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Spring Game - Hank 91 - 04-14-2012

So did anyone make it out to the game? I'd love to hear some firsthand accounts, either about how things looked on the field or what the crowd was like or both. Please?

Re: Spring Game - washingtonismoney - 04-14-2012

Kyle Bonagura on the Stanford Rapid Reports has got it covered: http://twitter.com/#!/CBSSportsStan

Re: Spring Game - theashwineffect - 04-14-2012

I was present for the last three "quarters."

Long story short: QBs looked pretty shaky, with Nottingham >>> Nunes, and Crower possibly looking the best of the bunch (certainly threw the tightest passes). Ty Montgomery and Kelsey Young looked like studs out there. Defense was solid (as indicated by the score) but also by the amount of penetration they were getting and how well they were covering receivers not named Montgomery. Meinken and Ertz were banged during play, but didn't look like anything too serious.

Re: Spring Game - yvonne - 04-14-2012

Kelsey Young really stood out. Ty Montgomery caught some nice balls. Toilolo did NOT look good today. I don't know what was up with that. Another name I heard a lot was Jackson Cummings.

The offense was way behind the defense today, even more than the score indicated, but I had to remind myself that neither Taylor nor Wilkerson played.

News aggregation - Redrum - 04-14-2012

Several other reports that Young not so studly at opening the game.  Catching the ball is...a work in progress.

Re: Spring Game - yvonne - 04-14-2012

Our receivers looked spotty. They had some great catches, and they had quite a few dropped balls, as well. Ominous Shaw quote:

"...today that position was not played well enough for us to win a football game.”

http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/04/14/stanford-leads-other-pac-12-spring-game-wrap-ups/

Re: Spring Game - terry - 04-14-2012

The offense had a bad day today. I cannot believe how many dropped passes there were. A number of different players dropped passes, including some of our established players. In addition to all the dropped passes, we gave up a bunch of sacks, we had QBs who held the ball too long, we had QBs missing open receivers, we had a couple of fumbled snaps, we had a bunch of false start penalties, we had a lot of trouble establishing the running game, we had a bobbled pass intercepted. I wouldn't pay much attention to the stats, especially for Nunes. Nunes had a lot of catchable passes dropped. (Nottingham had some dropped too.)

There were some bright moments on offense. Davis Dudchock looked very good catching the ball downfield. Keanu Nelson made some plays, including a highlight-reel back-shoulder catch in traffic on a pass from Nottingham. Ty Montgomery made a Doug Baldwin-type TD catch, fighting through double coverage down the middle to come down with the ball on a long pass from Nunes. Kelsey Young looked great in the open field with the ball in his hands. He will be a weapon for us. Nice job by Crower in very limited reps.

The defense looked pretty good. They got a lot of pressure on the QB, they were strong against the run, and they did a good job of stopping the offense from establishing any rhythm. Chase Thomas and Trent Murphy are a heck of a pair of outside LBs.

Injuries -- Ertz looked OK. But I'm worried about Meinken, who was taken off on a cart with a big brace on his leg. That didn't look good.

Beautiful day at Kezar. Went for a walk through Golden Gate Park afterward, then out to an Italian restaurant. Overall a good day. Would have been better if the offense hadn't been so sloppy.

Re: Spring Game - washingtonismoney - 04-14-2012

A play-by-play/recap: http://www.ruleoftree.com/2012/4/14/2949197/stanford-cardinal-white-spring-game-recap-and-play-by-play

Keep in mind, when we discuss these things, that the 2010 spring game ended in a 0-0 tie. That year's offense was serviceable.

Re: Spring Game - washingtonismoney - 04-14-2012

AP report. http://sports.yahoo.com/news/starting-qb-no-clearer-stanford-010802456--ncaaf.html

Apparently Nottingham and Young threw some passes "long after" the spring game was over and everyone had packed up.

Re: Spring Game - CowboyIndian - 04-14-2012

If nothing else...to show you what a beautiful day it was at Kezar:
[Image: SF041412%20006.jpg]

[Image: SF041412%20002.jpg]

[Image: SF041412%20011.jpg]

Re: Spring Game - Griffins78 - 04-15-2012

What's happened with Remound Wright?

