um I sent some of the o line down to Frisco um a couple weeks ago for an o line Camp down there at Mastermind and they had a blast doing that and um I'm going to be you know doing as much as I can for my guys while in year because you know I have fun doing it as well giving back to the guys and you know hopefully I help the old line out with dinner sometimes and you know hopefully they protect for me so I want to get on their good side as best as possible it sounds good you want to make sure he's on the good side so you can get the football no love yeah it's lovely having him here I mean like even like just seeing at the receiver group and the quarterback group like just meeting more like outside of football and like the a lot of times we've forgiven and like just going out to dinner like just the other day like or not the other day but just not too long ago we went to Habachi and just enjoyed a nice little meal just all 15 20 of us so it was it was like stuff like that is just really connectionless heck I need to get on campus so I can go to dinner with you guys thanks a lot for taking some time have a great rest of camp and great season thanks man thank you Cory Minnesota Defensive Coordinator Corey Hetherman Talks Strategy and Training Camp Outlook Heather's with us now first time you've been a power five defensive coordinator what made this opportunity the right one for you yeah I think just you know I've been lucky I've been fortunate worked with really good coaches worked with really good people and I've been lucky a lot of the players I've had have been really you know they play hard they play fast and you know it's helped me kind of get to where I am right now and it's you know the people around me have you know been blessed with that this is our first chance to really watch your defense give us a sense of what we are in store for how would you describe your defensive approach you number one we want to play fast we want our guys to take shots we want to play Fast every single Play We want to swarm to the football number two we want to be physical you know we want to be start at the point of attack you know we want to stop the run we want to try to make people one onedimensional we want to try to stay ahead of the sticks every play but if we play physical we play fast you know that's what the DNA of our defense has to be I think one of the things that really jumped out of practice today was the way the linebackers really flow and also or disciplin and stay back for some of the cutbacks how have you seen them progress going through Camp you know I think they're doing a really good job right now and I think the biggest thing is it you know it all starts up front you know if we can get off the ball if we can knock the line of scrimmage back reestablish the line of scrimmage I think that allows our guys to play a little bit faster and be able to flow and leverage the ball and then you know the second thing is just understanding where their support is it allows them to set things up it allows them to influence some of the blocks it allows them to understand where they can fit where they can take a shot which I think a lot of times you know just allows them to play a little bit faster and it you know have a little bit of awareness what's going on around them and I think right now you know in the spring maybe didn't see that all the time right now they're they're starting to get that a little bit better which has been you know really good so far early in Camp coach take me back when you talked about the dline being able to influence blocks to help the linebackers what can you break that down a little bit for us so the biggest thing you know we want to play Fast up front we want to get off the ball you know we're g be launch Technique we need to make sure our guys are hitting their target they're playing fast they're playing violent going good pad level and you know that that's one of the things that's starting to show up more and more I think we're starting to play faster we're starting you know our ground the pads is getting better and that's the thing every single day the details you know when we go down there in the Indie and just trying to focus on that and that that's been the thing that if you took that from practice one in the spring to practice three today that's been the number one thing I've been excited about we're going to keep going in that direction right now keep building on that you talked about the guys up front you talked about the guys in the middle as linebackers how about that secondary how they coming along you know I really liked what they were doing today you know they're starting to get a little bit more awareness of situational Football starting to get a little bit better feel for what we're doing you know as we disguise things and as we um you know where there may be voids in the defense or some of the things they have to cover up um you know our eye progression our eye discipline today I thought that was much better than it was the first two practices is and you know that's really helped our guys you know start to close the gap and close in on things um you know pre- snap kind of get to where they need to be um you know we're working on it some of those guys we didn't have them in the spring so getting them really working together three practices now and rolling them around with different people you know I'm excited what they've done early on Coach I found your background really interesting particularly that you were a quarterback in college how does having played on the offensive