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Griz Scrimmage, April 12, 2003

TrueGriz

TrueGriz

Well-known member
I come to this board Saturday evening thinking there would be a lot of talk on Griz football and the scrimmage. Lord behold, I see none.

Well, I have seen the light and will mention some things. My avatar now holds an image of an event that happened during this scrimmage. It was Levander doing his punt return thing. After retrieving a booming punt from Chris Snyder (by the way Chris is an absolutely great punter, nothing under 40), Levander made one of his outstanding punt returns just like some of the best he had last year.

As mentioned in above paragraph, looks like Griz will be just fine with the punting game. Chris Snyder is real good. Longest punt today was in the 60+ yard range with most of it in the air. Very little roll.

Another player that impressed me was Brady Green at running back. Like to see him go against the first stringers though.

Of the QBs, Justin Hartman was the best. Still think he will red shirt, but he played the best today. Neither Disney or Oches moved the offense very well. Both Oches and Disney lead the offense down for field goal tries, but Hartman lead the Griz to a touchdown with a very nice run by J. R. Waller helped by the blocking by Willie Walden.

But one thing about Oches though, he will look a receiver off and throw to a different one, something that John Edwards had problems with. But, he really didn't impress me as much as all the hype about him. I am sure it was because it is early and learning the new system. Same with Disney. I would suspect there is more pressure on Disney and Oches for battling it out for starting QB position than it is for Hartman.

here is another image of what happened on Saturday's scrimmage:

GrizScrimmage0013_RT16Cropp.jpg

Dane Oliver made a great catch here. Overall, he had a good scrimmage. So did Heidelberger. It was nice to see him get the number of reps that he did. Finely have a coaching staff that will let the players that deserve a chance to make the most of their chances to earn their way instead of having to deal with coaches that play only the players they like. I would say Heidelberger had a very good day today.
 
TrueGriz said:
a very nice run by J. R. Waller helped by the blocking by Willie Walden.
Click to expand...

Thats a good sign, last year I thought Big Willie shyed away from contact. He showed he had good hands last year but when it came to putting the wood to someone I thought he could do a better job. We were predictable because we would put Connor in when it was a running down and Big Willie when it was a passing down. Toward the end of the season Connor started making some nice catches and I thought he would be our first stringer, but if Willie is doing a good job blocking then he could become a complete package at tight end.
 
The quarterbacks went a combined 20-30, 177 yards. Pretty good numbers considering they looked a little confused on exactly where the receivers were going to be. There were a couple passes over thrown, and a couple hit the receivers right in the hands and were dropped. But the biggest problem I could see was that the QB's and the receivers aren't used to each other yet. The QB's are in a learning phase on how each receiver runs his routes. This will come over the coming weeks and in fall practice.

I thought Ochs and Disney looked dead even with just a slight edge to Ochs for his sharp play action fakes to the running backs. And as TrueGriz mentioned he looks off one receiver and throws to a secondary.

All in all, it's very exciting to see the level of outstanding talent at QB. All three, including the Freshman Hartman could lead the Griz.

This is going to be a tough decision for the coaches. But it's a wonderful problem to have, and that's a fact. :lol:
 
In regard to QBs I think it will be hard to pick between Ochs and Disney on their passing. They both have great arms. I think it will be leadership, mobility evading pass rushers while looking for receivers downfield, and running when they have to, that will make the difference. Those qualities are difficult to evaluate in scrimmages where the rule is hands off the QB. I think it will take a few game experiences with opponents who want to clobber the QB before we know who the starter should be. Either way Griz are in good shape.
 
In short, it was pretty typical.
the defense is ahead of the offense.
But we need to keep in mind we have a new staff and new scheme, and Hauck said he expects to have 50% of it in place at the end of spring ball.
Given that fact, that is the bias i used to watch.

First CBs.
As a group much more talented than last year.
Johnson's pick off the slight tip was nice. He'd have picked it without the tip anyway. He covers ok, and sluffs run blockers better than all the other corners, he's 6-2 and that helps some.
Adkins covers maybe a hair better, but did get burned by Oliver for a big gain. he had help, otherwise it would have been 6. Developementally, i say he's better at wr(from what i saw last year) than he is currently at cb. he should improve, however, his height doesn't help much.
Harris, i don't see him ever starting at corner.
If he stays on D i hope he improves to the point that he changes my mind. As it is, i find his peers better, but he did ok.
#27 Otterson...who is this guy, where did he come from? LOL. 6' 190 Jr/JC trans from somewhere.
He did ok from what i saw. But i didn't notice enough specifics to comment further.
Rubie looks pretty good. based just on this scrimmage i'd say the corner opposite Smith will be either Rubie or Johnson. Again, thats based just on this scrimmage and i will see one more this spring so that opinion is apt to change if warrented.
#88 Tony Sanderson 6-2 out of Corvallis.
doesn't have the footwork to start at corner, would be better at saftey IMHO.

