Spring game for OOTCs

CMCoog17 · April 8, 2018, 7:46am

Disagree. There is more pressure when you’re infront of people than when you’re around your peers. Spring game helps test nerves.

I will say this the defence worried me at times for the first time but our starters didn’t rep alot so I’ll let them slide till after Arizona and scumlin

EECOOG69 · April 8, 2018, 2:50pm

Would be more meaningful if 1st strong offense was against 1st string defense !!

Otherwise, no !

FortWorthCoog · April 8, 2018, 3:15pm

I wasn’t watching the defense that closely, did Chambers and Oliver play together? I saw Chambers making play after play, just imagining how nasty those two will be together this season.

sarkcoog · April 8, 2018, 4:43pm

I thought the scrimmage was a better display of the offense and developing their confidence in understanding where they needed to be.

Defensive line looked to be moving at 3/4 speed, probably as much to avoid injury but to allow the offense to operate and get comfortable.

Secondary was playing man pretty much the whole game. I do not remember seeing them drop into zone. Also, defense may have been in 1st and 2nd strings but I would be more apt believe they were not. Chambers is going to be a beast at defensive end, but did not play with Carter & Oliver when they did play. Owens, the Miami transfer looks every bit as a starter but did not play with Oliver & Chambers.

I welcomed back the line splits and I sensed the offensive line is more confident than they have ever been in the last two years. I give this credit to Clements who has a history of developing offensive lines and on several occasions was instructing linemen as they came off the field.

I agree with Pesik, you can get a sense of what you are going to have from the Spring game.

My thoughts.

1.) Running game is going to be more effective and as good or better than the 2015 season.
2.) We are going to have two good backup quarterbacks behind King.
3.) Offensive line is going to be more confident in their assignments and capabilities since 2015.
4.) Lark is going to have a breakout year.
5.) Yes Dorothy, we will utilize the Tight End this year.
6.) 1st Team Defensive Line is going to be stout. We will have depth at the Defensive End position but need to develop someone to spell Oliver without it being moving Carter into that spot.
7.) We need to work out the Linebacker situation, but I think with Owen, Godfrey, & Aneinh (sp?), we will be okay.
8.) Secondary coaches have their work cut out for them. I believe Johnson will be fine, Myres I have concern about his speed but he plays hard. Will need to develop depth behind the corners. Davis at one of the safeties will be solid, need to develop depth here and teamwork. Anderson definitely has the talent but needs to learn the system.

92010Coogs · April 8, 2018, 6:15pm

Thank you for the feedback everyone.

dansatjr · April 8, 2018, 7:48pm

Absolutely agree Smith missed some throws. Especially compared to King and Tune. I was more referring to the decisiveness on play calling and speed between snaps, both important traits for the new offense. No big deal though just the spring game. Patrick Carr looked like Barry Sanders in last year’s edition.

LoRezz · April 8, 2018, 8:26pm

The offense was sooo much quicker than last year. I was so conditioned to being bored during offensive plays I missed several big ones because I was focusing on something else.
Overall I really enjoyed the day. I took my 5 year old daughter to the track meet and the football game and she really enjoyed all of it. She really liked seeing Sasha in the stands at TDECU. We also got to say hi to Kenneth Farrow on the concourse.
After one race at the track meet she asked, ‘“daddy, who is the champion?”. I was about to go into an explanation about how all the athletes work hard and are winners. But just then Carl Lewis walked by, so I just pointed and said, “that’s him right there”.

FortWorthCoog · April 8, 2018, 11:39pm

Same thing happened to me watching online, lol. Started posting about a throw and realized I already missed another. No more posts during an offensive drive!

2002Coog · April 9, 2018, 2:20pm

I think we threw the ball downfield more in the spring game than we did the entirety of the 2017 football season. I’m sure that’s a function of being ok with making mistakes in a scrimmage combined with having exponentially faster WRs this year, but that was certainly a good sign in my mind. With Briles’ ability to spread defenses out, King’s ability to run or sling the ball 50 yards downfield, this offense has the potential to be deadly this year.

I really liked what I saw from Isaiah Chambers on the defensive front. If he’s able to provide some relief from triple teams on Ed, those 2 guys may end of living in opposing backfields. That makes me feel much better about the state of the secondary.

92010Coogs · April 10, 2018, 2:29am

Great post.

pray10 · April 10, 2018, 9:21am

I know I’m late, but here’s my thoughts on the Spring game. I was out there and went to the baseball game before and after before having a family reunion yesterday and recovering today.

