Saturday scrimmage

[chris lang]

The Wednesday notebook will detail Saturday's second scrimmage a bit. But for some quick thoughts from my end:

* About 300 or so people there Saturday. I was a bit suprised. I only expected a few people to come by. Dr. Falwell was in attendance as well.

* Farrel vs. Terrell: It's not even close. When Brock had the ball, the offense moved. Terrell was flustered quite a bit, and he took more snaps. I think Karcher deliberately blitzed the heck out of him to see how he would perform. A couple of the sacks wouldn't have been sacks had he not been wearing a red jersey. I.E., he would have wriggled out of them.

Brock's got a nice command of the offense right now. Zach's still figuring things out. Trust me, LU fans don't want Brock to get hurt early. Zach needs snaps and game reps, but he can't succeed as the starter just yet.

* Rajive Otah got a lot of snaps at RB and looked pretty good. Greiser took a shoulder stinger and didn't play much. Marcus Hamilton didn't run much either.

* Stokes hasn't been good at tight end all preseason. He dropped what should have been a TD pass last night, and he's dropped a lot of passes in practice. I know LU likes to utilize the TE, so he needs to start catching the football.

[jimflamesfan]

I was also at the scrimmage on Saturday (wow, I've been to two Saturday practices, now).

Brock Farrel definatly had an impressive drive right at the beginning of the game...they move the whole way down the field almost exclusively passing...haven't seen that in a long time.

Hopefully he can keep that up in the games.

[Sly Fox]

Thanks for the reports, guys. Keep them coming for those of us unable to attend ourselves.

The learning curve for freshman QBs is always ridiculously long. I remember watching Vince Young totally baffled when he showed up on campus. The good news is that they are both getting plenty of reps.

[thesportscritic]

Catching the football has been our problem the last several seasons. It has been either the quarterback not throwing an accurate pass or the pass is on cue but we have dropped it. If a defender is not on a wide receiver and that pass is accurate, then there is no excuse to fumble or drop the football. None whatsoever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[givemethemic]

I was at the scrimage as well with SCAR and we both took note as Chirs mentioned how well Brock looks to have control of the offense. This is definitely his team and I have not seen a quarterback in a while be in as much control of the offense as he is right now.

[PAmedic]

Disturbing about the TE situation. How deep are we at that position- can the #2 guy get it done?

[HarrisburgFlame]

Thanks for the report. That was very insightful. Let's get behind Brock and hope we can bring us home.

[flamesfan710]

Its hard to replace somebody like Jay Cline. Jay was a good friend of mine and a very fundamentally sound tight end, so Im hoping that these new guys can pick up the slack

[HarrisburgFlame]

Very true. TE is a tough position because of the blocking requirements and athletic requirements - having a kid that can get downfield and be an intermediate threat or a deep threat in the seam. I coached at a school starved for TE's - we eventually just went with 3 and 4 WR's due to the fact we didn't have a true TE on the squad. the drawback for a run oriented offense like LU's is that you lose a good blocker and pretty much have to adjust your entire running game. when we had no TE we went one back, tried to spread people out, and tried to dictate to the defense through formations and motion. When we took the TE out of the equation we also pretty much took the fullback out as well - we went 4 wide and sold our soul to the passing game.

We finished the year 2-8.

[PAmedic]

for what its worth, I am convinced the heart and soul of college football is a solid rushing game.

but hey, my old school tendencies are well documented.

[HarrisburgFlame]

Great points. Typically teams that can run the football win championships. Steve Spurrier said once at a camp I worked - the mark of a great offense is their ability to stay on the field and move the chains. His teams were known for passing - but what was often overlooked was how well his teams ran the ball and controlled the game. Sounds basic but so very true.

My offensive philosophy is much like my life philosophy. The key - balance. Nice mix of run and pass. Spread it around a little. Worst feeling in the world - feeling like you have to throw on 3rd and 1 to pick up a first down.

[PAmedic]

worse yet, you have to throw for 4 or 5 TDs 'cause your beat up DL and young secondary can't stop anyone. Hypothetically.

[LUfbfan315]

LUfbfan3 here again, still no approval haha

Who would be the #2 guy at TE? It is crappy that Jay Cline is gone.

And, I haven't heard anything about Lauren Williams-how was he at the scrimmage? I think he's got some talent, but he seemed like he was pretty inconsistent with holding on to the ball. I'd like to see him perform up to his ability this year.

It's good to hear that in the future, we might have some prospects at QB. Hopefully they'll be able to learn some things under Brock and gain a little experience this year before having the pressure that goes along with being a starter put on them.

[chris lang]

Re: Williams. He's looked pretty good. He's a guy who runs clean, solid routes who can stretch the field a little bit with his speed. Brandon Turner has been a nice little possession receiver at No. 2, and he'll never be a speed guy. But you need someone who can consistently catch that 8-yard curl. You could see a lot of West Coast-type offense out of this team, because it plays to Farrel's strengths. Wynton Jackson is another guy to look out for.

[HarrisburgFlame]

Yep. Look for the dink and dunks type routes - if we do migrate toward a west-coast offensive philosophy we need backs out of the backfield that can catch the ball. The premise of the west coast offense is that you can get 5 guys into the routes using formations and personnel geared to running the football. That said - can any of our backs catch the ball out of the backfield? That is going to be very key.

[PAmedic]

I'm sure Greiser can!

[chris lang]

More news on RBs in Wednesday's f'wrap. Greiser really isn't in the mix as much as we thought at the start of camp. Stay tuned.

[Sly Fox]

I think most of us assumed the JUCO would be the guy early in the season at RB. But Karcher's Big South Media Days comments sent out the alarms about one of the freshmen. While I am sure they would like to redshirt one of the fish, that may be a luxury that can't afford right now.