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I have a couple confessions to make. I usually take notes and watch every play of a game before writing these. This week, I did neither. TIFWIW. This writing represents one half of offensive football, albeit a single half watched very intently in two different sittings.
Usually, I like to start by seeing what the defense is doing in an effort to stop us. This week is no different. I don't want to disparage their coaching staff, because they know their roster better than I do, but I am having trouble understanding why they aligned in the following way: they came out with 4 down linemen and 3 LBs very close behind, with the boundary side OLB sometimes lining up at the LOS outside the DE, making a 5 man line. I have seen this many times before. But here comes the funny part. For the entire first half they took the S on the field side and moved him all the way up to the field side slot about 3-4 yards off the LOS, whether or not we had a player lined up there, seemingly in an effort to control the pitch lane to the wide side. Then, typically, the boundary side S played all the way over to the hash about 8-10 yards off the LOS depending on down and distance. As you can imagine, this left the entire middle of the field wide open past the shallow LBs. This alignment screams a lack confidence in their defensive speed in the back 7 and trust in their interior guys. Considering this, it is no surprise we had a couple run outs up the gut and a ton of BB yards. In terms of numbers alone, they were weak up the middle and heavy outside the hashes.
I need to learn our roster better and jersey numbers. There has been a lot of change. On to the position groups. I'll start with the O-Line.
Personally, I don't think we started out too cleanly with this group. However, things tightened up as the game went on. I know, officially, we had no penalties, but I saw two very obvious chop block penalties that went uncalled, one actually 10 yards down field on a LB and one on the interior. Both were very dangerous looking and born out of wrong assignments rather than malicious intent IMHO. I can't remember who was involved in the first (no notes) but the second was Will Bryan running back toward the inside after releasing a guy at the LOS, losing his balance a little and slamming into (without being pushed) the very back of the legs of an engaged defender. I cringed big time when I saw this. It was as dangerous looking a chop play as you will see. Fortunately everybody is OK. I am going to talk about a couple rookies first. Will Bryan #70! I can't tell you how excited I am about this kid. I have never seen him play. He just blew me away. He has a burst off the LOS that is uncommon for a guy his size. He is tenacious, very physical, and fast as all get out. I thought he protected well and projects to be an outstanding and famous player for us. Wow, just wow. I had no idea. I also really liked Trey Klock. He moves great too and plays with a lot of effort. He looks bigger than last year, but also needs to continue growing. Perhaps he is our #3 guard right now, but a very strong back up that deserves a lot of snaps. Shamire has made strides, huge strides in fact. He is our most effective blocker overall, but also our least consistent. It is comical what he does with people when he makes contact. The problem is, he appears to take certain plays off along the way. He let a couple guys get up under him in short yardage totally negating his push. You just can't have that. I thought he pulled better than last year and had enough stamina to race down field when he needed to. He covered more space than I was used to seeing last year. It is obvious the staff wants to play him in to shape because they left him out there and had Klock spell Braun instead. Overall, we are big (bigger than last year)and we are a force. Things bode well once we clean up a few things.
I like what I saw out of the WRs. Between them and the ABs, I would say the WRs had a better day blocking. June and Summers totally controlled their guys with their stand up game. It was an absolute mismatch at times. Although it is a small sample size, I was underwhelmed by Stewart in this regard. He failed to get correct angles on his guy and got chucked to the turf by a safety once as well. He appears strong enough to do it, I just don't think the technique has been honed at this point in time. We didn't throw a lot, but we made plays when the ball was in the air. We will be OK. I don't have a high opinion of the guys they had playing on the boundary so we still need to see how we fare against some physical fast CBs.
The AB group has a totally different feel to it this year, but I really like what we have. In terms of blocking a this point, meh. We got some guys on the ground, but I don't think their kids were really well schooled at defeating cut blocks in space either, like we typically see from Bud Foster's group. Having watched their technique and how the actual blocks took place in space, I am a little less settled than I want to be. My gut tells me, without improvement, we may see a drop off against the good teams compared to last year in this regard. The angles and timing just weren't as good and we didn't really "get into" their legs like you want to see against that level of athlete. When you do it right, you block "through" people and not just "too" them, if you know what I mean. With that said, I think this year's group is far superior in terms of fluid athleticism and versatility. Half our AB group would be really good WRs if they wanted to. Searcy and T. Marshall have as good a pair of hands and are as fluid, slippery and fast as you ever want to see. I expected it out of Searcy because of the scrimmages I have seen him play. Marshall took me by surprise totally. I love watching that kid. He is smooth but he also plays with an attitude. He is all hustle and works his butt off down field trying to help when he doesn't have the ball. I can see why he is playing. These two are going to be very well thought of years from now. Snoddy still looks the part and Lynch and Willis are both solid players. Call me crazy, but I really like Jordan at AB. He probably blocked better than the others and is surprisingly tough kid. He is going to work out there if you ask me.
