ShotgunDawg
08-10-2014, 05:07 PM
If you cut through all the "They are in better shape" over optimistic bullshit, of which he likely has no real clue about, and actually read about the performances, abilities, meat and potatoes, it's rather sobering for them.
First things first. The whole team looks a lot more fit. Guys like Engram and Mathers looked thicker and more solid. Our entire RB, TE, DB, and LB corps looked stout. Thicker in the waists and thighs. Our linemen still looked big as shit, but more toned. Especially the D-Line. CJ Johnson and Haynes looked skinny out there next to the other DL. Everyone just looked to be in damn good shape. I remember in 2011 people talking about how out of shape we looked. This is the first fall practice where I could tell a noticeable difference. Those guys have put in work this off season.
Watched 7-on-7 and QB individual drills a good bit. Bo's footwork and decision making is the best of the 3 quarterbacks. His passes still don't have much velocity, but his timing is great. (I thought Bo had a gun now) Some of the practice reports I'd read had me expecting him to now possess a Favre-esque cannon, but that's not the case. His arm looks stronger than last year, but he's just not a guy with a huge arm. Devante Kincaid has moments of brilliance. He has a great looking and quick release, and throws the ball with great velocity. He has a tendency to pass high though(Uh-oh, that's not good combo). His footwork is decent, but his height causes him to get out of the pocket quicker than the other 2. He's good on the run, so it's ok. He'll be fun to watch. He makes really good decisions with the ball too. I worry he's going to get lit up trying to roll out and make a big play. Buchannon has a solid arm and solid footwork, but his decision making is just not great. If we transition to a little more pro-style offense, I think he could be really good. He stands tall and has a higher release than Bo. He's not ready yet though.(fairly obvious that Buchannon sucks if the this delusional bunch thinks he isn't ready) It seemed apparent to me that Kincaid is a solid # 2 at this point. Kendrick Doss shows promise, but needs to redshirt. None of the QB's looked particularly good in the scrimmage portion.(I thought Bo was a badass)
Our RB corps looks the best it's been in years. Wilkins, Dodson and Mathers all 3 have similar size and seem to be similar players.(So... you still don't have an inside runner?) Wilkins looked the best to me. Quick feet and good vision. He ran the ball well in drills and scrimmage. Mathers feet are deceptively slow in cuts, and then he's off in a flash. I can't tell if it's patience or just his style, but he goes from looking like he's poking around between cones or linemen to 10 yards down the field in about half a second. Dodson looks solid all around and looks very natural catching the ball. Dodson looks to have added 10 pounds. Brazley is very quick, but doesn't look as powerful as the other 3. He might have a hard time seeing the field, but he's just a freshman and is coming off an ACL rehab. If we decide to go with a big back, short yardage package, I'd look for Judd. Big guy, good balance, runs low. He's not as fast or quick as the other 3, but he'll have a roll unless he gets redshirted. We know what we're getting out of Walton. Lot's of quickness and tough running for a small back. I really didn't see him much yesterday, but he supposedly has the best hands of the group and I've read that we're moving him out to the slot some to get him the ball in space and in screens.
TE looks like it might be a strength. It definitely is with Engram on the field. He looks great. If he'd been healthy for the last part of last season, Mizzou and MSU would've been different games. He's bigger than last year too. I'd guess he's gained 10-15 lbs. Jeremy Liggins looks surprisingly good. He's probably lost 20 lbs this summer.(Sure didn't look like he lost weight in the picture two weeks ago) He's still thick like a freshman guard, but dude is a great athlete. He catches the ball and moves really well. We seemed to use him more as an H-Back than a TE on the line. It might be that I just noticed him more in that roll because he's hard to miss lined up in the backfield. His blocking still needs some work. He had a hard time picking up rushers that broke through the LOS. If his blocking keeps coming along, we may be pretty good at TE.
