Live Spring Game Updates

Bethard continues the check downs with a pass to wadley. Then audiblizes to a run up the middle, Rudock style, for no gain. Third and long, wips the ball for a 15 yrd gain to Kittle. Great arm. Tries for Kittle again. Incomplete. Another audible to a run for no gain. A Ferentz coached thing??
 


On 4th and short, CJ throws short pass that is picked off by Brandon Snyder. Nice return of the int. Offense looking pretty bad so far.
 






CJ gets the ball back and checks down to Mitchell. Was under pressure. Then short pass to Vandenberg who has good YAC. Then deep pass to Tevan Smith in the endzone...overthrown. Or Tevan slowed down. Thrown 50 yrds in the air. Followed up by nice pass to McCaron for a decent gain. End of 3rd quarter. STILL NO TDs. Very little offense.
 


Derick Mitchell with another GREAT run. Up the middle, made a few people miss, then bounced outside. Gain of 10. Mitchell looks tall and lean. Short pass the Hillyer for short gain. I would love to see more Mitchell. #1s are in the red zone.
 




Wadley shows some nifty moves as well for a 10 yrd gain up the middle. Dodged and weaved. He looks bigger than last yr. #1s ball on the 10 yrd line. 1st down.
 


Pass to kittle in endzone incomplete. CJ sacked by Kyle Turlow. Short field goal made by Recenos. Not good offense. Still zero touchdowns.
 






Another really good, solid run by Wadley up the middle. Earned every yard he got. 5 yrd gain. Short completion near the sideline to Tevan Smith. Decent run after catch. Screen play. Nice bootleg by CJ, faking everyone out, with a pass to Vandenberg for gain of 9.
 


SWEET run by Wadley up the middle, then bouncing it outside. The guy is legit. Big gain.

Next CJ throws to the endzone, over the head of Tevan Smith. Deep pass. At least he's going for it.
 


Another AWESOME run by Mitchell up the middle then bouncing it out. 20 yrd gain. Mitchell gets it again and blows through a hole for a big gain up the middle. He's a tall guy but has some power. I really like this guy!! Future star!
 


Wadley goes in from the 5 yrd line untouched. TD Iowa. I'm telling you, Wadley and Mitchell are stealing the show.
 


On his first play, Wiegers goes DEEEEP. In the hands of Joshua Jackson and he drops it!! Nice arm on Wiegers. #2s are not looking good. Lots of 3 and outs. Bailed out by a penalty this time. Wiegers 10 yrd pass to Scheel..nice play. Jolly getting several runs but going nowhere.
 


#2s go for it on 4th and goal. Incomplete pass to Pickar. Game over. Zero tds from the #2s. One td from the #1s. The scoring system was something messed up that no one understands, where it's offense v defense, so not really sure who won.
 




My take from the game:

1. The difference in arm strength between CJ and Rudock is like the difference between a high schooler and a college kid. The ball goes out so much faster, so much straighter, and so much deeper. The WRs had a lot of drops, and based on their skill level, I don't think they can handle his zip.

2. Vandenberg appears to be CJs go to guy. Vandy had several drops last year, and several at today's spring game. I do not think he would be a go to guy on any other BCS level school, and probably not even at UNI. Scheel saw playing time and looked pretty decent. Not overly fast or quick, and pretty thin, but he got open. I don't think Stone got any targets.

3. Mitchell is a legit RB! He should have made the switch sooner. He's tall, fast, quick, and still powerful. Wadley should have seen much more playing time last year, and likely would have got it if Wiesman didn't get straight As in the classroom and make Ferentz fall in love with him. The other RBs looked very avg.

4. Wiegers has a strong arm. Better than Jake. I think he will be ok as a backup. He's a big guy. Bigger than CJ and Jake.

5. OL looks pretty bad. Of the good runs I saw, most of them were due to the RB making a good cut and breaking a tackle. The left tackle was getting destroyed by who he was going up against. CJ was "sacked" several times, tho no contact was allowed on QBs.

6. The LBs look better than last year. They were in on a lot of tackles. None of them laid any big hits, and they aren't super fast or strong, but they were in pretty good position. It would be nice if we still had Spearman. That guy was an athlete.

7. It seems like we hve more of an emphasis on TE this year...possibly because the WRs are so bad or possibly because it was a mistake to go away from them like we did last yr. Kittle had more targets than anyone else today. He seems like an avg TE. Not a monster like Fiedorowitz and not a speedster like Dallas. The kid from Dowling got a lot of TE targets as well.

8. Ott looks better this year. He should have a big year. Very disruptive. Pro potential.

9. Punting still looks pretty bad. I think Kidd may have won the starting position. He was the holder on most FGs, and seemed to punt the best. Hard to say though.
 


By the sounds of it we have some potentially above avg running backs. What about off line run blocking? The pass protection sounds pretty iffy right now.

Man, not much at WR from the way it sounds. T SMith has proven he can do it, Vandy is good on some routes, but I doubt we can get 3 really good WRs on the field at one time that can separate. And hard to get to burners on each side of the field.

How about the defense, line look good against the run, have to stop the run first. how about the lnbkrs and Dee backs/
 




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