Good Grief

Jeff is completely right.  Everybody just needs to calm down.  Let's take the Anchorman references over the top, shall we?

To everyone who is getting way too fired up about this expansion thing, way too early: "Take it easy, Champ. Why don't you sit this next one out, stop talking for awhile."

It's fun.  The speculation, I've been guilty of it myself, but there's just so much of it.  So I'm going to take my own advice and sit this one out... not going to talk expansion.

Have you been wondering where I've been?  No?  Not surprising.  While Jeff has been holding down the fort and absolutely carrying this blog on his big, freckled Irish back, I've been having easily the busiest first quarter of the year, both professionally and personally that I've ever had.  Busy is good, I'm not complaining, but it's clearly been keeping me from other things.

Having said that, it's about this time of year that I begin to get nervous.  Last year was the first year that I can remember where my feelings about Gopher Football, pre-spring practices, were feelings of excitement.  I was incredibly exited for Gopher ball last year.  Unfortunately my hopes and dreams were shattered as we actually got into the season.  Which leads me back to that old familiar feeling of nervousness.

What can we expect this year?  Will some of Brewster's recruits begin to emerge and make a difference on the field?  Will Brewster become a better in-game coach?  Will he learn to go for the jugular?  These are the things that sometimes, quite literally, keep me up at night.

I want to be excited about the QB situation (the boys over at The Daily Gopher gave the QB's a pre-spring grade of A...).  It sounds like we're finally going to have an open competition.  The problem, and the reason I can't get excited about it and I'm instead nervous, is because we all know that Weber not only has the inside track on the job, but he'll definitely do enough to win the job in the spring.  But how Weber has performed in games probably won't enter the equation.  No other QB on the roster has in-game experience close to Weber's, which means he'll get the job.  After last season, I've got some difficulty being excited about that.

I'm slightly more excited about the RB situation, but nervousness is still the mood.  All kinds of young guys will be fighting for a job that nobody has stood out for since Tim Brewster has been around.  Kevin Whaley was our best RB last year, but you could find him "in da club" more often then you could find him stuffing the stat sheet, so he's back in VA Beach with his buddies.  Duane Bennett... eh.  DeLeon Eskridge... eh.  Which leaves us with the newbies.  I'm excited about Lamonte Edwards out of Woodbury (check out his highlight video).  He's 6'2", 215lbs, and it looks as though he's not afraid to run people over, a trait that we haven't seen around here in awhile.

WR's?  Jeffrick and I said it all of last year, one of the most talent heavy positions on this team is WR.  And yet we couldn't figure out how to get those guys involved.  Jeff Horton?!?!?!  Paging Jeff Horton!!!!  I'm looking at you buddy.  You've got more weapons at WR than Kevin Whaley has in the trunk of his Honda Accord... let's find a better way to use them.

You'll see some more breakdowns of different positions in the coming weeks and months, but after breaking down the above positions I need to go take my happy pills.