Spring game talk

[djwill13]

Surprised there isn't already a thead on this stuff. How do you guys feel about your team and their spring practice? I've seen a few teams (Oklahoma for about a quarter, Tennessee for about a series, Auburn for about a quarter, and like 8 plays of Florida's), but I saw all of Georgia's (of course )

Offensively, I was surprised by what we were doing. Knowshon Moreno (redshirt Freshman) was a huge surprise for me at RB. With Thomas Brown still nursing his injured leg, Moreno got a ton of pt and performed nicely. I see why he was getting a lot of hype. Tough, hard-nosed runner with some nice speed and decent hands. Lumpkin still looks pretty good. Offensive line was making a ton of holes and picked up blitzes well. Having those 5 linemen enroll early should pay dividends for us come summer. Really shocking considering the 1's were going against 1's, 2's vs 2's. Kris Durham for the 2nd unit was also surprising. No disrespect intended, but he may just be the next great white hype, a white Randy Moss if you will. Guy's 6'5" and has some nice speed and leaping ability. Made a couple beautiful grabs, 2 of them sportscenter top play material. Stafford looked like a completely different QB. With the oline blocking so well, he was patient and had time to make reads and made a lot of good throws. Last season, he would tend to bullet a lot of passes when he could've taken something off. Seems like he's learned to do that so far this year. WR's tended to be on sink with him as well. Massaquio has moved to slot WR which is a good move IMO. He didn't do so well last season when playing on the line (due to being bumped), so the move to slot should help him get off the line more.

Defensively though..........we need some work. We're really going to miss Tra Battle, Charles Johnson, Quentin Moses, and Tony Taylor. I think Rodrick Battle (DE) could eventually become better, but he does need some work. Geno Atkins and Kade Weston looked pretty good at DT. Both saw pretty decent playing time last season, so that's a good thing. Brandon Miller (MLB) really needs to step up and be a leader on defense. Started last season at OLB and had fairly good numbers, but he'll need to play a lot better at MLB and be a playmaker. Paul Oliver (CB) has come back thank God and the other corners look pretty good actually. with Bryan Evans and Asher Allen getting significant pt. Both of them saw a lot of time last year as true freshmen. Kelin Johnson (FS), one of the few returning starters from last season bulsters the secondary and showed that he could make some good plays for us last year. What scares me though is SS. C.J. Byrd is just slow, I mean my 2 month old daughter runs faster than he does. Guess we'll just have to see though.

Things that I saw from other spring games:

Oklahoma will miss the original AP, but I don't think they will as much as everyone thinks. They've got another AP (Allen Patrick) who looked pretty good last season and appears to have gotten stronger from last season. I know this is spring, but he picked up a couple blitzes quite nicely. Bomar is back which kinda made me chuckle a bit.

Auburn may be better off w/o Kenny Irons. I know that's a strong statement, but he was hurt for the majority of last season and was hardly ever at full strength. Brad Lester could be the back that turns heads in the SEC. Auburn better pray Cox doesn't go down cause the backup SUCKED lol.

[Grizzman]

Not an Ohio State fan but I will be in Columbus on Saturday to watch the scarlet and gray game. I'll post the info. on how horrible they are going to be sometime after sunday. lol

[Iamonebigmofo]

I posted this on Monday in the Sports Bar.

Florida's Orange & Blue game :

I think I read that there was around 48,000 fans in attendance...so yeah a lot of people came out to this one.

They're moving a lot of guys around and since it's spring, there are still a lot of question marks on who's going to start where. The defense did look a bit shaky at times, but there were a few walk ons and red-shirts out there for both sides so that can be expected. The freshmen D-line beasts Dunlap, Brown, Lemmons, and Davis didn't enroll early so naturally they weren't there. Marcus Manson's move to DB from RB looks like it was a good one...he was playing tight on the WR's all day...same with frosh Joe Haden.

