Training Camp Scrimmage Notes

Here are our notes on the Scrimmage played yesterday at Drake Stadium. It went on for 2 hours almost. Very hot sun. Announced attendance 6,700 + (can't be right, seems way too high). Numbers here are either announced or we tabulated them (so they could be off a little):

QB

1. Olson 7/10 61 yards .. looked average, but did was more secure with the ball.
2. Cowen 6/10 51 yards … looked better than Olson at times due to scrambling but almost picked off 3 or 4 times and was hurried more often.
3. Bethel-Thompson 5/11 46 yards … looked good

Receiving

1. Rasshan 3/37 - looked real good, missed easy pass for TD (right through his hands)
2. Everett 2/30
3. Ketchum 2/27
4. Johnson 1/25 - had a great catch at the sidelines near end zone over a defender, and another just out of bounds in the end zone that everyone knew was way out of bounds, but he brought it in and almost landed it. Looked real good.

Rushing

1. Sheppard 12/46 - few great tough runs
2. Bell 7/40 - a couple good break out runs
3. Carew 17/38 3 TDs (1, 2, 2 yds - lots of fakes and tricks)
4. Markey 10/27 1 TD (3 yd … some good, some horrible runs. Caught from behind from a lineman, caught in the backfield a few times)

Overall Stats

• 115 plays from scrimmage
• 25 drives
• 13 total first downs
• 4 TDs Offense (1, 3, 2, 2 yrds all rushing) all during Red Zone only drives
• 1 TD Defense (fumble recovery 30+ yards)
• 3 FGs (43, 48, 32)
• 3 missed FGs (29, 42, 45 blocked by Verner)
• 5 Punts (33/7 yr return Graves; 45/0 down at 3; 42 {Rees}/1 Austin; 57/3 Graves; 27/0) - many other stalled drives with no punts or FG attempts
• 37 1st Down plays, 11 passing

Other stats

• 7 Penalties
• 12 shot gun formations (could have been more)
• 6 fumbles (many by QBs Cowan/Forcier on hikes)
• 7 sacks (3 Cowen, 3 Olson)
• 4 batted passes
• 5 near interceptions (mostly Cowen)
• many hurries

Defense Stats

It was hard to keep stats, but these names kept coming up on tackes: (Bosworth, Verner, Hale, Horton, Schmidt, Meadows, Brown). Tackle and sack stats are from Perelman, Tackle stats: Taylor, 7; T. Brown and Hale, 6; Van, 5; Verner, Schmitt and Korey Bosworth, 4; Kyle Bosworth, Ayers, Edwards, Blake, Whittington, Ware and Lockett, 3. Sack stats: Davis, Hale, Taylor, Ayers, Edwards, Blake and Korey Bosworth all had one sack.

Overall Analysis

Overall, our impressions were that the offense was not inspiring. As we predicted in our Training Camp report, Kai Forbath is going to be Dorrell's 2nd All-America place kicker, although he will miss kicks this year, most likely from the side hashmarks. Perez, if he can be consistent may challenge for All-America Punter. The offense just is not moving the chains, having stalled in every long field series. They only scored TDs on 4 of 12 Red zone series. Kickers and punters that want to make it to the NFL will simply follow Dorrell around. Defensively we looked good, but top 10 in the nation … we'll have to see.

The secondary is still our weak spot, but our RBs did break through the line quite a few times. Can't tell you who was on the field then (1st or 2nd team) but this was not a dominating rush defense. I would not put too much on their performance however. We see them being good … they have to show us more for us to say they are great. The OL is improved. They pushed off the ball well, and for the run they looked good opening some holes in our 1op 10 rush defense. We talked to Chris Joseph and Micah Kia after and asked them about the philosophy this year - it seemed like they were pushing off the line well we told them. They said that was the difference from last year. They are more aggressive off the snap. So they looked better. But in pass protection there were too many disruptions, along with the draw plays. They were better but not by much.

Big Scare

Last bit - a big scare for a family member of DT Jerzy Siewierski, looked like his grandfather. The heat got to him and as the scrimmage ended he needed emergency medical attention, which came slowly. He stopped breathing, went blue, the shock paddles came out and they shocked him back to life. Incredible to see. He was breathing again as he was loaded into the ambulance. Jerzy was visibly upset, but looked much better when he saw that his grandfather (?) was breathing again.

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