side of the ball help you as someone who's trying to stop offenses you know it's been so long ago now I don't I don't remember it um you know I think just you know how's the offense trying to attack you you know what are they looking for where you know what are some of the things that we might tip or what what are they looking for from us pre- snap um different areas they're going to attack you know different areas of the field Personnel driven you know those are just the things we're constantly trying to game plan trying to figure out trying to take away you know if we could take those those away and make the offense onedimensional or you know maybe take what they're good at away and put the ball in someone else's hands you know that's always were're trying to look at you know same things you know way back then from the few things I remember if it makes you feel any better College was longer ago for Howard and me that it was for you Cory heatherman thanks a lot yeah thank you guys appreciate it and P.J. Fleck Talks Season Outlook and the Evolution of the Passing Game here with gopher's head coach PJ Fleck after watching his team go through practice we were talking about the 50 wins and how quickly you've gotten to that Milestone and winning the bowl game last year which is something you guys have made a habit of here in terms of winning bows I know the overall result of the Season Maybe wasn't exactly what you wanted but how do you carry the momentum of winning a bowl game into this season yeah I think that first of all we we were able to go to a bowl game because of our academics which shows a lot about our culture and academically athletically socially and spiritually and and then you go out and win your fifth bowl game out of really six years that we were technically eligible for doing it uh says a lot about the program um I think when we look back on last year and and when people talk about having a disappointing year and you still win a bowl game um you know we've we we've taken the standard and we put a little bit higher than when we got here but I know our guys weren't satisfied with that there were two really disappointing finishes last year with Northwestern and Illinois and I think if those two games went differently I think the narrative about us might be a little bit different so we're talking three total seconds in the season from a narrative going one way versus a narrative going a different way and uh I really like this football team they got a big crack on their shoulder and uh look forward to exciting 2024 yeah let's talk a little bit about this team and fast forward you had good practice today you went for quite a while on a really hot day what are you looking to accomplish at this point in practice well we got two more uh days of 90 degrees and it drops back down in the 70s so we got acclimate to that weather pretty good uh while we have it but I'm really proud of the progress we made this is a team that's played a lot of football we retain and brought back 16 or 17 eligible starters so these guys know how to practice but we have a lot of guys that we need to be able to bring that depth up and I think that's why went a little bit longer today uh but I like the depth of the football team we got a lot of guys that have played a ton of football for us got a lot of guys back who understand what we want uh and then we want to take the next right step I want to talk to you a little bit about the passing game it wasn't where you needed it to be last year what makes you think based on what you've seen to this point that's better what have you seen that stood out yeah there's always reasons there's no excuses but there's reasons and then in the offseason it's up to head coaches uh that's our job to fix those reasons and I thought we did that um there's a lot of it has to do with health and the health of the football team and what we're able to do and then as you go through a season whether it's the NFL or college your team's always telling you what they can do and what they're not capable of doing that's not a that's not a negative they're just showing you and you've got to be able to to put the square peg in the square hole uh and we adjusted our offense a little bit more to what we were capable of doing towards the end of the year and might not have been pretty uh but when we feel like we have all of our weapons and we're healthy and what coach Harbo has done with the offense in the off season feel really good about where we are feel really good about the quarterback position and a lot of the other positions on offense as well you mentioned the quarterback position pretty clear that Max is the guy give us a sense for what what you've seen from him to this point and what stood out was exceeded my expectations and anytime you bring a transfer in and you're kind of slotting him to be the guy your expectations are pretty high to begin with he's constantly curious he's a great leader he had to come in here and really be the guy right away so we needed somebody that was mature enough to handle that and I thought he's done a great job of that he was an instant leader the minute he walked in here and his leadership was infectious and you can see that he he controls a whole football team already in short short seven months you were talking a little bit about the injuries last year at Darius Taylor and Cody lindenberg probably front and center in terms of the two stars let's talk about Darius here when he was out there he was absolutely phenomenal you always quote our buddy Ma's line you need a pair and a