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Spring game thoughts

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OrangeBowlMagic said:
Oh, one more thing to add:

The singular goal of spring is to not get anyone seriously injured. That’s all. The rest is all fluff. This is a great post and great thread, but in reality, none of this matters at all. The literal only thing that determines if you had a successful spring or not is did you have anyone get hurt?

And I don’t think anybody was injured at any point in spring that would jeopardize their fall participation. Because of that, this spring session was a massive success.
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Wonder if the staff managed the spring practices specifically to prevent injuries…
 
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Lance Roffers said:
To me, which means as much as you want it to mean, this was a clear and substantial step forward from where we were last year.

Schematically, it was a stark difference from what we ran on both sides of the ball. Several posters are misunderstanding what an Air-Raid offense really means, probably because of watching Mike Leach offenses, but the concepts are really about stretching the field horizontally unless a vertical stretch presents itself. Normally, you’ll have pre-snap reads for vertical concept, post-snap reads for short game. The run game is generally built on simple zone runs, most often built on IZ runs, which this offense is.

Air-Raid is not just Miss State or TCU offenses. Keep it simple, play fast, play in space are the staples.

On defense, this team is going to be so much better against the run. I just love the structure and concepts of how this defense works. I was ecstatic when they hired Guidry and maybe moreso today.

I looked at who we had at G and just said I pretty much can’t even watch those clips on 2nd team. I was sure we had a FB playing RG on 2nd team. That’s something you might want to address. Expect multiple OL to find their way to other opportunities after spring. The guys we had starting at G shouldn’t see the field, so those backups…whew.

Was disappointed in Terry Roberts. I’d Say just move him to S, clear the practice reps for others, make him a ST captain and let him have a Slater career.

The rest of CB’s I thought showed good things. Not perfect, but your ask is for your CB’s to play man against fades and fight the ball every single time, you’re asking too much. They were playable, which was not really the word I’d gotten.

I liked Thomas Gore more than most, but I’m disappointed in what he put on tape. He might not even get snaps if he does that again. His motor and effort show up on game day, but he couldn’t show up at all last night because you couldn’t see him to show him.

QB. You’ve got to go find another QB. That was scary by Brown. That kid is not playable. I hear this offense is suited to his skillset, but a rhythm offense that relies on players in space is not built for him. They need accuracy at QB and I don’t see how that becomes his game. Love my guy D$ but he’s definitely higher on Brown than I am.

Skinner popped. Riley popped.

It’s a spring game, but man those practice helmets look dorky.

It looked like an 8-win team to me.
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Could someone explain what an inside zone is? Apologies for my ignorance…
 
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Dwinstitles said:
the talent that has just arrived looks better than what we been getting for years. Thats all I need to see to know Mario will ix this eventually. People here have said it wasnt a talent issue for years thats BS, I said talent was buns for a long time. Now we finally got a guy in charge that agrees with me. We cooking bruh, just be patient cane fans
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I need to see them coach up some of the guys they inherited that have talent and move out the ones who dont. I need to learn guys numbers. Everytime 12 made a catch i was thinking Brashard. Ray Ray and Robby look like better players than most of our WRs. Maybe all of them to be honest.
 
Give TVD 3 seconds to throw and this offense will do work. He just makes so many throw look effortless, especially the slants and outs.
But now I understand why @Cribby has been harping on the need to stay healthy. We wil have a pretty good, dare I say very good 1st team offense. But lose any of those Oline and we are in trouble. If healthy I can see us in some shoot outs again like we were 2 years ago when our corner backs looked like, well like this year’s group with no difference makers.

Need Chaney to stay healthy. He and Parrish are a good combo but neither should be carrying the ball 25+ times per game. 10-15 each would be ideal.
 
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supacane said:
I need to see them coach up some of the guys they inherited that have talent and move out the ones who dont. I need to learn guys numbers. Everytime 12 made a catch i was thinking Brashard. Ray Ray and Robby look like better players than most of our WRs. Maybe all of them to be honest.
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Yea u can tell the new kids coming in look different. Evals seem to be better than what we have had in a long time. Was super excited for Ray Ray and he showed me why. Can't wait to see Chris Johnson
 
AtlAtty said:
Give TVD 3 seconds to throw and this offense will do work. He just makes so many throw look effortless, especially the slants and outs.
But now I understand why @Cribby has been harping on the need to stay healthy. We wil have a pretty good, dare I say very good 1st team offense. But lose any of those Oline and we are in trouble. If healthy I can see us in some shoot outs again like we were 2 years ago when our corner backs looked like, well like this year’s group with no difference makers.

Need Chaney to stay healthy. He and Parrish are a good combo but neither should be carrying the ball 25+ times per game. 10-15 each would be ideal.
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I think we will have more depth then people think once everyone gets healthy. I think this will eventually be our OL

1st Team
LT Nelson
LG Cohen
C Lee
RG Rivers
RT Mauigoa

2nd Team
LT Okunlola
LG Sagapalu
C Dennis
RG Cooper
RT McCoy

3rd Team
LT Kinsler
LG Seymore
C Rodriguez
RG Tripp
RT Tinilau
 
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Tank Grill said:
I think we will have more depth then people think once everyone gets healthy. I think this will eventually be our OL

1st Team
LT Nelson
LG Cohen
C Lee
RG Rivers
RT Mauigoa

2nd Team
LT Okunlola
LG Sagapalu
C Dennis
RG Cooper
RT McCoy

3rd Team
LT Kinsler
LG Seymore
C Rodriguez
RG Tripp
RT Tinilau
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I think Nelson is the key because I just don’t think Rivers is an LT. Bain beat him pretty easy on a sack, and no way should high school senior be able to take apart Rivers like he did. Without Nelson playing, don’t be surprised if Samson is getting 1st team reps by the 2nd half of the season.
 
