Spring Game Impressions

[danny daniel]

Did the TE transfer from uga play? I was there but couldn’t tell...

yes, #80 played early in the game.

 

[LargeFO]

Did the TE transfer from uga play? I was there but couldn’t tell...

Yea, I saw him a few times on the stream

 

[CuseJacket]

Among those not dressed to play yesterday -

• TE Ben Postma
• WR James BlackStrain
• LB Andre White

 

[g0lftime]

Long dropped an open throw for a sure TD but made a couple of other catches. Ward made a couple of catches. Benson must be injured. He was not in pads and neither was Efford. Boyd looked like he got a hip pointer on a catch but came back in later.
It's hard to tell much from the game other than the QB position looked pretty even to me. Felix is a good RB. The freshman RB had a couple of good runs.

 

[GT33]

I'm looking forward to the Louisville game. Louisville is going to be good, but they're not Clemson or Georgia. I think we win the opener. That would be a great start. I'm hearing season ticket sales are up.

I like our chances as well against Louisville. As far as season tickets sales go they better damn well be up. We’ve got the mutts at home AND a new coach. AND This coach didn’t bend over backwards to piss off every existing fan.

 

[JacketFan137]

idk if it was just for the scrimmage to get the qbs some live reps, but it felt like we are more willing to air it out than we’ve been in a longggggg time. i would imagine our stat lines are gonna look much closer to big 12 lines with 30-40 pass attempts per game if we continue that rate.

we are also gonna be moving FAST on offense. don’t think there will be a lot of huddling for us.

lockett and biggers look leaner and meaner and we are gonna be a nightmare to run on in the middle of the field

 

[Randy Carson]

Because I'm just not willing to let it go. This is what HCBK has assembled on the coaching staff.

 

[SOWEGA Jacket]

I saw 3 TE’s with potential. Ward caught everything thrown to him including an awesome one handed catch that was thrown behind him. You’ll see it on the replay. Long, other than the TD drop, shows why he’ll be very good as an upperclassman. And Seither didn’t transfer here to sit. Those 3 give me plenty of hope. And yes, Donte is the clear starter. He didn’t play much probably by design as the coaches don’t need to see him since he started all last year. What I want to see are some of the defensive players we’ve been hearing about since they committed. I saw several in street clothes on the sideline. That was disappointing. I can see next year being a big defensive transfer portal push if some of our guys continue to just take up space on the bench.

 

[iceeater1969]

idk if it was just for the scrimmage to get the qbs some live reps, but it felt like we are more willing to air it out than we’ve been in a longggggg time. i would imagine our stat lines are gonna look much closer to big 12 lines with 30-40 pass attempts per game if we continue that rate.

we are also gonna be moving FAST on offense. don’t think there will be a lot of huddling for us.

lockett and biggers look leaner and meaner and we are gonna be a nightmare to run on in the middle of the field

In the trenches, "Iron" really does sharpens "Iron".
We have quality sized players at every position on ol and dl.
(In past the dl was a little small so in practice the young ol didn't get a real picture of what would happen in game sutuation.)

I was very pleased that there was basic straight on rushing and blocking-- guys straight into each other and the competition was aggressive looked about equal.

(Sure hope the quality is there.)
If it is, we are going to get way better IN PRACTICE on our offensive line and defensive line.
In college football a well balanced ( young to old and right sized ) can effectively practice to become a lot better every practice .
Hope is here that we can be tough in the trenches

 

[Sheboygan]

In the trenches, "Iron" really does sharpens "Iron".
We have quality sized players at every position on ol and dl.
(In past the dl was a little small so in practice the young ol didn't get a real picture of what would happen in game sutuation.)

I was very pleased that there was basic straight on rushing and blocking-- guys straight into each other and the competition was aggressive looked about equal.

(Sure hope the quality is there.)
If it is, we are going to get way better IN PRACTICE on our offensive line and defensive line.
In college football a well balanced ( young to old and right sized ) can effectively practice to become a lot better every practice .
Hope is here that we can be tough in the trenches

Agree completely. We have not had competitive OL vs DL practices in quite a while, IMO.

 

[Sheboygan]

idk if it was just for the scrimmage to get the qbs some live reps, but it felt like we are more willing to air it out than we’ve been in a longggggg time. i would imagine our stat lines are gonna look much closer to big 12 lines with 30-40 pass attempts per game if we continue that rate.

we are also gonna be moving FAST on offense. don’t think there will be a lot of huddling for us.

lockett and biggers look leaner and meaner and we are gonna be a nightmare to run on in the middle of the field

" we are gonna be a nightmare to run on in the middle of the field" I can only hope you are right on this. We haven't been even a mildly bad dream for anyone in such a long time , but i love the optimism.