Moving on to safety. I'll be more brief.
Gamba will be very good someday as will Edwards. Selle, Polhemus, Thomas should be ok. Once DeCoite heals he should start. Sholle showed good things when he was healthy which seems long ago.

LB, as a group, pretty good. Meyers continues to make plays even though he's now called OLB and not NB. :-)
I didn't see Dloughy, i think he was hurt.
DLine: Solid as ever, even without Bush(if he played i never saw him)

Oline. Decent at pass-pro, not good at run blocking. Same as last year. the second team made some decent holes later in the scrum.

TEs' : overall, pretty good. The times i payed attention to them Simpson and Walden were in. as well as Palmer and Winn. If/when others were in i didn't pay attention to them at the time.

Wrs. Looked better than last season, partially, i think, because passes were delivered more accurately.
Segars adjusts to the ball well and did a good job catching a batted pass and turning nothing into 5 or 6 yards. From the looks of it hes been moved inside.
Heidelburger did quite well and got off jams better than before and caught much better than last year. We'll see quite a bit of him this year i think. Its too bad he wasn't redshirted IMHO as we'd have him for 3 more fall seasons instead of only 2 with meaningfull time, but o well.
Tyler Peterson: blocked well on runs, ran good routes, dropped one pass that was righton the money. regardless of the drop i still think he's pretty good.
Hancock, was moved outside and did quite well, he's good good hands and adjusts well to the ball.
#39 Mike "dont call me george" Castanza. Best last name on the team. ;-) 6-1, 190. Not sure how fast he is, but he did pretty good. he's a Frosh out of LA CA.
Hazlett, at 6-4 provides a nice big target and has good hands. In the mold of Talmage, but i wont put all that him yet and wait and see how he does in games.
Oliver, Still catches well and runs good routes. Burned Adkins bad for a big gain.

QBs,
Ochs, rocket arm, a bit wobbley, but accurate, good footwork and mobile.
Disney, almost as strong as Ochs, super-tight spiral, moves well.
There was very little difference between these two in this scrimmage.
Hartman. Seemed to always find the open guy, more-so than the two Jrs. Weaker arm than those two, but just as accurate or more so.
Once they're gone i wont feel worried with Hartman as the starter.
Grant Eve: another "where'd he come from" type.
Out of Great Falls High, 6-2 180.
Not as good as hartman, but a capable backup.

So far so good, too bad several key guys are still injured though.

RBS,

The biggest surprise was Brady Green. He might not be the best, but he's not far off. He sure hits the hole fast, and he was with the 2cd team o line.
Engleman and Waller were ok and each got better as the day went on.
the o-line will need to open some holes(which they will when against teams other than the Griz) if any rb will look good.

Also i forgot Hollenbeck, he did pretty good too and i like that he's pretty tall and catches well for the most part.

Punting, Snyder did VERY well on 2 punts and about average on another. 2 were over 50, i think 52 and 66(would have been around 56 had segars not muffed it)
FGS, Snyder hit one from 50 yards dead center and one from 32 or so.
The back up missed one from about 35, but the snap and hold were bad(Selle was holding on that one).
No kickoffs were done.
on the punts Segars made one really nice return over 30(i think) and JH returned one about 20 or so. pretty good.
 
Good Job GrizMania, I appreciate the info and it sounds like you have a good eye for watching player performance. TrueGriz did well also, but not quite as much detail. I look forward to the next brief by both of you. Thanks for taking the time.
 
Where did the roster with all the names of the walkons? it isn't the spring prospectus one because they didn't have any names I didn't reconzize so their must be a roster out their with the walkons names on it. Can you tell me about any more walkons besides the ones you already mentioned and do any of them have a chance at making the team? :lol:
 
go_griz129, i got my roster at the Scrimmage, though i never did see where they came from. Lucky for me though, Casey Cordial(Spartan QB)'s dad(who played fb with Jim Plunket and is from MT) gave a guy i was sitting with his....so i bogarted the thing! :-) :evil:
 
I will not be able to make it to any of the scrimages because of work so I was wondering if u had time could you please post he roster on here.

Thanks, Are their any other walkons besides the ones you listed?
 
i will list all those on the roster i got at the scrimmage just to
be sure i dont miss any....but keep in mind some guys walk on and don't get a # and dont even play in the scrimmage but do practice.

#5 Grant Eve 6-2 180, FR QB from Great Falls High.
#27 Scott Otterson 6-0 185 Jr. JCtrans CB from parts unkown.
#39 Mike Castanza 6-1 190 wr FR, LA CA.
#49 Rob Hollenbeck 6-2 RS-FR Hellgate-i know hes not a walk on but some haven't heard of him yet.-plays WR but on roster listed as TE.
#79 Paul Cahill Kicker 6-0 180 RS- FR Billings HS
#80 Alex Hazlett 6-4 200 wr, RS-FR Flathead HS.
#88 Tony Sanderson 6-2 180 FR CB(should be moved to safety) Corvallis HS
#90 Mike Murphy DE FR CMR 6-3 220

Hope that helped.
 
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