My Spring Scrimmage Observations

- Picture perfect weather.



- Great day for a hike up to the "Y."



- JDawgs makes great hot dogs.



- Our backups on offense aren't very good.



- Our OL is slow.



- Quezada looked good in his early reps



- Kuresa isn't a D1 QB.



- Not sure Ammon Olsen is either.



- Hill looked ok, but needs work.



- OL really struggled to pass and run block.



- Most of the WRs who played were slow and didn't catch well.



- It was great to see O'Neill Chambers out there making plays on D.



- Hague will be a good safety for us.



- The scrimmage was boring and mostly a waste of time.

Oh, and Tom Holmoe was wearing brown. A series coming up with Wyoming?

Not much different in scrimmage compared to previous days - defense dominates the offense.



Did not have 2 teams with O/D but 40 plays of full 11-on-11 scrimmage time - offense vs defense.



Starters were on the sidelines - most of the backups and up-and-coming talent (backups 2s and 3s) were able to showcase their talent and get valuable game-like playing time.



Some key players that should see some PT time.



Offense:



1. Juice looked good; 2 carries/11 yards

2. Adam Hine - 6 carries/17 yards - good explosion to line of scrimmage.

3. Lark OK - primarily handed off on his two series, 14 pc to FB Austin Jorgensen and HB Dallin Cutler (2 rec. - 16 yards).

4. Taysom Hill - a lot like Riley - legit 4.5 speed. Can do damage with his legs while scrambling. 2/3 for 4 yds; 3 carries/22 yards. Like his mobility and ability to run and get out of pressure.



There will be a time in the season where Hill will need to get a lot of reps in order to prepare him for 2013 - maybe against lesser teams (second half, etc. but he will need more playing time than Lark if he is to take over the keys to the team next year).



Defense:



1. DE Ezekiel Ansah likes playing in the backfield, batted down a pass, sacked QB.

2. DE Mike Muehlmann - 1 sack

3. LB Uani - 1 sack.

4. DB - Mike Hague - 1 interception (off a pass from Alex Kuresa).

5. DB - O. Chambers - looks comfortable and can make plays.



We are very strong and capable on defense with the 2s showing they are very good as backups and will get good playing time throughout the season.



In summary, D is way ahead of the O in terms of quality talent and experience and will be the strength of this team. Too early to tell about the O as so many players are missing and the ones that played do not have compare as favorably to those on the D.



This summer will be a key indicator as to how well we progress this year. If they all take practice and workouts seriously, this team should be better than last year - question is will the team rise up to the challenge of the big games and pull out some victories (i.e. ND, GT, BSU, UT).

What I forgot to say:



Ziggy, Hague and Minoa Pikula will see some serious playing time this year as they have good command of their defensive responsibilities and are very athletic.



Taysom Hill is fast and hard to contain - most of his total yardage came on his scrambles.

Adam Hine will be a player - not quite yet ready for prime time but will be good.



McCoy Hill (one of the BYU backup QBs) 6-6 will be a better TE and looked comfortable in that position. Knows where he is supposed to be - most likely drawing upon QB experience.



Can't emphasize enough that there is a glaring talent differential between OL and DL.



Bronco is very satisfied with overall body of work by Lark and feels that he has the team's confidence and they support him. Interesting comments about backup compared to last year - never heard this complimentary situation between Heaps/Nelson in terms of leadership and team support.



He also backs up Doman's assessment of the OL health and need for improvement. Expects them to work hard over the summer and states the team's success hinges upon their development and improvement. As goes the offensive line strength and speed so goes our ability to show drammatic improvement. They are key to keeping up our tempo and productivity - they need to be in shape. This is a huge call-out for improvement in this category. Nothing like stating the truth :-)

Oh yeah, Bronco favors the Spring Game involving 2 teams (divided up equally by talent) and playing against each other similar to last year where Riley's team beat Heaps (foreshadowing of the future in 2011). This year it wasn't possible as there were too many injuries.

I watched the Oline drills. A few starters ran some drills, but did not scrimmage. Suited up players included R. Matthews, Anae, H. Reynolds, and Hansen. They all looked really good to me. Big, strong, but not fat. Tall other than Reynolds. I think Matthews is going to be a beast. He looks strong for a kid his age.



Waiting for Fall camp to see how these guys do. I expect good performances.

Lawboy wrote:
I watched the Oline drills. A few starters ran some drills, but did not scrimmage. Suited up players included R. Matthews, Anae, H. Reynolds, and Hansen. They all looked really good to me. Big, strong, but not fat. Tall other than Reynolds. I think Matthews is going to be a beast. He looks strong for a kid his age.



Waiting for Fall camp to see how these guys do. I expect good performances.

Ryker Matthews is going to go on a mission right?

EM_Puma wrote:

I watched the Oline drills. A few starters ran some drills, but did not scrimmage. Suited up players included R. Matthews, Anae, H. Reynolds, and Hansen. They all looked really good to me. Big, strong, but not fat. Tall other than Reynolds. I think Matthews is going to be a beast. He looks strong for a kid his age.



Waiting for Fall camp to see how these guys do. I expect good performances.

Ryker Matthews is going to go on a mission right?