 

[iceeater1969]

Agree completely. We have not had competitive OL vs DL practices in quite a while, IMO.

Before TFP we had greater disparity between our lean ol and the dl. The dl played a straight up defense w little trickery = bend but dont break. I was very critical that we didnt play way more aggressive defense- one like last year under thacker. I wanted to get the ball back to our offense so they could wear out the opponents defense.
L Since we didnt practice against large ol guys we would have been more effective if we tried to make them make mistakes And we werent exhausted in 4th quarter.
Coach johnson was great at managing the issue and we played well in most games.

 

[UgaBlows]

lockett and biggers look leaner and meaner and we are gonna be a nightmare to run on in the middle of the field

I sat in the North end zone and noticed those two wide-bodied BIG dudes on the DL, you can’t call us undersized there anymore

 

[JacketFan137]

I sat in the North end zone and noticed those two wide-bodied BIG dudes on the DL, you can’t call us undersized there anymore

yeah and they looked like they were moving well too. even saw zeke making tackles by the sideline.

amazing to see him doing that compared to where he was when he got on campus. guy has really put in the work on his game

 

[1979jacket]

would love to see a depth chart. Understand that it is preliminary

 

[kg01]

would love to see a depth chart. Understand that it is preliminary

You dyin' to see who's.... above the line?

 

[awbuzz]

...Pyron needs to get a higher trajectory on his passes.

... Oh, and all of our QBs tend to stare down their targets.

These two were exactly what I commented to my son.

 

[iceeater1969]

These two were exactly what I commented to my son.

How bout a more positive take.
The defense was restricted. Once the offense was in presnap the hot routes and hot receivers are set. So at snap the qb picked the target and wr ran the route and qb let fly.

Looked like they were WAY WAY better at QUICKLY getting open looks.

I will record the replay of game on Tuesday ACCN and study
how many times qb s forced a throw into coverage but missed a wide open receiver.

To me watching on my phone - the qb s QUICKLY.
got the ball out and to the receivers. Being at game gives better visibility

 

[Josh H]

Thanks for posting the replay. Sad I couldn't make the game as I had a commitment at a cancer walk. A few my thoughts from watching the replay:

- You can really see Faulkner's Air Raid roots on the offense. I couldn't necessarily confirm any of the staple concepts (other than Four Verticals) but there looks to be a real commitment to getting the ball out fast to the playmakers in space. This is what I really wanted to watch for as I feel like GT might have a commitment to the passing game that we haven't seen in...um...20+ years?
- To an untrained eye, most of the runs were up the middle, which is likely the "Dive" play from the MTSU offense (). Not an X's and O's guy, so would appreciate a second take. But with Key yelling out "Hit the middle" we seem committed to being able to run up the middle.
- Nice to see the TE's getting involved in the offense. A couple of drops, but also a few really nice one-hand catches
- I think we have potential to be scary in the slot, with Leary and Rutherford and with Chase Lane still coming in the summer. I think Rutherford lined up outside as well. The real key is to find those big bodies outside. If Boyd and D.J. Moore can make some noise there, it could get exciting. But the slots are where it's at in the Air Raid.
- Nice to see the RB's get get action in the passing game

All in all, looks like Key put on an "exciting show" without a lot of the gimmicks from the former guy. Obviously, the reads for the QBs will be a lot harder against a defense allowed to call an actual gameplan.

 

[GTBandit22]

My thoughts:
OL did a great job in pass pro, hard to know since we are playing ourselves but it was encouraging. Edge blocking wasn’t great but interior was solid.

King was really impressive. The first drive especially, he was money. Iron sharpens iron at QB, and we have three guys with d1 snaps. Pyron will have a big battle on his hands.

Dante looks bigger, nice red zone td run through arm tackles. Cooley, Dickens, Felix all made some plays. Wonder if Martin was hurt. Not an embarrassment of riches like we have had in the past, but they all can play. Buster seems to like using the rb in the passing game, so reps are there to those that excel. Cooley and Dickens made some plays there.

WR, in my opinion, of those that played, looks like DJ Moore is the man. Crazy how we went from all these 6’5 monsters last year to smaller guys, but it looks like we upgraded the speed department. But DJ looks like a freak. Rutherford will be the starting slot with Haynes in there too, but pencil in DJ on one side.

Defense it’s tough to tell. I think we aren’t deep there again and have to make some strides. Tough to tell with all the player subbing and vanilla calls. I will say I don’t see a keion white out there, so we may have to get creative with blitzing. Oliver looks the part. Corner may be our weakest position group on D.