Morning Oatmeal: Spring Game/NFL Draft Day

by jtlight on Apr 26, 2008 11:49 AM PDT in News

Well, all the excitement of the last few months comes to a crescendo this afternoon. 10,000 fans are expected to take in the game today, between the green and the white teams. This isn't quite up to SEC levels, by a longshot, but should still be a fun day for those that can be there. Since I, and others, are relegated to not being able to see the game, leave your thoughts on what you see.

Also, here are the rosters for both teams today, and Moseley's game preview.

In other news for the day, it looks as we may have seen the last of Derrick Jones, who is no longer enrolled in Lane CC. The kid had a ton of talent, but never could quite pull it together off the field.

Also, the NFL draft starts in a few minutes, so hopefully J-Stew doesn't have a long wait. Fentress at the Oregonian has a very long article today on Stewart, his decision to turn pro, and everything related to that.

So, enjoy the day, and try not to think about the almost interminable about of time between now and August 30th. It's gonna be a long 4 months.

GO DUCKS!

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J-Stew went 13th!!!

Holy crap! That is quite surprising, but I'm totally psyched for him. Turned out to be quite the choice to go pro.

Carolina got a great back.

by jtlight on Apr 26, 2008 1:31 PM PDT 0 recs

Spring game being streamed!

http://www.jumptv.com/?&ref=O_T_Other_xos-affiliates.com&utm_source=xos-affiliates.com&u tm_medium=Other&utm_content=xos-footer-links&utm_campaign=Other_xos-footer-links

Go Duckies!

by JShufelt on Apr 26, 2008 2:02 PM PDT 0 recs

Hmm...

You'll have to log in with a goducks.com account I think.

I'm recording it now, and I'll see if I can make it accessible later.

Go Duckies!

by JShufelt on Apr 26, 2008 2:15 PM PDT up 0 recs

Spring Game recount

I left at the end of the 3rd quarter.

In the first quarter, Chris Harper looked very very successful with running, but he seemed both a)not very good with passing, and b)afraid to pass.

Roper looked amazing, I'm sure you all like hearing. He was nimble, smart, good with touch passes, accurate, efficient, and (maybe most attractive) agile. Seems we have a silent dual threat in him.

I great surprise was Cody Kempt. He looked much like Roper, only smaller, slower, and with a little less leadership. He had some nice runs, and was good on triple options cutting up the field. I've been a spartan of the "Who's Cody Kempt?" faction, but I was truly impressed.

Malachi Lewis made possibly the best grab I've ever seen by a duck. Chris Harper chucked one deep for him in I believe the 1st quarter, and led him too much. Lewis had beaten the coverage, and all he had to do was get his hands on it... but he only needed one. He reached up to (I would think) the highest humanly possible with his wingspan, and made an incredible one handed grab. This was Randy Mosstastic.

The star of this game though, (as far as I saw, skip the 4th quarter, mind you), was LeGarrette Blount. He's the real deal. He's a bigger Stewie. He takes tacklers with him about 8 extra yards. He waits for holes but hits them quick. He was Chuck Norris today. Preorder your #9 jerseys now!

A true disappointment, but forgivably, was Darron Thomas. He just looked flat, couldn't get anything going, and was overthrowing guys. On one particularly exciting play, I noticed both #s 3 and 1 (Harper/Thomas) jog onto the field. I knew we had two #1s, and you know how crazy small the nameprints on the backs of our jerseys are, so I didn't think much of it. We had our 2-back split formation up, and Harper took the snap, faked it to Crenshaw, and optioned out to Thomas. He pitched it to Thomas, who saw Aaron Pflugrad standing at the 5 yard line all alone. Thomas was maybe at the 40 or 45, and he chucked it. Now, yes, Pflugrad is a tiny target, but Thomas airmailed it maybe 4 feet over his head. Arm strength is great, but this brought on a whole set of bad memories of Sophomore and Junior year Dennis Dixon overthrowing guys on opportune plays. This was trickery, so we all like to see that fulfilled, but it just didn't happen. Freshman mistakes happen, and the Green team had two talented but very very inexperienced QBs on it. That same team will be winning in 3 years, should it assemble again.

White team just looked dominant, as we all expected. Roper and Blount were amazing, Kempt looked improved, even Cooper took snaps and looked pretty quick.

Lastly, and most peculiar to me, were the formations that they jogged out with, especially the Green team. They were coming out in:

Trips formation (rare in our offense)
2 WR, 2 TE, 1 RB (Shotgun-Ace sets)
3 WR, 1 TE, 1 RB (Shotgun-Normal sets)
and most peculiarly...
the Pistol formation. Yes my friends, the Nevada-born formation that all runs vertical. It would have Harper (or occasionally Thomas) out of the gun as usual, but whoever the back was (usually Crenshaw or Block) would be standing a good 3-5 yards directly behind the QB, just as if he were under center. It's a rather innovative idea and it's a pretty good idea, the running game doesn't go sideways, just North and South... but it really didn't seem to work. Fakes in it are almost nonexistant.

I don't really know what was up with the new formations I just listed, and why they added them in, but I didn't really see any benefits. They were most noticeable on the Green team, I do not know if White used them, but due to them being just used on Green, they certainly didn't seem to work.

WHEW. Any questions? I sure hope someone read that...

by butthol on Apr 26, 2008 6:46 PM PDT 0 recs

Thanks for the update

Quite the info packed into that, and well worth it.

It's too bad that Thomas hasn't been better. I know a bunch of us thought he would compete, but it's surprising just how far down the list he's been, and Thomas coming out of nowhere has been the shock too. Moseley had a good deal of post game praise on his blog.

