Spring Game Thoughts

[sutomcat]

As expected, this was not a delightful spectacle to behold. It was pretty boring and ugly.

Vanilla offense. Lots of good players hurt... Walk ons starting on the OL. Pugh did not play today. Hopefully he will be ready for Northwestern.

Take all this and you end up with a boring game. Thankfully DM dialed up the play calling some in the second half and threw long a lot, making for some entertaining plays to watch,

The defense dominated the line of scrimmage and looked quite impressive. Jason Bromley in particular did damage pass rushing up the middle. Crume got some pressure on the QB a few timesan looked good inside. Welsh had a nice sack. Sharpe recovered a couple fumbles but was otherwise kind of quiet. Googins and Simmons? Don't remeber either being factors.

Before I go further, I haven't looked at the board yet but FYI, I tweeted play by play of the whole thing. Twitter name is sutomcat. While on the subject, many thanks to OE, OX and the others who helped me with spotting.

At LB, Dom Anene continues to make the most of his opportunities. He played well. Sto thought he was defensive player of the day. Thought Diet Tab was active and showed impressive speed and reaction time. Coker might be the best athlete we have at LB. Fast and very aggressive, Davis also ran well, made some good hits but doesn't look a lot bigger. First time seeing Virgile, who ran well and covers a lot of ground. Thought Vaughn did his usual capable but unspectacular job out there.

Shamarko Thomas made the biggest hits and looked like his old self. Strong effort by him. He is really jacked. Brandon Reddish looks athletic, probably our fastest CB and will be a force in the future. George also is a speedster bur needs to get stronger. Desir played CB, appeared to do well there. FS Wilkes was in the right spot a lot. Undersized but understands the position. Mungwa played a lot a the Okie position. Good athlete who has a way of being in the right place at the right time.

On offense, Nassib is miles in front of the other QBs. Threw the long ball much better today. Ran well, threw well, made good decisions. All done dealing with a heavy rush. Thought Loeb looked improved, making better decisions. Love his throwing motion. Loves to throw lobs. Sometimes throws them too much, his judgment can be bad at times. Kinder is not fast or athletic enough to beat defenders one on one. Throwing more accurately now, has some moxie and shows courage making tough throws over the middle. Broyld didn't take a snap at QB today. He might play there this fall but if he does, it will be running a different offense. Keep hearing that Hunt is the future. Maybe, time will tell.

At RB, Jerome Smith has added some muscle and is one of the most imposing athletes on the team. Big, strong, surprisingly fast and playing with a lot of confidence. PTG looks like he might take the 3rd down role Ant filled most of his career. Faster than Ant, not as good of a receiver. Broyld had a lot of snaps here and did a capable job but I think he is better getting the ball in space (as a WR or TE). Rene is quick and a good receiver but too small to get much PT here.

Broyld looked really good at WR. Big target, great at making people miss, threw Wilkes off him like he was a leaf. Sales is still very skinny and still lacks high end speed but as is his won't, he got open deep several times for. Big gains. Had a couple drops. Is well psitioned to be the # 2 WR o the team. Flemming had a fine game, made some tough catches over the middle. Kobena had a couple of catches. Looked improved, more assertive, should get lots of PT. Hale had one catch, is behind the others, needs to get stronger and more physical. Foster and West missed the game with injuries.

Wales looked good at TE. Stevens is #2. Beaulieu looks like #3 right now.

At OL, thought C Macky looked bigger and better. Phillips is #2 right now but Trudo will be the backup here. Chibane looked fit, made a bad penalty. Alexander worked at RT exclusively, has lost weight and moved well.

Special teams: Krautman made a PAT early, was not seen again. Licky missed 2 short FGs and Norton is probably already ahead of him as the backup PK. Fisher punted reasonably well. Dixon solid backup. No returns on punts but Rene appears to be #1 and Desir #2.

Saw Wayne Morgan and, I think, Ryan Norton walking around. Can't help with recruits at the game. Retro saw someone. Maybe he can provide details.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9300 using Tapatalk

 

[OrangePA]

Also thought Brandon Reddish looked solid in the secondary.

 

[orangepassion]

Thanks for the post!

 

[SWC75]

Should Loeb be pronounced as if the "E" was silent?