The BB's had a great day, but after looking at how the defense was aligned, it was predictable. At this point, I think Skov would be my starter, despite the yardage disparity. When the ball is in his hands, every bit of his body language suggests that he values possession of it. It is locked away like a vice grip with proper "high and tight" (sorry for the Marine reference) posture. IMHO, he gives us everything Days did. He is a big body, with some decent lean and leg drive. He is at least as fast as Days and just as punishing. After watching just a single game against a lesser opponent, I think Skov is the best blocker we have in the skill positions. I love his technique, size and toughness, especially in the pass pro mode. Obviously he was well schooled in this regard having four years of pro style under his belt. M.Marshall had a great day, to be sure. Obviously he gives us something that we haven't had for a while up the middle. He is a powder keg waiting to go off. I saw everything I expected to see based on a recent HS film review. He stays in contact with the ground, has great vision, and explodes out of cuts. He is "special". That word gets thrown around a lot, I know, but he is. However, until he tightens up a few things, I think his role should be as a "change up" back. He is the best pure runner of the football we have had in years, but you have to be good, and reliable, in all phases to be a starter that the ENTIRE TEAM is pinning their hopes on. At the moment, he is too risky. Just like JT was in 2013. He will figure it out. When he does, he will pass any player we have on the depth chart.
We are stacked at QB and we know it. There were three bonehead plays by our top two QBs. JT on the busted screen where he ran backwards instead of chucking the ball into the ground. JT on the long passing attempt to Stewart where he hesitated, threw off time, and forced into a bad situation. A good DB picks that pass. Byerly made as bad a read as you will see on his first play, handing the ball to the BB right into the face of the unblocked defender. Other than those three plays, it was really solid. We know what we have here. I'm not gonna spend any more time on it.
To sum things up, it is really hard to know what to take away from games like this. I just tried to watch intently, evaluate the opponent, and then project how we would have faired against more equal foes. Such things are not easy to do. My gut tells me, we continue to get better in most areas as a program. First and perhaps foremost, I feel we are bigger and stronger. Returning players are noticeably so. New players, for the most part, are very athletic, possibly even more so than departing players. We absolutely overwhelmed the Braves with our size, depth, and athleticism, while not with the quality of our play, well, at least some of the time anyway. Call me crazy, but I think we have the potential to be just as effective as last year (which was a historical high for our program and most of CFB) on this side of the ball.
Usually, I like to start by seeing what the defense is doing in an effort to stop us. This week is no different. I don't want to disparage their coaching staff, because they know their roster better than I do, but I am having trouble understanding why they aligned in the following way: they came out with 4 down linemen and 3 LBs very close behind, with the boundary side OLB sometimes lining up at the LOS outside the DE, making a 5 man line. I have seen this many times before. But here comes the funny part. For the entire first half they took the S on the field side and moved him all the way up to the field side slot about 3-4 yards off the LOS, whether or not we had a player lined up there, seemingly in an effort to control the pitch lane to the wide side. Then, typically, the boundary side S played all the way over to the hash about 8-10 yards off the LOS depending on down and distance. As you can imagine, this left the entire middle of the field wide open past the shallow LBs. This alignment screams a lack confidence in their defensive speed in the back 7 and trust in their interior guys. Considering this, it is no surprise we had a couple run outs up the gut and a ton of BB yards. In terms of numbers alone, they were weak up the middle and heavy outside the hashes.
I need to learn our roster better and jersey numbers. There has been a lot of change. On to the position groups. I'll start with the O-Line.
Personally, I don't think we started out too cleanly with this group. However, things tightened up as the game went on. I know, officially, we had no penalties, but I saw two very obvious chop block penalties that went uncalled, one actually 10 yards down field on a LB and one on the interior. Both were very dangerous looking and born out of wrong assignments rather than malicious intent IMHO. I can't remember who was involved in the first (no notes) but the second was Will Bryan running back toward the inside after releasing a guy at the LOS, losing his balance a little and slamming into (without being pushed) the very back of the legs of an engaged defender. I cringed big time when I saw this. It was as dangerous looking a chop play as you will see. Fortunately everybody is OK. I am going to talk about a couple rookies first. Will Bryan #70! I can't tell you how excited I am about this kid. I have never seen him play. He just blew me away. He has a burst off the LOS that is uncommon for a guy his size. He is tenacious, very physical, and fast as all get out. I thought he protected well and projects to be an outstanding and famous player for us. Wow, just wow. I had no idea. I also really liked Trey Klock. He moves great too and plays with a lot of effort. He looks bigger than last year, but also needs to continue growing. Perhaps he is our #3 guard right now, but a very strong back up that deserves a lot of snaps. Shamire has made strides, huge strides in fact. He is our most effective blocker overall, but also our least consistent. It is comical what he does with people when he makes contact. The problem is, he appears to take certain plays off along the way. He let a couple guys get up under him in short yardage totally negating his push. You just can't have that. I thought he pulled better than last year and had enough stamina to race down field when he needed to. He covered more space than I was used to seeing last year. It is obvious the staff wants to play him in to shape because they left him out there and had Klock spell Braun instead. Overall, we are big (bigger than last year)and we are a force. Things bode well once we clean up a few things.
