My 2 biggest concerns with this years team was the recievers on offense and KPop's play calling ability. Well the recievers look good and Legend Glasker is going to be an absolute star.
KPop's play calling looks good. The defense has only had one play where guys were out of position in the first half. The defense looks sound. We don't know for sure since Utah Tech is an overmatched opponent, so next week will be the true test, but overall I'm happy with the play calling on defense.
He's what I think we learned:
Legend Glasker is very good
Bear Bachmeier is faster
Our cornerbacks are going to make it difficult for QBs to throw against
While we didn't get to the QB with our defense, I think we did speed up their internal clock that rushed throws
Moa was underwhelming, Eka looked like RB2 to me
LJ stayed healthy. We're going to need to rely on him this week and in several other big games later this year (ND, Utah, etc)
OL pass blocking was also underwhelming. Bear didn't seem to have enough time for deeper looks
I want to see more from Kasper, Lyons, & Saleapaga, but I think they looked the part.
We have talent at WR & TE, I'm not as worried about the receiving corps as I was three days ago
FCS games can be beneficial to "ease" into the season, but losing Moa & Damuni for some time, and a longer time is a reason not play them, I'd rather see 2 or 3 of these types of games after spring ball
We have four games to figure it all out before the first big test of the season.
Crowd looked & sounded great on TV
I was pretty pumped with a couple of different things
WR looked good, Legend looks like he will be a star. Kasper seemed solid, JoJo had a nice grab. TE will be a big part of the offense with Lyons and Saleapaga.
RB looks like a really solid group, from 1-5. Eka was an exciting revelation.
Defense looks aggressive. Utah Tech was getting the ball out so quick they couldn't really get anything developed.
Kick returns won't all be as easy as what we saw, but looks like we got some good talent there.
Bear had some nice throws and a couple of nice runs. He's looking good.
I was a little bummed about the pass pro. I think we should have been better against a team of Tech's caliber. But hopefully they are getting better.