 

[Frozen]

Welsh had a nice sack.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

 

[sutomcat]

As expected, this was not a delightful spectacle to behold. It was pretty boring and ugly.

Vanilla offense. Lots of good players hurt... Walk ons starting on the OL. Pugh did not play today. Hopefully he will be ready for Northwestern.

Take all this and you end up with a boring game. Thankfully DM dialed up the play calling some in the second half and threw long a lot, making for some entertaining plays to watch,

The defense dominated the line of scrimmage and looked quite impressive. Jason Bromley in particular did damage pass rushing up the middle. Crume got some pressure on the QB a few timesan looked good inside. Welsh had a nice sack. Sharpe recovered a couple fumbles but was otherwise kind of quiet. Googins and Simmons? Don't remeber either being factors.

Before I go further, I haven't looked at the board yet but FYI, I tweeted play by play of the whole thing. Twitter name is sutomcat. While on the subject, many thanks to OE, OX and the others who helped me with spotting.

At LB, Dom Anene continues to make the most of his opportunities. He played well. Sto thought he was defensive player of the day. Thought Diet Tab was active and showed impressive speed and reaction time. Coker might be the best athlete we have at LB. Fast and very aggressive, Davis also ran well, made some good hits but doesn't look a lot bigger. First time seeing Virgile, who ran well and covers a lot of ground. Thought Vaughn did his usual capable but unspectacular job out there.

Shamarko Thomas made the biggest hits and looked like his old self. Strong effort by him. He is really jacked. Brandon Reddish looks athletic, probably our fastest CB and will be a force in the future. George also is a speedster bur needs to get stronger. Desir played CB, appeared to do well there. FS Wilkes was in the right spot a lot. Undersized but understands the position. Mungwa played a lot a the Okie position. Good athlete who has a way of being in the right place at the right time.

On offense, Nassib is miles in front of the other QBs. Threw the long ball much better today. Ran well, threw well, made good decisions. All done dealing with a heavy rush. Thought Loeb looked improved, making better decisions. Love his throwing motion. Loves to throw lobs. Sometimes throws them too much, his judgment can be bad at times. Kinder is not fast or athletic enough to beat defenders one on one. Throwing more accurately now, has some moxie and shows courage making tough throws over the middle. Broyld didn't take a snap at QB today. He might play there this fall but if he does, it will be running a different offense. Keep hearing that Hunt is the future. Maybe, time will tell.

At RB, Jerome Smith has added some muscle and is one of the most imposing athletes on the team. Big, strong, surprisingly fast and playing with a lot of confidence. PTG looks like he might take the 3rd down role Ant filled most of his career. Faster than Ant, not as good of a receiver. Broyld had a lot of snaps here and did a capable job but I think he is better getting the ball in space (as a WR or TE). Rene is quick and a good receiver but too small to get much PT here.

Broyld looked really good at WR. Big target, great at making people miss, threw Wilkes off him like he was a leaf. Sales is still very skinny and still lacks high end speed but as is his won't, he got open deep several times for. Big gains. Had a couple drops. Is well psitioned to be the # 2 WR o the team. Flemming had a fine game, made some tough catches over the middle. Kobena had a couple of catches. Looked improved, more assertive, should get lots of PT. Hale had one catch, is behind the others, needs to get stronger and more physical. Foster and West missed the game with injuries.

Wales looked good at TE. Stevens is #2. Beaulieu looks like #3 right now.

At OL, thought C Macky looked bigger and better. Phillips is #2 right now but Trudo will be the backup here. Chibane looked fit, made a bad penalty. Alexander worked at RT exclusively, has lost weight and moved well.

Special teams: Krautman made a PAT early, was not seen again. Licky missed 2 short FGs and Norton is probably already ahead of him as the backup PK. Fisher punted reasonably well. Dixon solid backup. No returns on punts but Rene appears to be #1 and Desir #2.

Saw Wayne Morgan and, I think, Ryan Norton walking around. Can't help with recruits at the game. Retro saw someone. Maybe he can provide details.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9300 using Tapatalk

I didn't talk about Sloan on my initial post. He has lost weight and is moving well. Physical kid who made a couple of nice hard tackles. I think it is hard to make definitive statements after watching a spring game. The staff looked like they treated it as a wasted practice. Show some vanilla stuff to the damned fans and try not to get anyone hurt. I think they only used 2 or 3 patterns passing the ball all game, with the exception of the one play where Nassib threw to Broyld behind the line of scrimmage, then ran along the line of scrimmage away from Ashton, got the return pass and ran for around 20 yards. That was Ashton's one pass and it was a good one.

