FlatironsBuff
Well-Known Member
Gorgeous spring day in Boulder.
I figured I'd give a full report based on today's scrimmage since I plan on having a good time and being far from sober next Saturday.
For the most part, it was run like a game situation. Offense started at its own 20 for most of the day and needed to move the ball 80 yards to score. Play clock was on and the action was refereed. Last part of the scrimmage was mostly red zone action.
Offense looked great. It's ahead of the defense right now.
Quarterback: Hansen had a great day. Hit a very high percentage, didn't throw any picks, hit on a couple bombs despite a strong cross wind, and was doing a great job of working his checkdowns. I'm encouraged. Behind him, Hirschman looked the part, made some plays, seemed more in command of the offense, but was inconsistent. Hansen's almost always with him and seems to be taking him under his wing. Burnette is a distant third.
Running Back: Speedy is a talent. Doing a much better job of seeing the hole and being decisive about getting north and south. They're also working him in a lot more with screen passes and checkdowns. Look for him to have a huge year. Tony Jones is solidly our #2 back and will make some noise this season. Very good vision with nice burst. Runs angry, too. Works angles well with subtle cuts and body leans. He'll be a valuable player for us this year and has the chance to be really good. Josh Ford is running #3. He's a good football player and he'd get yards if we played him in a live game. But it's going to be hard for him to hold onto that spot with Lockridge returning in the fall and the new guys coming in. I feel pretty good about RB depth, even though Cordary Allen hasn't had the light go on yet.
Fullback: Harrington has really developed since the last open practice I saw. He's at least neck and neck with Ahles on the depth chart now. Both are doing a nice job. I think we're going to be fine here. Maybe better than fine.
Tight End: Deehan is finally looking like the 4* recruit he was. Probably because the offense finally suits his skills. He's doing a great job and will be a big part of the offense this year. Also, we'll almost always see either 2 TEs or 1 TE/1 FB with our offense this season. When it's 2 TEs, the 2nd guy is Thornton. That's a great matchup problem we create there. He can split out or he can line up tight. He can also shift to FB. Not too many teams are going to be able to deal with him because if they play run with personnel they can't cover him if he splits and if they play pass they're outnumbered against the run. Behind them, we have Slavin who looks like he's going to be a guy we can trust but isn't really making plays yet. Griffon looks the part and he's showing better, but he's still kind of raw. Someone needs to step up this fall and give us a #3 and #4. As it stands, this position is a big key to our offense and we don't have the ready-to-play depth we need even though the talent is there.
Wide Receiver: Richardson is an absolute stud. Every cornerback we have looks overmatched against him. I'm not sure if that's an indictment of our corners or if we have an All-America WR in the making. He's that talented, folks. Today was highlighted with a leaping 1-handed grab in traffic that he picked out of the air with his left. Filthy. Clemons was kind of limited today and was on the opposite side of the field from me during pre-scrimmage drills, so I didn't get to watch him much. Jefferson can play. He's still limping around and his hands aren't as consistent in drills as you would like, but as soon as game action starts the limp is gone and he makes things happen. He caught a deep out from Hansen today and then juked the CB instead of running out of bounds, turning it into a 40+ yard touchdown.
After that, there's a big dropoff on the depth chart. Cefalo has good hands and gets open, but he doesn't have enough speed to keep opposing DCs up at night. He'll catch some balls for us this year, though. Canty looks pretty good. He's quick, pretty fast, runs crisp routes, really listens to his coaching, and is coming on. I don't think he's quite ready for prime time, but he will see the field and could end up surprising. Darden is really tall and can create a matchup problem for a small corner, but he needs to continue working on his speed, agility and route running.
Line: Really hard to judge the OL in a scrimmage. Especially since Iltis is out at C and they're going against a DL and LB corp that are struggling with a bunch of nagging injuries. No Kasa, no Webb, no West, no Nobriga, pretty sure I didn't see Cunningham, Bonsu or Poston either. But our young tackles, Bakhtiari and Harris, really seemed to perform well. Beyond that, a lot of our quality runs seemed to go behind Adkins off the left side. One other thing I noticed is that Dannewitz has moved inside to RG and looks very natural there. I expect him to play some this year and start as a senior in 2012. This move was made possible because Lewis is getting it done for a true frosh at LT. Think the grayshirt was a good idea? If he'd been here for fall camp, he would have been 6'5" 255 lbs. By waiting until January, we got a guy who is just shy of 6'7" and weighing in at 270 lbs with a redshirt year still available.
