Its a standing question

Lance,
Fill me in on some details. I'm sitting at a wedding reception in Siesta Key, Florida refreshing my browser for some spring game reports!

1. The talent level is severely lacking, but none of Bowden's recruits have shown up yet so it might be a little better in the fall. This game was played almost exclusively with Ianello's players.

2. The team will be fun to watch, if nothing else. The offensive pace and focus on big plays will be entertaining, and the defense looked aggressive.

3. The QB race is still muddled. I felt like Moore might have separated himself a little bit. Dalton looked the most comfortable, but didn't show that he could make things happen like Moore can. Pohl has the highest ceiling but makes the most mistakes, owing to his lack of experience and football maturity.

4. Broderick Alexander is probably a better receiver than running back. Chisholm didn't get a chance to show what he has, but that's probably because we were trying to evaluate the passing game and pass defense more, where there are more unknowns. Expect more run plays called in an actual game. Quentin Hines looks like a viable option at RB.

5. The O-Line is incredibly thin, but they are well conditioned.

6. Tyler Williams had a good day. He will be exciting to watch.

7. They must have given AJ Fox a deflated ball on a few of his kicking attempts.

Zach,
Was Tyler Williams used as receiver today or just return man?

He played as a receiver.

Pass defence was my issue. I know is was the sprimg game, but when you hang 50, there are issues.

Mabye mike could give more in depth insite

Thanks. Great. Hopefully he can give some production. I was so pissed when Ianello burned his redshirt for nothing.

That was the 2nd team defense giving up the big numbers. The 1st team D was the best unit on the field all day. That just tells me that depth on the D-line and secondary are an issue, and that the 1st and 2nd team WRs are close in talent level.

The first team D came up with several pics, a couple were called back because the QB was touched. They were also defending the spread with all their backups on the other side of the field. I'm thinking they're ahead of the O at this point.

Kenner, Im due north of you on St. Pete beach. Did you catch any of that storm a few hours ago? Convinced me not to go to USFs spring game at 6...Of course NOW the weather is fine. Should have gone.

Yes, when we were loading up to leave for the wedding we got soaked. Around 2:45, probably. Like you said, everything looks good now, though. We are going to enjoy this last night of our vacation!

This is a good start for me. I need winning as well, but until that comes, I need some entertainment for my three and a half hours.

I feel like this game actually hurt my optimism for this season. I watched the first half and it just doesn't look like a good football team. Luckily since only a few dozen fans actually went to the game, maybe the general public won't know just how bad they are. I know it's tough to judge a scrimmage like this. You don't know if one side is really good, or the other just bad. But hey I guess we really can't be any worse than last year, technically 2 wins is an improvement. And we will have more wins than the Browns...

At QB I gotta go with either Moore or Pohl. Pohl seems to have the most potential, but still too inexperienced to start week 1.

Highlights

I thought they were better prepared than Icoach's teams (with numerous penalties for lining up wrong and illegal procedure). There was a lack of chemistry with the passing game, especially when Clayton was in the game. He overthrew some passes, and others were on the money but were dropped. He showed willingnss to run, and has some wheels. A nice plus in the spread.

Dalton Williams looked better, but was against the second D most of the game.

The defense made several big plays, interceptions (including a pick6), numerous sacks, and a safety. Special teams were good (97 yard TD return), bad (several missed FG's), and ugly (a few kicks that never gained altitude).

The way the white team ran up the score, I would guess defensive depth is a problem.

But I'm encouraged. I think we should at least triple our win total over last year.

I was impressed with the speed at which the offense operated early, the relatively few mistakes like offsides and illegal procedure and the form used in open field tackling. Also, the o-line played a lot of plays (same guys playing for both sides) and made it through ok.

Hard to tell. The caveat on everything in this game is that you had questionable talent playing against questionable talent.
And,the coaches obviously reigned in whatever pass rush there could have been to avoid injury.

-This offense will certainly be more fun to watch. Lots of wide receiver screens,slip screens,crossing routes. Looks more like the offense from 7-8 years ago.
-4 and 5 receiver sets.
-This may actually help the o-line because they won't have to hold blocks as long.
-Dee Fireson kind of stuck out as a receiver.
-I thought Williams may have thrown the ball a little better than the other two. Moore had a couple of nice runs. But he had at least two passes knocked down at the line. And he was holding the ball too long again. Pohl looked tentative.
-They were trying to throw the ball to Will Fleming quite a bit out in space.

