HOW DID OUR OL LOOK?

I think this is can be the "weakest link" to our team next year. I'm concerned hearing about all those holding calls!

Oh yeah and the special team too. Are they consistent?

THANKS

Difficult to comment on our OL since it was split into two teams.

K Langford looked great -- he hit two FGs perfectly.

The DL seemed to be in the backfield a decent amount, batting down balls and getting to the QB. But the split squad does indeed make it hard to deduce too much.

I didn't see Christian okafor play...& Zach Kline needs too bulk up

Any sack today?

AWOLbear;739590 said:

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I didn't see Christian okafor play...& Zach Kline needs too bulk up

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#76 Okafor was in at RT for the blue team near the end.

I'm more interested in the distance of the kickoffs

HungryCalBear;739618 said:

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Any sack today?

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There were a couple "sacks." The whistle blew whenever the QB was touched. Tedford got on one of the defenders who actually tackled Maynard.

But yes, D line did a nice job of getting to the QB. Pressure was on so you could see the QBs true colors.

I was specifically looking at OL play and KO coverage. The blue OL was more consistently effective and both OLs blocked better on running plays than passing. The gold OTs, which was Farley at RT and Tydall at LT, were pretty pourous. I believe the guards were Gibson and J. Rigsbee for the gold. Matt Williams was playing guard for the blues, which seemed to be mostly first unit with Schwenke at Center, T. Rigsbee at LT, MSG at RT, Croswaithe at LG and Williams at RG. Schwenke looks awesome and very comfortable at center. Nobody is bowling him over. Chris Adcock played well at Center for the Gold. The gold won the game but that is very misleading when it comes to the lines because the blue teams lines dominated for most of the game. Jalil (DT for the Blue) had a lot to do with the problems the gold OL had. I thought the OLs looked to be in a little better shape than in past years and many played the majority of a hot day without showing fatigue.

As far as I'm concerned, the KO coverage units are very inadequate, but the may have been instucted to go easy to prevent injury. The kickoff were inconsistent in terms of height and distance as well but Langford looked good on FGs. I hope that was helpful.

heartofthebear;739644 said:

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,,,,,
As far as I'm concerned, the KO coverage units are very inadequate, but the may have been instucted to go easy to prevent injury. The kickoff were inconsistent in terms of height and distance as well but Langford looked good on FGs. I hope that was helpful.

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On kickoffs they may be experimenting a little with trying to kick high rather than far, due to the yard line move up to 35 from the 30 this year, but both kickers had good hang time and height, though inconsistent in distance. Both hit the endzone though I believe, at least on couple occasions. Could have been better. My bet is the legs are tired too at end of spring ball, so good news is there I think. Kickoff coverage? Not sure what may have been said, but does seem as if they could have been told not to go all out with reckless abandon?

On O-line, hard to tell, but some decent holes at least outside existed. Lots of injuries there so hard to gauge. Was up and down performance to me today, though JT did say he was impressed by much of what he saw there today (and what is there for fall). Seems like all other areas are looking good, particularly for this time of year, so I agree "All about the O-line" and we need it to be great for a great year.

There were TONS of low shotgun snaps. I'm talking rolling to the QB type low. Sofelli actually picked up a snap that came to his feet when he was lined up to Maynard's left. Otherwise, kind of hard to get a good assessment because there are so few guys to start with, and then you divide them to different teams.

heartofthebear;739644 said:

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The gold won the game but that is very misleading when it comes to the lines because the blue teams lines dominated for most of the game. Jalil (DT for the Blue) had a lot to do with the problems the gold OL had.

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I agree. Blue OL looked much better than Gold OL IMO and Jalil is a flat-out stud.

BearlyClad;739657 said:

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Both hit the endzone though I believe, at least on couple occasions. Could have been better.

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My recollection is more like "hit the goal line." And don't forget it was only a 90-yd field so looks were deceiving. Decent hangtime but still not enough distance IMO. Special teams still suspect overall, but FGs were encouraging.

mattSF3;739665 said:

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There were TONS of low shotgun snaps. I'm talking rolling to the QB type low. Sofelli actually picked up a snap that came to his feet when he was lined up to Maynard's left.

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Yep, same old problems. Plus lots of motion penalties and overall formation/pre-snap sloppiness. But it's only spring, hopefully that stuff gets cleaned up by fall.

:gobears:

Both OL's were sloppy, but run blocking was pretty good on both sides. MSG really struggled to block Whiteside in pass pro.

