Today's Scrimmage

[TheRealUW]

It was a rough day for the #1 offense in this first scrimmage. There were a couple of nice runs early on, but the running game sounded horrendous as the scrimmage went on. There was one drive where 75% of the running plays attempted went for negative yardage.

To compound that, ACS didn't sound good at all. I've quietly becomed concerned about the number of picks ACS was throwing in practice this fall camp, but many of those came in 1-on-1 or 7-on-7 drills where he didn't have the option to scramble and the defense knew a pass was coming. I was hoping things would change once he got into a game situation, but they did not today. He had one pick, which Gag's reported was a horrible throw into double coverage. To make matters worse, it was in the endzone. Taking care of the ball in the redzone is HUGE! Apparently, ACS should have had another pick, but Toney dropped the ball. In the end, he completed just over 50% of his throws with no TD's and the 1 pick. The one thing that is encouraging was ACS's comments after the scrimmage. You can read them on Gag's blog. He sounds determined to improve and win.

I was discouraged to see that DC was disappointed in the ability of the WR's to get open. I really thought we had brought in some guys at WR that could finally fix our poor play at the position the last couple of years. It does sound like Herron had a nice day for the WR's.

I know some of you guys are going to say things like "the defense should be ahead of the offense this early in camp" and "this is a good sign that we have a strong defense", but I don't care what time of year it is or how good our defensive depth is...our #1 offense should be able to do better than this against our #2 defense. I would be willing to bet most, if not all, of the starting defenses we see this year will be better than our #2 defense. If we don't improve, we could be in trouble.

Bottom Line: I'm not ready to get really worried about the season yet, but today definitely left me concerned. We are nowhere close to where we need to be offensively and that was painfully obvious today.

 

[ELKMT]

I am more concerned about the wr then anything else. ACS will be fine and he has shown that he usually makes good decisions about when/where to throw. I believe scrimmages are are not a great example of actual game expearince. If defenders get anywhere close to the QB it counts as a sack or tackle so it is hard to simulate someones scrambling ability. Therefore, on obvious passing downs it is easier for the defense during a scrimmage to defend the qb since the qb's scrambling ability is greatly taken away. I agree with you about the seven on seven drills, and I think it is similar to scrimmages on how it affects a qb.

The wr concern me because they showed an inability to get open even against the #2 defense. Alot of people in the past blamed this on wr speed. However if you look at which wr is consistently David Leonard. Leonard cannot be considered a speed wr so what makes him different than the other wr? I believe what makes leanard a quality wr is his route running. Look at uw great wr and non of them could be considered burners. (Bouknight, Harris, Yarborough), I also think that Derek Sage if a great WR coach and will teach better route running and we will be good at wr. It's something that will probably be addressed during the rest of camp and I bet there will be vast improvement from todays scrimmage to the last scrimmage.

 

[laxwyo]

Eric Schmoldt reported a TON of false starts. Nothing like a FS to kill a drive.

 

[WyoBrandX]

I went to the scrimmage and the team looked on par for the first scrimmage of fall camp. Offensively not too much happened besides a few dropped passes and an interception. We didn't run the ball well. I wouldn't give it too much thought until the end of August when everyone has their fair share of practice in.

Watched Schober kick the ball. He looks like a guy that plays defense and can kick the ball. I don't think he has much accuracy or can control the distance yet. Of the 3 kicks I saw, two went into the endzone, one fell far short and somehow managed to bounce out the back of the endzone. If his kicking keeps us from having huge returns cool. If he ends up in a kicking accuracy contest I think he'll loose.

I can't wait to see the next scrimmage. I'm sure many of these wrinkles will have been ironed out by then.

 

[mrtnt3x]

I went to the scrimmage and the team looked on par for the first scrimmage of fall camp. Offensively not too much happened besides a few dropped passes and an interception. We didn't run the ball well. I wouldn't give it too much thought until the end of August when everyone has their fair share of practice in.

