Fan Day Observations
I was out at today's (8-14-10) Fan Day to watch the boys scrimmage and here are my observations.
This team has guys you can get excited about at every position and could be real good if they take care of business. I was pleased and excited with what I saw, especially this early in camp.
The top 3 QBs (Grady, Harnish, Lynch in that order) shared the large majority of reps and all did good things. It would be hard to pick a "winner" of today's scrimmage based on what I saw. The fact that they run a vanilla offense and throw a lot of short dump-offs doesn't help the evaluation process either. Grady continues to improve and did make one nice downfield throw. I'm still not convinced he can be the guy who pulls us through when we're forced to pass but he does improve each year. Harnish was very solid and had a good command of the offense. He also ran extremely well. Lynch continues to impress. He's similar in style to Harnish but faster (like really fast) and with a slightly better arm. Lynch made the two most exciting throws of the day: a 25 to 30 yard laser to Ashford on the skinny post and a beautiful 35 yard TD to Anthony Johnson in the corner of the end zone. That throw was right on the money and had something on it. I still think Harnish is going to start but the other guys definitely bring something to the table. Weston and Hill did not even get in until one hour and forty minutes into the scrimmage and are clearly non-factors at this point. I saw each throw two short dump-offs before I left (it was effing HOT out there) and really couldn't draw any conclusions. I would say Weston is probably looking at a redshirt year based on how well Lynch is doing and the limited number of reps he is getting.
The top four running backs (Spann, Crider, Hopkins and Bell) all looked good. Our running back rotation will be real strong this year and I believe Bell will be an excellent back once he gets a few games under his belt.
Keith Otis started at right tackle and Logan Pegram at left guard, making the first five from right to left Otis, Joe Pawlek, Scott Wedige, Pegram and Trevor Olson. Adam Kiel was not dressed today. The second five right to left were Tyler Loos, Ed Jackson, Jared Volk, Matt Krempel and Matt Battaglia. There was no mixing of personnel so the first five seems to be solidly in place with the possible exception of Kiel.
Schepler was at tight end. I also saw quite a bit of Jack Marks and Luke Eakes. Eakes looks like he could be a good one. Adam Coleman was not dressed.
The receivers switch out constantly but the top guys seem to be the usual suspects Landon Cox, Nathan Palmer and Willie Clark with a lot of Martel Moore, Perez Ashford and Akeem Daniels mixed in. I also noticed Jayme Wells out there quite a bit, the rest of the guys less so.
The defense looked solid and is pretty deep at every position. They got quite a few sacks but of course they are "touch" sacks in these scrimmages.
The top defensive line was Jake Coffman and Sean Progar at end with Mike Krause and DJ Pirkle at tackle. They also mixed in a lot of Ron Newcomb, Brian Lawson, Darnell Bolding and Alan Baxter. The rest of the d-linemen played a lot less. Frank the Tank got in at the end. He is huge and looks like he is not fat at all even though he's 300 pounds plus. He has a good motor but lots to learn at this point. I spoke with his grandmother and younger brother who were both very nice. His grandmother is justifiably proud of the work he's done on his academics and I told her Huskie Nation is too. Great job Frank, we're glad you're here! She said she and Frank's mother were bothered by wisecracks they read about Frank on "blogs". I told her to disregard that stuff because those bloggers are idiots. :) His younger brother is a 7th grader and says he's bigger than Frank was at that age so let's keep an eye out for the next generation.
The top three linebackers were Alex Kube, Devon Butler and Jordan Delegal with Tyrone Clark, Mike Hellams, Greg Barksdale and Cameron Stingily mixed in.
The DBs are Chris Smith and Kiaree Daniels at corner with Tracy Wilson and Tommy Davis at safety. As noted on the HuksieWire Patrick George is recuperating from a sprained ankle. The main backups were Dominique Ware, Sean Evans and Rashaan Melvin at corner and Jody VanLaanen, Demetrius Stone and Jimmie Ward at safety.
I was pleased with the kicking game. Mathew Sims is a heck of a kicker and seems to be the front runner at this point. He made all of his kicks including a 45 yarder and has a live leg. Fillingim made his kicks too but doesn't have quite the pop. Sims and Cklamovski also got all of their kickoffs down by the goal line or deeper which was great to see.
They tried out just about every fast guy on the team at kickoff return but it's hard to believe they won't stick with Tommy Davis and Ricky Crider since they've been there awhile. Akeem Daniels and Da'Ron Brown looked like exciting alternatives there.
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