Spring game: where is Ronnie Moore?

[falconfan1]

Moore will be fine w the slight hamstring. Coppet will get back. Gabe Martin is making good progress. Gallon and Cohen should be fine. Ford has to get back. Hunter and Senn should get back. We had a few other players miss the scrimmage. I did not see any significant injuries occur today unless I missed something.

There are always things week to week. Last week, Ward and Jude A-J did not play as a precaution and they both played quite well today.

Standouts to me today (many mentioned elsewhere) were G Deiter at WR (could be very very good) and Matty Johnson. Felt all four RBs did well aside from some fumbles by the nonstarter. R Lewis is a talented guy. Thought Huettel did pretty well at center. The defense really worked at creating the strips etc. Defensively, one fellow w a bright future might be early enrollee CB Nick Johnson. Quite impressive for a guy who should be getting his prom date set. Kendell Montgomery- yes, a little scary off the edge. Add in C Walker and B Baird and I think DE is OK. Colvin plays hard at DT.

The offense seems to use any number of player "types". Football players who make plays. For example, Chris Pohlman #42 is a playmaker on offense; just because he is a prototypical FB/HB guy does not mean he is out of the offense. He makes plays. Wm Houston is 262 lb TB. We play fast, but he makes plays. These types of guys will be utilized in certain situations just as they were last year. But in a different offense and pace.

Good to see the guys get their championship rings and then show them off a bit while supporting BGSU Dance Marathon this evening. Graduating seniors Chief, Boo Boo, Bayer prepping hard for a chance.

Enjoyable and busy day on campus.

Go Falcons!

Van

[BGSU33]

I did not see any significant injuries occur today unless I missed something.

I didn't notice anyone go down either but coach said afterwards that someone (he wouldn't say who) was on their way to the hospital, so let's hope he's okay.

[BGSU33]

Did anyone notice if Terrell Jackson was out there yesterday? I was so busy watching the offense I forgot to look for him. I don't remember hearing his name called.

[MarkL]

Is there a highlight video anywhere? I sure would love to see Falcon Fast.

[BGSU33]

Is there a highlight video anywhere? I sure would love to see Falcon Fast.

None that I am aware of. I will say this about it, it was fast when it ran smoothly. Very fast. As soon as the play was over guys were scrambling to their positions to fire off the next okay. But it was also very sloppy at times, sometimes more sloppy than effective, like organized chaos. Personally, I didn't like it. Things just felt too rushed and there was too much stoppage with penalties (often because we were rushed), subs dashing on and off the field, refs trying to spot the ball and get out if the way, etc. It was at times like a panicked version of a two minute offense, but even more so, it was like watching a team try to get off a play at the end of the game when they have no timeouts before the clock expires - but over and over and over again. I felt the opening series was probably the smoothest of the series as far as guys being on the same page, but thinking about it, the plays on the opening series may have been scripted which may have explained why. The rest of the scrimmage just seemed disjointed to me. I can't imagine being an OC calling plays at that rate during a game especially when you face downs and distances where you might actually want time to think about your play call. My friend said it best that during times of the disjointed play, it was like we were hurrying up to punt. We could honestly burn up three downs at the pace of some teams' one.

[falconfan1]

You must remember that the team has been practicing w this offensive system for just a very few weeks. This is a change. And you must practice. And practice. And practice. Train your body. Train your mind.

It takes time and this spring was simply the start. This summer/fall will be key.

One telling thing noted above was that the system looked smoother early in the scrimmage or in other words with the first offense. The first offense is the most experienced and most talented- generally and obviously. They pick things up quicker. They have looked like it in all three scrimmages. Yes even first teamers made some errors later. For the most part though, guys like Johnson, Greene and Dieter appeared comfortable. But it is a process that is for sure.

Defensively, we are hitting and moving. And we will be well conditioned as far as pace of play.

Go Falcons!

[kdog27]

It's only going get better. I wouldn't expect it to look like a well oiled machine just yet. Once they get it down it will be scary to defend and prepare for. We should have quite a well conditioned defense too.

[Falconfreak90]

Thanks for all the updates about the game...sounds like our D is going to pick up right where it left off. And that is AWESOME. Love this D. The offense will come...lots of new things to learn and get down before 8/29. Less than 4 months til we defend our MAC title and win another one.

GO FALCONS!!!!!!!!!!

[mscarn]

Yeah...a degree of sloppiness is almost expected at this point. It's worth the investment to implement the brand of offense that is currently dominating college football. Week 1 is a long time from now.

[Redwingtom]

You mean the offense didn't run like a well-oiled machine after just a few weeks of practice with a brand new scheme and all new coaches? No way!

[transfer2BGSU]

You mean the offense didn't run like a well-oiled machine after just a few weeks of practice with a brand new scheme and all new coaches? No way!

Way!

[mscarn]

Nobody was really expecting a well-oiled (synthetic?) machine but the observations raised in the thread, particularly about the short yardage deficiencies, are helpful in sorting out what to concentrate on and specifically address going forward. The long list of mistakes that could be made has been narrowed considerably which the coaches undoubtably appreciate so they can get to work fixing them.

[Flipper]

The thing you always have to remember about spring games is that it is the "game film" for your week one opposition. The formations you are running may not be the exact ones you run during an actual game.

[BGSU33]

Nobody was really expecting a well-oiled (synthetic?) machine but the observations raised in the thread, particularly about the short yardage deficiencies, are helpful in sorting out what to concentrate on and specifically address going forward..

Thank you, as yes, no one expected a well-oiled anything. The things I reported were mostly meant to inform those who weren't there on how things looked and how things unfolded. You can't tell at all about the flow of the spring game from the recap BG posted. If you were there you saw the same thing we did. There was good and bad across the board, as expected. Further, even for the things that looked smooth, everything in a spring game can be critiqued. If you score on an 80-yard TD run and get excited about the offense, it's also bad that the defense gave it up. If you get a sack on defense, the protection wasn't good on offense, etc.

My points made about the short-yardage struggles go back to when Babers was hired and announced he was running his hurry-up spread here at BG - which was well before the spring game. I made comments back then on how short-yardage situations was going to be something very specific I was going to pay close attention to due to our past struggles with it when we ran an offense more similar to what Babers did (when Brandon ran a spread) over what Clawson ran the last few years (we also struggled badly early on under Clawson with it too). So yes, when our #1 offense was up against our #2 defense (which was the case almost the entire time until the end when they briefly put the #1 offense vs the #1 defense) and we struggled to run Greene AND Houston to get a yard vs the backup unit, yeah, I was disappointed. But that doesn't mean we can't iron that out in fall camp. Same goes for the mistakes and errors due to the pace and rhythm of this offense. Everything is fixable and hopefully they'll work on the same shortcomings we're all talking about. I kept hearing Babers talk about how it may take the offense until next year to get this offense down. After the spring game, I now understand his point. I just hope fall camp we're much better overall running it or we could be in for a rude awakening come August 29th. This fall camp will be crucial to our success next season but I am confident we can get a lot of things fixed by then.