spare that's right I'm really impressed with what you've done in the portal I mean you've kind of got a pair and a couple spares I would say I mean it feels like the depth at that position just outstanding what are you seeing not just from Darius who look great but from that whole group yeah coach Mason legendary coach here said what you just said need a pair and a spare and we've kind of added but you need some air for the pair and the spare uh just in case they get flat so it's not about them just rolling off it's about them actually getting flat and repairing it so I really like the depth we have Darius is obviously well documented as a very good player very young player a lot to learn Marcus major coming in for Oklahoma uh number 24 it's nice to see 24 back out there that type of number and he's a little taller than the old 24 we used to have uh but he he's provided a lot of depth and then CA bangura coming from Ohio and then JoJo nubin who's I mean he had one of the most sneaky years out of anybody over the last few years and just just happy to have him back as well so we feel like we have depth at that position we have some young guys we really like too but we feel like we have four guys who have size who all give us something a little bit different um you know in the past we've always looked out there running back was about this big and but he was maybe the greatest running back ever at that big and now we've got some sides we got some guys that can help us in the past game as well which opens up our offense a little bit defensive side you guys had set such a standard I mean really just phenomenal for a couple years there it dropped off a bit last you've got a new defensive coordinator in Cory heatherman how different is this defense going to look schematically than it looked a year ago well we kind of went back to the same well you know and we're talking about the shano tree and every coordinator I've ever had whether Western Michigan or Minnesota has always come from that tree and this is no different I have a lot of respect for him and what he's done and the defensive football he's taught me all the way back to Ruckers and and Tampa Bay Buccaneers and and when I became a head coach we wanted that type of philosophy um it's gonna have Heather or Cory Cory Heather's own stamp on it that's for sure uh but it's going to be within the same confines of what we're doing uh I think you just want to make sure that the rosters you have right now if you're going to make a wholesale schematic change you better make sure that it fits the roster that you're retaining because so many players have reasons to leave now and if there's a reason where I don't fit in the system and somebody's telling them that they're going to be gone so we really like our system we just have to be able to play it better there was a multitude of reasons of why we didn't play well last year part of it was Cody lindenberg not being in there we were not the deepest team last year and we did everything we could to be able to to reload that defense this year and create a lot of depth where if you do lose one it doesn't hurt you as bad you've talked a couple times about retention and how important that is and people talk a lot about the portal and of course the issue with the portal is it goes both ways you've made some really nice additions here via the portal couple who we've already talked about but the other issue is keeping guys here and that's the thing that really stood out to me is you really didn't lose much at all in terms of key contributors in in the portal what's The Balancing Act there right now as a head coach in terms of kind of how you think about the portal and and the two-way door that it can be well I'd like to be able to say it's pretty stressfree and you just kind of Kick Back throw your feet up everybody's happy everybody seems Kumbaya everybody's like yeah we're going to stay don't worry about it coach it's very unique um you know it's it's a GM type role it's a salary cap moving into that type role it's a head coaching role uh you're managing all these personalities but I'm really proud of our guys cuz I think we value a lot of things and don't make money the only thing we value and I'm not saying other teams do I'm saying what we do in Minnesota that if if money is going to be the number one thing you value you're probably not going to stay here very long nor are you probably going to come here our players make a lot of money but they're probably not the highest paid guys in the conference or in the country so they've got to stay for all different types of reasons and I truly believe it's the Life program the life culture that we create we're transactional can coex exist uh with the transformational and I think that's what's unique in college football everybody's got a chance to do how they want to do it and what fits their institution and their University and I feel like we have a really good balance and we get to still select all those kids that come in here and so it's more of that selection and fit being way more important than it's ever been last question for you really exciting opener with North Carolina coming here playing on a Thursday night what are the biggest things you need to see from your team to know they'll be ready between now and then well we talked about the offseason this competition where never everybody throws that around but we talked about you got to be really good at competing within yourself first then you got to be as a team you got to compete with each other and then you got to then you'll be