O&W Game Thread

I think he has to be. He's the only one that can catch them.

CP may get a look there

 

This was the first spring where starters on both sides looked like SEC players

 

I too, would like to buy a ticket on the Tom Smith bandwagon.

 

I like what Bill said. While watching the replay last night, I looked for little things. How hard the rb's were running and it is better than last year for sure. I watched to see how much push the o-line got, and on a few occasions, they looked very much SEC quality. One one of the toss sweeps to Devrin, we had a hole to run through not seen since 2005. The big plays from QB and WR weren't really there, but to be fair, besides Da'Rick, we didn't really have SEC quality out there. Bray didn't force alot, which is encouraging and the lob to Da'Rick and throw off the back foot to Blanc were top notch.

Defensively, minus a few occasions, the tackling seemed to be better, aggressiveness seemed better, and this was all with them playing very vanilla schematically. I think we are good across the d-line, especially if McCullers is as advertised. Linebacker are good until, God forbid, we have some injuries. Brian Randolph may have impressed me the most out of any player on the team Saturday. Sapp made some plays.

Special teams must improve before the fall, or those close game against NC State, Florida, Georgia, And Missouri will all be losses. Palardy has some serious issues about playing in front of a crowd or something.

 

I hate this approach. Hate, hate, hate.

 

Agree on every count. Each QB had brain farts, but for the most part they were getting rid of the ball. Bray was head and shoulders ahead of where he was last spring, but he gets no credit until he performs against SEC defenses.

Neal has got to hold on to the damn football.

 

The light will eventually go on for Smith. He got better as the game went on.

 

The way I remember it, Toney Williams had a good O&W game last year. I don't remember anyone else in particular. And that's kinda Williams' thing.

Bray's most impressive pass, imo, was the back-foot strike to Cody Blanc to convert 4th down. TEs should be a strength if we can figure out how to involve them properly

 

Toney Williams hasn't been on the team in two years. He never recovered from injury.

 

I should say he's been there but not really "been there". I think that good Spring Game he had was under Kiffin.

 

He had two good spring games. One under Kiffin, one under Dooley. I remember the second one because I was watching in a t-shirt after flying in from Boston, thinking Tennessee had not moved to Alaska

 

Downs is a pleasant surprise. I saw him play HS, and used to coach with 3 of his HS coaches. They all said that he had all the physical tools but needed to improve in some of the non-physical aspects of the game. The light comes on later for some.

 

On glancing further the RB stats did look pretty good last O&W game too:

Poole had 60 yards on 9 carries (6.7 per)
Neal had 56 on 12 (4.7 per)
Williams had 53 on 10 (5.3 per)

I remember Williams being the one who stood out, but I don't remember whether that was a passing of the eye test or whether it was just good performance relative to expectations. I will say that Young passed the eye test much more than Neal this year, even though their stats were almost identical. Smith would've too, except he was running against the twos.

 

Poole went about 7pc. The other guys were over four.

Edit: never mind. You got it.

 

If Neal could get a little more* violent and aggressive he could have a Lamarcus Coker-ish thing going on. Coker ended up being shaken up in about every game, but the dude hit the LOS hard and got yards with the occasional huge play. Neal has the speed to emulate that.

*by "little more" I mean a lot more.

 

He has the speed...just needs the attitude. I wonder if the fumble-itis still has him thinking too much?

 

I see Lane getting the bulk of the carries. I also expect Young to be very involved in the offense.

 

I'm fine with using multiple backs as long as you pick the back to get 60-70 percent of the touches.

Young and Neal both have too much potential explosiveness not to use them in some way, but if Lane doesn't get the majority of the touches, something is drastically wrong barring injury.

 

Neal fumbles like 1/5 touches. I don't want him near SEC linebackers anymore than he needs to be.

 

Give him a sweep or two against slower teams and a wheel route on occasion.