Gophersports.com caught up with redshirt freshman quarterback Adam Weber following the spring scrimmage on Saturday to talk about his thoughts on practices, the intensity and passion of the coaching staff, and the desire to take the Gopher Nation to Pasadena.

GS.com: You now have a little more than a full week of spring practices and the first scrimmage completed. How do you feel things have been going?

AW: I think that every practice we have built off the previous one and the tempo has been getting a little quicker, a little faster as we are learning more. People are feeling a lot more comfortable at practice which makes you able to relax a little bit more and enjoy practices. Things are progressing nicely and really coming along. After one week, I am already amazed at how much we have gotten in.

GS.com: What is the most important thing that you and all the quarterbacks are trying to accomplish right now?

AW: It comes down to that time where you feel comfortable with a play. It is tough when you don’t have reps, when there are four quarterbacks and there are only so many plays in a practice. You really have to get as much out of every single play as you can and you have to be paying attention even when you aren’t getting the reps. I have to be aware of what is going on even when Mort (Tony Mortensen) or Mace (Mike Maciejowski) or Mike (Frankberg) are playing. It is true with quarterbacks anyway, but especially now, you have to be thinking throughout the whole practice and because we are not being hit like the other guys are, we have to be focused even on the little things in the system.

GS.com: How do you feel about the heightened sense of intensity that seems to be going on at these spring practices?

AW: It is all coming from the coaches. They are amazing. They have set a level through our winter workouts and now during spring ball with their tempo and intensity – it’s a championship style of play that every practice you have to get better, your intensity has to be at a high level or else you are not going to be able to go where we want to go. Coach Brewster preaches every single day that our mentality is “Big Ten Champs” and “Rose Bowl” and he is a big believer that if we are going to say it, we better back it up and do it. He has put himself out there for us and now it is our time to work hard for him and get the Gopher Nation to Pasadena.

GS.com: There has been a lot of talk about going to the Rose Bowl and Coach Brewster keeps it fresh in the players’ minds each day as witnessed by his bringing the Rose Bowl turf to practice. How important is that?

AW: It is very important. Every Big Ten school when you start the season has the goal to win the conference championship, but not everyone truly believes it. Some people just say it. I think that sometimes people say it because they feel that they have to, but he has instilled something different that guys are buying into and actually believing and meaning when they say. When you are surrounded by it and talking about, you can’t forget that it is our ultimate goal and it is where we are trying to go.

GS.com: What has impressed you so far about offensive coordinator Mike Dunbar and his approach to the game?

AW: His knowledge. His wisdom pertaining to the game is incredible. He really wants you to learn, and when I say that I mean he wants everybody to learn. He teaches all four quarterbacks equally and gives them all his attention. If you make a couple mistakes he doesn’t write you off, he tries to make you better, whether it is your throwing motion to how you call a play in the huddle, he is very much involved in every aspect of what the quarterback does.

You guys just completed the scrimmage and now you get a week off for spring break. Is it hard to take a break after you have been gaining so much momentum with the new system?

AW: We will have to wait and see because I think it is going to be tough, especially when we get back because they are going to want to pick up right at the level that we left off. It is going to be tough, but we are going to have a long break from spring ball until two-a-days in August as well. As long as we have our playbooks we can study up, but in the same sense I think a lot of guys are looking forward to a little break because it has been a tough winter schedule with running and lifting and getting into spring ball in early March. The good thing is that we know the expectations and we will be ready to get fired up upon our return.