Because there two 2 split squads, I can't give who lined up on the first team or the second team. They have so many players unable to play, some players played on both units anyway.

Overall impressions:

* More players hurt than I have ever seen for a spring game
* A bunch of young players have lost a lot of weight and have positioned themselves with likely roles on the two deep. These include Foy, who might have been our best OG on the field (thought he ran the best of them anyway) and Sloan, who I have already talked about. Alexander has also slimmed down markedly from last season, is moving better and will be in the middle of a big battle for a starting position at OT (with Hickey and Curtis).
* Broyld is the playmaker we expected. Needs to be on the field as much as possible. A little bigger and faster version of RU's Sanu, he is a fun player to watch when he gets the ball in the open field. I think playing him at RB is an awful decision, he is okay there but I would much rather see him playing QB in a new offense designed for his talents, or at TE/WR, where he can better take advantage of his size and athletic ability. The only reason I can think why they are doing this is because they are worried that if Smith gets hurt (he has had concussions and still runs high/will be prone to them in the future), they are in trouble. But AAM should address that.
* The defense is fast and athletic. Looks like our DL will be bigger and more physical, better at occupying blockers in 2012. The LBs are fast and athletic but we had no one out there at LB with good D1 size, no one with a remote chance of playing in the NFL. We have to do a better job recruiting LBs with decent size and speed/athletic ability. Clone Broyld? It will help when Spruill returns this fall. Disappointed that Davis doesn't look much bigger, was not more dominant out there.
* Signs of improyement from the young WRs. Flemming had a coming out party of sorts yesterday. He has excellent size, good hands and runs well. I think his problem is that he isn't as physical as the staff would like. Wanted the ball yesterday, got open and got it. His strength is getting throws over the middle. Kobena is getting stronger and tougher and looks more comfortable this year. Still runs really well. I think he will be in the rotation and contribute. Hale had a catch in the spring game but didn't get many reps and I think he is still adjusting to college ball. Sales is still in the 170 pound range, not really fast or strong but he has good hands (the drops in the spring game were out of character for him) and finds seams in zones well. It is a shame Foster and West missed the game and part of spring ball. I expected both of those guys to be in the rotation as well. In the end, if Lemon is able to play this season, this unit will be better. If he doesn't, we are in a world of hurt. There is a huge dropoff from him to the other WRs on the team.
* Our offense is very TE centric but we don't have the athletes there to take advantage of this. Wales is adequate, but is never going to be a YAC type guy. Stevens runs well and can be a matchup problem for a LB, but he isn't really agile, lacks moves and is still somewhat of a liability as a blocker. We desperately need to get someone at this position who is a top notch athlete. Clone Broyld? If Ashton is not going to play QB, I would rather see him at TE than WR, 1) because I think we have more depth at WR than TE and 2) because he would be more effective matching up against LBs than CBs most of the time.

 

[retro44]

could ron thompson be that broyld clone? it will be interesting to see him run this fall.

 

[rocklloyd]

Thanks for updates. Got there late because of daughter's youth lacrosse practice. Missed the broyld play, but picked up highlights online

Here is where I'm at. This game/practice or whatever you want to call it gives virtually no indication of how they'll play in the fall. Does it highlight areas of concern? 100% yes. But I'm not going to jump off any bridges at this point. Far too many injuries to core players. Also missing some key freshmen who i think have a shot making a 2 deep. I was mostly looking at the physical maturation of the younger players. Are they getting bigger, faster and stronger. I think the answer is yes.

I remember 5 or 6 years ago the 3rd string qb (Matt hale, I think) looked like troy aikman in the spring practice. Completing all kinds of deeps passes The running joke all year between my buddies was bring in hale. So I don't this this game is an indication of our qb readiness. That said Nassib is the guy. Like it or not.

They have work to do. They have to adjust the offense to match the personnel and not be stubborn about it. Can't fit round peg into square hole, without bashing the crap out of it. If line can't give time for receivers to get open, then change the plan to buy more time. My sense is that this change of heart is happening behind closed doors.