Not suited up, but on sideline:

RB Josh Burrell
RB Patrick Carr
RB Chandler Smith
RB Davion Mitchell was in at one point, but I didn’t see him after the 1st quarter and he may have gotten hurt
WR Jeremy Singleton
TE Parker Eichenberger
OL Alex Fontana
OL Will Noble
There was also a 14 not in pads on the sidelines, but it wasn’t Isaiah Johnson because he played. Roster doesn’t have another 14 so it might have been an alum. Also, from what I could tell, there wasn’t anyone on the defensive sideline that wasn’t in pads.

1st Team Offense:
QB King
RB Justice
WR Lark
WR Mark
WR Corbin
TE Brooker
OL Jarrid Williams
OL Denley
OL Eloph
OL Braylon Jones
OL Josh Jones

1st Team Defense:
DL Carter
DL Oliver
DL Vaughan
LB Egbule
LB Roman Brown
LB Robinson
LB Godfrey
CB I. Johnson
CB Ka’Darian Smith
S Davis
S Darius Gilbert

2nd Team Offense
QB Tune (they alternated every series between Tune and Smith)
RB Car
WR Timon Nolan
WR #31 (Not on roster) - Saw the other thread
WR Hatton
WR Bradley
OL Bardwell
OL Deshotel
OL Miller
OL Murphy
OL Alexander

2nd Team Defense:
DL Chambers
DL Fleming
DL Young
LB Milburn
LB Owens
LB Anenih
CB Joeal Williams
CB Myres
Slot CB Stuard
S Deontay Anderson
S Vaughn

2nd Series - 1st team Offense
WR Nolan and WR #31 were subbed in

2nd Series - 2nd team Offense
QB Bryson Smith, RB Davion Mitchell (Only time I heard Mitchell’s name), TE Sid Turnbull, and #14 (stats say I.Johnson, but I’m not sure it was him)

3rd Series - 1st team Offense
WR Marquez Stevenson was subbed in - only time he played WR

Beyond that, things mostly stayed the same with Justice and Car flipping between 1st team O and 2nd team O reps. After Mitchell went out, they were the only RBs available. Watched at halftime and Mitchell was not on the sideline in the RB meeting, but the others not in pads were.

4th String QB is #12 Ike Ogbogu. I did not see #13 Mason McClendon out there at all and there were only 4 QBs dressed.

Marquez Stevenson was the only player that caught punts

Caden Novikoff was the first field goal kicker, but Dalton Witherspoon did come out later and kicked a field goal.

They did mix in Chanbers, Owens, and Anderson with the 1st team Defense from time to time. I kind of lost track after about the 3rd series as to the substitutions, but the defense did stay the same for at least 2 series.

As far as backup QB, Tune came out first, and looked OK. He’s got a good arm and moved well, but was a bit inaccurate at times. Bryson Smith looked like a taller Greg Ward; arm strength wasn’t as good, but he can definitely move around and had a few nice runs as well as some nice throws on the move. Once he wasn’t going against the 1st team defense, he shined. Ogbogu came in at the end and showed off a strong arm and made a couple of nice throws.

Neither Car nor Justice did much early against the 1st team defense. Once the game went along, and the 1st team defense came out, both were able to find some holes.

King was definitely the star of the day as he was hitting guys downfield all game in stride. With a full offseason, he may be scary good and he looked completely comfortable yesterday. Very promising. WRs looked good as well with Mark and Lark really impressing before giving way to the others. Mark has a lot more speed than I thought.

Starting OL kept King clean for the most part. Chambers did make it through to get him once and I believe he also got Tune once.

LBs looked ok. Owens had a big hit on somebody and Gooden’s name was announced a lot.

2nd team secondary got scorched when King was in there. On the first TD, Mark burned Myres badly; just ran right by him to make the catch for the TD. On the 2nd TD, King hit Lark in stride and burned Anderson; Deontay looked like he took the wrong route and then tripped.

1st Team Secondary did pretty well though and kept Tune and Smith in check. Myres made a nice pick on Tune in the 2nd half and I.Johnson almost had a pick on Smith in the 1st half, but the receiver (Hatton?) made a nice play to knock it away from him.

Beyond the 1st and 2nd team secondaries, things didn’t look good as Tune, Smith, and Ogbogu were able to complete passes at will against them. This will definitely be an area to watch as we don’t have a lot of depth at those positions.

That’s about it. It was nice to watch the offense actually do well and King looks like he’s going to be a monster this year.