Tebow's blue team won 27-21. He was 17-27 for 216 and 3 TD's. Cameron Newton was 20-30 for 275 and 1 TD. Both of them took off a few times to run, but with the no contact on the QB's they didn't run Meyer's typical offense of options, screens, draws, etc....usually what we're used to seeing when Tebow's under center. The game seemed more or less a day of "let's work on getting our QB's comfortable in the pocket and see if they can hit their targets".


http://gatorcountry.smugmug.com/gall...4390#143882455

[Titletown FLA]

I thought three major things stood out for me for the O&B game... One,Tebow can pass better than most think...Two, we have some receivers. This one called Murphy had like seven catches for 120 yards at the half and was named a starter after the game..And three my boy Mercy Percy wasnt even out there and we looked that good....

[Iamonebigmofo]

I thought three major things stood out for me for the O&B game... One,Tebow can pass better than most think...Two, we have some receivers. This one called Murphy had like seven catches for 120 yards at the half and was named a starter after the game..And three my boy Mercy Percy wasnt even out there and we looked that good....

This one called Murphy? lol..It was Louis Murphy, and he had the 35 yard TD catch from Tebow vs. LSU last year.

Our receivers did look nice though. Once Deonte Thompson arrives it won't even be fair.

[djwill13]

I posted this on Monday in the Sports Bar.

Florida's Orange & Blue game :

I think I read that there was around 48,000 fans in attendance...so yeah a lot of people came out to this one.

They're moving a lot of guys around and since it's spring, there are still a lot of question marks on who's going to start where. The defense did look a bit shaky at times, but there were a few walk ons and red-shirts out there for both sides so that can be expected. The freshmen D-line beasts Dunlap, Brown, Lemmons, and Davis didn't enroll early so naturally they weren't there. Marcus Manson's move to DB from RB looks like it was a good one...he was playing tight on the WR's all day...same with frosh Joe Haden.

Tebow's blue team won 27-21. He was 17-27 for 216 and 3 TD's. Cameron Newton was 20-30 for 275 and 1 TD. Both of them took off a few times to run, but with the no contact on the QB's they didn't run Meyer's typical offense of options, screens, draws, etc....usually what we're used to seeing when Tebow's under center. The game seemed more or less a day of "let's work on getting our QB's comfortable in the pocket and see if they can hit their targets".


http://gatorcountry.smugmug.com/gall...4390#143882455

From the very little that I saw, I got the same impression. Plus, I'm sure Meyer doesn't want to show anything in his bag of tricks just yet.

[djwill13]

This one called Murphy? lol..It was Louis Murphy, and he had the 35 yard TD catch from Tebow vs. LSU last year.

Our receivers did look nice though. Once Deonte Thompson arrives it won't even be fair.

Since the Spurrier days, you guys have always looked nice at WR lol. Pretty much expected now lol.

[onduty23]

never cared about the spring game. alot of players shine in the spring but fade in the fall. fall games is what counts and matters. you cant crown a team based on spring games

[MetalGuitarist]

I've caught pieces of games here and there. I thought Auburn's offense looked really good. Reminded me of '05. Cox must have recovered. Defense... not so much.

I thought Tennessee looked below average. Kind of reminded me of Bama back Spring '05 when everyone was injured.

I'm looking forward to A-Day this weekend though. Our offense is going to have to put up some points for us to have a good season.

Honestly, I don't think the SEC as a whole is going to be as good defensively as they've been the past few years. We'll see...

[Titletown FLA]

We are lookin good..I think UGA will def be good too though with Staford...I just dont wanna see UT do anything haha

[Kaidog]

I've caught pieces of games here and there. I thought Auburn's offense looked really good. Reminded me of '05. Cox must have recovered. Defense... not so much.

I thought Tennessee looked below average. Kind of reminded me of Bama back Spring '05 when everyone was injured.

I'm looking forward to A-Day this weekend though. Our offense is going to have to put up some points for us to have a good season.

Honestly, I don't think the SEC as a whole is going to be as good defensively as they've been the past few years. We'll see...

You coming down for A-day? Im looking forward to seeing our new offense and defense under Saban. I know where most of the players stand as Ive been keeping up with it from post practice interviews.

Per Saban, OL is looking good, Hes impressed with JP, DJ Hall and Castille. Hes not to happy with the D (particularly the front 7), but said its a work in progress from them learning the new system.