 

[All4SU]

Why were so many of the long balls Moon Shots? Is that our plan, just put every long ball up there and hope they can run under them?

- Thought that Dixon punted very well.
- Welsh looked solid -- of course, perhaps the OL was lacking.

 

[kingottoiii]

Why were so many of the long balls Moon Shots? Is that our plan, just put every long ball up there and hope they can run under them?

- Thought that Dixon punted very well.
- Welsh looked solid -- of course, perhaps the OL was lacking.

IMO that was a function of the OL not being able to block. Can't run a functional O if the DL is in the QBs face every play.

 

[RF2044]

IMO that was a function of the OL not being able to block. Can't run a functional O if the DL is in the QBs face every play.

That's a recurring issue with this team. OL has been a liability for many years.

There are two recent developments that give me hope. One, we've got a lot of athletes in the pipeline now at OL, so the numbers have begun to improve there. Two, starting last year, they finally got to the point where they were able to redshirt all of the incoming OL. OL need more time to develop, so this was important.

But I agree with your premise--tough to run a functional offense with an OL that can't run block or pass block.

 

[SWC75]

Doesn't it seem as if we always have a bunch of guys injured-- moreso than most teams? It seems to have been a chonic problem in recent years.

 

[SmilinBob]

Agree, the oline was dreadful but did "seem" to improve as the game went on and qb's can't do their thing and the wr's/te's have no time to do theirs...probably why so many short passes, again.

Tough just to parse one simple 40 minute event but I saw a lot of what we've seen for the past 4 years with no real improvement. I think the speed is on d and they will be the ones to keep this team around 500 or so and the offense will be the ones that determine if Su's 8-4 to 4-8.

Stevens is not a TE, he's a tall end and a decent player. I think the wr group will be better if and only if the oline steps up and gets better and I think they will if they remain injury free. Lemon, Sales, Stevens, Kobena plus whoever else steps up will be solid. Wales will be fine but I'm not sure on how well the TE's can block.

Kinder holds the ball way too loosely for me...I like the way they let the qb's get constant snaps. Loeb missed on an open guy which hurt. The interception was in Stevens hands but popped out and was there but there were constantly 3 guys around the one long receivers.

The blocked punt with no one rushing bugged me...jk.

Reddish tripped on a long pass and had the speed to catch up and break up an under thrown ball, no speed it's a td or long gain. This d has talent and is deep for as far as I can see. I expect the special teams to be good unless they really do want to catch the ball on the 4 yard line on punts then eh...the coach slapped 5 with the player after doing so so I had to think he was happy he made a nice catch because you teach not to catch it there.

Smith will be fine as will Gulley, tough runners but no real speed. I'd like to see more of Hale, can't quite figure him out yet. Ashton has skill and I watched him play catch, nice paws on him. A play maker indeed and seems to love the game.

Still not impressed with Wilkes. Does something good and then yikes. I think this team has more talent in the DB and he needs to step up. Diabate is a player, love to see him at safety.

I like the dt's, I think the best we've had in a while. I just hope it wasn't our oline that made them look good.

Dixon has a heck of a leg...some potential there. I would like to see how he'd kick off a tee.

But the most important part is the o-line. They need to improve and I trust Marrone and if he says they have been, I believe him but...if I see a mess this year like last year, especially with blitzes then I will not forgive and I will blame this staff but let me say that I will not be the one that breaks this peace.

 

[kingottoiii]

But the most important part is the o-line. They need to improve and I trust Marrone and if he says they have been, I believe him but...if I see a mess this year like last year, especially with blitzes then I will not forgive and I will blame this staff but let me say that I will not be the one that breaks this peace.

This will be a believe it when I see it issue for me. Last year we heard reports about how great the OL was doing in Summer camp and how they were a strength of the team. That could not have been more wrong. They were an major liability all year long, even in game one.

The good news:
-Pugh is a good player
-We have 3 OL coaches
-Mackey and Chibane could make leaps as they have been in the program for several years

The bad news:
-Mackey and Chibane have/had a long way to go. How much will they improve and will it be enough?
-Chibane regressed last year. What was up with that?
-We have no clue what to expect from the ride side of the OL
-Foy/Trudo are still very young and likely not ready, yet one will likely start.