Re: Spring Game - socalstanfan1 - 04-15-2012

At the risk of sounding polly-anna-ish in the face of foreboding comments (Shaw's reference to the QBs not playing good enough to win a football game), I'm going to keep the faith that the offense will eventually be pretty good this year.  Obviously the D has a big advantage right now, if only because of the continuity of a very high-quality front 7.  On offense, while the QBs are still learning, they also did not have their top few RBs, and the OL is also in flux (which may be part of the reason for the pressure on the QBs, not only that they are taking too long on their reads, or are not reading the blitzes coming at them).  Even in the areas where the D is transitioning (ie, the defensive backfield), the D has lots of guys who got lots of playing time over the last couple of years (Carrington, Brown, Browning, etc), whereas the backups for Luck, DeCastro and Martin essentially never left the sidelines.  So it will take more time for the new starters on offense to get up to speed, I think.  When everyone does so (and when Taylor returns to the backfield) there will be less pressure on whoever is the starting QB, while he himself learns on the job.  Finally, what better way for the offense to come together than by having to face one of the top defensive front-7s in the nation.  If the OL can handle Thomas, Murphy, Debniak, Gardner, et al, they will surely be ready to face just about any defensive front they will face during the season. 

By all accounts, it looked bad today for the O.  But I think this was just a very public display of growing pains. 

Re: Spring Game - washingtonismoney - 04-15-2012

Wilner has some very good information: http://blogs.mercurynews.com/collegesports/2012/04/14/stanford-football-report-from-the-spring-game/

Hemschoot as starting ILB is a head-turner. He's always had a ton of athleticism but I imagine his young age has held him back a bit. In terms of the saga of "What position is James Vaughters playing?", yesterday it was OLB. And...there you go.

Biggest reaction from everything we've learned from spring practice: the odds of Kyle Murphy or Andrus Peat or even Nick Davidson, starting LT, have significantly increased. I'd speculate it's more likely than not we see a true freshman starting LT at the opener.

Re: Spring Game - Roberton3 - 04-15-2012

(04-15-2012, 09:46 AM)socalstanfan1 link Wrote:...the backups for Luck, DeCastro and Martin essentially never left the sidelines.

That's not quite true.  The OL backups played quite a bit in packages with extra linemen.  So they have game experience.  But playing as an extra lineman isn't the same as playing guard or tackle in a more standard package, particularly when it comes to blocking schemes and blitz pickups.

Re: Spring Game - washingtonismoney - 04-15-2012

Fowkes blankets the coverage, as usual:

http://www.examiner.com/stanford-cardinal-football-in-san-francisco/coach-shaw-post-spring-game-press-conference

http://www.examiner.com/stanford-cardinal-football-in-san-francisco/defense-wins-the-stanford-spring-football-game

Reading the full Shaw transcript is a decent way to defuse whatever angst you might have.

Re: Spring Game - yvonne - 04-15-2012

Well, if it makes anybody feel better, Pretty Boy was 23/39 for 212 yards, 1 TD and 1 INT. Of course, we know that was all because the University of South Central has an excellent defense.

http://bit.ly/IvMjw8



Re: Spring Game - socalstanfan1 - 04-15-2012

(04-15-2012, 11:12 AM)Roberton3 link Wrote:[quote author=socalstanfan1 link=topic=5830.msg42946#msg42946 date=1334508403]
...the backups for Luck, DeCastro and Martin essentially never left the sidelines.

That's not quite true.  The OL backups played quite a bit in packages with extra linemen.  So they have game experience.  But playing as an extra lineman isn't the same as playing guard or tackle in a more standard package, particularly when it comes to blocking schemes and blitz pickups.
[/quote]

OK, I stand corrected.  But, the overall point I think (as you yourself indicate) is valid: Richards, Carrington, Brown, and Browning all got considerable playing time in the base defense last year due to either the coaches decision to rotate them in, or injuries to starters.  The backups for Martin, DeCastro and Luck received almost no PT in the base offense, since those players remained largely injury free and rarely came off the field when the offense was in.  So it stands to reason that the new offensive players may take a bit longer to get up to speed (and it will take a bit longer for coaches to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses) than the guys on the other side of the ball. 

Personally, the more I read about our defense, the better I feel about it.  And Kelsey Young, it seems, will be a very large contributor to the offense this year.  Maybe his hands are not yet consistenly there for receiving the ball, but he still has a while to improve on that part of his game, and he may yet work his way into a role in the backfield. 



Re: Spring Game - Hank 91 - 04-16-2012

In case you haven't seen it yet, here's the highlight package from the Cardinal Channel:
http://youtu.be/N12QHYY3tj8