I'm not going to pretend to know much about OL. They all look to be in good shape, but they got beat up by our DL(Well, at least they look good). I think we're still searching for the best 5 there. I hope it's more of an indication of how good our DL is than how bad our OL is.(Not likely) As good as Morris and Tunsil are on the left side, RN and CJ still wreaked havoc over there. The OL seemed better in run blocking than pass protection.(I guess Megaquon can't go deep) Our designed runs were pretty effective. I only saw one bad snap all practice, which is encouraging when breaking in 2 new centers.(Well, shit! I guess you guys may win 10 games since you can do this)
WR looks pretty good. Megaquon is great. Better than Moncreif. Sanders looks good and is tough for DBs to handle, but he needs to work on consistency with his hands. Adaboyjo looks solid. Very fast and caught the ball well. Cody Core looked pretty good. Tall, good range, and caught the ball well. Epps reminded me of Core and I had a hard time telling the 2 apart. I really didn't watch those guys too closely in drills. It's hard to judge them on the scrimmage because the QBs couldn't get the ball to them. Depth might be an issue. I didn't see too many that I was excited about outside of the starters. I hope we get Stringfellow cleared. Everyone is raving over him.
We still don't look good fielding punts(We don't either). Davis looked better than Elston. I didn't see Alford return any, but I hear he's the best at it. Our punters and kickers look good. The rugby kid(Rugby Kid?) is very consistent and can mix it up and punt high or line drive it. Wonderlich can knock the shit out of the ball and gets great hang time, but is a little inconsistent (But can he pass his own test?) Nice to have options there. I read that the kickers looked great, but I left when that part of practice started.
Offense looked good in drills.(Unfortunately they don't get to run drills in a game) Defense looked good where it counts. Our defensive line is really good. Lots of bodies. Very disruptive. No Gross, but they were still able to penetrate and maul the offense. Nkemdiche is a ****ing beast. That dude looks like Suh. Hooks and Bennett are natural run stoppers. Really held the line well and plugged up holes. Ward looked much improved at DE. I worry that he'll be trying to make big plays instead of staying his assignment. CJ and Haynes look really good. They were in the backfield all day. Haynes had an INT early in scrimmage. DL is a huge strength of this team.
LBs looked solid. A lot of depth there. Russell and Shack looked good at ML. I can't say too much good or bad about the whole unit, because they just did their job. DL was so disruptive that it seemed to make their job easy. Bird looks like he's gained 5-10 lbs. I think our front 7 on defense is pretty damn good. LBs might not be the fastest group, but they're solid.
DBs are kind of like the RBs to me. Best shape we've been in for years. Safeties look good and very deep. Elston, Alford, Prewitt and Hampton are a great 2 deep. Prewitt looks like Troy Palomalu, literally. His hair is wild. Husky looks really good too. Conner and Hilton are a really nice 2 deep there, but if Hilton has to move to CB someone will have to step up. Starting unit cornerbacks are solid. Jones and Senquez make a nice tandem. Very few easy catches with those 2 on the field. Kendarious Webster looks damn good too. Tee Shepherd was out. Hopefully his MRI results are good and he's back by the first game. If so, our 2 deep at CB is set. Supposedly Tee had 4 interceptions in Friday's practice. Freeze lit up when talking about him yesterday on the interview I saw. If Tee has to miss time, I'd look for Hilton to step into that roll. You've also got Kailo Moore playing there, but he missed practice yesterday too(Did he run off again?). I'd feel much better about Hilton out there than Moore. There are a lot of other good sized athletes out there with that group, but besides the 2 deep I listed, not a lot of technique or experience that I can tell. I think Carlos Davis plays CB, but I didn't notice him much yesterday. We've got folks available to play, but outside of the ones I mentioned, I don't know how good they are.
Bottom line on the defense is they're very good. They made the offense look like shit for most of the scrimmage. Granted, offense couldn't go tempo, but I'm not sure how much that would've helped as defense looked every bit as well conditioned as offense. Maybe in a game type scenario they could've exploited something with DL over pursuit and caught them off guard, but yesterday the offense was mostly ineffective. We ran the ball somewhat well, which is why I say that about over pursuit. I thought Kincaid looked decent, but I think it's because he was the most creative and quickest to get the hell out of the pocket. Bo barely had time to throw the ball with the first defensive unit on the field. That said, Quon and Engram both caught TD's. Engram ran an awesome post where he made a double move on the initial cut that completely lost his defender and then caught the ball with a safety in his face. Quon just made a beautiful catch. We have big play potential but need to get better on intermediate pass routes and giving the QB time to make good decisions.
