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Well... What did others who went think?

(08-21-2011 05:38 PM)KPJ Wrote: [ -> ]Well... What did others who went think?

A few quick thoughts:
-Cudworth is as good or better than advertised!
-The Gillette/Hoskins connection could/should be dangerous this year.
-I went from liking Weingard and Westermann to REALLY liking them both.
-i lost track of the number of flags I saw thrown, but I'm sure they'll get that under control.
-There were more than a handful of guys who were held out or saw limited action today.

Guess that mean that we (I really mean me) need to lower our expectations of what a scrimmage or even spring game really is.

I'm sure that the staff was very, very conservative as to who played and who was held out because of major or even minor injuries.

I guess the real benefit of these events is to try and identify the surprise players.

KPJ has identified some, esp. Cudworth who seems to be the biggest surprise of the new class.

And if Westerman has a big season and Weingard shows improvement between his frosh and sophomore season those will be keys in addition to Cudworth.

Looks like we can see where some of the improvement on defense will come from.

And, of course, I believe everyone things Hoskins will be one of the most underrated players in the MAC this year. His numbers could go from modest last year to impressive this year.

I wasn't there for long but I did see a few guys sitting out.

The 2 that struck me we Sorgatz and Watman. That could make for a big issue on the offensive line

As I would expect defense looked to be way ahead of the offense. Defense looked strong.

Both Brooks and Russell say plently of action. Watson was in uppers didn't participate.

My 2 cents...
Players not suited up included Sorgatz, Hansen, K. Thomas, Watman, and Grimes. None of them appeared to be injured so whatever the reasons were they must have been minor. Kurtz was also out and was hobbling around with a big brace on his knee. Anything serious?

Scrimmage was mostly red zone situations. Very little of anything else. Was really hard to tell who was on the 1st team offense because of all the personell changes.

The RB roation was interesting. Sherrer, Hill, and White got most of the carries. Fleming looks to be the FB and got several carries. TWeingrad also lined up at FB. Greene got some carries too but that was when the offense was lined up with their backs to the goal line. Noticed that Brumfield did not get on the field at all. Not sure if this was because of the redzone situations they were working on. Does anyone know anything about this?

Kicking looked good. Everything went through the uprights although nothing was over 40 yds.

Cudsworth had 2 picks in the endzone.

Agree basically with all of the above In addition a few bullets:

. Sherrer and Fleming scored TDs in addition to Hopkins I believe

. Cudsworth indeed played well, looks like a big hitter/play maker

. Dissapointed that Brumfield and Allen, 2 highly touted frosh didn't play, both in full uniform but on the sidelined

. Passing game, especially the long passing game needs work, Thomas didn't play, Scott didn't catch a pass per my recollection

. scrimmage for the most part looked rather sloppy to me, lots of mistakes and lots of penalties - need to get under control

. Other than Gillett who looked very elusive, the other QB's didn't seem to play very well - Gillet had a lot of carries - hope he doesn't get hurt

. Liked the frosh RB from Grand Rapids Hill who appeared to run with authority - Hill? #30

. Sherrer looked good, Green didn't play much, one nice run. White, Hill and Fleming got a number of carries in addition to Sherrer

. Punting game was outstanding from the Australian, he can realy boom them

. Reed returned one kickoff about 50-60 yds

. Both frosh TE's played a lot - Brooks is a big kid

. Didn't see any recruits in the hOuse except for one kid with a Plymouth Canton letter jacket

That was quick...
http://www.insideeasternmichiganfootball.com/

(08-21-2011 08:02 PM)Dennis D. Rachwal Wrote: [ -> ]Agree basically with all of the above In addition a few bullets:

. Sherrer and Fleming scored TDs in addition to Hopkins I believe

. Cudsworth indeed played well, looks like a big hitter/play maker

. Dissapointed that Brumfield and Allen, 2 highly touted frosh didn't play, both in full uniform but on the sidelined

. Passing game, especially the long passing game needs work, Thomas didn't play, Scott didn't catch a pass per my recollection

. scrimmage for the most part looked rather sloppy to me, lots of mistakes and lots of penalties - need to get under control

. Other than Gillett who looked very elusive, the other QB's didn't seem to play very well - Gillet had a lot of carries - hope he doesn't get hurt

. Liked the frosh RB from Grand Rapids Hill who appeared to run with authority - Hill? #30

. Sherrer looked good, Green didn't play much, one nice run. White, Hill and Fleming got a number of carries in addition to Sherrer

. Punting game was outstanding from the Australian, he can realy boom them

. Reed returned one kickoff about 50-60 yds

. Both frosh TE's played a lot - Brooks is a big kid

. Didn't see any recruits in the hOuse except for one kid with a Plymouth Canton letter jacket

Allen did play a little towards the end. Also was a returner on some of the kick-offs.

Cotton didn't seem to get any action.

Some have been curious about Watson. Saw him on the sideline but he was not fully suited up. Didn't see Henderson.

In defense of the QB's, it's hard to gage how well they passed because most of the time was spent in the redzone with a short field. Also, looked like they were working a lot on rolling out of the pocket. Combine these two factors and there wasn't much space for the receivers.

I guess my other random thought is that EMU has had pads on for what a week plus a day or two.

