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Ok, here we go! I’ve had a chance to be at two practices. I’ll first start by saying what I see is basically just from those two occasions with some of what i’ve heard sprinkled in. But i’m not in film, I don’t know what guys’ grades are, there’s so many more factors than just two practices going into who plays. Especially with learning a new offense. Someone can look awesome in drills and be head and shoulders above the rest, but if he has no clue what he’s doing when a play is called, well he ain’t playing. Let’s get into it.
Quarterbacks
As I said in my Spring QB preview, my money is still on Sims and I quite honestly would say i’d put more money on that now seeing how spring is going. The one knock on him was his arm and the accuracy, but he’s looked very sharp in 7 v 7 situations and his running is the best on the team from that spot. As I talked about in my preview, the only way Thompson was going to make up ground here was if Sims was erratic in the spring with his throws and Satterfield/Rhule were worried and thought they needed a more pinpoint passer. If anything I would label them pleasantly surprised with what they’ve seen so far in Sims and his throwing. I think Sims can do enough with his arm, and his legs for a QB run game blow away Thompsons.
So now we get into second string, which this will be Thompson if he stays (I think). But as of right now with who’s available, I can tell you Haarberg is our #2. I almost think Rhule laughed with him when he saw this:
“Don’t worry son… not gonna change positions of my top backup at the most important spot.” Haarberg has all the tools and he is built similarly to Sims. I think they like the foundation that he can build upon.
Smothers is out, so that really leaves us with Purdy and Torres. Purdy continues to do the things we saw in games, and i’m just not impressed. If i’m him i’m looking for a new home (again only seen 2 practices) but he’s 3rd string at best if Thompson comes back and i’d tell you he’s 4th behind HH. Torres arguably has the best arm of anyone in the room, but can’t move as well as guys like Sims and Haarberg. Will be interesting to see what happens here. Wouldn’t shock me to see him head to a place like Rice.
Runningback
This one is starting to become the Gabe Ervin Jr show. That dude is just massive and can move. He was running with the 1s, and Ajay Allen was with the second group. Allen got stuck pretty good on one of the plays I saw, but his burst is definitely still there. Grant still does Grant things, but then he will have a time where he screws up. He’s with the lower groups but remember he’s just crawling out of the doghouse.
Rahmir Johnson is the interesting one to me. The kid has talent. He’s fast and can do a lot of different things. In fact he’s kind of a swiss army knife, but his ceiling is lower than these other 3 in my opinion. So i’m curious how this goes. And Johnson needs a lot of work yet.
I can also tell you that EJ Barthel is an up and comer. He demands excellence from these guys. He reminds me a little bit of Ron Brown, he doesn’t let the small things become forgotten. He will pull a RB back to do something over again if the smallest detail isn’t there.
Wide Receiver
Your starting WRs in spring camp are Kemp at the slot, Washington out wide, and Garcia-Castenada. That’s a pretty formidable first 3 guys. Kemp is an absolute beast, and Washington now that Palmer is out of the way should be able to showcase some things. I think those first two have starting spots locked up, and it will be interesting to see if IGC can hang on.
Fleeks has been out so I don’t have a ton of info on him, and Betts is shaking off some rust. But I can tell you he is still physically imposing out there. I wasn’t good with their number, but I can tell you that Jones or Hardy has also looked good, I just don’t know which one it was. I couldn’t get the number but knew it wasn’t one of the earlier guys i’ve mentioned.
Coleman is like a gazelle and been at both the practices watching that i’ve been at. I wonder if they groom him to take over for Washington next year or try to get him to play right away. If numbers stay the same as they are now, we may need him sooner than later.
TightEnds
So… I wrote in my preview that I was actually worried about this spot despite all the star power. The more practices I see, the less worried I am. Thomas Fidone is an absolute freak out there. He’s massive and he’s your starter. He is a matchup nightmare for any linebacker trying to guard him.
The next two are interesting… I get all of the Gilbert love, but i’m not sure he’s in front of walk-on Boerkircher. That guy has been consistent and had a solid scrimmage. While Gilbert certainly has the higher ceiling, I believe the coaches are comfortable if Gilbert gets a little flaky.