I like what I saw out of the WRs. Between them and the ABs, I would say the WRs had a better day blocking. June and Summers totally controlled their guys with their stand up game. It was an absolute mismatch at times. Although it is a small sample size, I was underwhelmed by Stewart in this regard. He failed to get correct angles on his guy and got chucked to the turf by a safety once as well. He appears strong enough to do it, I just don't think the technique has been honed at this point in time. We didn't throw a lot, but we made plays when the ball was in the air. We will be OK. I don't have a high opinion of the guys they had playing on the boundary so we still need to see how we fare against some physical fast CBs.
The AB group has a totally different feel to it this year, but I really like what we have. In terms of blocking a this point, meh. We got some guys on the ground, but I don't think their kids were really well schooled at defeating cut blocks in space either, like we typically see from Bud Foster's group. Having watched their technique and how the actual blocks took place in space, I am a little less settled than I want to be. My gut tells me, without improvement, we may see a drop off against the good teams compared to last year in this regard. The angles and timing just weren't as good and we didn't really "get into" their legs like you want to see against that level of athlete. When you do it right, you block "through" people and not just "too" them, if you know what I mean. With that said, I think this year's group is far superior in terms of fluid athleticism and versatility. Half our AB group would be really good WRs if they wanted to. Searcy and T. Marshall have as good a pair of hands and are as fluid, slippery and fast as you ever want to see. I expected it out of Searcy because of the scrimmages I have seen him play. Marshall took me by surprise totally. I love watching that kid. He is smooth but he also plays with an attitude. He is all hustle and works his butt off down field trying to help when he doesn't have the ball. I can see why he is playing. These two are going to be very well thought of years from now. Snoddy still looks the part and Lynch and Willis are both solid players. Call me crazy, but I really like Jordan at AB. He probably blocked better than the others and is surprisingly tough kid. He is going to work out there if you ask me.
The BB's had a great day, but after looking at how the defense was aligned, it was predictable. At this point, I think Skov would be my starter, despite the yardage disparity. When the ball is in his hands, every bit of his body language suggests that he values possession of it. It is locked away like a vice grip with proper "high and tight" (sorry for the Marine reference) posture. IMHO, he gives us everything Days did. He is a big body, with some decent lean and leg drive. He is at least as fast as Days and just as punishing. After watching just a single game against a lesser opponent, I think Skov is the best blocker we have in the skill positions. I love his technique, size and toughness, especially in the pass pro mode. Obviously he was well schooled in this regard having four years of pro style under his belt. M.Marshall had a great day, to be sure. Obviously he gives us something that we haven't had for a while up the middle. He is a powder keg waiting to go off. I saw everything I expected to see based on a recent HS film review. He stays in contact with the ground, has great vision, and explodes out of cuts. He is "special". That word gets thrown around a lot, I know, but he is. However, until he tightens up a few things, I think his role should be as a "change up" back. He is the best pure runner of the football we have had in years, but you have to be good, and reliable, in all phases to be a starter that the ENTIRE TEAM is pinning their hopes on. At the moment, he is too risky. Just like JT was in 2013. He will figure it out. When he does, he will pass any player we have on the depth chart.
We are stacked at QB and we know it. There were three bonehead plays by our top two QBs. JT on the busted screen where he ran backwards instead of chucking the ball into the ground. JT on the long passing attempt to Stewart where he hesitated, threw off time, and forced into a bad situation. A good DB picks that pass. Byerly made as bad a read as you will see on his first play, handing the ball to the BB right into the face of the unblocked defender. Other than those three plays, it was really solid. We know what we have here. I'm not gonna spend any more time on it.
To sum things up, it is really hard to know what to take away from games like this. I just tried to watch intently, evaluate the opponent, and then project how we would have faired against more equal foes. Such things are not easy to do. My gut tells me, we continue to get better in most areas as a program. First and perhaps foremost, I feel we are bigger and stronger. Returning players are noticeably so. New players, for the most part, are very athletic, possibly even more so than departing players. We absolutely overwhelmed the Braves with our size, depth, and athleticism, while not with the quality of our play, well, at least some of the time anyway. Call me crazy, but I think we have the potential to be just as effective as last year (which was a historical high for our program and most of CFB) on this side of the ball.