Things should be a lot tighter next weekend.

And as Jack indicated the starting center and his backup (?) were out. That would kill the OL.

A few more things.
1. depth. We now have 85 players on scholarship and lots of decent football players playing back-up roles.
2. physical presence. More guys who "look the part." Thomas (both), Pollard, Hoskins, Poole, the DT's and the entire O-line all have Big Ten bodies.
3. youth. We are not old enough, especially at receiver and O-line.
4. Gillette's presence. He looks like a team leader. We can't lose him.
5. running backs. They look ok. There is no one with Priest's power, but we have some ability and some depth.
6. injuries. 3 on the O-line, Thomas (receiver), Kurtz, a couple of D-line guys, Brumfield. We need to get healthy before A. State
7. Scott is fast. He blew by the corner but Benz underthrew.
8. Tremendous improvement in the back seven on defense over last year. I think that we'll have an average MAC defense this year.
9. Players that we can't lose to injury: Gillette, Thomas (both), Hoskins, Cudworth.

(08-22-2011 09:31 AM)Larry Martin Wrote: [ -> ]A few more things.
1. depth. We now have 85 players on scholarship and lots of decent football players playing back-up roles.
2. physical presence. More guys who "look the part." Thomas (both), Pollard, Hoskins, Poole, the DT's and the entire O-line all have Big Ten bodies.
3. youth. We are not old enough, especially at receiver and O-line.
4. Gillette's presence. He looks like a team leader. We can't lose him.
5. running backs. They look ok. There is no one with Priest's power, but we have some ability and some depth.
6. injuries. 3 on the O-line, Thomas (receiver), Kurtz, a couple of D-line guys, Brumfield. We need to get healthy before A. State
7. Scott is fast. He blew by the corner but Benz underthrew.
8. Tremendous improvement in the back seven on defense over last year. I think that we'll have an average MAC defense this year.
9. Players that we can't lose to injury: Gillette, Thomas (both), Hoskins, Cudworth.

Great observations!

One thing I think we know but need to remember is that injuries are the unknowable.

No one knows where and when the injuries will come and if there is enough depth to cover.

I can remember way back when when NIU had a good up and coming team but lost something like 4 or 5 QBs in one season.

We do have positions with a lot of depth, albeit frosh, in case that is where the injury bug strikes.

Great read and very good input. My question is how did the Red-shirt’s and second year player’s look to you? The reason I am asking this question is because we need get coverage for injuries and I don't like the idea of depending so much on freshmen’s.

The OL injury scares me but we do have lots of depth at this position. The depth chart is coming out this week and should make this week very interesting with competition for playing time.

(08-21-2011 07:08 PM)TheWoodenNickle Wrote: [ -> ]My 2 cents...
Players not suited up included Sorgatz, Hansen, K. Thomas, Watman, and Grimes. None of them appeared to be injured so whatever the reasons were they must have been minor. Kurtz was also out and was hobbling around with a big brace on his knee. Anything serious?

Scrimmage was mostly red zone situations. Very little of anything else. Was really hard to tell who was on the 1st team offense because of all the personell changes.

The RB roation was interesting. Sherrer, Hill, and White got most of the carries. Fleming looks to be the FB and got several carries. TWeingrad also lined up at FB. Greene got some carries too but that was when the offense was lined up with their backs to the goal line. Noticed that Brumfield did not get on the field at all. Not sure if this was because of the redzone situations they were working on. Does anyone know anything about this?

Kicking looked good. Everything went through the uprights although nothing was over 40 yds.

Cudsworth had 2 picks in the endzone.

Sorgatz, Watman and Bynum were out due to Concussions. Bynum had similar issues in the spring.

Krutz has a torn ACL

(08-22-2011 03:34 PM)jack6288 Wrote: [ -> ]

(08-21-2011 07:08 PM)TheWoodenNickle Wrote: [ -> ]My 2 cents...
Players not suited up included Sorgatz, Hansen, K. Thomas, Watman, and Grimes. None of them appeared to be injured so whatever the reasons were they must have been minor. Kurtz was also out and was hobbling around with a big brace on his knee. Anything serious?

Scrimmage was mostly red zone situations. Very little of anything else. Was really hard to tell who was on the 1st team offense because of all the personell changes.

The RB roation was interesting. Sherrer, Hill, and White got most of the carries. Fleming looks to be the FB and got several carries. TWeingrad also lined up at FB. Greene got some carries too but that was when the offense was lined up with their backs to the goal line. Noticed that Brumfield did not get on the field at all. Not sure if this was because of the redzone situations they were working on. Does anyone know anything about this?

Kicking looked good. Everything went through the uprights although nothing was over 40 yds.

Cudsworth had 2 picks in the endzone.

Sorgatz, Watman and Bynum were out due to Concussions. Bynum had similar issues in the spring.

Krutz has a torn ACL

Because of Kurtz's injuries (bummer!!) I'm suspecting that English and Snow are making lineup changes already.

In the media day photographs I noticed Pali with the linebackers.

I don't know if it means PaoPao moves out of his slot and Pali moves to his vacated slot???

I wonder if the concussion problems is why the scrimmage wasn't too long.

Too much scrimmaging and hitting isn't good if there are those kinds of injuries in the first week.