I was somewhat encouraged over all by the OL. Okafor looked good in his limited time; he handled Whiteside on pass pro very well.

mattSF3;739665 said:

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There were TONS of low shotgun snaps. I'm talking rolling to the QB type low. Sofelli actually picked up a snap that came to his feet when he was lined up to Maynard's left. Otherwise, kind of hard to get a good assessment because there are so few guys to start with, and then you divide them to different teams.

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This was the only really significant negative I saw. The snapping was just flat out bad. This needs to be fixed. Hopefully the return of Galas will help provide a solution. Really hard to get an overall sense of the oline for the reasons cited above, but I think there's a good squad in there.

The kickoffs were made from the 25 yard lines to account for the 90 yard field - so kickoffs that reached the goal line yesterday would have reached the goal line in a regular game as well.

You have got to be kidding. Galas is the problem with the errant snaps.

We have Matt Cochran coming in the fall, and he is a bright center prospect.

In the meantime, Schwenke and others will be able to practice their snaps.

The first fg looked very low.....blockable. the48 harder was great.

heartofthebear;739644 said:

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I was specifically looking at OL play and KO coverage. The blue OL was more consistently effective and both OLs blocked better on running plays than passing. The gold OTs, which was Farley at RT and Tydall at LT, were pretty pourous. I believe the guards were Gibson and J. Rigsbee for the gold. Matt Williams was playing guard for the blues, which seemed to be mostly first unit with Schwenke at Center, T. Rigsbee at LT, MSG at RT, Croswaithe at LG and Williams at RG. Schwenke looks awesome and very comfortable at center. Nobody is bowling him over. Chris Adcock played well at Center for the Gold. The gold won the game but that is very misleading when it comes to the lines because the blue teams lines dominated for most of the game. Jalil (DT for the Blue) had a lot to do with the problems the gold OL had. I thought the OLs looked to be in a little better shape than in past years and many played the majority of a hot day without showing fatigue.

As far as I'm concerned, the KO coverage units are very inadequate, but the may have been instucted to go easy to prevent injury. The kickoff were inconsistent in terms of height and distance as well but Langford looked good on FGs. I hope that was helpful.

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What game did you watch? The blue line allowed several sacks, lots of hurries and in general were unable to match the speed off the ends. The Gold line was much more effective in pass protection (the batted balls were the QB's fault - not stepping up in the pocket as the rush was pushed pass them). Okafor, was big ans very slow - exactly what one would expect from a kid in HS. The Gold team ran the ball better overall. CJ has an extra gear from past year and should be a great 1-2 with Isi, who ran like a seasoned veteran.

The DL will be a strength all season.

mattSF3;739665 said:

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There were TONS of low shotgun snaps. I'm talking rolling to the QB type low. Sofelli actually picked up a snap that came to his feet when he was lined up to Maynard's left. Otherwise, kind of hard to get a good assessment because there are so few guys to start with, and then you divide them to different teams.

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+100

Snaps were a big problem last year and after a whole spring, they don't seem to have solved it. I thought it was impossible to roll a football on the ground, but our snappers seem to have found a way to do it. Boehm in particular was having a real hard time with the low snaps. And when the snaps weren't low, they were above the QB's head. I'd say if Tedford can't find a snapper for the shotgun or spread, then scrap those formations and get the QB back over center. One thing this team needs more than great plays is to eliminate mistakes.

One thing that concerned me was the time it took to call plays and snap the ball. There didn't seem to be a play clock, and I thought there would have been more than a few delay of game calls had there been one. Not crisp. Maybe that's something ypu don't worry about in spring and gets ironed out in fall, but if I recall correctly it's been something of a problem for a number of years.

One other issue. Hagan suffered an apparent ankle injury toward the end of the game. He was on the sideline later with ice on it. Anyone know if he's okay?

JimSox;739829 said:

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One thing that concerned me was the time it took to call plays and snap the ball. There didn't seem to be a play clock, and I thought there would have been more than a few delay of game calls had there been one. Not crisp. Maybe that's something ypu don't worry about in spring and gets ironed out in fall, but if I recall correctly it's been something of a problem for a number of years.

One other issue. Hagan suffered an apparent ankle injury toward the end of the game. He was on the sideline later with ice on it. Anyone know if he's okay?

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At the Football Gala Dinner last night JT said that a very positive part of the Spring game (which he seemed pretty high on by the way- hope we'll see more of these in the future) was that we came out totally injury free. I think whatever you saw was probably minor.