Watched Schober kick the ball. He looks like a guy that plays defense and can kick the ball. I don't think he has much accuracy or can control the distance yet. Of the 3 kicks I saw, two went into the endzone, one fell far short and somehow managed to bounce out the back of the endzone. If his kicking keeps us from having huge returns cool. If he ends up in a kicking accuracy contest I think he'll loose.

I can't wait to see the next scrimmage. I'm sure many of these wrinkles will have been ironed out by then.

:thumb: :thumb:

 

[kansasCowboy]

I really don't see a concern here. it's the first scrimmage of the year. Besides, are we expecting a bunch of Jr college transfers to help us peak 3,000 passing yards this season. Highly doubtful. But, I do think we will see vast improvement. If ACS airs out anywhere from 2,300 to 2,600 yards this season, I say great improvement.

I also think our running game is far better than any scrimmage shows. Honestly, when have we ever seen good numbers in a scrimmage? None that I can think of. Example, 2008 We had Seldon and Moore returning for their senior years. Good solid careers to the point of their senior year. But, I remember reading about the fall scrimmages and Moore would have 5 carries for 13 yards. Seldon would have 8 carries for 15 yards. Every scrimmage! Every year. Yet, 08 Moore finished with over 1,000 yards, Seldon had almost 700 yards. So I'm not seeing a weak spot here. Yeah, occasionally we would have a player break a big run, usually the third or fourth string back against the third or fourth string D.

I'm not worried. It's hard to show good numbers against a defense that will know your every move, because you run it against them day in and day out. Like I said in another post, I coached, and the one thing I know is that even when you tell your defense to not run as though they already know the play, the majority of them still will.

We had the number one running back in the state last year, near 2,000 yards in 10 games. In fall scrimmage, he was getting 7 to 8 carries for 12 to 20 yards. His largest rush could have been longer but it was shortened significantly by the goal line. It was an 8 yard run. Sadly, he probably could have run that play from one end zone to the other.

Take the numbers with a grain of salt. Nobody showed promise in last years scrimmages either. Yet our freshman QB came in and threw for almost 2,000 yards, our freshman running back ran for almost 700 yards and our top receiver had almost 800 yards. You would have never pegged those number in by reading what happened during fall scrimmage. I guarantee it.

 

[TheRealUW]

I'm not worried. It's hard to show good numbers against a defense that will know your every move, because you run it against them day in and day out. Like I said in another post, I coached, and the one thing I know is that even when you tell your defense to not run as though they already know the play, the majority of them still will.

I figured this argument would come up. Every single team in this country is scrimmaging their own team right now. Every offesne is going up against their own defense who has seen the same plays year in and year out (with the exception of a new coach/offesnive system of course). Take a look at some of our opponents scrimmage notes. Their #1 offense didn't struggle like ours did. You guys can be delusional all you want, but the reality of things is that our #1 offense looked like shit today againt out BACKUP defense. You guys are acting like this is expected and happens with most teams in D1 football. Sorry, but i have to call bullshit. Major improvement is needed on offense or we aren't going to be a good team this yea...period. I'd bet Dc would tell you the same thing.

 

[ELKMT]

Im not worried yet because scrimmages are just a game simulation not an actual game, especially when your qb tends to be mobile and it is hard to simulate that in a scrimmage unless you allow the qb to get hit. That how I see it and that is why I am not truly concerned. One area that does concern me is wr not getting separation, but if the coaching staff identifies route running as a problem (which it sounds like they have) then there is still time to adjust/fix this problem.

 

[TheRealUW]

Take the numbers with a grain of salt. Nobody showed promise in last years scrimmages either. Yet our freshman QB came in and threw for almost 2,000 yards, our freshman running back ran for almost 700 yards and our top receiver had almost 800 yards. You would have never pegged those number in by reading what happened during fall scrimmage. I guarantee it.

I'm very proud of what the Pokes were able to accomplish last year, but let me put a few things into perspective to you about those stats...

ACS was 7th in the conference in passer rating.

Alvester Alexander was 9th in the conference in rushing yards.

David Leonard was 7th in the conference in receiving yards.