ready to go against somebody else but if we can con we can we can actually have consistency this year uh I think we're going to be a really good football team and um if we can consistently be competitive uh with everything that we possibly do um I feel like uh this team can be really good PJ FL always a pleasure thanks a lot for your time and uh really appreciate it thanks for coming by ro the boat Sky M Go Gophers Co-Offensive Coordinator Greg Harbaugh Jr. Talks Upgrades and Addition of Max Brosmer offensive coordinator Greg Harbo Jr with us now and Coach let's start by looking back on a year ago offense I know wasn't quite where you wanted it to be what were the biggest things you looked to upgrade here in the off season as you try to get back to to being the offense that this program wants well after every season you look through you go through a self Scout and you look at what you did well what you didn't do well and the the number one thing I thought that we needed to do it obviously because it came in the transfer portal was get our starting quarterback um that obviously came to fruition throughout the recruiting process and we ended up getting Max and I believe that was that was a big addition um that was the number one thing just with Personnel but you know coach Fleck always looks at it from a Personnel coaching scheme situation and I think our scheme was good you know I thought we did a really good job of putting our guys in the best position to make plays but it was one of those things where you know we had to be better at the quarterback position at times and that falls on me um and that's one thing that we've really addressed this offseason in in Spring ball and then going into training camp uh this fall but I'm I'm really excited about how the guys just attacked the winter conditioning attacked Spring ball and then attacked the summer and I think that's that's incredibly important when you're when you're working to develop you know an elite offense is is how well are they going to play and work when when the things aren't the lights aren't on you know when you aren't playing on those 12 Saturdays you know in the fall and I think those guys have really attacked the offseason that way one of the traits that really stood out in Watching Max today was he just seemed in command seemed to have a really good grasp of what you're doing what were some of the other traits that sold you on him as you went into the portal and said okay we've got to find the guy what were you looking for in the guy so from the first conversation with him on the phone I mean it was it was clear he's an incredible leader you know we always talk about that the superpower superpower is his leadership ability and that's one thing that he he got on even on his official visit you know we sat him down with about 10 guys on our on our team and they dinner with him we spent time with him and and really it goes down to like you look at his family how his family is how his parents are and and how he was raised you know he's going to be a great young man but then when you look at um how that official visit went and how the players gravitated towards him and when he sat down with them and talked about about how he was going to lead them and and that's what they wanted they wanted that guy to be able to lead the lead the entire organization and and that's what he does the best he is in command and I and I do believe um he will play well this year you know I I'm really looking forward to seeing how he attacks every single day because every day is a new challenge coming from the FCS it's just every single day he's going to look at you know what might be challenging or what can he take from New Hampshire to be able to put into put into play here and I think that that's been the biggest thing I think with him um he he's just really grown every single day and become comfortable and confident with his teammates the ability to turn on the film and understand that he can make all the throws he can command an offense is that what takes it over the top for you guys when you're evaluating you're trying to find that guy that's going to lead you yes I I have never you know I I felt very comfortable you know I think this is my 16th year coaching and I really enjoyed going into the position meeting every day just because I know number one he's going to continue to challenge me to be the best that I can because he's so mentally strong um he he's always locked in from that standpoint I always want to give him something new that he can learn from um and he can grow from um I just love like that you guys have used the word command twice that's the the biggest thing you see just from from from him before the play at the line of scrimmage um you know anything he does he's always in control and he's always in command of his teammates in the offense I thought there was a time in practice where there was a time in practice where you guys were throwing the back shoulder throw and you said hey now you get every rep every rep what's behind forcing him to get every rep well repetition is the mother of all learning and he's he's one of those guys that he needs to feel the feel the behavior that he has um it might might be a particular look that he wants to continue to see when we're going against you know the scout team when we're going uh in walkthroughs like he might want to see that um he might be want to be challenged with a different pressure you know to be able to get into the right protection call those types of things but then when it comes to the field like