| FTBL Who were you guys most impressed with from the first, and second teams yesterday?

Scrape&Search1032

Scrape&Search1032

Member
Wanted to see who y'all thought had really good games yesterday from both the first, and second teams in yesterday's scrimmage. First off, first team defense looked good yesterday. Almost everyone on the first team made an impactful play, but for me, Caleb Downs, and Quanndarius Robinson had fantastic games yesterday. Especially Robinson, he mauled Pritchett(I believe started and played for most of the game) all day long. Getting Turner, and Braswell back will be great, but I hope to see Robinson play more this season. Jihaad Campbell played very well, same with Trez Marshall, both made impactful plays, played the run well, stayed in their gaps, made some plays in the open field. All around a really good performance by the starting linebackers. First team offense is a bit tricky for me, no one really had a great day at skills positions, Milroe made some fantastic plays, had some really bad drops from Bond after very good throws, also had some really bad plays as well, same goes for Simpson as well. Seth McLaughlin had a very good day yesterday on the o-line, we just need to get the LT spot in order and we'll be set.

Second team is easy on both sides to me to choose. Defensively, Jefferson and Pope had fantastic games yesterday. Blackshire also had a good game as well, and hopefully that builds him up going into summer and the fall, I really want see him play more this season.
Offensively, Haynes and Proctor looked fantastic yesterday. I'm excited to see them more and more as the season progresses this year.
Let me know who y'all think had good spring games yesterday.
 
This team appears to be pretty young. While at the game @Brandon Van de Graaff and I were discussing the fact that everyone has crowned UGA the SEC champs and we will be looking up at the #1 spot, which makes CNS job a lot easier.

At one point during the first half I was looking at the Crimson (2nd team) OL. ALL were freshmen except for Brockmeyer at Center (R-Soph).
I think we will be young and have some growing pains, but if we get by Texas in the second game, I really like our chances to grow into something special.
 
I paid very little attention to the game yesterday, but went back and watched a good chunk this evening. First off, and Saban said it as well as many others, but they were not showing much or trying to do much yesterday... the other scrimmages are where they stretch their wings a bit more (example, you didn't see any QB under center yesterday, something you will see in the fall). But, on offense... and most probably know by now, Simpson hurt his thumb (throwing hand) early on and played through it. Nothing too serious, but they weren't sure at the time, and it did impact his throws some. Thought WR's did a better job getting open and giving the QB's a chance... way too many drops though. Also too many misfires by the QB's. Milroe seems closer to figuring it out, but the touch on his longer passes just isn't there yet. Also, the scrimmage rules of "touch, you're down!" did him no favors. All in all, the top 2 QB's were about as expected. Liked what Lonergan showed... it was just A-Day, but it didn't look like too big of a stage for him at all. RB's will be the strength of the offense and take a lot of pressure off whoever the QB ends up being. If the WR's cure the drop issues, they'll be fine. A couple of those younger guys are starting to figure it out, Kendrick Law looks like he's ready. The TE's will finally be factors again... they are deep enough and athletic enough to make it work, which is nice to see. Overall, the young OL guys looked good. Pritchett certainly struggled, but some of that may have been due to what looked like a tweaked knee. If Pritchett proves that he isn't one of the best 5 come August though, watch out for Kadyn Proctor... he looked pretty comfortable with the 2nd teamers. The transformation of the OL by Wolford isn't complete by any means, but it is getting closer to where he wants.

On defense, hard to tell how much of it was a product of the vanilla scrimmage, but as a whole, the defense reacted faster, swarmed more, and looked more confident. At DL, there's a lot of pressure on Roach to get his guys to crank it up a notch, IMO. As a whole, I thought they held their own yesterday but I didn't pay too close attention to them either. I was really impressed with the ILB's though... I have heard some really positive things about ILB coach Robert Bala, and you can be sure he's also getting help from Steele, but those guys looked fast and confident. Justin Jefferson is going to be a playmaker. Trezmen Marshall looked really comfortable too. When you take into account Lawson wasn't even in there, you have to feel really good about this group. At OLB, with Braswell and Turner out, Keanu Khot made the most of his chances... looks like the green light has lit up for him. Overall, the entire LB group looks really, really good... Which brings us to the defensive backs... Koolaid and Terrion Arnold are as good a duo at corner as you'll find. Malachi Moore looked more like the young Malachi that was a playmaker (I think the combination of being healthy and getting some confidence back is a big reason for that). Caleb Downs is going to have role, and eventually be a top 15 draft pick. You saw Earl Little's play. Some good young athletes back there, but some with little to no experience. Overall, have to really like that unit as a whole though.
 
