Defensively the 3-4 or 3-3-5 we switched to looked amazing. We have 5 or 6 linebackers that can make plays all over the field, and return 3 of our 4 DB's. Teams have been able to pick us apart through the air because we have traditionally sat in a base 4-3 Tampa 2 zone, however, tonight we have guys running all over the place. Man, zone, soft zone, hard zone, man with zone deep, you name it we ran it. Being a spring game we didn't blitz a lot, but formation wise and speed wise coming off of the edge we should be damn good on that side of the ball.
Offensively is where things get odd. We are known for having a great, and I mean great, o-line. However, we lost 5 starters on the o-line (1 signed as a FA and 3 are known to be invited to mini camps.). That really showed tonight. I don't know if it was the defense making the line look shaky, or if it was the inexperience showing. If we get that solidified we will be golden. Skill position wise (WR and RB) we are strong. We return Carlos Anderson at RB, he has bulked up his 5'9 frame and looks even faster. To spell him we have Matt Strathman who came on strong late last year. He is a bruising back. It really will be like a thunder and lightning with the two. It's almost like Matt looks for someone to run over instead of taking the easy path. At WR we return Jared Herring and get Josh Collins back from his torn ACL. Collins looks fully recovered, which is good because both of them have blazing speed. Freshman (redshirted this past year) Darian Howard TE/WR showed some real good signs along with Zach Gran, Terrell Sinkfield, and Ian Moore.
The QB battle is going to get good. Zach Davis has been Pat Graces back up for two years and was the heir-apparent for the job. However, a JUCO QB we brought in looks AMAZING. His name is Tirrell Rennie. He is small, something like 5'8-5'10. However, he reminds me a lot of Armanti Edwards. He was throwing out routs to the sideline from the far hash on a line, hitting windows that Davis wasn't even close to hitting, and and the fucker can run like crazy. His pocket presence is a head of Davis's and can run when it breaks down. There was a play where the pocket broke down, he scrambled right, made the LB looks like a fool and outran the entire defense on the way for a score. I haven't saw them in practice, but if Rennie and Davis have been practicing like the played tonight no way Rennie doesn't start. If he doesn't start he NEEDS to be on the field in some form. Our starting QB and RB combo could be 5;8 and 5'9 respectively.
Another thing the offense showed tonight was a new offense. Gone are the days of shot gun 4 wide, well we still run that, but we ran a hell of a lot of pistol tonight. That really gave Rennie a chance to show case his skill. Pistol 3 wide with a wing, pistol 4 wide, pistol with a TE. We saw some plays from under center, but that was almost all by Davis, and what we ran under center was 2 backs and 2 wide. We almost exclusively ran out of that formation, a couple PA quick 2 or 3 step drop route plays, but it was almost all run. If Davis is our starter don't worry about the QB running anywhere though.
Special teams we are going to see a HUGE improvement. Our punter was TERRIBLE last year. He was a true freshman and you could really see the nerves on him. He averaged about 45-47 yards per punt tonight with about a 4 second hang time. They were pretty punts...granted there was no real rush on him so we will have to see how he does with a true rush. We didn't see much of our three year starter tonight at kicker. He did some kick offs but that is it. The FG and PAT's were all a RS Freshman Tyler Sievertsen. He was kicked the ball higher than Billy (this is needed, see Iowa game last year for why it is needed). He was booming the PAT's and FG's that he kicked.
Our return game is going to be deadly I think. We are having Carlos Anderson and Jared Herring return kicks. Both of them run 40's in the 4.3's I believe and have juke moves to make people fall down. Carlos Anderson took the opening kick off tonight on the right hash at the 9 yard line, cut across the field and was completely gone by the time he got to the 40. This wasn't him breaking tackles to do it either, we had a touch rule on KO's. If you were touched you were down. Had we actually had a tackle rule in place Carlos may have taken 3 or 4 back tonight. It is a 1-2 punch that may lead to teams pooch kicking it to us.
I got some photos, I don't know how great they are but I'll give it a go.
This is Rennie just after the snap. Shot gun, 4 guys in route, wing end staying in to block. RB to the left of Rennie, with 2 WR and 1 to the right
The redone north concourse. We people can now walk from side to side on the north side and not have to do steps.
Conference title wall
Some recruits taking in the action, I believe 4 star recruit Andre Dawson is one of them
Playoff qualifier wall.
Defense huddle (Defense was white and offense was purple)
offense huddle before the game
South concourse between the game. In case you are wondering about the step comment, that concourse is about 20 steps below the concourse on the sides. On the left you can see people using the steps to see where they are
Another shot of the new north end
Davis in the pistol, sorry for the blur
Most common formation we ran right here. This is a shot gun but we also saw the same thing out of the pistol. Rennie is at QB
