Spring game thoughts so far ...

[MarkL]

I hope everybody's online stream is working well. I missed the kickoff and the first play from scrimmage, but everything else has been great.

Defense:
Defense was very good! Defensive lines really took care of business for both teams.
I noticed a lack of missed tackles. Excellent! I saw a lot of very good tackling in this one. Didn't our super-unreliable poster claim he went to practices and saw missed tackles all over the place? Hmm ... it's as if he didn't even go to a practice and made that whole thing up ... just like making up that he's a football player or a coach or a third year student or whatever.
Secondary looked fantastic. When receivers caught passes, there was little yardage after catch opportunity.
Keith Morgan is going to be a beast. BooBoo Gates and Cam Tress are going to have huge years this year I think. Paul Swan has been all over the field so far. Chris Jones has been a one man wrecking machine against the O line.

Offense:
Offensive line still needs some work. There were moments where the line really looked good and there were others where they got dominated. They do look more in tune with each other than they did much of last year with all those injuries.
I like the depth at tailback. Pettigrew I think is the best option right now. He's a good mix of speed and power. I haven't seen anything that great out of Hopgood, but he's mainly a short yardage guy and we haven't seen much of that.
This is the first time I've seen Hurley play. I was REALLY impressed by him. Schilz had his moments, but Hurley's mobility is very nice. He had some great creativity in the pocket. Clawson said in an interview he'd like to be able to run the QB a bit this year, and hopefully with some healthy QBs we can do that. Hurley still has to work on accuracy some and I do believe Schilz is the more accurate of the two right now. Schilz does have a beautiful arm.
Receivers need some work. There's been several drops already. But there's good depth there and a ton of potential.
I haven't seen anything yet out of Joplin. Justus Jones looks like he could be primed for a good season. Saw Hodges a bit but haven't seen Hutson yet. I know he's had injury problems. I'd like to see Pettigrew get on the field more. I'd also like to see more of Geiger, though like Hopgood, I think of Geiger as more of a short yardage guy. Jamel Martin looks good thus far.
And random question regarding the TEs ... is DeMark Jenkins fully healthy? He got in one play in 09 and destroyed an ankle on that play. I'm not sure if he got in at all in 2010. I know we have a lot of TE depth ... any chance he could go in at receiver opposite of Jorden to have two tall receivers out there? Toss in Joplin and there's three receivers with great size we could toss in. Just a thought.

I definitely want to see one of the offenses get moving. Defense has looked fantastic, but I'd really feel good about seeing some TD drives in the second half. I guess I'd love to see Joplin, Jorden, Jones, Jackson, Hodges, or Beaurem get behind the defense and come up with a huge TD catch. But with all the wind, that might be asking a lot.

Second half adjustments on offense needed .... will be resuming soon.

[MarkL]

And there's Shaun Joplin! Great play.

[MarkL]

On Schilz vs Hurley ... I do think Hurley had a slight upper hand in the first half. Schilz has definitely had the upper hand in the second half thus far. He has looked fantastic so far. Making very good reads and making them fast. Hurley is hanging onto the ball too long, but that speed of reads will come with time no doubt.

[Siborg]

I missed the first quarter but the rest was good. I like Hurley's mobility but his accuracy was not so good tonight. Pettigrew and Martin looked the best out of the backfield. Ouellet and Jones look real good on the D-line but its hard to tell with the O-line struggling. Improving but stil struggling. Good linebackers and D overall.

who's the left footed FG kicker?

Clawson mentioned first string D teams up with the second team O and vice versa but I don't think that was true. He seemed to mix it up a bit more. Nothing wrong with it but I thought that was interesting.

It looked wet and windy in BG, shocking. I had some sympathy weather here in Atlanta. I watched the game as hail the size of marble shooters and some near golfball size bashed down on my roof. Tornado Warning as well added a nice touch to the evening.

[Flipper]

BCSN is supposed to ir the game from 12-2:30am tonight. If the DVR gets it right...I can watch it tommorrow. Promised the younster I'd take her to see Rio in 3D tonight, so I missed out on getting to sit ina cold, wet Doyt. So far as themovie goes, Tangled was way better...

[sum1udontknow]

Siborg - The lefty kicker you saw hit the 45 yarder was Stephen Stein, who with tonights spring game and a good spring practice that I have seen so far, is slowly putting himself into the PAT/FG kicker spot, consistency is there throughout spring ball and last year was "neck and neck" with Burkhardt when they opened up the kicking competition. I think this year he might be able to solidify his spot as the placekicker for the Falcons, as long as he doesn't end the spring on a bad note, but kicking a 45 yarder in tonights weather was a good sign for what itll be like kicking in the fall.

[birdman]

Markl: Good evening and nice to know Birdman is in your thoughts. I'm not commenting on the spring game and keep my thoughts to myself until we give this team a fair shot. You on the other hand should have better things to write about the football team instead of being so negative all the time. Grad school is rough. Stop taking cheap shots at our player and coach's and get a job forever yours Birdman

[Sub-Zero]

MarkL, thanks for the updates. From my perspective, progress is not good enough for year 3. Some general observations:

(1) I think DL may be our strongest unit along side the TEs (if we ever deploy them the way we should)

(2) RBs seem like they have potential but not really feeling it yet. I would like to think this is one of the better overall units we have seen in the last 20 yrs in talent but its still not really getting on the field at this point (Martin could be a real asset). As I have posted before, I just dont get why our program cant produce better results at RB generally speaking

(3) O Line is a disaster despite appearances today. They are probably better than last year but thats not really a good grade is it. Schilz is not a tough guy (typical California product) and does not do well getting pressure and being hit. I think with more experience, Hurley may be a better option or he likely will be forced into action at some point during the season

(4) And my biggest concern and issue with the coaching staff, tackling - We still have a long way to go. I just dont get the coaching staff here. Every other comment should be about tackling and how we are still no where near acceptable levels

[MarkL]

Sub Zero -

re: tackling: I thought the tackling was excellent yesterday. Very few missed tackles until the 4th quarter, and at that point you saw fatigue setting in. Fatigue didn't worry me ... each defensive unit was operating with only half the players as the other half were on the other unit. I thought the tackling might be a serious issue based off what I saw much of last season, but I was thoroughly impressed by what I saw in that regard.

