To my uneducated eye, here’s what I saw last night at Friday Night Lights
The defense will be much more aggressive. No more of the “contain, contain, bend, bend, don’t expose anyone where they might fail” kind of defense. There were a couple of plays where the defensive player lit up the back or receiver, and the effort and enthusiasm were obvious.
Our Safety position is is good hands. Sprewell and Anderson are going to be stars and mainstays. Moore, when he is eligible, will be able to help quite a bit-- and as always, Stuard plays hard every play. Cornerback is still at work in progress because of experience, but they held their own well against our receivers. Damarion Williams, the JC All-American will be just fine-- He can cover and play.
The linebackers, with Carmouche, Edgeston, et all held up pretty well. And the D Line had some good moments with good pressure on the QB’s. Chambers looks like he is ready to step in as the bellcow of the D-Line and got through for a couple of “sacks”. Godfrey, Duke and Parish were active as well, and Olivier Charles-Pierre is one large human being.
On offense, the Line did some nice things in the run game. Our first team line of Jones, Bardwell, Jones, Murphy, and Williams were large, and are going to be a factor as they take on the persona of the line coa,ch and the new tougher offense. Banes, Lewis, and Boatman got a lot of backup time, and are going to need to be ready to step in and play.
On offense, Corbin and Stevenson looked good, with Trevon Bradley getting a couple of good catches. Singleton and Mark got a lot of targets, and it is obvious that the coaching staff wants to get Julon Williams the ball to see what he can do. Carr looks like he is ready to have a breakout senior season at Running back, with all of the backs running hard-- Car, Smith, and Walker.
At QB, King and Tune are still learning the offense, and misfired on some passes. I attribute it to the offense still learning its way and discovering what they can do well. You have to remember that this was a practice and was not designed to “win” a football game. The coaches are still learning what the team can and can’t do, and the players are still getting the Briles system out of their heads. Holgorsen can run the offense, and will be a nice addition to the backups.
Overall, the hitting was a step up from what we saw under Applewhite and D’onofrio. Special teams were interesting, with us running some punt return drills to see who had the skills. Anderson and Stevenson were eye openers with their speed and moves. It will be great for us to treat punt and kickoff returns as actual plays that we can make yardage and score on. Of all the coaching decisions last year, the most frustrating was that we conceded almost every punt and kickoff return with a fair catch. Well, it is obvious that we plan to put our players in a position to make positive yards and succeed on special teams plays.