Spring Game Observations

burky247

burky247

Well-Known Member
I'm kind of surprised there isn't a thread created already. I didn't stay the whole time, but I'll give my insights of what I thought anyway.

*Keenan had a great game. Made some terrific catches. I was surprised to see that because from what I've heard he's had an inconsistent spring. Glad to see him making plays today though.

* I've been hearing about Steven Staggs all spring long and we saw why today. The kid is going to be very good. He has a great first step off the line that really helps him create separation off his defender quick(reminds me of Dominique Douglas in that regard).

* I know everyone is excited to see Mullings punting this season. Well forget about it. While he has the best leg on the team, it takes him forever to get a punt off. Was pretty impressed with Guthrie today. I think he wins the job easily.

* Heard they got some good news on Rogers' cardiac tests. Sounds like everyone is hopeful he will be able to return eventually.

*While I see why the Shadow was excited about Shumpert, he has a ways to go. Especially with catching the ball away from his body. The same thing could be said of KMM. He's going to be good, but prepare for some growing pains.

*Brandon Scherff is going to be unbelievable. Flawless technique already.

* Love that both White and Johnson were catching the ball well out of the backfield today. Johnson reminds me of Freddy Russell. He's got some scoot to him.

* Vandy looked good, despite the wind. It appears he has made a real effort to improve his footwork. Hopefully he will stay healthy....I will just leave it at that.
 
burky247 said:
I'm kind of surprised there isn't a thread created already. I didn't stay the whole time, but I'll give my insights of what I thought anyway.

*Keenan had a great game. Made some terrific catches. I was surprised to see that because from what I've heard he's had an inconsistent spring. Glad to see him making plays today though.

* I've been hearing about Steven Staggs all spring long and we saw why today. The kid is going to be very good. He has a great first step off the line that really helps him create separation off his defender quick(reminds me of Dominique Douglas in that regard).

* I know everyone is excited to see Mullings punting this season. Well forget about it. While he has the best leg on the team, it takes him forever to get a punt off. Was pretty impressed with Guthrie today. I think he wins the job easily.

* Heard they got some good news on Rogers' cardiac tests. Sounds like everyone is hopeful he will be able to return eventually.

*While I see why the Shadow was excited about Shumpert, he has a ways to go. Especially with catching the ball away from his body. The same thing could be said of KMM. He's going to be good, but prepare for some growing pains.

*Brandon Scherff is going to be unbelievable. Flawless technique already.

* Love that both White and Johnson were catching the ball well out of the backfield today. Johnson reminds me of Freddy Russell. He's got some scoot to him.

* Vandy looked good, despite the wind. It appears he has made a real effort to improve his footwork. Hopefully he will stay healthy....I will just leave it at that.
Click to expand...

Did Mullings practice any on kickoffs?
 
I would have been all over this, but the BTN and an interview with Zabel intervened. So thanks for the observations, I've been anxiously waiting to hear how we looked!
 
Few other things real quick before I head out.

Wienke was punting today. It confused us all so don't feel bad.

I would have to say that Derby is the 2nd best qb on the team right now. He's made some strides. But it's still a significant drop from Vandy(as you would expect).

Coker didn't play today. Not sure if everyone knew that.

Sorry Foval, I didn't really concentrate enough on Hitchens or Kirksey to give a good assessment. Hopefully someone else can provide some insight there.

I was kind of impressed with Zach Derby. We definitely have some depth at TE.

I liked the looks of Lowery out there. He does kind of remind you of Spievey with his hip action. He's young and is going to make some mistakes...but he was also pretty aggressive. I love seeing that with young corners.
 
Derby seemed a lot more confident and reliable at QB than Wienke. Stood tall I'm the pocket and was very accurate in intermediate passes.

It's been said, but Keenan Davis was extremely impressive. Made some acrobatic grabs in skeleton and had a catch with big YAC in the full scrimmage. Looked automatic out there. Staggs was a pleasant surprise. Seemed to catch everything thrown his way and was bigger than I expected.

The other receivers struggled today. KMM looked good at times but was inconsistent. Shumpert was fast and decent at running routes but I don't think he made a catch. Haluska had a catch with good YAC, but it was when the D wasn't allowed to tackle. CJF and Herman each had a bad drop or two, but Zach Derby looked ok. I wouldn't be surprised if the coaches gave Hillyer a shot.

The backup RBs looked pretty good, especially catching out of the backfield. Coker didn't do much, since they wanted to prevent injury. Johnson looks like the #2, but White looked good and Binns had a play or two of his own. I'm less confident than before that one of the incoming freshmen will skip their redshirt year, barring injury.

The OL was phenomenal. Ferentz looked good, Reiff and Zuse set the edges well, and Gettis and Scherff handled Davis really well. This may be one of the best OL units in the country.
 
burky247 said:
* I know everyone is excited to see Mullings punting this season. Well forget about it. While he has the best leg on the team, it takes him forever to get a punt off. Was pretty impressed with Guthrie today. I think he wins the job easily.
Click to expand...