if he's struggling with a particular throw and and that's one thing like you're throwing a ball to to Daniel Jackson that might be a little bit different than some other guys he's thrown to in the past and so I kind of want him to continue to feel that behavior how that arm is how the ball's coming off of his index finger and and all that type of thing I think that was one thing and then you obviously saw when he took all I think 10 or 11 straight reps you know he started to really put the ball right on that back shoulder right where we want it real quick coach yes sir how about the offensive line we can't let you get out of here without talking about that group well Bri Brian Callahan does an awesome job um you know those guys have really jelled um I think the one thing going against our defense every day they present certain challenges coach heatherman does a great job of of putting us in in particular looks might be pressures might be base looks might be movement up front things along those lines where I think they he does a really good job well it challenged our offensive line in the spring and I think they took they took that really to heart and they really worked them worked to work very hard in the summer to be able to work on those particular looks work on looks that we might face during the season and they've come out in the first three days and you know obviously there's going to be technique errors every single day we want to clean that up that's our job but as far as understanding the scheme and understanding what we want to do they've been outstanding goodlooking group up front obviously one with a lot of experience coach really appreciate it thanks a lot Dan Justin thanks for DL Danny Striggow & DB Justin Walley on the New Defensive System spending a little time with me practice three how you guys feeling in this new system I like it a lot um you know I I love playing with playing with the guys out there and getting new experience a new system with you know guys you've played with an old system with and uh just getting a fly around out there a long summer not having pads on today first day of shoulder pads you know it's football again so it's really nice yeah how about for you like like he said um it's just a pleasure going out there and playing with the guys you know coach hman bringing that fire everybody's just know excited to be out there running a new system so any day we get to compete with each other we're all happy when you talk about bringing to fire tell us more about that coach brings to fire uh a big thing he stand on his excitement so no matter how the day is going anytime anybody make a play everybody's on the sideline getting happy know excited and that just brings the whole move of the defense up by All Time so things like that defense wasn't where it was where you wanted to be last last year what are some of the things you guys have learned when you look back and see and do a self Scout of what happened last year yeah you know looking back at last year like you said you know it wasn't wasn't where we wanted to be and uh you know wasn't where we needed it to be too and so you take a look back and it's almost kind of nice coming into a new system here because you know you're learning new things and you know correct instead of correcting old habits you're you're learning new habits um and it kind of just you know eases your mind and allows you know new people coming into the system whe whether it's transfers freshman or guys you know like us that have been here four and five years like everybody's learning together it makes it really easy to play together um everybody's kind of clicking at the same Pace how have you seen the program change as you guys have spent some time here how's how's a program developed you want to answer that no this is on you this is on you me it's on you you're the one that's getting in trouble for this one um since I've been here um you know well coach fake he's really a consistent person so some it's been really consistent um so for the change outside the players really nothing much really changes you know coach Fleck really laid a foundation where when new guys come in no matter where they come from they know where they know this we we know what what the standard is and it's our job to uphold a standard to anybody who comes into our program what are some of the things that you want to do personally on the field to to play at your best um become more a vocal leader I know a lot of times on the field I I tend to come become more quiet and to myself but I know when I use my voice more and get the younger guys up using their voice more the whole defense plays a lot better you get a you both of you guys get a unique perspective to take a look at Max from the quarterback position and what's this offense look like with him controlling it it's cool to watch you know Max come in and and get a feel for our offense obviously he was very successful where he was um the past couple years but you know the way he's come in and really taken control and uh brought some Leaders with him on the offense too it's we we've heard a lot of voices chime in on the offense and you see more than just you know one guy leading two guys leading but you got you know somebody maybe a couple people in every position that are really taking a a leadership role and it's it's cool to see the offense clicking like that well I'm looking forward to continuing to watch you guys both you guys stay healthy once you have a successful season thanks a lot for taking some time I appreciate that thank you