A few thoughts I had after the game:
- I thought Brett Smith looked to be the better qb. He was good at scrambling. He had many nice throws including several on the run. He also seemed to have a nice direct spiral on his throws. He seemed to complete a lot of passes I would guess around the 70% range. However, Smith only threw short to mid-range passes (3-15 yard type), I would have liked to have seen Smith go for a deep pass to see what kind of arm strength and accuracy he has on the deeper game.
- Emory Miller Jr. just seemed a little less consistent to me. He did have a nice deep pass in the first half. However, his throws (even the shorter ones) seemed to be lofted a little more, sometimes staying in the air too long, whereas Smith had the more direct quicker pass.
- I felt like Robert Herron had a nice game. Had several catches, and made some defenders miss after the catch.
- One of the Gibson's (I think Tashaun) dropped an easy interception late in the game, but did make a nice hit that drew praise from the crowd on the series after.
- Riley Lange on the defensive line seemed to have a good game. He was in on a lot of tackles.
- I actually thought the offensive line looked alright. Their pass blocking seemed ok to me (especially compared to what I have read). There were some of the times where the qbs were rushed, but there were many times where both qbs had plenty of time to look for some receivers and then would either make the pass or decide to take off. I thought the run blocking was more of the concern, with runs rarely going over about 2 yards it seemed. I certainly didn't think the o-line was any worse than last year. That may not be comforting, but by the sound of some of the things I have read I had expected terrible o-line play and was actually pleasantly suprised, many times thinking to myself that it was nice to see the qbs have some time to look for receivers rather than immeditaly having to take off.
-On the other side I thought the defensive line did a nice job on the run protection. We ran the ball quite a bit in the scrimmage, but it never seemed to get more than 2 yards on a run. I don't really think a running back ever made it to the secondary, which is credit to the d-line but is a worry for the o-line.
- The punt return game may be of some concern. There were no actual returns, just a punt and a "catch". However, there were 2 or 3 fumbles on the players trying to catch the punt, including a unsportsman like penalty after one of the fumbles when the player threw the ball angrily about 20 yards to the sideline. These fumbles were all with no defensive pressure. So hopefully that gets corrected.
Take the thoughts for what you will. I didn't record stats or anything like that. These were just the thoughts from casually enjoying the spring game. Overall, I thought the team looked better in this spring game than any of the spring games in the past 3 years or so. So hopefully that translates to the fall.