This is something I noticed and wrote about after each of the four games I was on the field for this past year. His delivery is just too slow...so much so that if he can't dial that in, he's just not going to get a chance to be a punter at the D1 level. Kind of surprised he hadn't gotten that worked out a bit by now. Then again, he has four more years.
 
Most interesting Spring practice I've been to.

Been looking at the pix I took (375!) and compared to the ones from last year. Thinking back to last year going in everyone was concerned about the OL. I felt there were no real concerns after watching that practice. All I can say on that matter now is this OL looked much improved over last year's! This crew is force to be reckoned with.

Someone mentioned depth at TE and I agree. CJF looked much improved and his bump and go is impressive. The guy is a monster and is going to create mismatches. Zach Derby also impressed. There is competition behind Herman and this is good.

Davis' hands looked good, especially considering the weather. The one handed grab stands out, but his speed after catching is super and is going to cause problems for opposing secondaries. Hope this pans out in the return game too.

Staggs uses his size well and made a couple impressive catches in traffic.

White looked good at RB. As they say "he has good vision" and he threw some impressive blocks too.

On the other side of the ball Castillo was making plays. The int looked great.

Also looks like Binns is back. He was double teamed a lot but still is disruptive and he swatted one down too.

BJ Lowery showed a lot of speed on the edge, a real rushing threat.

Big picture impressions were mostly positive in person but looking at the pix revealed a lot of face masking going on from the defensive side of the ball, much more than in last year's pix. This will need to be addressed.

The secondary was better than I thought, the WRs looked really good. Plenty of depth there.

The only area that I didn't feel good about was the linebacking corps. They seemed to be having trouble reading the plays and were slow to react on plays w/ delays in them. Seemed the longer the play went on the slower they looked. I was hoping to see better closing speed on the ball carrier. It could be the OL is just that good, let's hope so.

Overall the offense seemed to win the day in my mind and that is a first in my spring game experience. September can't get here soon enough.
 
Keenan Davis was far and away the most impressive player to me at the session today. As others have mentioned he made some great catches, but how he made them is far more impressive. He adjusted to the ball in flight extremely well and showed the powerful hands needed to reel in the ball in traffic. He really made it look easy to make the plays he did and that is the sign of a special player.

The Staggs kid was surprisingly sound for coming out of no where. He was pretty polished and sharp for a former walk-on. Got in and out of breaks on routes very well, had good hands, and showed a good burst off the line. He made some grabs in traffic during the live session and I was pretty impressed. He will likely help fill the void Sandeman left and be used out of the slot.

Scherff looked awfully good for being a red-shirt freshman out there at LG. A lot of natural strength and he is surprisingly nimble for a 6'5 310lb guy. He worked with the 1's, alternating with Conner Boffeli who also was solid at G. Scherff got caught being over-aggressive a few times but it was an impressive first showing. It will be interesting to see him, MacMillan, and Boffelli battle for the LG spot in fall camp.

I had my eyes on Reiff alot during the scrimmage and drills. He was flat out nasty and just over-matched any DE or LB he came against. He had no problems getting his hips around and sealing defenders off in the run game and ate up his guy in pass protection. Reminds me a lot of Bulaga technique wise but Reiff is probably more naturally athletic. If Reiff stays healthy and progresses he will likely get a solid 1st round grade from the NFL draft advisory committee next January.

I couldn't make too much of an assessment of Vandenburg because Iowa pretty clearly had the training wheels on the offense the vast majority of the time. A lot of underneath stuff and check downs off of basic route combinations. He clearly has the arm strength the put the ball in some spots Stanzi couldn't get it, but the coaches will need to trust him to let him do it(if you want some evidence of this, take a look at the slant TD to McNutt against OSU in '09). He did put up a pretty vertical ball numerous times during skelli and they all had pretty decent loft and touch.

Iowa will have no excuse for not running nickel and dime packages next year against spreads. The depth and flexibility in the secondary is impressive. Bernstine, Lowery, and Castillo give them solid experience at CB behind Prater. With Hyde moving to safety it gives them more options to use in nickel and dime situations. Tanner Miller will likely reclaim a starting safety spot next fall giving Iowa even more options. Sleeper wasn't overly impressive today but he was solid and should give Iowa some more quality depth in the back 4.

Carl Davis made some noise on the inside and gives Iowa a space eater against the run. He has as pretty decent motor for a 300lb guy and showed some ability to collapse the pocket with a bull rush. He should see plenty of work in a rotation next fall.

Kirksey is a bit undersized but he held his own today. He wasn't able to diagnose plays as quick as you'd like to see, but that will come with experience. However, he has very good quicks and once he comes down hill he does it in a hurry. I didn't get to watch him a whole lot but he didn't stick out for negative reasons.

Also a general observation about the defensive play calling....it was a pretty impressive mix of different schemes and personnel groupings. They ran a bunch of zone blitz variations bringing pressure from CBs, LBs and even the occasional safety. Lets hope it carries over to next fall.
 
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