The team scrimmaged
Friday, April 4 inside the bubble, running 110 plays with the offense producing
nine touchdowns, going 6-8 in the red zone, although only 6-18 on third downs
(0-2 on 4th). The defense did
make a few plays though while the offense did run much more than a game’s worth
of plays (even with the up tempo styles the Buffs will often face). The only bad news of the day was the CB Josh
Moten, who was looking yet again at some serious playing time, tore his
Achilles heel again, actually the
third time he has done so, ending his spring and season, and maybe career. If he chooses to apply for a 6th
year of eligibility, it should be a no-brainer.
Scrimmage notes: Both quarterbacks played well, with
Sefo again putting up slightly better stats.
They did not even bother playing Trent Sessions.
The WR battle
has been talked about a lot and is bringing a little hope to Buff fans, and is
probably making Sefo feel comfortable and confident. Nelson Spruce (2 catches, 51 yards) has been
described as “Mr. Dependable” and catches everything thrown his way, R-Fr. Bryce Bobo has impressed anyone who has attended a practice, and now Lee
Walker, more a less a greyshirt via Arizona (when he didn’t quite qualify), is
starting to grasp the offense and make an impression with three catches,
including a short TD. Last year, we had
a kid come in at LB after taking a year off (greyshirting at SJSU) and Addison
Gillam did alright there. Coach Troy
Walters has as much depth to work with as any WR coach has since the glory days
of Michael Westbrook and Charles Johnson.
Walters even raves about his walk-ons but I have trouble seeing any of
them playing in meaningful snaps.
Sean Irwin
continued to impress at TE and caught and 8-yard TD from Sefo. It appears as if he might have the starting
slot locked down, while Kyle Slavin continues to block well and look pretty,
but not much else (I cannot remember any mentions of him this spring).
The team spread
the ball around to all the running backs, no one getting more than seven
carries or 42 yards, but totaled 48 rushes for 234 yards (4.9 average) and four
touchdowns. The highlight was R-Fr. Philip Lindsay’s 23-yard TD.
All of this
offensive success hopefully signifies that the offensive line is doing well,
however, it also begs the question of WTF is going on with the defense
then?! That’s the biggest dilemma when
watching or reading about intrasquad scrimmages, when one group does well it
makes the other look worse than they really are, or one screws up, it can make
the other look overly impressive. What’s
the case here? Hard to tell but in
general, after the last three seasons, call me worried. The group did have a few sacks and a couple
of fourth down stops, but was awful in the red zone and gave up a lot of
points, though spread over a considerable number of plays, and I didn’t read of
any turnovers. In fact, the defense has
yet to get an interception off of either Sefo or Gehrke, only Sessions in
previous sessions.
Of course,
Addison Gillam had a great day with eight tackles, as did local motor walk-on DB
Ryan Moeller. The defensive line shuffle
dust is starting to settle, with Tyler Henington and Derek McCartney (how cool
will it be if he becomes a star here?!) both continuing to look good as each had
a sack at the defensive end positions.
DT Clay Norgard also had a sack.
My favorite
player, Chidobe Awuzie was awarded his second gold “uncommon” jersey, which has
also been seen on at least Sefo, Addison Gillam (no surprise), Daniel Munyer,
Woodson Greer and Nelson Spruce.
Wil Oliver and
Chris Graham hit all their extra points and FGs
2015 Recruiting: The Buffs do already have one commit
(LB NJ Falo, San Jose) for the next recruiting cycle,
Other Buff notes: The Black and Gold Spring game will be at
noon on Saturday, April 12, covered by AM 760 and the Pac12 Networks. They will play four 12-minute quarters, using
a running clock, except for the last two minutes of each half, where they will
presumably get some two-minute work in. The
annual Healthy Kids Day will follow, beginning about 1:30 PM. The team will then
have one last practice session on Monday, April 14.
There will not
be any groundbreaking or ceremony for the facilities upgrade as Rick George
finally admitted they are nowhere close, although they are still saying it
could happen later in April or in May.
The season
opening game against csu has been moved back one day to Friday, August 29 at
7:00 PM so that this huge rivalry game will televised nationally on one of the
ESPN or Fox Networks (TBA); it will also give the team an extra day before
taking their longest road trip of the season to Massachusetts and Foxborough.
Last post I
asked if MacIntyre and staff might going
down the ugly road of cutting older players’ scholarships to offer and bring in
younger players, and it looks like little brother is trying to catch up to the
big boys by doing just that; coach little mac is a former SEC guys so I guess
it’s no surprise. They have
Go Buffs!
No comments:
Post a Comment