Let me know if you're coming and we can hook up for a few so u can teach me how to record games

[djwill13]

We are lookin good..I think UGA will def be good too though with Staford...I just dont wanna see UT do anything haha

Offensively, I think we'll be fine. It's the defense that I'm worried about. We've tradinally had good d's, so.........I guess we'll have to see.

[MetalGuitarist]

You coming down for A-day? Im looking forward to seeing our new offense and defense under Saban. I know where most of the players stand as Ive been keeping up with it from post practice interviews.

Per Saban, OL is looking good, Hes impressed with JP, DJ Hall and Castille. Hes not to happy with the D (particularly the front 7), but said its a work in progress from them learning the new system.

Let me know if you're coming and we can hook up for a few so u can teach me how to record games

Nope, not making it down for A-Day. Going to watch it on TV. Tuscaloosa is a bit far from here. Next game I'll probably go to is vs. Vanderbilt in Nashville. If you need help with recording games, just IM me.

[heavy_hitter]

From our entire Spring, a few things were noticeable. Not in any particular order.

1) Jeff Bowden and Daryl Dickey did so much damage to the QB's that they may never recover. Jimbo Fisher is going to have alot of work to do.

2) Antone Smith is the real deal. I think alot of the credit has to go to Rick Tricket for already making an Impact on the OL. Smith had several video tape highlights this spring.

3) The OL will be much Improved due to Tricket making them lose weight and toughening them up.

4) The defense is going to be nasty particularly on the DL. FSU has studs on the DL and the Backups are studs. The DE's can run. The LB's, even with NFL losses are just being replaced. They are quick and very good. The Safeties will be strong as well. FSU has not faired well with DB's the past few years. I think alot of people are going to be surprised. Andre Fluellen, Neefy Moffett, Patrick Robinson, Geno Hayes, and Myron Rolle will all be guys to watch on this defense.

5) The New Coaches are doing an outstanding job. Time will tell and I have a feeling these guys are on the midst of building something special again in Tallahassee.

As far back as I can remember, FSU hasn't had kids commit to them as early as they are this year. FSU already boasts 6 commits for the 2008 class. 4 of those 6 are in the Rivals 250. What is more amazing is that they are all on the defensive side of the ball. The stud of the group is LB Nigel Bradham who is argueably the best player in the state of Florida for his class.

[Kaidog]

Bama's A-Day was pretty awesome...92k+ showed up in case you didnt see Sportscenter...I was pretty blown away when I walked in the stadium and saw the entire place full.

Nothing really new came from the Spring game, other than we passed a lot more than we normally do..in response to that we ran a lot of nickel packages on D. I really dont think Saban showed much, per his statements he really just wanted to see how players reacted in different situations to see who he could count on in the clutch.

The Offense returned 9 starters, so the only big position up for grabs is RB. Saban seems to want to develop a tandem here with probably Jimmy Johns and Terry Grant leading the pack. Starting RT is another position up for grabs, Chris Capps has been hurt during spring, so they have been rotating OL to try to find a solid RT..no real leader here.

On Defense, the front 7 is a concern, especially the DL, Saban has been moving guys around to try to find a solid front 7. One of the big suprises on DL is that redshirt freshman, Brian Motley that started the spring as a Center prospect, moved to DL and has been the best out there. Saban has stated he wants to run a 3-4/4-3 scheme that basically is interchangable. 3 down linemen...3 LBs and a Jack LB that can blitz or cover off the edge. DL - Motley, Greenwood and Gilberry LB - Zeke Knight, Keith Saunders, Prince Hall and Mustain, look to be the starting front 7 going into fall practice.

Secondary has a good bit of depth, but lack experience and its still up in the air who will start, the only certain starters are Simeon Castille and Rashad Johnson.

Special Teams - Kicking was great, Christensen is back and Tiffin is 2nd, made all FGs today. Punting was ok, Fitzgerald is Fitzgerald. Its hard to evaluate against yourself, but either our kick returners are great or our Kick coverage sux...Jonathan Lowe was a nice suprise..he had several nice returns. Hes a walk-on transfer from Miss St that should split KOs with Javier Arenas.

Depth wise, again...Front 7 depth is really shallow, but help is on the way in the fall. Depth everywhere else is young but talented. There is a new attitude from our players and hopefully that will translate into wins come the fall.