Sorry if that's too long. I apologize if it's too wooly as well. I'm high on this team, but it's mostly based on DL. A really good DL will win you some games. I look for us to win 8-9 regular season games. I'm scared to go any higher than that. I'm sure by the time someone posts a game by game prediction thread I'll have us at 12-0. (You better hope your defense is as good as Bama's or it sounds like you are screwed)
First things first. The whole team looks a lot more fit. Guys like Engram and Mathers looked thicker and more solid. Our entire RB, TE, DB, and LB corps looked stout. Thicker in the waists and thighs. Our linemen still looked big as shit, but more toned. Especially the D-Line. CJ Johnson and Haynes looked skinny out there next to the other DL. Everyone just looked to be in damn good shape. I remember in 2011 people talking about how out of shape we looked. This is the first fall practice where I could tell a noticeable difference. Those guys have put in work this off season.
Watched 7-on-7 and QB individual drills a good bit. Bo's footwork and decision making is the best of the 3 quarterbacks. His passes still don't have much velocity, but his timing is great. (I thought Bo had a gun now) Some of the practice reports I'd read had me expecting him to now possess a Favre-esque cannon, but that's not the case. His arm looks stronger than last year, but he's just not a guy with a huge arm. Devante Kincaid has moments of brilliance. He has a great looking and quick release, and throws the ball with great velocity. He has a tendency to pass high though(Uh-oh, that's not good combo). His footwork is decent, but his height causes him to get out of the pocket quicker than the other 2. He's good on the run, so it's ok. He'll be fun to watch. He makes really good decisions with the ball too. I worry he's going to get lit up trying to roll out and make a big play. Buchannon has a solid arm and solid footwork, but his decision making is just not great. If we transition to a little more pro-style offense, I think he could be really good. He stands tall and has a higher release than Bo. He's not ready yet though.(fairly obvious that Buchannon sucks if the this delusional bunch thinks he isn't ready) It seemed apparent to me that Kincaid is a solid # 2 at this point. Kendrick Doss shows promise, but needs to redshirt. None of the QB's looked particularly good in the scrimmage portion.(I thought Bo was a badass)
Our RB corps looks the best it's been in years. Wilkins, Dodson and Mathers all 3 have similar size and seem to be similar players.(So... you still don't have an inside runner?) Wilkins looked the best to me. Quick feet and good vision. He ran the ball well in drills and scrimmage. Mathers feet are deceptively slow in cuts, and then he's off in a flash. I can't tell if it's patience or just his style, but he goes from looking like he's poking around between cones or linemen to 10 yards down the field in about half a second. Dodson looks solid all around and looks very natural catching the ball. Dodson looks to have added 10 pounds. Brazley is very quick, but doesn't look as powerful as the other 3. He might have a hard time seeing the field, but he's just a freshman and is coming off an ACL rehab. If we decide to go with a big back, short yardage package, I'd look for Judd. Big guy, good balance, runs low. He's not as fast or quick as the other 3, but he'll have a roll unless he gets redshirted. We know what we're getting out of Walton. Lot's of quickness and tough running for a small back. I really didn't see him much yesterday, but he supposedly has the best hands of the group and I've read that we're moving him out to the slot some to get him the ball in space and in screens.
TE looks like it might be a strength. It definitely is with Engram on the field. He looks great. If he'd been healthy for the last part of last season, Mizzou and MSU would've been different games. He's bigger than last year too. I'd guess he's gained 10-15 lbs. Jeremy Liggins looks surprisingly good. He's probably lost 20 lbs this summer.(Sure didn't look like he lost weight in the picture two weeks ago) He's still thick like a freshman guard, but dude is a great athlete. He catches the ball and moves really well. We seemed to use him more as an H-Back than a TE on the line. It might be that I just noticed him more in that roll because he's hard to miss lined up in the backfield. His blocking still needs some work. He had a hard time picking up rushers that broke through the LOS. If his blocking keeps coming along, we may be pretty good at TE.
I'm not going to pretend to know much about OL. They all look to be in good shape, but they got beat up by our DL(Well, at least they look good). I think we're still searching for the best 5 there. I hope it's more of an indication of how good our DL is than how bad our OL is.(Not likely) As good as Morris and Tunsil are on the left side, RN and CJ still wreaked havoc over there. The OL seemed better in run blocking than pass protection.(I guess Megaquon can't go deep) Our designed runs were pretty effective. I only saw one bad snap all practice, which is encouraging when breaking in 2 new centers.(Well, shit! I guess you guys may win 10 games since you can do this)
WR looks pretty good. Megaquon is great. Better than Moncreif. Sanders looks good and is tough for DBs to handle, but he needs to work on consistency with his hands. Adaboyjo looks solid. Very fast and caught the ball well. Cody Core looked pretty good. Tall, good range, and caught the ball well. Epps reminded me of Core and I had a hard time telling the 2 apart. I really didn't watch those guys too closely in drills. It's hard to judge them on the scrimmage because the QBs couldn't get the ball to them. Depth might be an issue. I didn't see too many that I was excited about outside of the starters. I hope we get Stringfellow cleared. Everyone is raving over him.