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Tank Grill said:
I think the OL will end up being this if Zion is healthy by the fall and we don't grab OL in the portal. When did Zion get hurt last year?

LT Nelson
LG Cohen
C Lee
RG Rivers
RT Mauigoa
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Zion was hurt before the season started, We didn’t know until Mirabal posted a photo of the position group and his family, when we saw a brace on Zion’s leg.
 
Lance Roffers said:
To me, which means as much as you want it to mean, this was a clear and substantial step forward from where we were last year.

Schematically, it was a stark difference from what we ran on both sides of the ball. Several posters are misunderstanding what an Air-Raid offense really means, probably because of watching Mike Leach offenses, but the concepts are really about stretching the field horizontally unless a vertical stretch presents itself. Normally, you’ll have pre-snap reads for vertical concept, post-snap reads for short game. The run game is generally built on simple zone runs, most often built on IZ runs, which this offense is.

Air-Raid is not just Miss State or TCU offenses. Keep it simple, play fast, play in space are the staples.

On defense, this team is going to be so much better against the run. I just love the structure and concepts of how this defense works. I was ecstatic when they hired Guidry and maybe moreso today.

I looked at who we had at G and just said I pretty much can’t even watch those clips on 2nd team. I was sure we had a FB playing RG on 2nd team. That’s something you might want to address. Expect multiple OL to find their way to other opportunities after spring. The guys we had starting at G shouldn’t see the field, so those backups…whew.

Was disappointed in Terry Roberts. I’d Say just move him to S, clear the practice reps for others, make him a ST captain and let him have a Slater career.

The rest of CB’s I thought showed good things. Not perfect, but your ask is for your CB’s to play man against fades and fight the ball every single time, you’re asking too much. They were playable, which was not really the word I’d gotten.

I liked Thomas Gore more than most, but I’m disappointed in what he put on tape. He might not even get snaps if he does that again. His motor and effort show up on game day, but he couldn’t show up at all last night because you couldn’t see him to show him.

QB. You’ve got to go find another QB. That was scary by Brown. That kid is not playable. I hear this offense is suited to his skillset, but a rhythm offense that relies on players in space is not built for him. They need accuracy at QB and I don’t see how that becomes his game. Love my guy D$ but he’s definitely higher on Brown than I am.

Skinner popped. Riley popped.

It’s a spring game, but man those practice helmets look dorky.

It looked like an 8-win team to me.
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Disappointed in what I keep seeing about JB's QB performance to say the least. Some posters had me hopeful of him. Wondering if he had a bad night or he's just not gonna make it here 🤔
 
WeBallinBoyz said:
Think you hit pretty much everything. Just wanted to add (and LCE pointed it out during the game) that Guidry is an absolute beast. I think we hit a home run here. The defense looked like they communicated well and were all moving in sync - something that was consistently missing last season with Steele. He disguised blitz packages to perfection and the kids seem like they’re picking up the system quickly. Really excited to see how they perform in the fall…think about how many guys we were missing!

I would say we need the following:
- DT (nose) to go ahead of Moten, but the latter played very well and he’s more than serviceable for depth. Could be an absolute stud in 2024, and I expect him to play a fair bit this season.

- CB: DPJ was better than I expected (honestly most of the DB’s were) but need a legit #1 or #2 guy to line up with Davonte.

- S: can’t rely on James to turn the corner, and even though I liked the improvement I saw from Markeith, still need a starting-caliber guy there.

- LB: Honestly I’d take one more guy. Wes was a bit disappointing, and we know what Flagg is. Keontra had some ups and downs, should have had a pick. Cisco might be an All-ACC kind of guy with his reads and speed…something we haven’t had at the position in forever.

- Need a backup OL, heck maybe 2. Like I said yesterday in the portal thread with Lou Cristobal…he might not turn any heads, but he’s not worse than Seymore or Rodriguez. Expect multiple bodies to leave between now and the summer, and while I’d like to snag some more highly touted guys…not sure how feasible that is.

- Vet backup QB. Again not sure how many guys want to come to be a backup, but I’m more comfortable putting Emory as QB2 than Jacurri after last night. Rooting hard for Jacurri, but he needs the full year to develop.

I thought we needed a starting caliber RB, but maybe we just need a quality depth guy…Chaney looked great (I know he can’t be fully counted on with his injury-riddled history) and Parrish had that burst that faded when he was asked to be the bell-cow in 2022. Those two will be a nice 1-2 punch.
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Good stuff man

I know we end up playing the “chicken or the egg” game when the defense gets a ton is pressure. We had some guys out and it makes it difficult from an OL perspective but I like Guidrys philosophy on defense so hearing guys like Bain tearing it up is awesome.

Over the years I feel like we’ve had a lot of players here that we just weren’t able to maximize because they don’t fit prototypical sizes. Guidry doesn’t seem to care about that stuff. What he did with undersized guys last year at Marshall was impressive
 
AtlAtty said:
I think Nelson is the key because I just don’t think Rivers is an LT. Bain beat him pretty easy on a sack, and no way should high school senior be able to take apart Rivers like he did. Without Nelson playing, don’t be surprised if Samson is getting 1st team reps by the 2nd half of the season.
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I agree that Rivers is not a LT. He got the whole summer to get better. I disagree on the high school FR bit. Bain is a grownman and i saw Perkins from LSU go into the SEC as a true FR and instantly became a top 3 rusher. Some kids are that special. Bain is. He has moves and combo moves plus tenacity.
 
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