-Hard to tell anything about the D.
-The line still looks weak but there were some key guys out.
-The secondary still looked pourous. But,the ball was being thrown all over the place.
-John Senter's name was called quite a bit.

The team was obviously jacked because the refs ended up calling a number of unnecessary roughness penalties. There were a couple of small skirmishes too.

Waiting for August.

Thank you for the information, guys. I was really angry at first when I discovered I was missing the game for a wedding, but after I threw my tantrum I calmed down. I was chomping at the bit during the ceremony to look at my phone to see if I could find out what was happening, but resisted the temptation. At the reception everybody was asking me what was so important on my phone.

Anyone else a bit worried about fan support? or do we just blame this one on the weather? I'm not too worried, but it's funny to think Ianello had a packed fieldhouse last spring and Terry only had a few hundred (from what Rasor said).

Rasor might not have been able to see the majority of the crowd from the press box. Most were under the overhang or in the club level, which was opened up to the public to keep everyone warm and dry in what was a very nice gesture by the university. It would have been completely packed in the field house.

If you're fretting, you should know that season tickets are up quite a bit over where they were this time last year.

Good to hear that sales have been up. I wasn't able to see any crowd online, but I assumed they were on the pressbox side anyway. I'm still hoping for a nice crowd for the opener. I'm sure most casual fans will show up because of the Bowden name. Students might be a tougher draw because most of them know the team hasn't been very good for some time now. Probably would guess most of them didn't know who Terry Bowden was before he came here. I know even I had to google him after the hire.

I was encouraged. With a few exceptions, I thought the quarterbacks and receivers showed a pretty decent grasp of Bowden's spread. Williams needs to stop staring down receivers, but I thought he threw some fine balls. I generally liked what I saw from Moore and Kohl, too.

We're still a long ways from good, but I think at a minimum the game demonstrated that a lot of hard work and effort has been put in by the players and coaches this spring. Given our starting point, I'll take that as a positive step in the right direction.

Good points above, a few other thoughts.

1. Broderick Alexander looks 100%, he ran hard. He and #44 will be a strength.
2. We have at least 4 good WRs, another strength. LT Smith looked comfortable with the transition.
3. No QB stood out, Moore looked the best of the 3. I like Pohl's arm and size, hope he gets more comfortable over the summer.
4. We are small. There was a very noticeable difference between the 1 and 2 defense. Brought a buddy (who ended up buying a season ticket) and he commented that looked like a Div 2 line up size wise but with much better skill.
5. I have no doubt that Bowden will win and sooner rather than later. A few guys were out with injuries, a few new guys will contribute, if we win 3 I will be happy. If we win 3 and beat Can't, I will be really happy.
6. In general good energy, Bowden and staff will put guys in position to make plays.

Here is what I saw:


http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/3...890195764_n.jpg

The pictures in question does not do it justice, but my account, there was at least 2,000 people there

I would put it at 2000 under the stands, and another 1000 in the club seats.

Some encouraging news I heard at the Spring Game is that the sale of alcohol throughout the stadium should soon be approved.

Rasor's running account of the Spring Game.

George Thomas' notes

Main recap from the ABJ

Cleveland PD coverage

Still waiting to see a synopsis and commentary from JZ84!

I haven't heard any mention of Nico Caponi or Nick Rossi. I thought these were two guys who could possibly step up and make an impact. Disappointing.

I saw Rossi playing at both LB and FB yesterday.