We still don't look good fielding punts(We don't either). Davis looked better than Elston. I didn't see Alford return any, but I hear he's the best at it. Our punters and kickers look good. The rugby kid(Rugby Kid?) is very consistent and can mix it up and punt high or line drive it. Wonderlich can knock the shit out of the ball and gets great hang time, but is a little inconsistent (But can he pass his own test?) Nice to have options there. I read that the kickers looked great, but I left when that part of practice started.
Offense looked good in drills.(Unfortunately they don't get to run drills in a game) Defense looked good where it counts. Our defensive line is really good. Lots of bodies. Very disruptive. No Gross, but they were still able to penetrate and maul the offense. Nkemdiche is a ****ing beast. That dude looks like Suh. Hooks and Bennett are natural run stoppers. Really held the line well and plugged up holes. Ward looked much improved at DE. I worry that he'll be trying to make big plays instead of staying his assignment. CJ and Haynes look really good. They were in the backfield all day. Haynes had an INT early in scrimmage. DL is a huge strength of this team.
LBs looked solid. A lot of depth there. Russell and Shack looked good at ML. I can't say too much good or bad about the whole unit, because they just did their job. DL was so disruptive that it seemed to make their job easy. Bird looks like he's gained 5-10 lbs. I think our front 7 on defense is pretty damn good. LBs might not be the fastest group, but they're solid.
DBs are kind of like the RBs to me. Best shape we've been in for years. Safeties look good and very deep. Elston, Alford, Prewitt and Hampton are a great 2 deep. Prewitt looks like Troy Palomalu, literally. His hair is wild. Husky looks really good too. Conner and Hilton are a really nice 2 deep there, but if Hilton has to move to CB someone will have to step up. Starting unit cornerbacks are solid. Jones and Senquez make a nice tandem. Very few easy catches with those 2 on the field. Kendarious Webster looks damn good too. Tee Shepherd was out. Hopefully his MRI results are good and he's back by the first game. If so, our 2 deep at CB is set. Supposedly Tee had 4 interceptions in Friday's practice. Freeze lit up when talking about him yesterday on the interview I saw. If Tee has to miss time, I'd look for Hilton to step into that roll. You've also got Kailo Moore playing there, but he missed practice yesterday too(Did he run off again?). I'd feel much better about Hilton out there than Moore. There are a lot of other good sized athletes out there with that group, but besides the 2 deep I listed, not a lot of technique or experience that I can tell. I think Carlos Davis plays CB, but I didn't notice him much yesterday. We've got folks available to play, but outside of the ones I mentioned, I don't know how good they are.
Bottom line on the defense is they're very good. They made the offense look like shit for most of the scrimmage. Granted, offense couldn't go tempo, but I'm not sure how much that would've helped as defense looked every bit as well conditioned as offense. Maybe in a game type scenario they could've exploited something with DL over pursuit and caught them off guard, but yesterday the offense was mostly ineffective. We ran the ball somewhat well, which is why I say that about over pursuit. I thought Kincaid looked decent, but I think it's because he was the most creative and quickest to get the hell out of the pocket. Bo barely had time to throw the ball with the first defensive unit on the field. That said, Quon and Engram both caught TD's. Engram ran an awesome post where he made a double move on the initial cut that completely lost his defender and then caught the ball with a safety in his face. Quon just made a beautiful catch. We have big play potential but need to get better on intermediate pass routes and giving the QB time to make good decisions.
Sorry if that's too long. I apologize if it's too wooly as well. I'm high on this team, but it's mostly based on DL. A really good DL will win you some games. I look for us to win 8-9 regular season games. I'm scared to go any higher than that. I'm sure by the time someone posts a game by game prediction thread I'll have us at 12-0. (You better hope your defense is as good as Bama's or it sounds like you are screwed)