And though I didn't see the game, I just don't see Roper starting. It'll be good to have a competent backup, but I really felt he hit his ceiling already. And how he played in the Sun Bowl won't be Cal, USC, ASU, etc. It's Costa's to lose, especially with the inconsistency seen. Its just too bad that our top offensive players (Costa and Johnson) weren't seen today. With the progress that Harper has made, he could really push Costa, but Costa has 2 years in the system, and that'll help greatly.

But crap, the spring game is such a tease. I'm totally pissed it's only April.

by jtlight on Apr 26, 2008 7:03 PM PDT up 0 recs

Thanks for the read jt!

I think you're confusing Harper playing better than expected with Thomas disappointing. I expected what I saw from Thomas. Harper played rather well.

You're right about the Costa points, but Roper's poise was incredible. He looked like a Senior out there. He celebrated a TD with J-Will, and he looked fit for it.

He's not as pocket as we thought. He actually had an incredible pump fake on his TD run that was the second play of the drive. Play action, acted like he was going for the rushing TD, pump faked out to the wideout, OLB totally bit, and ran it in.

It was like a more deliberate and bigger Vince Young.

by butthol on Apr 26, 2008 7:57 PM PDT up 0 recs

Also, because you didn't see the game

You said you think he's hit the ceiling. Well, in perspective, this game had to be the ceiling. His QB rating had to be in the 140s or 150s.

The Sun Bowl game was not his ceiling, I'll tell you that. It may have been his ceiling in meaningful games, but this was easily a better performance.

Roper's like 6'6", and he looks like a big leader out there. He looked like the elder statesman. He was the composed Southern gunslinger that we found love for in the Sun Bowl game, and he renewed it today.

by butthol on Apr 27, 2008 11:39 AM PDT up 0 recs

You probably are right about the Roper ceiling

He could do much better than in the Sun Bowl, and I should be the one to say that, considering that I was one of the people not all that high off his performance. I'm hoping that Shufelt can somehow get the game to me, so I can give it a look sometime.

As far as the Thomas/Harper thing. Before Spring started, I know many of us had high hopes for Thomas, which he didn't come close to meeting, and expected Harper to be moved at some point, but he's far exceeded our meager expectations.

One thing about the QB situation: It's fairly obvious that the coaches have quite a bit of confidence in Costa, despite his injury. Because of the recent foray's into a 2 QB system, this will be a great thing going into Fall camp. It's great to have some very solid and proven depth at QB, but it's also good to have a clear #1 (too bad we haven't seen him at all).

by jtlight on Apr 27, 2008 11:49 AM PDT up 0 recs

Agreed 100% on

Both the Costa points and the Thomas/Harper points.

I was very impressed with his Sun Bowl performance, but that was low expectations. Dennis would've gotten an earful from us with a performance like that, I bet.

Thomas has not become the instant Dennis Dixon we thought we'd see by now. What madness!

Harper, I had thought for a long time, was an ATH with versatile skills and COULD play QB, if not RB, WR, WB, etc. I now see him as a versatile QB, much like Tim Tebow.

The play calling was different for him though, and occasionally I didn't like it. As you would notice, Dennis would purely go around the ends/right down the middle with his fakes. Now, I've seen this in both Tebow and Locker, we have Harper used as sort of a Fullback, with blockers ahead of him. I don't like watching it. I think it's a slow game. They have sort of a convoy preceding him, and he'll wade behind the blockers until daylight. It worked to an extent, and that's all that really matters.

I just liked how Dennis would run, and how Chip would have him just run straightforward. That's what I wanted in Harper and Thomas.

I noticed this minimally, not to a dangerous degree, but I noticed a quality in Harper (and a little of Thomas) that is BAD BAD BAD biohazard for dual-threats... running backwards to escape the pocket. Instead of Dennis running through the line and going from there, Harper would back up a little to go around the line and escape. He would there either take it and run for a good gain, predictably, or find an open receiver and 1-hop it to him. Ugh, let's wait a year or 2 for Harper at QB.

by butthol on Apr 27, 2008 12:14 PM PDT up 0 recs

*correction

I now see him as a versatile QB, much like Pat White.

by butthol on Apr 27, 2008 12:15 PM PDT up 0 recs

I'm actually going to be an applogist for DT

"We had our 2-back split formation up, and Harper took the snap, faked it to Crenshaw, and optioned out to Thomas. He pitched it to Thomas, who saw Aaron Pflugrad standing at the 5 yard line all alone. Thomas was maybe at the 40 or 45, and he chucked it. Now, yes, Pflugrad is a tiny target, but Thomas airmailed it maybe 4 feet over his head"

Pflugrad actually slowed down. DT's throw was probably on the mark, but Pflu turned his head too look for the pass rather early and lost his speed.

Go Duckies!

by JShufelt on Apr 27, 2008 11:55 PM PDT up 0 recs

Oh, and

Stewie went like 9 picks too early. I wanted to see him in Powder Blue down in SD.

by butthol on Apr 26, 2008 6:50 PM PDT 0 recs

You...

And me both buddy!

by jessenumber1 on Apr 26, 2008 8:03 PM PDT up 0 recs

Thanks for the info butthol

I appreciate the extensive playback of the spring game. It sounds like the offense is playing with new formations which isn't a total suprise. If you look at game film from the first game vs Houston and film from the Sun Bowl there are plays that were not there in the beginning. Maybe because of the different QB by the time the Sun Bowl came, but it seems to me that Chip is always coming up with new plays, even throughout the year to keep defenses honest. They see a particular formation and are thinking option(which they had seen on tape a million times before) but its really a counter. Thats the play that sticks out in my mind during the last year. I think this is the next evolution to that and I love it. I think Chip is going to play to the strengths of whoever starts at QB and he seems to have a massive arsenal to draw from.

by DuckinNC on Apr 27, 2008 8:28 AM PDT 0 recs