Scrape&Search1032 said:
Yeah, you're right. I forgot about him, Desmond Ricks had a good game as well. Excited about this team and who we have this year, and for the next few years. Talent everywhere.
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We needed a reset, attitude and talent wise. I feel we are starting fresh and can only hope we rise as fast as we did in Saban's first three years. We don't have those alpha dog leaders yet, but they will come, I hope. NIL and Transfer Portal have me worried for college football in general as far as leadership goes for players, but all I can do is hope.
 
Just things off the top of my head:
-As mentioned, had the defense actually had to tackle Milroe, that would've been really fun to watch. Lets just say that if Tommy Rees just says screw it & play some option with him & our RB's, they'd give Tommy Frazier a run for his money.
-Jordan Jefferson was balling. Nice to see, weird to say that name in a Bama uniform. Kendrick Blackshire looked to be making more plays than normal. He was around the ball a lot but he does have a limitation in coverage. We'll see.
-Lines of scrimmage looked RIPE! Both sides, you can clearly see them embracing physical play.
-Ty Simpson does make better decisions but he's not leaps & bounds ahead of Milroe. The two questions for me is going to be who protects the ball better & who can take over a game? I really have no clue yet.
-Please Lord, can our DB's get back to getting interceptions... It looked like we had some hungry DB's all game long who was trying to steal the ball like it was the last loaf a bread on desert island. Earl Little's interception... he must have been starving!

On the regular season. There is a lot of work ahead for this team, especially with Texas looming. Fortunately, CNS will have MTSU as game to get the QB situation formalized. Or at least a clear QB to install the game play against the Longhorns. That game is going to really mean a lot this year.
 
Crimson&WhiteGecko said:
Just things off the top of my head:
-As mentioned, had the defense actually had to tackle Milroe, that would've been really fun to watch. Lets just say that if Tommy Rees just says screw it & play some option with him & our RB's, they'd give Tommy Frazier a run for his money.
-Jordan Jefferson was balling. Nice to see, weird to say that name in a Bama uniform. Kendrick Blackshire looked to be making more plays than normal. He was around the ball a lot but he does have a limitation in coverage. We'll see.
-Lines of scrimmage looked RIPE! Both sides, you can clearly see them embracing physical play.
-Ty Simpson does make better decisions but he's not leaps & bounds ahead of Milroe. The two questions for me is going to be who protects the ball better & who can take over a game? I really have no clue yet.
-Please Lord, can our DB's get back to getting interceptions... It looked like we had some hungry DB's all game long who was trying to steal the ball like it was the last loaf a bread on desert island. Earl Little's interception... he must have been starving!

On the regular season. There is a lot of work ahead for this team, especially with Texas looming. Fortunately, CNS will have MTSU as game to get the QB situation formalized. Or at least a clear QB to install the game play against the Longhorns. That game is going to really mean a lot this year.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the analysis. I'm trying to soak in as much as I can from everyone since I couldn't watch.

A point I want to make is your comment about Blackshire. Very happy he's showing up and making his precense felt. Your comment about his limited coverage skills is what I wanted to discuss. I'm not worried 0.1% about my middle linebackers in coverage. A few of the reasons behind that. One, any offensive coordinator will scheme a mismatch there. Two, I don't want my backer in coverage and trying to keep up with faster players. Three, I would rather our guys put pressure on the quarterback and play middle zone rather than watching our guys trailing their man from behind trying to catch up like we have seen the last few years. A middle linebacker is either lean and fast for coverage, or he's stout and canplug a hole on the line of scrimmage. We tried finding a medium and got burned on both ends if you ask me. We were average to below average on both instead of being above average at one and average or below average on the other. I say get nasty and give a quarterback less time to process and hit him with pressure. Georgia plays like that. A top notch veteran like Bryce will still perform well, but there ain't many like him that come through very often.
 
BamaFan334 said:
A point I want to make is your comment about Blackshire. Very happy he's showing up and making his precense felt. Your comment about his limited coverage skills is what I wanted to discuss. I'm not worried 0.1% about my middle linebackers in coverage. A few of the reasons behind that. One, any offensive coordinator will scheme a mismatch there.
Click to expand...
I'm wondering if we see a different package with the ILB's in passing downs.
 