[footballguy51]

Markl: Good evening and nice to know Birdman is in your thoughts. I'm not commenting on the spring game and keep my thoughts to myself until we give this team a fair shot. You on the other hand should have better things to write about the football team instead of being so negative all the time. Grad school is rough. Stop taking cheap shots at our player and coach's and get a job forever yours Birdman

Typical. You probably didn't even go to the game or watch it, so you are afraid of making comments that make little sense based on what other people actually saw.

[h2oville rocket]

Markl: Good evening and nice to know Birdman is in your thoughts. I'm not commenting on the spring game and keep my thoughts to myself until we give this team a fair shot. You on the other hand should have better things to write about the football team instead of being so negative all the time. Grad school is rough. Stop taking cheap shots at our player and coach's and get a job forever yours Birdman

Typical. You probably didn't even go to the game or watch it, so you are afraid of making comments that make little sense based on what other people actually saw.

He got you again!

[footballguy51]

Markl: Good evening and nice to know Birdman is in your thoughts. I'm not commenting on the spring game and keep my thoughts to myself until we give this team a fair shot. You on the other hand should have better things to write about the football team instead of being so negative all the time. Grad school is rough. Stop taking cheap shots at our player and coach's and get a job forever yours Birdman

Typical. You probably didn't even go to the game or watch it, so you are afraid of making comments that make little sense based on what other people actually saw.

He got you again!

Yep. I haven't responded to any of this posts, but I got curious as to what he had to say about the spring game. I just found it hilarious that he is refraining from commenting, when that's all he's done so far.

[gmartin]

Can we please stop quoting BM. What is the point of the ignore button if people quote his messages. I could care less about BM. Someone needs to take a bb gun to him. Instead of him ruffling the feathers of the faithful falcon fans let's just ignore him and ruffle his feathers.

[MarkL]

GM - right on. Two thoughts:

1. Don't quote Birdman.
2. Don't give Birdman credit. For anything. He deserves none. Everybody who's giving him credit for being a good troll or whatever, that reminds me of the South Park episode where the kids write a horribly disgusting book and all the adults think it's the most genius thing ever written. The adults call it a masterpiece, saying it's a strong statement against abortion, against universal health care, for environmental protection, etc., where it's just the kids trying to be as disgusting and offensive as humanly possible. The reaction of all the adults to the book the kids wrote is EXACTLY what people who are giving birdman any kind of credit are doing. Seriously. He's just being pointless; don't give him credit for something he's not trying to do.

And back to spring game thoughts ... we've got a lot of depth at receiver. More than I realized. I hope we get to utilize as many of those guys as possible. We've really only used four guys each of the last two years - Barnes, Wright, Hodges and Hutson, and then Jorden, Pronty, Wiley and Cooper. I think Jorden, Cooper, Hodges, Hutson, Joplin, McKnight, Beaurem, and Jones are all capable of being good playmakers, as long as they all stay healthy of course. I'd like to see all those guys on the field this year throughout the course of the season.

[Oldballcoach61]

My two cents from what I witnessed yesterday.

1. The # 1 Dline was solid. The #2 Dline was BAD ! There is a big drop off in talent level. After Jones and # 93, the middle of the Dline was soft. # 3 had a good showing at DE. As for the # 2's, there was zero penetration, and no push up the middle.They looked like they were on ice skates getting pushed down field. The coaches have to be concerned a little about this. And this was # 2's going against #2's.

2. Tackling was suspect at times. Open field tackiling was not great. This had something to do with the LB's and CB's getting out of position and having too over correct for bad reads. The LB's were vacating lanes and over pursuing on several plays. I did like some of the coverage when they was able to strecth the play sideline to sideline. They seem athletic , but a little out of control. The tackilng has to improve. No excuse for a D1 college player not knowing how to make a fundamental tackle.
# 39 is a player. Looked solid all night.

#3. The QB situation will be interesting. One has the better arm and accuracy and the other has better instincts but a little raw. Both could make a case for the starting job come fall. With more practice time, the QB & WR timing will improve.

Overall, I think the players looked liked they should with only the few weeks of spring practice under their belt. The coaches had some concerns and expressed them last night on the field. No need for panic , as I think there are some great players and coaches that will get these issues worked out and make a great showing this season.

As for the recruits in attendance last night, I saw some nice size and talent. Huettel is going to be a nice addition to the OL, as well as the kid from IL. The DLine recruits I saw were Baird and Colvin, both DE, and Maynard, the DT. Colvin looks great and I thinlk will fight to see the field this fall. Baird will need to redshirt to get a little bigger and stronger. Maynard will be vying for playing time from day one. He is going to be a great addition to the interior line. He said he was at 315 lb. yesterday and is looking good. His power and strength is that of a 5 yr. Senior. Redfield, a walk on LB, was also in attendance. He looks solid and could help add some depth at the LB spot.

I am excited to see what the season ahead holds for BG, and trust that the players and coaches will continue to get stronger and better over the summer months, This upcoming season can't get here soon enough.