Randolfo's Spring Game Observations

Randolfo

Randolfo

Active Member
As is often the case, the defense was way ahead of the offense, and the offense looked pretty bad...the defense looked quite good.

1. I think we have our answer as to who the 3rd string QB is. Cook and Wiegers played virtually all of the snaps. CJ sat out. Boyle played WR. Personally, I'm a little disappointed by this development, as it would have been nice to have a legit dual threat qb on the roster. But I think Boyle's days at QB are done. He had a nice short pass that he caught and put some good moves on the defenders and ran it about 20 yrds...then had a nice grab on a fade pass for a TD

2. The OLine was either REALLY pourus or the DLine looks really solid. Lots of QB sacks (two hand touch sacks).

3. Scheel looked good! This is promising. He was getting separation. Not many balls were thrown to him, but when they were, he caught it.

4. Surprise surprise, King had a pick. Great read on the ball. This could be a record breaking INT season for King if opponents throw at him.

5. Rastatler (sp) is definitely the top punter. He looked as good as Kidd. The other guy's punts were mostly low hang time shanks.

6. Wadley picked up where he left off last year. He looks quick, shifty, and strong. I can see him having a 1000 yard year this year if he gets the touches. Strangely, Wadley got the vast majority of the carries in the spring game even though he is likely our #1 RB. What happened to getting the 3rd and 4th string RBs reps? Strange. I saw Graham had one carry where he put a good move on the defenders and ran it about 10 yrds. He looks like a big boy.

7. Cook did not look good, IMO. He mostly either dumped the ball off for 3 yrd passes, or QB sneaked it. He does seem to have a good arm, though, but he never came close to completing a long ball. He did complete a short ball to a WR named Bishop who ran about 40 yrds with it. Small white guy, a walk on I'm guessing, but he looked quick. Another small white guy named Conner Kaene caught about a 20 yrd TD from Cook.

8. Wiegers didn't look a whole lot better. He looks to have a good grasp on the offense, but he mostly got sacked, and got a ton of balls batted down.

9. About 20,000 people in attendance. Not bad.

10. Jerminic Smith got open but had some drops. Hopefully this isn't a pattern with him, because he had drops last yr. He appears to be our backup punt returner as well.

11. Recinos looked good on kicks and extra points. He hit a 40 yrd field goal.

12. Ryan Schmitt played some QB??? Not sure what that's all about. He looks the part. Tall, pocket passer.
 
tksirius said:
How fast is Boyle?
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Who knows. He looks the part though. The kid has been practicing as a receiver for less than a week and he went out there and made two big plays.

I don't know if I would necessarily conclude that Boyle is done as a QB. Honestly, I think this is simply a way to get a damn good athlete on the field to contribute. The Hawks need playmakers at WR. It's pretty clear who the top 2 QB's are right now and he's not gonna get any snaps in a game this year as a QB (barring a horrific injury scenario going down). Why not see what he can do at WR? And if you're Boyle... why not give it a try? This could be a damn good football team. I'd much rather contribute to the team than watch the game from the sidelines.
 
Backup center is rough. Both Scheel and Smith dropped at least one one ball each that has to be caught. Backup QB's missed them when they had separation. Wiegers never looked off his primary on one sure TD. Punters have a long, long way to go.

I had thought the D was working on 5 technique from what I was able to see. Difficult to tell as the D lines were way ahead of the o lines.

Center, WR and kicking game were almost exclusively what I was paying attention to, as these are the easiest to tell anything this early, and we have concerns in these areas.

The defense should be light years ahead of the offense in the spring game, and maybe more so at a program like Iowa.

That's what I thought I saw anyway.

Some other stuff I can't recall.
 
DP5555 said:
Who knows. He looks the part though. The kid has been practicing as a receiver for less than a week and he went out there and made two big plays.

I don't know if I would necessarily conclude that Boyle is done as a QB. Honestly, I think this is simply a way to get a damn good athlete on the field to contribute. The Hawks need playmakers at WR. It's pretty clear who the top 2 QB's are right now and he's not gonna get any snaps in a game this year as a QB (barring a horrific injury scenario going down). Why not see what he can do at WR? And if you're Boyle... why not give it a try? This could be a damn good football team. I'd much rather contribute to the team than watch the game from the sidelines.
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Boyle could be a TE, a linebacker, a safety. He seems to be open minded about a position change. He reminds me of AJ Derby. And before people crush me this isn't a dig on AJ Derby i understood why he tried to get on the field as a QB.
 
- Wiegers looked a lot better than last year's spring game. But he's still not comfortable after he checks off all his primary targets. Hard to gauge with no contact jersey on, though. The clock is a little faster when plays are called dead off of two hand touches.