Well, I spent much of the game hopping around from seating area to seating area so I'm only good for a few random observations this year. Let's just say I enjoyed our unnofficial tour of the stadium

1) If Rossi played any FB, I don't think it was very often because they went almost exclusively with 4 and 5 wideout sets (with only tailbacks involved).
2) Rossi was a "2" on defense, as was Nico Caponi and Bre' Ford (so much for my all-MAC prediction ) The defensive 2's really struggled to stop the offensive 2's, so read what you want into that.
3) I thought Williams was the most effective QB, but his two big mistakes prevented him from creating any separation in the competition.
4) I know Coach Bowden made it clear that the special team situations were only run for the sake of the fans, but I'm concerned about the prospect of successfully installing ALL of the special teams schemes in August. I DO understand the decision to focus on offense and defense this spring however, given the rather significant departures from the previous staff.
5) I said this last spring: Stein gets the ball up in a hurry, and he has a stronger leg than Fox. AJ's going to have to step it up to keep his job.
6) Switching LT Smith to WR looks like it will pay big dividends. If QB play can stabilize and become more consistent, the other skill positions are in decent shape. I realize that's a big IF.
7) Lee Adams mentioned the quick passing approach actually being easier on the O-line and there is no question about that. In fact, this is by design and is one of the major advantages of the spread. Even though it's thin right now (enough so that I expect one of the big 3 true FR to get some time in the fall), I think the O-line will pass protect adequately but struggle to get any push in short yardage situations. They're just too small right now. Both Chisholm and Alexander are likely to gain a majority of their yards on runs of 10 or more yards. Their average yards per rush might be decent but the TYPICAL run will probably be in the 0 to 3 yards gained range.
8) If you're looking for a player who hasn't been mentioned a whole lot this spring who I thought played pretty well, I'll nominate James Price. He and the rest of the 1's on the D-line looked pretty good yesterday. As has been mentioned before, we don't really know what that means right now.

The one thing I'd like for someone to ask the staff right now is which of the following best describes their current assessment of the program BEFORE they arrived:

a - much better than they thought
b - somewhat better than they thought
c - right about what they thought
d - somewhat worse than they thought
e - much worse than they thought

I have a feeling the answer is d.

Lots of people up in the "club level" which was open to the public. I would estimate at least 500 people were up there in total. Nice place, the bar was open. I'm really excited because we've moved down to the second row in the upper deck this year for our season Tix!

@Zipsrifle, we've had seats in the second row of the upper deck right on the 50-yard line from the first season. The good news is that the view is spectacular, especially when compared with the Rubber Bowl. The bad news was that the view was too good for what was happening on the field for the past two seasons. Back to good news, a Terry Bowden-coached team is going to be a lot more fun to watch from those second row, upper deck seats.

Thank you, JZ.

Good stuff JZ I'll just add a few more observations

1. Holmes is at FS and with the 1's. I think this will be a nice fit for him as he was a little stiff in the hips at cb
2. Even without Griggs playing I thought the d line looked solid. All four showed some burst with Williams, Presley, Price, and Grice playing the most with the ones. Their lack of size though will cause them to tire. A scary thought is anyone on the second team d line getting in. Not good at all.
3. JZ is right the o line looks really small. I did like the footwork of Pughsley and I think Brumbaugh is an interesting prospect. Also of note on the o line is that Clay has been moved from Center to Guard. Bohan is now at Center. Both worked with the 2's.
4. Moore looked like the same Moore from last year with a little more touch. Williams looks good in spurts but made two awful throws. If things stay like this from the upperclassmen expect to see the kid get some playing time this year.
5. Really hoping one or maybe two lb's from this years recruiting class can play right away. Both units looked bad.
6. Hoping TB can work some magic and find 5-6 juco's/grad transfers to plug the gaps.
7. Love the style of play on both sides of the ball and there was a lot of hope in the air at the big dialer yesterday

Forgot to mention lots of man coverage on d with blitz packages. Lots of WR screens and back shoulder throws on O.

That's about where I stand. Hard to tell, based on this.

Of course, like everyone else, I saw some guys who caught my attention. But, who knows? Hard to grade them when it's hard to tell the level of players that they were playing against at the time I noticed them.

As far as the QBs are concerned, I agree with the thoughts about the downside of playing a Senior this year. We're not going anywhere. Ultimately, I think it might be best if the freshman becomes the starter, which would give Terry some long term stability at that position. But, I'd still only want that to happen if the coaches though his chances of producing on the field are close to what we'd have with the older guys. Regardless of how he wants to build the program, I hope he realizes that the fans still need to see some wins right now.

Second best thing I have read in this thread.

I mentioned last year in my criticism of the QB play, that if I were QB, I would throw the ball to Suel 14 times a game. Somebody might think the same this year.

I think LR8 tried last year, but about 10 of them were batted down at the line of scrimmage.