We were improved last season, but those types of stats will not generally get you 5th place in the MWC. The Pokes took advantage of EVERY oppurtunity they were handed, which is great, but we can't count on that to win consistently. For fuck's sake, we averaged 18 points a game last year. I don't see how anybody can rationaly expect that to keep us in bowl contention from year to year.

Bottom Line: If we want to climb in the MWC rankings, our offense needs a dramtic improvment. I didn't see that today, and thus, am concerned. I'm trying to be objective here and not be biased in my view of the Pokes. Please don't hate me.

 

[kansasCowboy]

I'm not saying that there is no room for improvement. That is what fall scrimmages are for. Besides this is some of these guys first full speed and full contact of college football. Really, get over it, it's a scrimmage. That's why we saw so many penalties. Learning experiences. A full playbook, learning experiences.

Besides, the first team had what, it looks like 35 plays today maybe a few more adding special teams, but in 35 plays we had 89 yards passing and 124 yards rushing between ACS and AA. That's 213 yards. That's an average of 6 yards per play. Yeah, area of improvement... Get in the endzone! The turnover wasn't even ACS's fault. When your receiver tips it, you don't blame the QB. Not unless it was thrown behind the receiver. And if it was thrown behind the receiver it shouldn't have been tipped. I see this as some pretty solid numbers and going to get better.
Seriously, A scrimmage of 115 offensive plays and I see 200 yards passing and 258 rushing! I'm sorry, but those are looking like some solid numbers to me. Our top two QB's combined for 17-36- 162-1-1. Crums completion percentage needs to go up, but overall, just get into the endzone more. ACS 8 carries for 63 yards! Alexander actually looked about the same from last year to me. A two yard run here, a three yard run there, a one yard run here, breaks a big one!
Receivers? Yeah, other that Mcneill, Herron and Leonard nobody really stepped up. So they improve through their scrimmages. Call it BS all you want, but that's what fall practice is all about. Make the mistakes now, because it doesn't count.

Oh, and You might want to actually read about teams fall practices that are not in the top 10, because the majority of the coaches usually don't think there team is up to snuff.

 

[cowboyz]

Take the numbers with a grain of salt. Nobody showed promise in last years scrimmages either. Yet our freshman QB came in and threw for almost 2,000 yards, our freshman running back ran for almost 700 yards and our top receiver had almost 800 yards. You would have never pegged those number in by reading what happened during fall scrimmage. I guarantee it.

I'm very proud of what the Pokes were able to accomplish last year, but let me put a few things into perspective to you about those stats...

ACS was 7th in the conference in passer rating.

Alvester Alexander was 9th in the conference in rushing yards.

David Leonard was 7th in the conference in receiving yards.

We were improved last season, but those types of stats will not generally get you 5th place in the MWC. The Pokes took advantage of EVERY oppurtunity they were handed, which is great, but we can't count on that to win consistently. For f##k's sake, we averaged 18 points a game last year. I don't see how anybody can rationaly expect that to keep us in bowl contention from year to year.

Bottom Line: If we want to climb in the MWC rankings, our offense needs a dramtic improvment. I didn't see that today, and thus, am concerned. I'm trying to be objective here and not be biased in my view of the Pokes. Please don't hate me.

I was concerned about the D the other day when I read the O ran right through them on goal line practice. So, I'm not going to get real concerned about the O right now. I too wish they moved the ball down field a bit more at the scrimmage, but as a previous poster mentions, this is new to many of them. The stats can be misleading. We rushed by committee last year with Alexander, Stewart and ACS. Teams like Utah (Wide) and BYU (Unga) use feature backs that get most of the carries, so they should be getting more yards. Leonard is more of a possession receiver so it's not about yards it's about receptions, where he was 2nd in the MWC. You're right that the numbers from last year were not impressive and that we were fortunate to qualify for a bowl game. We do return our 3 leading scorers who were all true freshman. This year they'll have a full season of play to improve stats and of course, more experience. I doubt many (any?) teams had 3 true freshman lead their team in scoring. In our wins we averaged around 30 points and in our losses closer to zero. Hopefully the experience and new receiving corps brings more consistency.