Masau80;739755 said:

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What game did you watch? The blue line allowed several sacks, lots of hurries and in general were unable to match the speed off the ends. The Gold line was much more effective in pass protection (the batted balls were the QB's fault - not stepping up in the pocket as the rush was pushed pass them). Okafor, was big ans very slow - exactly what one would expect from a kid in HS. The Gold team ran the ball better overall. CJ has an extra gear from past year and should be a great 1-2 with Isi, who ran like a seasoned veteran.

The DL will be a strength all season.

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Who stood out to you on both lines?

Sebastabear;739833 said:

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At the Football Gala Dinner last night JT said that a very positive part of the Spring game (which he seemed pretty high on by the way- hope we'll see more of these in the future) was that we came out totally injury free. I think whatever you saw was probably minor.

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Brazinski and his ACL must not mean much to JT or the 'totally' part is bad paraphrasing.

turkey02;739871 said:

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Brazinski and his ACL must not mean much to JT or the 'totally' part is bad paraphrasing.

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The post you quoted said, "Spring Game" not spring practice. So, if Hagen's injury was 'nothing' then the paraphrasing was not bad since Braz's injury was couple of weeks ago.

That's also reasonable

BearlyClad;739657 said:

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On kickoffs they may be experimenting a little with trying to kick high rather than far, due to the yard line move up to 35 from the 30 this year, but both kickers had good hang time and height, though inconsistent in distance. Both hit the endzone though I believe, at least on couple occasions. Could have been better. My bet is the legs are tired too at end of spring ball, so good news is there I think. Kickoff coverage? Not sure what may have been said, but does seem as if they could have been told not to go all out with reckless abandon?

On O-line, hard to tell, but some decent holes at least outside existed. Lots of injuries there so hard to gauge. Was up and down performance to me today, though JT did say he was impressed by much of what he saw there today (and what is there for fall). Seems like all other areas are looking good, particularly for this time of year, so I agree "All about the O-line" and we need it to be great for a great year.

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I wasn't too impressed with the DB play either, but it's possible that they didn't want too much contact on the receivers given the lack of depth. Did Tedford say anything specific about the DB play?

HairOfTheBear;739874 said:

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The post you quoted said, "Spring Game" not spring practice. So, if Hagen's injury was 'nothing' then the paraphrasing was not bad since Braz's injury was couple of weeks ago.

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Yes. Spring Game (heavy emphasis on the word game) not all of Spring practice. My sense is JT has shied away from doing these because of the heightened injury risk. Was great we came out of it without any serious problems.

BTW: great group of guys. Gibson, Schwenke, the Rigsbys, MSG, Schwartz (who was at the Gala), etc. Just class acts

First, at this point, the defense is always ahead of the offense
Second, the defense is going to be one of the best in conference this year - lot of guys have improved, and not just the guys who get the press (more in chat).
Third, for some reasons they didn't have units play together, and just split the oline guys between the two scrimmage teams w/o much thought. This meant guys were playing with guys they were not used to playing with (e.g., the right tackle and right guard had not played much together).
Fourth, the defense blitzed, stunted, and showed some stuff they wanted to work, while the offenses intentionally were kept boring to not show anything, and the defenses knew this.

So yes, the dline and LB rushers looked real good and the QBs were under a lot of pressure. BTW, I was impressed with how well the young QBs handled the pressure. ZK is the real deal, Boehm has good pocket pressence, and Hinder can run (whoever called him slow didn't see the scrimmage)

Third,

the batted balls were the QB's fault - not stepping up in the pocket as the rush was pushed pass them




actually the pressure came from up the middle which wrecked several plays with batted balls or forced Bridgford to throw quickly to the sideline.

I just watched the video provided by TouchTheAxeIn82. OL needs a lot of work, but overall the offense is pretty impressive, with the scores 20-21 against the first rated defense - much further along than this time last year. I thought maybe the defense let up a little to give them some rhythm, like that last hail mary TD.

89Bear;739840 said:

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Who stood out to you on both lines?

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I thought Schwenke looks like a natural at center - still needs to work on snaps, but this is his first time doing that. Jordan Rigsbee looked pretty solid at guard. Farley was strong at OT all day. I was surprised at how ineffective MSG and the older Rigsbee were at pass protection. They really struggled against the speed coming off the end. Matt Williams looks like a better fit at guard too.