- I don't think we see Cook or Boyle as QB two years from now. They're great athletes who will play somewhere, but I don't think QB is the position for them. Boyle showed way too much potential in space with the ball to waste his time or ours letting him play backup QB for a couple more seasons.

- Wadley is a monster now. Even behind patchwork OLine (several interior linemen were out with injury) he found holes and could bounce outside. I think we'll see a lot more of him in the passing game as well.

- I like the D-Line's length on the edges right now. And we saw some pass rush coming off the edges against some seasoned tackles.

- And for my biggest projection: Just like last year, what we saw in scrimmage will look nothing like how the team actually plays come September.
 
Sounds an awful lot like last year. Defense dominated. A lot of sacks. QB's didn't do well with the long ball. I remember people getting a little nervous and questioning last year when the team didn't score an offensive TD in the Des Moines open practice or IC spring practice. They scored a couple this year though, and sounds like some some plays were made, and this with back-up QB's.
 
Health of key players will tell the story. Overall talent level seems to be trending up. Avoid major attrition and/or injuries and I think we will be pretty good, probably not 12-0 good, but 9+ wins and a shot at winning the West good. Expectations, fair or not, will be quite high after last year. CJ, and to a lesser extent Oline and WR play will dictate everything. Need a legit QB option to emerge for '17 as I still say CJ was the difference for 3-4 more wins last year.

It'll be interesting this year, a fast start early is important I think.
 
That's one helluva detailed report for a guy who just joined 3 days ago. So whose previously banned profile are you, anyway?o_O
 
MelroseHawkins said:
Sounds an awful lot like last year. Defense dominated. A lot of sacks. QB's didn't do well with the long ball. I remember people getting a little nervous and questioning last year when the team didn't score an offensive TD in the Des Moines open practice or IC spring practice. They scored a couple this year though, and sounds like some some plays were made, and this with back-up QB's.
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It was totally different than last year. The sacks last year were because the Tackles were a complete work in progress. This year the sacks were on the QB. The QB's are green, they are holding the ball, and they look lost if their first read isn't open. I think that is to be expected, especially for Weigers, going against our first team D, that looked really, really good.

Even with the Weigers not looking really comfortable there were times the O moved the ball. Wadley looked great, the added weight is going to really pay off, and he knows it and is confident right now. Our passing O even with CJ will be much of the same as last year. Spotty at best, our WR routes, and our passing scheme is just so freaking vanilla. Hopefully when Brain takes complete reign of the O, he will revamp the passing game.
 
seepig said:
I'm very concerned about the OL they didn't do a good job against MSU and Stanford.
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How did they not do okay against MSU? We lost due to a 22 play drive to end the game. If you remember Canzeri got hurt early and was out. Our receivers were not getting great separation. Beathard was nowhere close to 100% running. MSU's d-line was stout. It was basically a repeat of the Wisconsin game only we won that one. It was a slug fest.

I still believe there was just a lot of hangover regarding the Rose Bowl. The Rose Bowl is not what it used to be in the 70s and 80s. It was second fiddle to the playoffs. Make no mistake we would have lost to Alabama too, and probably not close.
 
deanvogs said:
It was totally different than last year. The sacks last year were because the Tackles were a complete work in progress. This year the sacks were on the QB. The QB's are green, they are holding the ball, and they look lost if their first read isn't open. I think that is to be expected, especially for Weigers, going against our first team D, that looked really, really good.

Even with the Weigers not looking really comfortable there were times the O moved the ball. Wadley looked great, the added weight is going to really pay off, and he knows it and is confident right now. Our passing O even with CJ will be much of the same as last year. Spotty at best, our WR routes, and our passing scheme is just so freaking vanilla. Hopefully when Brain takes complete reign of the O, he will revamp the passing game.
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deanvogs said:
It was totally different than last year. The sacks last year were because the Tackles were a complete work in progress. This year the sacks were on the QB. The QB's are green, they are holding the ball, and they look lost if their first read isn't open. I think that is to be expected, especially for Weigers, going against our first team D, that looked really, really good.

Even with the Weigers not looking really comfortable there were times the O moved the ball. Wadley looked great, the added weight is going to really pay off, and he knows it and is confident right now. Our passing O even with CJ will be much of the same as last year. Spotty at best, our WR routes, and our passing scheme is just so freaking vanilla. Hopefully when Brain takes complete reign of the O, he will revamp the passing game.
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Did you happen to see the Brian Ferentz interview where he talked about teams knowing exactly what they're doing and that needs to change? Having him on the staff is a good thing.
 
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