BamaFan334 said:
Thanks for the analysis. I'm trying to soak in as much as I can from everyone since I couldn't watch.

A point I want to make is your comment about Blackshire. Very happy he's showing up and making his precense felt. Your comment about his limited coverage skills is what I wanted to discuss. I'm not worried 0.1% about my middle linebackers in coverage. A few of the reasons behind that. One, any offensive coordinator will scheme a mismatch there. Two, I don't want my backer in coverage and trying to keep up with faster players. Three, I would rather our guys put pressure on the quarterback and play middle zone rather than watching our guys trailing their man from behind trying to catch up like we have seen the last few years. A middle linebacker is either lean and fast for coverage, or he's stout and canplug a hole on the line of scrimmage. We tried finding a medium and got burned on both ends if you ask me. We were average to below average on both instead of being above average at one and average or below average on the other. I say get nasty and give a quarterback less time to process and hit him with pressure. Georgia plays like that. A top notch veteran like Bryce will still perform well, but there ain't many like him that come through very often.
Click to expand...
We haven't had great ILB play since Pruitt was here, the 2016, and 2017 groups were great a all phases of the game. They'd play great in coverage, any short quick game stuff an offense would try to run, they'd take it away. Great at making tackles in the open field, rarely had a bust in coverage. Fantastic against the run, stayed in their gaps, played everything inside out, played physical and violent, especially when shedding blocks, they always had violent hands, and would have great technique when taking on a blocker. Thsts what I miss, I don't want us to be good at one thing, and average at the other, I want to be good at all aspects of the game at the position. That being said, the ILB's overall had a really good spring game Saturday. Bala has done a good job with them so far, but I'm ready for the season to truly see what we look like at the position, we have the talent and the depth to have one of the best ILB groups in the country, there's no reason not to.
 
Scrape&Search1032 said:
We haven't had great ILB play since Pruitt was here, the 2016, and 2017 groups were great a all phases of the game. They'd play great in coverage, any short quick game stuff an offense would try to run, they'd take it away. Great at making tackles in the open field, rarely had a bust in coverage. Fantastic against the run, stayed in their gaps, played everything inside out, played physical and violent, especially when shedding blocks, they always had violent hands, and would have great technique when taking on a blocker. Thsts what I miss, I don't want us to be good at one thing, and average at the other, I want to be good at all aspects of the game at the position. That being said, the ILB's overall had a really good spring game Saturday. Bala has done a good job with them so far, but I'm ready for the season to truly see what we look like at the position, we have the talent and the depth to have one of the best ILB groups in the country, there's no reason not to.
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We had some violent players back then with Reuben Foster and Mack Wilson. Both of those guys had zero issues wanting to put a guy in the hospital. You gotta have that as an "undersized" guy going up against 300 pound offensive linemen.

And I didn't mean I would settle for being great in one and bad in another aspect of the game, but I want to see a linebacker do what a linebacker is supposed to do and that's shut down a running game and things in the flats. I don't care if Lawson can cover Jalen Waddle streaking across the middle or Brock Bowers hitting a seam route. I would like to see violent hands like you said and getting a nice shove to throw them off their route and mess up their timing, but have very little interest in seeing if Lawson could run with a Waddle type player or turn and run 20 yards deep in the secondary to cover a tight end.
 
I was at the game. Offensively I was very impressed with Amari Niblack and Danny Lewis. It was great to see the TEs making an impact. Kobe Prentice and Emmanuel Henderson made some good plays and seemed to be able to get open. Of course the RBs were all good, especially Haynes and Miller. Those two are going to wear some defenses out. Both OLs looked good. Much better communication and strength.

Defensively I really like the depth on the DL. Oatis, Eboigbe, Smith, Burroghs all were getting upfield and shutting down running lanes. And we didn't even have Turner or Braswell on the field. This line could be as good as the 2017 squad. LBs played much better and were more aggressive. They got off blocks and filled gaps. And not too many blown coverages. Campbell, Marshall, Robinson, they all made plays and were very fast. I like these guys. Secondary is in great shape. Still letting guys run by them at times, but they are better than last year. Just need to mature and okay smart.

Overall, as has been mentioned, this team will feature a stifling defense and a bruising running game. I think we have the WRs to make explosive plays if the QBs can get them the ball. This team could be special. And remember, every national championship except one under Saban has been with a brand new starting QB. Roll Tide.
 

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