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Joined: Aug 2017
Shaw is clear about this kind of setup that it's not a game and there is no scoring for the defense. The offense getting to the end zone doesn't really mean anything....the offense always has the ball.
I thought the first team front seven held up decently against the first team offense but whenever that happens you wonder whether something like that speaks well of one side of the ball or ill for another. Same with EJ Smith's touchdown run.....was that a good play by Smith or a bad play by Bailey and Miezan? There's no way to really know.
In any case, the "spring game" (not at all a game and in this case didn't even have WR/DB/RB rooms participating hardly at all) means nothing. No reason to draw anything from these data points anymore than a random practice anytime during the year. Still, it's always interesting to get eyeballs on the team since the program allows/encourages so little of that. From what I saw:
* Keneley seems like he offers something, although I wonder where he fits on the depth chart in this "tweaked" defense. I have a hard-to-explain hunch that Keneley may play less than I'd assume and DiCosmo may play more, but I have very low confidence in that hunch. I think we're still working out in our minds what the edge situation looks like, and I'm certainly not settled on any sort of expectation.
* Reuben made numerous plays but it wasn't a fair fight. The DB group was a ludicrous sight to have Kelly, Williamson, Fields, Bonner, Turner-Muhammad, Manley, Gilman, Porter, Jones all out. Just not much you can say when the WR/DB competition is the dregs of the depth chart playing each other.
* Nonetheless, I was eager to get at glimpse at Toomer, Leigber, and Ellis. I wasn't impressed. At this point one would have to think 2022 will rely on others and 2023 will likely see those guys over-recruited.
* McGill didn't look good either. He even dropped an interception, which is very unlike him. But one practice doesn't mean anything.
* I still can't believe how small Sinclair is. I don't count on him for anything.
* I don't really feel like judging McKee or Patu in a situation where there are no pass catchers available other than a couple of should-be high school seniors.
* As always, my favorite thing about Smith is his route running and pass catching ability. It remains to be seen how much that can be part of his game in 2022 since we need him as RB1 but I have always loved that part of his game. The receiving touchdown was nice, although it's unclear that would have been such a big play against Pac-12 starting DBs rather than against Leigber and Ellis.
* I didn't fixate on Bailey but it looked to me like he flashed at times and was stymied at times. In general, this whole setup is hard to evaluate because it's not live with the QBs, so there was pass rush by Bailey/Keneley/etc. that looked like it may have been effective but we're sort of just guessing in this format.
* Extremely loath to draw conclusions from this format but first time OL run blocking did not seem nasty or like it turned a new corner. The one explosive blocking play was actually by the second unit to spring the walk-on RB Robinson.
* Ok, the one and only high confidence observation from this farce of a spring game: SAM ROUSH! We now have a steadily accumulating pile of data points that this guy is next up after Yurosek in our run of all-conference/NFL tight ends. And while it wasn't a fair fight just like it wasn't a fair fight for Reuben to go against walk-ons and roster dregs, in Roush's case he even abused Wyrick. We know from last year Wyrick is a legitimate Pac-12 player. Roush was the takeaway from today.
