The glorious Red & Black (or White in this case) Game was upon us.  The buzz intensified the closer I got to the stadium, which was either from the Bloody Mary’s or the atmosphere of fake gameday.  I couldn’t tell for sure.  This was my first spring scrimmage attendance since college and I wasn’t to be disappointed. 

Format

Awesome.  Split the starters between 2 teams and play 4 quarters.  There was a lot of action to see and hard to catch it all live.  I really wish I had some DVR footage, but I’ll try to do my best of what I can remember in person.  

Quarterback

Taylor Potts looked fine to me.  He’s going to take some more chances, which will most likely result in an increase of turnovers, but he’s also got the ability to make some throws our past QBs couldn’t.  His decision making was solid, but not spectacular.  There were a couple of throws  he got away with that players like Dominique Franks and Earl Thomas will probably make plays on.  Whether that’s simply a harmless pass breakup or a pick 6 is yet to be determined.   Steven Sheffield looked like a solid backup.  He doesn’t possess a big arm, but he makes up for it with great pocket intuition and the ability to keep the play alive while looking downfield.  Sheffield is as good an option as Cody Hodges was and the guy has some inate leadership ability about him as well.  Loucks and Riley both looked better than Doege to me, who seemed overwhelmed.

Running Back

Harrison Jeffers may be a better player when it’s all said and done, but right now, Baron Batch is still the best RB on this team.  Batch looked quick/strong/decisive and appeared back to full health.  He’s not quite the lightning in a bottle that Jeffers is, but he gets 5 yards down the field fast.  Now as far as Jeffers goes, dude is good.  He’s got Hanspard-type speed, but will take more chances behind the line resulting in a higher rate of TFLs.  He’s worth it and a much more versatile counter punch than what we’ve had in past Leach years.  The tough thing about Jeffers is that he may be the type of back that takes quarter and a half to find his groove, which he may not be afforded given that Batch will be tough to steal minutes from.  I thought Batch was getting better opportunities behind the interior trio of Carter/Keown/Gallington, and Jeffers ripped off 14 in his only attempt behind this unit.  Despite an ugly drop on a potential big play by Batch, these guys were solid and will ultimately be the strength of this offense. 

Wide Receivers

Probably the most disappointing position from my perspective.  There’s good mixed with bad, and I’m not really concerned, but we also don’t have a shit your pants in stretches option that Crabtree provided.  There were more drops than I like to see, which could be largely contributed to the distribution of wealth on the scrimmage rosters.  Ed Britton could be a much more dangerous player in this conference than he is, if we felt he was above a 50/50 chance of ball security.  Britton makes some crazy plays and separates well out of cuts, but deflections off his shoulder pads are as good as picks in Austin.  Rashad Hawk doesn’t sum up to his paper stats.  Both he and Jacoby Franks looked like “just dudes”.  Adrian Reese appeared disinterested. 

The good was Detron Lewis is going to have an All American season by virtue of being the most talented WR on the Tech roster.  It also helps that he has some legit skills.  Lewis uses his body well to shield defenders, and while he has an occasional drop, he makes 3 plays for each one that no one on our roster could.  Lewis will be option #1 and most likely play on the outside.

Option #2 is typically an inside receiver and we’ve got 3 interesting players.  Tramain Swindall is the leading candidate.  Not overtly fast, but reads coverages well and catches everything.  A chain mover with decent athletic ability. 

Option #3 is either Austin Zouzalik or Corndog Douglas.  Zoo catches everything, while Corndog is a little bit like Ed Britton in the hands department.  What’s intriguing about Corndog is that he’s probably the best receiver with the ball in his hands on our roster and you damn well better be, if you’re going to try and pull off a handle like Corndog.  He’s a hard guy to get a bead on and using him in our version of the Wildcat Formation was cool, albeit ineffective.  It’s not by sheer will that Zouzalik gets open as his timed speed translates well to the padded version of football.  I like his toughness as scrimmage star Cody Davis lit him up a couple of times and he still managed to secure a catch.  He’s a Danny Amendola player, while Corndog brings a little more big play potential to the table.

Ed Britton will most likely be the #4 option, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see some combination of Lewis/Swindall/Douglas/Zouzalik as our main rotation if Britton can’t start making the routine play.  I wouldn’t mind seeing more of Adam James (3 catches for 41 yards) with Lewis/Douglas and one other guy.   Blake Kelley and Alex Torres were kind of fun to watch at times.  Overall, I would have liked to have seen more separation throughout.  At times, it was good, but there seemed to be long stretches where they had trouble getting open. 

Slapping mustard on bitches.

Offensive Line

Mixed results here as well.  The good news is that there’s no doubt in my mind that 6 or 7 solid starters can be found in this group.  Who and where may shuffle quite a bit throughout the season.  The pleasant surprise of the group was RS Freshman Terry McDaniel.  His footwork is coming together nicely, and as strength is added, we won’t have to worry about LT until 2013.  The guy is ready to go, if need be.  Brandon Carter was marginal at best when playing LT and looked much more comfortable back on the inside in the 2nd half.  I really liked what I saw from Deveric Gallington at RG and there were a couple of plays on which he teamed with Carter and center Justin Keown to mimic the appearance of an actual drive blocking force to be respected.  Chris Olson is serviceable in a variety of roles and I don’t remember anything particularly good or bad about Mickey Okafor and Lonnie Edwards other than Richard Jones and Victor Hunter looking solid at DT.  Marlon Winn was predictably solid, although Ryan Haliburton was more of a challenge than I anticipated, which is good.  Joe King served as Brandon Sesay fodder.  The best unit today might be LT McDaniel/LG Carter/C Byrnes/RG Gallington/RT Winn with Olson as the utility guy. We’re not in bad shape and the scrimmage format hurts the evaluation of this unit more than anything.  Overall, I really thought they competed well against a veteran DL and there were some very good battles going on up front.

Overall

As long we funnel things effectively through Batch and Jeffers, all the pieces are in place for this to be a threatening weapon.  Lewis, Swindall, Corndog and Zoo can all do some nice things after the catch.  Adam James will most likely see increased playing time this season in the 2-back set.  He’s not a bad little weapon as a receiving TE.  Potts still needs some work on reads and what not, but I don’t think he’ll be a weak spot.