IMO all the quick throws into the flat and all the QB roll outs we saw early last year were to mask the fact that our OL stunk. When teams figured that out they took it away and we had no counter the 2nd half of the year. If the OL isn't better this year, what can/will we do?

 

[SmilinBob]

No doubt some of the roll outs and dumps are because of pressure. I'd love, absolutely love to see our qb's with time and receivers time and they could do their things to show us what they have instead of rushing around and not being able to complete their assignments.

 

[Scooch]

I've been an SU fan since 1991 and I can count on one alligator-ravaged hand the times that our OL was a strength.

I'm not holding my breath.

 

[JeremyCuse]

This will be a believe it when I see it issue for me. Last year we heard reports about how great the OL was doing in Summer camp and how they were a strength of the team. That could not have been more wrong. They were an major liability all year long, even in game one.

The good news:
-Pugh is a good player
-We have 3 OL coaches
-Mackey and Chibane could make leaps as they have been in the program for several years

The bad news:
-Mackey and Chibane have/had a long way to go. How much will they improve and will it be enough?
-Chibane regressed last year. What was up with that?
-We have no clue what to expect from the ride side of the OL
-Foy/Trudo are still very young and likely not ready, yet one will likely start.

IMO all the quick throws into the flat and all the QB roll outs we saw early last year were to mask the fact that our OL stunk. When teams figured that out they took it away and we had no counter the 2nd half of the year. If the OL isn't better this year, what can/will we do?

Good post, your last paragraph about the QB roll outs is spot on we used that play to exhaustion last year.

 

[RF2044]

I've been an SU fan since 1991 and I can count on one alligator-ravaged hand the times that our OL was a strength.

I'm not holding my breath.

There is no reason why SU can't and shouldn't have a competent, functional offensive line.

None whatsoever.

 

[SmilinBob]

Forgot Nassib...same in most ways but did see the longer passes with some air on them instead of firing them long and no one has a chance to catch it.

 

[SmilinBob]

There is no reason why SU can't and shouldn't have a functional offensive line.

None whatsoever.

This is where I was most excited about the Marrone hire, it does take a little time but this year we need this to be stepped up.

 

[Scooch]

There is no reason why SU can't and shouldn't have a competent, functional offensive line.

None whatsoever.

I certainly don't disagree.

I've just seen little evidence in 20 years to expect it.

At our best during the heyday of DeLeone we had good run blocking and occassionally adequate pass blocking. I'm sure some of that was by design since we liked to let Graves and McNabb run.

Since McNabb left the OL has largely been lousy.

It's a mystery since BC, with whom we share a very similar institutional profile and recruiting region, typically puts good OLs on the field.

 

[RF2044]

This is where I was most excited about the Marrone hire, it does take a little time but this year we need this to be stepped up.

Ditto--I thought that his background would help rectify what has been a recurring issue for our program. Thus far, it hasn't happened, but the numbers on OL are improving. Still hoping that Marrone can turn this weakness into a relative team strength at some point.

 

[SmilinBob]

The athletic qb's saved the olines life when it came to pass blocking back in the Deleone days.

 

[SmilinBob]

Ditto--I thought that his background would help rectify what has been a recurring issue for our program. Thus far, it hasn't happened, but the numbers on OL are improving. Still hoping that Marrone can turn this weakness into a relative team strength at some point.

I think it will be too and hopefully the injury bug stays away so we can see the true results.

 

[RF2044]

I certainly don't disagree.

I've just seen little evidence in 20 years to expect it.

At our best during the heyday of DeLeone we had good run blocking and occassionally adequate pass blocking. I'm sure some of that was by design since we liked to let Graves and McNabb run.

Since McNabb left the OL has largely been lousy.

It's a mystery since BC, with whom we share a very similar institutional profile and recruiting region, typically puts good OLs on the field.

Agree 100% across the board. And I'm cool with us not getting to BC level [in terms of having NFL draft picks year in, year out], provided that the OL can be functional.

Also agree that having Graves / McNabb masked a lot of sins on the OL back in the day. It has been a LONG time since we've had competent OL play. And having to patchwork together an OL with inadequate depth sure hasn't helped these past few years.