Appleget has also impressed me with his position switch to this side of the ball and he gives us an athletic option if need be. Bonner is really going to have to figure out if he wants to bulk up, or I need to figure out how they are going to use him. Rollins I believe will fully be moved to DE/Hybrid. Androff is a good depth piece I suppose.
Offensive Line
Your starters for the scrimmage were as follows:
LT – Corcoran
LG – Piper
C – Jenkins
RG – Lutovsky
RT – Benhart
Keep in mind Prochazka was held out but i’ve been impressed with him while they do one on one drills that he’s able to do.
Which brings us to Ben Scott being out for a bit. With Scott out, Jenkins handled the center duties. The other two centers are Menning and Mancino. I’ll just put it to you this way, Scott needs to be healthy. While Jenkins is serviceable at the moment, he can’t be an answer if there’s an injury. We gotta roll someone else out there or shuffle some things around. After seeing a couple practices, I expect Scott to be our starting center (I didn’t know where we were going to need him).
Lutovsky has actually impressed me the most out of the guards. I expect him to start this fall if his trajectory stays the same. And I believe Prochazka will start at LT leaving Corcoran, Piper, and Nouilli to battle it out for the remaining starting guard spot/backup center. I’m not sure what Nouillis deal is but he was getting pulled out of drills for screwing up and Raiola was all over him BOTH practices he was at. Maybe he’s like Lattimer after getting off the juice? But I was actually shocked as I expected him to lock up a starting guard spot. Raiola was even yelling at him when he was just the guy who was supposed to be blocked by the guy getting the rep. Maybe they are trying to make an example of him? Piper is probably the most athletic of these 3 which makes me believe he could be our backup center if need be. Remember, he was 300 pounds dunking basketballs in high school. I am probably going to give the edge to Corcoran once Prochazka is back though. But I do think we have options.
Benhart has looked much better in my opinion at RT, and quite frankly he’s tough to recognize now. Trim and athletic looking. I think he flat out told Coach Campbell he couldn’t move and needed to slim down. I think it’s working. Don’t get me wrong, he has things he needs to work on but he’s much different than I saw from him last year. Behind Benhart is Hood, who actually shows some flashes. He’s just out of shape right now which is tough, I don’t think we could get through a game right now with him as a starting tackle.
Gunnar Gottula is working at LT a bit as well, and I believe he is their long term plan there after Prochazka leaves. You can tell he moves well and just needs some time putting on weight. It was interesting watching one on ones where Gottula went up against fellow true-freshman Noonan quite a bit. Noonan got the better of him.
Summary
Satterfield is doing a lot of running the ball and pushing it down field with play-action passes. And they actually were under center running power at the goalline leaving many people:
As i’ve been saying all along… We have the QBs, RBs, WRs, and TEs… it’s going to all be up to Rhule and Raiola to coach up our OL. If we can we should be in a pretty good spot here. Sims is looking very good while he has a clean space to throw, once things break down or he has some heat in his face it gets a little dicey. I almost think if i’m Rhule and Satterfield that you tell him if it breaks down you need to run it.
Tomorrow we will have our LB preview, but don’t forget we had two posts this morning and it goes over the differences in coaching styles from Rhule to Frost.
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Feel free to check out our other post today about the differences we’ve seen with this staff compared to the previous one!
Hood out of shape? Makes me wonder what the hell has he been doing all winter!?!
I think it kind of goes back to there’s a very big difference between being able to do S&C stuff, and being in football shape. He’s just a really big boy so it’s also going to take some time to get him where he needs to be in my opinion.
Ah, ok. 👍
You missed on who is playing Full Back? LOL
lol I saw one play where I think we had one in and that was the power at the goalline so I didn’t want to mislead people.
I remember I was super high on Lutovsky out of high school as a guard. Seemed like the type of kid who would be the all conference guard at Iowa or Wiscy.
Was thinking maybe he wasn’t going to pan out, but it felt like hardly anyone panned out under Frost on the OL. That is one thing I’m going to be most interested in, is if guys like Lutovsky, Benhart, and Corcoran will start to look more like the recruits we thought we might get out of HS with a new staff.
Ya I just think he didn’t get developed at all with previous staff. I’m anxious to see what Rhule and Raiola can turn him into.