He isn't

Something to consider - Michael Alisa has been through 3 Spring Camps now and he states that the intensity of this one, the team chemistry, the attitude is something that he hasn't seen before. He feels the team has taken on a new level of confidence and pent up aggression. It was evident on the field, not necessarily in execution, but the energy is unmistakable. This team is an improved version of the one we saw in the Bowl Game, and I imagine, will be even better by the time Fall Camp ends.

byucougar1 wrote:
Something to consider - Michael Alisa has been through 3 Spring Camps now and he states that the intensity of this one, the team chemistry, the attitude is something that he hasn't seen before. He feels the team has taken on a new level of confidence and pent up aggression. It was evident on the field, not necessarily in execution, but the energy is unmistakable. This team is an improved version of the one we saw in the Bowl Game, and I imagine, will be even better by the time Fall Camp ends.

They said this last year.



And the year before that.



And the year before that.





Not to discredit your comment at all, but at this point in time, anything referring to "energy and enthusiasm" is just going in the same file that I put all the "coach speak" into.



Good for them, though.

BlueIsBetter wrote:

Something to consider - Michael Alisa has been through 3 Spring Camps now and he states that the intensity of this one, the team chemistry, the attitude is something that he hasn't seen before. He feels the team has taken on a new level of confidence and pent up aggression. It was evident on the field, not necessarily in execution, but the energy is unmistakable. This team is an improved version of the one we saw in the Bowl Game, and I imagine, will be even better by the time Fall Camp ends.

They said this last year.



And the year before that.



And the year before that.





Not to discredit your comment at all, but at this point in time, anything referring to "energy and enthusiasm" is just going in the same file that I put all the "coach speak" into.



Good for them, though.

I agree completely with Blueisbetter. Might have well as said, "Michael Alisa said blah blah blah blah blah."

I asked Tom Holmoe's assessment, he said, nervously, "Just glad we didn't have any more injuries."

IMO, that about sums up saturday's scrimmage. Great to see young guys get reps. great to see a glimpse into the future of Taysom Hill, great to get out on such a beautiful spring day on Cougar field, but otherwise nice to not see anymore injuries.

This team is devastated with injuries and/or recovering injuries, and/or keeping others from injuries (Riley) that it was hard to conclude anything else. Oh, except that yes, the O sucked and the D looked much better than the O, which isn't saying a whole lot at this point.

Count me as one who is very skeptical of anything I hear. After all the sunshine spread around last year by Bronco and the disaster on the field I believe nothing until I see it in action.



After last year I'm not a believer anymore. Hope they change my mind.



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My expectations are extremely low.



Defense should be good.



We have no OL, which will result in lots of tucking and running by Riley which will probably get him injured.

Hmmmm...what is this skepticism based upon???? If you are basing it upon the Spring Game...we didn't have the starters participating.



Check out the depth this year - it is outstanding. We will be better than last year - and we were 10-3 with a bowl victory (3rd straight). Is Ki$ha on this board...blah, blah, blah...this place is about to blow. :-)

byucougar1 wrote:
Hmmmm...what is this skepticism based upon???? If you are basing it upon the Spring Game...we didn't have the starters participating.



Check out the depth this year - it is outstanding. We will be better than last year - and we were 10-3 with a bowl victory (3rd straight). Is Ki$ha on this board...blah, blah, blah...this place is about to blow. :-)

For me it is a defense mechanism. There was way too much talk last fall by Bronco and company about how good the team was going to be. We weren't nearly as good as we should have been given all the hype from our coaching staff last fall.



I have heard for too many years about how great our O-Line is going to be, or how prepared our offense is, etc. and it hasn't been the case.



I will hope for the best, expect the same and be thrilled if this team exceeds my expectations.



FWIW, I love your optimism, It's just going to take some time for me to feel the same. I need to see it on the field before I buy in completely on how good this team will be.

Utah's Spring game last year was a dumpster fire. Sure, they didn't have a great season, but they beat the crap out of BYU.



Maybe BYU's poor Spring game will lead to a long awaited blowout of Utah up at RES.... ;)

El Xisco wrote:
Utah's Spring game last year was a dumpster fire. Sure, they didn't have a great season, but they beat the crap out of BYU.



Maybe BYU's poor Spring game will lead to a long awaited blowout of Utah up at RES.... ;)

Yeah, but their offense pretty much craptastic outside of John White IV.

Besides developing a nasty, athletic, run/pass blocking OL, I would like to see a nice 1-2 punch at RB where we have two backs that are dual threats (ie Tonga/Unga). I believe that (Alisa/Juice - Pritchard-Lasike) can fill that role, but it must become reality. The D wS able to key on our running game depending on who was in last year (ie JJ for misdirection, swing passes; Kariya for 3rd and less than 3 yards for a first down, Mendenhall blocking for run up the middle, etc.). Once we get multipurpose backs in tandem, we will be more unpredictable and harder to defend.



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There may be a silver lining to how bad the offensive appears to be through spring camp. and that might be they all realize they need to work a lot harder if they are going to be any good.



I am honestly very pessimistic as to how our offense is going to be this year. I have little hope it can win us 10 games. Probably too early to have that strong of an opinion though.