Heading over...won't be roaming around much, under doctor's orders to be a couch potato for another 12 hours or so, so I will ease into my seat and try to be well mannered...
Time? Place?
Just got back. Scrimmage went well. Had one receiver (Ross Goodlett) get pulled down close to the sideline forced him out for the rest of the scrimmage and #64 Ben Duhon looked to be cramping a lot. Besides that no injuries.
Offense looked good in flashes but couldn't close the deal inside the 30. Best play was a nice 40+ yd TD pass by Blaine Gautier to Marlin Miller. It was a good throw and a great catch. I was very impressed with Gautier. He was very good about staying in the pocket and stepping up to make throws. Probably had close to the most completions. Of course he was also a great runner. He can convert short 3rd downs all day. Only bad play was taking a sack once. McGuire looked very solid as the 1st team QB. Masson had ups and downs and Brady Thomas was the 4th string. Threw the ball pretty well but he is really small. Keldric White was the best runner of the ball. He's like a gazelle out there.
Running backs did ok but no one broke any long runs. I really like how Booker runs. Yobes Walker looked pretty good as well. Sails wasnt too bad either. He's so small that he can almost hit the line unseen.
Kickers only made like 1 out of 4 FG. All were over 40 yds.
Defense made some very nice plays. Derreck Dean is a beast, Hall Davis is huge. Didnt see Richardson on the line. Auriene had a nice over the shoulder INT in the EZ but coaches got on him because he ran it out instead of taking a touchback. Kelley did ok at FS. I think the defense will be much improved next year assuming we stay healthy.
Like coach Bustle said, we did well today but we have a long way to go as a team to get to where we need to be.
I stayed until about 11:30 and here is a small script of what I saw.
First, the D will be much improved and have much more depth this year. Even though there were no Fleming and Brooks in LB corp, everyone looked much more comfortable with their roles and looked liked they reacted vs. thinking.
Not sure on numbers but the tall Receiver (#18 white) played really well. I think that might be Goodlet but the WR was bigger than I thought Goodlet was. Louis Lee and Verlin Moore made nice catches and Marlin Miller had the nice TD catch. Aubrey played really well as he had a couple of really nice grabs. Ladarius Green still needs to add some size and he has another 4-5 months or so to hopefull put on at least 10-15 pounds. The line has some nice depth and will certainly be very good entering the season as long as they stay healthy.
QB's played like I thought. I still sticking with my prediction that Gauthier will be the starter by conference play. He just makes more plays than everybody else. McGuire is solid and I have no problems with him at QB but he's just a step slower than Gautier and he doesn't make things happen as well out of the pocket. Remember, Gautier's bread and butter was passing on the run in H.S. on lots of bootlegs and playaction in the shotgun. Chris Masson looked MUCH more comfortable over last season and he will actually be a solid backup.
RB's looked very average. Shankle looked like he had the track on the starter spot to me. Walker and Booker didn't do a lot to wow but its only spring and the D is way farther along than the Offense at this point which I think we all expected.
Defense= Noticed a couple of things. First, Hall Davis did not play with the first team and there was no sign of T. Richardson which worries me. Anything happen to him?? Also, it looked like Bentley played at the nickel spot a lot and he was playing behind #23 a lot. I don't have the roster so I'm in the dark on some names but #23 and #22 played really well at CB. However, #22 had what looked like a possible major knee injury as he was carted off and I'm concerned about him. I'm sure one of these guys is Rodney Gillis. I'm excited about him as I've heard great things so far. Lance Kelley played at Safety and seemed comfortable. At one time, they even had Blount at SS and Kelley at FS. All in all a pretty average scrimmage but the coaches were definitely pushing for the WR's and RB's to push the ball upfield as opposed to running sideways. I still think we throw to many lateral screens but we did throw the ball more vertical as this seems like it will be a standard in our playcalling.
Just had to make your own scrimmage thread didnt you
I think Goodlett may be the stereotypical practice player...because many of my best pictures from the practices I attended last year were of great catches he made. But, I don't have a single picture of him in a game.
Well, I'm sure watching Cajun players is hard enough for ya so maybe you missed a few of his plays. However, he didn't play a lot last year in games due to the depth at WR but he has obviously IMPROVED. He looked like he gained a little weight and really made plays against the first team D. If he keeps that up, he'll be a solid contributor.
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