The only guy that was obviously better than when he left was Cam Jurgens. But he was such a good athlete I would argue that he would have done that anywhere. But other than that it’s hard to say they developed anybody else on the o-line. Like at all.
Right there with you on Jurgens. I feel like I need to give the staff some credit with him since he never played the position before and got drafted, but with their track record of really no one else being developed how much was them?
QB- Look forward to having a QB run game again. I know QB run wasn’t part of Whipple’s plan but I was frustrated last year when Casey wouldn’t take yards when they were there. I assumed they pretty much instructed him not to run because they didn’t feel good about who was behind him. It feels like we have depth here so we’ll be able to use the QB however we need too (also Sims is a big boy). I would expect at least two QB’s to not be here come fall, possibly even three so things can change pretty quick.
RB- We’re deep and talented for sure. It’s easy to forget Ervin was the first ever true freshman to start at RB here. He has the makings to be a workhorse. I’m not sure if Allen is ready to be an every down workhorse yet but he looked damn talented in his limited action last year. You called Johnson a Swiss army knife. I called him a jack of all trades and master of none on another site and took some heat for that. I think he’s a solid player and reliable but I just like what we have ahead of him. In my opinion he could be a good third down back but overall he was very pedestrian when he got his chance as a starter. He runs hard but isn’t big enough to break a lot of tackles and hasn’t shown a lot of shake and bake either. Between Grant’s issues and Rahmir likely being behind two younger studs I’d be surprised if all four of those guys are here in the fall.
WR- I didn’t realize how thin we were here until reading this post honestly. I’d be interested to know exactly what happened with IGC last year. This room sure looks a lot better with him and Betts back in it though. On paper we look to have a lot of potential at this position but I’ve felt like that for what seems like 5 years now and it’s been a letdown pretty much every year. Also what’s the latest on Alante Brown I wonder?
TE- I hope we can use Fidone like Travis Kelce. He might be our first All-American in a while, that’s just a gut feeling. Gilbert looks like an absolute nightmare to tackle if he has a head of steam. If he works out we have a chance to have one of the best tight end duo’s in the country, but I won’t hold my breath there either.
OL- We basically have 7 guys that can play, which isn’t a lot. It would be nice to find another guy who could play. Rouse flipping on us was such a massive loss. Surprising to hear that on Nouilli, I had him penciled in as a starter and thought Piper would have to battle Corcoran for the other.
I assume Corcoran will be the backup at both tackle spots so I’d think Piper the choice to backup Scott, unless they try Nouilli there if he’s not going to start at guard. Teddy and Scott absolutely need to stay healthy.
Can I ask how you get access to practice, SSO? Are you considered media or do you have an in? Thanks for the rundown! Love reading these.
Certainly not media. More was friends with a couple people on previous staff and can get some coach access since I help a couple high schools with film breakdown.
I am curious to see if you were able to watch McGuire coach the WR’s. With him being a young coach it would be interesting to know how he conducts himself during practice, see how the players seem to take to his coaching style, etc.
I did, he definitely looks like one of our players just out of practice since he looks so young. I think he’s doing a ton of coaching. Curious if it will be viewed as “overcoaching” in the end as he tries to assert himself? But I came away very impressed.
So based off what you’ve seen and Teddy P. wins the LT spot, you’re thinking Benhart is stronger than Corcoran at the moment on the right if I’m reading between the lines correctly?
I’m curious if Corcoran can move to RT. I’ve pretty much only seen him on the left. Sometimes a different side really throws guys off. Certainly a possibility if he’s capable.
Gotcha. For some reason I was thinking he had seen some time at RT before.
You know, he probably has here at some point. But I only saw him on the left the couple practices I was at. But that doesn’t mean he hasn’t shifted over. I just think they feel comfortable with Benhart over there.
Notice anything with regards to bonner at either te or wr??
I think he has a ways to go. He isn’t beating out Fidone, Gilber, or Boerkircher. And i’m not sure how they would use him in the backfield.
Were we running the ball mostly out of shotgun or under center? Ace or a lot of 3 wr sets?
I saw mostly shotgun, but they want to be under center about 25 snaps a game they said. We had a ton of 3 WR sets but would occasionally bring in 2 TEs.
Don’t know if any of this is of substance or really matters on the field or the scoreboard, we shall see….but GBR!