Defense had a tough day, but there were definitely some bright spots.
Line: The real bright spot is Obi. He's disruptive on the interior. He and Miller battled to pretty much a stalemate today, but Obi made some plays. He forced a fumble by stripping the QB, broke up a couple screen plays by running to the sideline, and was in on some tackles. I think he'll keep his starting job and have a really good year. Pericak doesn't seem to have grasped the new reads and techniques as quickly. Uzo-Diribe looks physically imposing on the edge. He should be a playmaker for us. To give an idea of his athleticism, the coaches even had him drop off and cover the TE at times. No one else really stood out to me. Actually, not true. Richter looked slow during sprints. Hopefully he'll come around, but right now I'd evaluate him as a power lifter playing football who isn't athletic enough for this level.
Linebackers: Rippy stood out again as the guy making plays. It looks like it's finally coming together for him. Major's not quite the same guy flying around yet. I'm still waiting to see that burst and closing ability. It's not that he doesn't look good, but he's not giving that "this guys is special" vibe so far. Behind them, we've got Webb (out with injury today). He passes the eyeball test and hits like a brick ****house. Our top 3 ILBs are definitely players. #4 is Patrick Mahnke. There's a role for him in nickel situations, but I don't have a lot of confidence if he was forced into an every down role.
When we look to the OLBs, it gets scary. Nobriga didn't play and we need him. Badly. Williams did not step up like I would have hoped. He has the speed, but he's still got to put on the bulk so he can take on blocks and deal with traffic. To give an idea of the depth issue, Blaha and Parker may have gotten the most reps today.
Defensive Backs: Bell is our best CB. I'm probably overly-critical of him because he's almost always matched up with Richardson and there are times he's made to look bad on plays. He's got the tools to be good and I expect him to win one of the starting spots. After Bell, I haven't seen much to distinguish between Pugh and Olatoye or Vigo and Moten. No one is jumping out impressing me and no one is looking completely awful. All have some athletic ability. We have good depth at corner, I just don't know if we have 2 starters against Pac-12 caliber WRs. One guy who looked surprisingly good is Harrison. The walk on transfer has impressed me every time I've seen him. He stands out. It won't surprise me if he's in the 2012 mix.
At Safety, we're still missing Perkins and Orms is limited (didn't notice him today). Polk is really coming on. He is coming up and sticking people. He's also chasing people down from sideline to sideline. Cross your fingers, but it looks like the light is coming on. Terror is back to playing aggressively. He was making hits and breaking on passes to get breakups today. I didn't see Sandersfeld get beat but didn't see him make any plays. He's a solid senior who we can trust when he's on the field, though.
Overall on defense, things could shake up a lot in the fall when certain guys return from injury and all those freshmen show up.
Special Teams: They didn't do any team Punting today. Grossnickle was working on technique individually along with another Punter who I didn't recognize (#90). Grossnickle has a big leg and was consistently booming them just short of reaching the top of the bubble and bouncing over to the other side. With Kicking, there were no KOs but plenty of FG attempts. Castor has definitely improved and seems to be gaining his confidence back after the last staff destroying it. He made about 75% of his attempts today. And now when he's missing he is down to a 1-way miss where he'll sometimes hook it a bit. I don't know much about kicking but I'll assume it's like golf and it's a lot easier to fix things when you've got a 1-way miss instead of a 2-way miss going on. I'm not a Castor fan yet, but I'm not scared of him either.
Hope you guys liked the write-up. If anyone else who was there has anything to add, please do. For the rest of you, I'll try to answer any questions you may have.
Rep. Dont make me get a man-crush on you for your reporting. First Ted Miller and now this. We are getting spoiled.
