What a beautiful morning for some football. It was junior day, I estimate there were 65,000 juniors there, give or take 64,700.
By now most have seen or followed the multiple tweets and play by plays, if not pull up mine, AJ's, and Shaun Rainey's and you'll get the full dose. Here's my takeaways:
It was a very good day for the offense, particularly the 1st string offense and the running game. Nguyen and Favors both had long runs, each about 40 yards. They also each had some mid-range (10 to 15 yard) runs. Calhoun showed some good speed and power mixed in. Gus and Chalich each had great moments and while Phillips started poorly he did lead two late scoring drives, one with the 1st string offense and one with the 2nd string offense.
Of the QB's:
Brady Gustafson is QB1 and showed improved pocket presence and some smart decisions to run the ball at times. He ran for a 1st down and ran for a 1 yard TD. The 1st down run was on a well covered play but there was no linebacker protecting from the QB scramble and Gus saw it and took advantage of it. He missed on a few passes he should've connected on, a short 4th down and 3 to go, threw short to Horner who had to dive to catch it and stopped 1 yard short. Also a few over throws.
Chad Chalich had the highlight TD of the scrimmage through the air. A screen pass that was well covered by the corner, Chalich rolls out and Kobey Eaton goes upfield - Chalich drops it in on Eaton and he's off for a 70 yard TD. Chalich lead a few other good drives, I don't recall but I think he was all 2nd string (no 1st team reps) and was the 1st guy in after Gus. Chalich is vastly improved over last year. He's on page with the WRs and has the offense down. He plays a lot more comfortable in the offense so far this year.
Reese Phillips opened poorly, some inaccurate throws and another pick 6. He was picked on another play but the refs blew the whistle calling a sack first. He was also stripped of the ball on sack and Zach Peevey took it for a score - although again a quick whistle officially stopped the play. Like I've posted before Phillips has the tools for this offense and he flashes great moments of his skill, he's just playing catchup with the offense. He ran the last 4 series and of those the offense scored 2 TDs. One was the long Favors TD the other was a deep pass to Jerry Louie McGee.
Of the running backs while all three had great days the probable star of the day was Tre Favors. Favors opened the show with a powerful 10 yard run where he juked a tackle and then drove Yamen Sanders back on a loud pop for a first down. After some more carries, late in the day Tre scored on a tremendous TD run, following his blockers and then taking off in the open field. Nguyen had one very long run and another that set up a 1 yard plunge for Calhoun on the next play. Nguyen also picked up quite a few blitzes to give Gus more time in the offense. Calhoun had a few nice runs and showed some good speed too. We've got a wealth at RB this year.
The 1st string O line had it going today. Of the 10 recorded touch sacks they did give up 3, so it wasn't a perfect day by any means, but they blocked with great tenacity and picked up their assignments on blitzes moderately well. Of the big rushing plays you'd see some of our big dudes like Todd, Luke, and Reese into the linebackers and blocking very well. The Calhoun dive came between Todd and Reese - as did the Nguyen counter that set it up. The Nguyen long run came around the hip of Thiebes and had help from Ralston blocking at the H. A few middle runs were opened wide up by Luke and Dietrich and then Luke and Todd sealing both tackles off. The Favors TD was the most impressive as he had Luke and Todd upfield, Luke I believe caught an OLB, Todd smashed the MLB to the ground and Favors was gone.
WR's - we've got some playmakers emerging. Kobey Eaton is looking more and more like the next Ellis Henderson. Dude has incredible wheels and burned the secondary for another TD today. The other rising star of the WR ranks is Jerry Louie McGee. I haven't seen the stats but I'll guess 70-80 yards and a TD on probably 6 or 7 catches. Curran was a little quiet, had a few grabs as I recall - he did draw 2 PI/holding calls on the defense. A little quieter day for the bigs, Horner and Bingham a few snags, Simis caught one. Caleb Lyons nabbed a few but his best highlight was an opening 50 yard kick return. He was also the #1 punt return guy.
D-line. Schye had a few more sacks today, he also had 2 off sides calls, but against the 2s he was superior to anyone that matched up against him. 1st string we saw more of Brandt Davidson with the 1s, mixing in and out with Nate Bradley. Zach Peevey had a TD (unofficially) on a fumble recovery. Kidder a sack, but against the 2s, I think he was playing some DT as a backup too. Ryan Johnson, Jesse Sims, and Donald Bedell all with sacks too. The worry about D-end depth is a thing of the past. They look great. And on the interior we've got Peevey, Davidson, & Bradley all doing well, also some occasional plays from Davis and Mckee-Osibodu.
LBs. They were mixing and matching LBs all day. A few were out as well I think (Strahm is sitting out of contact drills this spring). Josh Buss was the most steady tackler, his name was called a lot. As was Cy Sirmon, whose name I kept spelling wrong on twitter (even got a text about it haha). Alex Thomas got some 1st string reps and did some good work too. Vika Fa'atuise had a sack that didn't get whistled, he's a force when blitzing.
Secondary - First string corners and safeties seemed to be playing fairly well, JR Nelson had a PI call in the endzone that got a funny reaction from the crowd b/c everyone could hear his reaction. A few plays later he tugged a jersey with no flag and jokingly Stitt yelled out, "JR you were holding weren't you?!?" Markell Sanders is settling in well to a starting role as well, that's great to see. McKinley and Moody in backup roles were a little quieter today, Moody had a nice TFL on a screen. Jerrin Williams appeared to be pressed into playing some corner and it didn't go very well, he was in coverage on the Eaton TD. Josh Sandry has elevated to starting at safety over Delaney it seems, he had some forceful tackles too. However Mick Delaney would sub in on many packages, he did get a PI call but also had one 4th down pass breakup in the endzone. Yamen Sanders some early action but not much after that. Epperly had the pick 6 in the scrimmage and a few more hard tackles. He's fighting hard to make a case for being on the 2-deep.
Special teams. Returners look to be Caleb Lyons and Justin Calhoun (the WR). Louie McGee also fielded a punt I believe. Kickers only kicked PATs and were 4-5 on those with Semenza, the lefty, hitting the upright on his. Best two punts both came from Eric Williams, mid-40's.
Biggest areas of needed improvement:
2nd string O-line - that depth was put to test today and gave up 7 sacks, also not nearly as many rushing yards for this unit. Chalich and Phillips were pressured a bunch. While the 1s at the OL did well, these guys as a group need to show more improvement.
Secondary depth - the two big pass plays burnt backup corners/DBs. Some subbed positions weren't doing well either. The secondary is pretty thin with a few camp injuries as well I think so some of these guys are reeling at the moment.
Punting - Only one real good punt on the day.
Defensive penalties - Let's see, 3 off sides (all on hard counts), 2 PI/holding calls, and 1 personal foul. On the other side I think the offense had just 1 holding penalty.
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Lots of excitement in the air, the fans could tell that this team could mold into something pretty good. We're seeing a group that's showing a lot more progression than we saw with last years team by this point in spring camp. I even made the comment to some that the offense at this point looks much more organized and efficient than I saw in any scrimmage from last fall camp too.
Final scrimmage is next Saturday - 2pm and tickets are $5! The GSA is doing a tailgate 2 hours before kickoff.