I just watched the video on GoZips and liked what I saw. Lots of points and lots of big plays. Wide open football the way it is played in the 21st Century. 13 had a couple of passes intercepted, but hard to tell if it was him or the WR (those are things fans neve really know). Moore had a nice run, which I like to see because a QB with an ability to run at least some in the spread opens everything up. Moore also didn't have any batted passes...It's amazing how those go away when the passing game consists of more than the five yard slant.

Who is the #1 QB coming out of spring practice?

Coach Bowden addresses as much as can be expected at this time of year in this interview about halfway through.

I saw that too. Maybe we need to do some dot connecting. I guess what I'm looking for is who was taking most of the snaps with the first team offense. Maybe GT could shed some light.

TB brought up that 13 gets rid of the ball quickly and doesn't take sacks. Was one QB more prone to sacks this spring than another? Sacks absolutely kill. Not as much as a fumble or INT, but they put teams in very bad situations that can lead to turnovers. Is 13 throwing some ints in order to prevent a sack? Is 8 getting sacked because he isn't getting rid of the ball quick enough? I don't know the answer to any of this, but sacks can be an important measurement of QB performance as it realates to his understanding of the offense.

I'd also like to know TBs thoughts on the performance of the offense in the red zone.

Lastly, I like that TB said, "I know what we have to do." Not..."We'll take a close look and try to figure out what to do." I just have a lot of confidence in the guy.

Clayton got the start with the 1st Team Offense. But, Dalton ended up throwing more total passes than anyone else in the game, and seemed to get more total playing time. Not sure what we can make out of that.

There has been mention that Dalton is good at "pushing the other guys". Does this mean that he's there to help them get accustomed to the offense, but is not in our plans because of his final-season status? Maybe.

The problem with counting sacks in the spring game is that the QBs were considered "sacked" the moment they were touched by a defender. I am certain that they would have escaped a few of them had it been a real game, and Moore would have ran for a TD.

Everyone knows Moore can run. Everyone knows he's a tough kid.

But if he relies predominately on his feet to win games, we're screwed. He isn't a "game-changer" running QB (like a Cribbs or Edelmann were).

If neither Williams or Moore take command, you gotta start Pohl and see what he can do. There's no upside to starting a senior like Williams, versus the underclassmen, if he doesn't give the Zips a marked increased chance to win games.

And if Moore can't convincingly beat out a Frosh, he should probably practice returning punts.

I just wanted to add because I haven't seen it mentioned was senior TE Ryhne Ladrach made some really nice catches. Looks to have great hands. He could be an x factor and get some good mismatches vs. a defense.

I would agree with one big IF that I don't think will happen, but who knows... Anyhow, if the coaching staff thinks we could still be pretty bad and uncompetitive next year (only 1 or 2 wins), don't start a frosh. A guy who loses a lot only learns to lose. If they are still a year away, don't destroy a young QB. Other than that, if the competition is close, play the frosh.

I think we can score enough points next year that there will be at least 3 MAC schools that poop their pants trying to keep up. Four wins shouldn't be out of the question.

NOW you all see why Dalton Williams COULDNT start at his old 1AA, to bad Bowden is playing the good ole boy still and gave him a scholarship because hes friends with one of Bowdens old Grad Assistants. One good thing, the smartest QB was NICELY,,he bailed from our sinking ship after you all threw him under the bus SO MANY TIMES. He WON more games then any other qb on the roster and BOWDEN had the nerve to put him at 4th string. Cant wait to see how this season plays out,,,you have lost my respect Coach Bowden

Agreed. I don't have much interest in starting a freshman on a lousy team.

lolol you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's...oh nevermind

How many times was it mentioned that every player was getting a fair shot this spring. Nicely has just as much of a chance to start as Williams, Moore, and Pohl. Him being 3rd-4th on the depth chart showed he just wasn't playing well enough to start in the fall, so he transferred. I wish him the best, and out of all the players I'd say he had the toughest tenure at UA. I have a lot of respect for a guy who had to play for JD, and two years of RI. Just don't take it out on Terry Bowden and say crap like you lost respect. Give it a rest! If you're turning on this team already, then maybe you should try becoming a fan of a different school.

Dalton threw two bad passes, but despite that I think we could win games with him at QB.