Postgame Impressions of 2011 Orange & White Game
by DrB on Apr 11, 2011 7:00 AM EDT
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I've had time to go over the film once tonight and probably will again once or twice before the season begins, but I want to reiterate that no one should take much from the offensive performance during this game. I missed the game live but now that I read the articles from the various beat writers and the knuckledraggers on the message boards, I see people completely down about everything and saying Tajh Boyd sucks and that things aren't looking much better than last year. The defense knows their system and have trained in it for years, so they should perform well in scrimmage settings until the offense gets enough reps to refine their execution. Again we took 50-55 scholarship players and split them between 2 teams, so many of these guys will not get on the field again.
That said, I wasn't thrilled with the overall defensive performance, particularly in tackling. This is a game to watch individual players and look for an overall feel rather than statistics, but my overall feeling is that our front was pitiful against the run. I counted far too many plays where guys on the 2-deep, and who will be on the 2-deep in September, made weak arm tackles and got run over. Some guys were not getting off blocks and the interior line allowed themselves to be moved too easily.
At DE, I'm still wondering why Malliciah Goodman looks too big and too slow. He is putting on weight and needs to get his conditioning improved. I thought Corey Crawford showed some exceptional raw talent, but that Brandon Thomas should not be getting beaten by the freshman like that either. I expect Crawford to be on the 2-deep in August, but could potentially take the #1 spot this August over Goodman. I doubt he passes Branch but Brown needed his technique work and he stands no chance in keeping a spot against Crawford.
Brandon Thomas needs to decide whether he wants to be as good as his talent will allow him to be. I think I could say the same thing about Kalon Davis, but I already said that Rennie Moore was going to be a quality pass rusher for us this year. Rennie is too fast for him. Backup right tackle is going to be another big problem, but I do beleive the reps this August will firm up some answer at that position. Reid Webster looked outmatched. The interior line did well in run-blocking however, and most of our run plays were inside runs. I did note how often we ran inside plays, I did like the play-calls we used to run them. Lots of Power O, I think I saw a few counter plays and traps. The rest was zone read. Its the same as Auburn/Malzahn in that respect.
Demont Buice has the makeup of a situational guy, as a change of pace or an H-back, but will not make the 3-deep here. He's not a feature back. D.J. Howard is firming up his #3 position. McDowell still doesn't run as tough as he did in HS to my eyes, and I don't see him getting many snaps this fall.
I dont know what Dwayne Allen's problem is. He talks a big talk in the interviews our writers do, but then fails to catch passes that hit his hands and doesn't give full effort on run blocks. Put up or shut your damn mouth Allen. If you dont want to give 100% on every play get off the damn football field.
WR play was good and bad, they did some good things but they have a long way to go. I was saddened by the lack of burst when throws were catchable. I hoped McNeal would perform better than he did, likewise with Jaron Brown. I think Craig needs reps...lots of reps. Craig shows his flashes of speed but is as raw as I suspected. Marquan I've given up on.
Finally the Quarterbacks need lots of reps. I was disappointed in how Boyd wasn't throwing guys open, threw into coverage, didn't take what the defense gave him, and his overall accuracy. He looked like he wanted to throw a TD on too many plays instead of taking the free yardage. Granted, I thought our CB coverage was quite good outside. If Cole Stoudt was a year older we may have a controversy. Cole threw a good deep ball, showed some poise, but is not a fast guy. He also has a curious leg kick on his follow-through. Tony McNeal looks like a true freshman and should get into the weight room and take a RS.
Overall tempo of the offense I liked. They got the ball snapped quickly and hurried after successful plays. Many were snapped with 20 seconds on the clock. We did not show much schemewise. If the QBs take things seriously this summer I think we'll be ok.
On defense I've hit on a few things already, but Bashaud Breeland looked really good to me. He should become a special player here. Garry Peters looked good, as did Meeks. Their inexperience will catch them this fall, but I'm less worried about our man/man coverage than I was before. Our pass defense will be fine for the season.
Linebackers were affected by the tackling issues, but were fairly sound in coverage. Justin Parker has improved as we've been hearing. He's using his gifted abilities now. We thought earlier that his stiffness was due to a combination of S&C and lack of knowledge of the scheme, and right now it appears to me that it was moreso the latter. Christian we already knew was good. Beasley looked like he was in shape but he's not ready to play, his position switch to WLB was the correct one.
Thats all we'll have for this one, overanalyzing a spring game is pointless. Your thoughts on the contest?
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Only saw the 2nd quarter
Was unimpressed mostly by the game. We need Ellington to be back there, as a spread running game will only work if we use a shifty, faster player. The guys who were out there will be too slow come August to be of real use. Defense looked OK, and they were blowing up our offensive line on regularity, however I will agree with DrB that more should be desired. The offense did get lined up quickly, and everyone seemed to understand the general consensus, and it didn’t appear anyone quit on the field, so there might be some light at the end of the tunnel.
Don't give up, don't ever give up ~ Jim Valvano
Was able to see a replay on ESPN3
Overall the game was as expected to me based on reading this blog, and reading between the lines during the morris steele and swinney audio interviews.
If a coach says he’s installed 60% of his Offense and the staff plans on using the very basics of that in the spring game, then I don’t expect much..but we did run well between the tackles which was great to see. Where is the leadership in the receiving core? It’s almost like there is no unity or pride among that group because it seems NOBODY is pushing each other to get better. I hope our incomers mesh well and develop a Unit mentality. Right now it seems like every man for himself. I agree if Stoudt was a RS Freshman or a Soph then Tajh would be in the midst of a dogfight for the starting job.
I have high hopes for Goodman so I expect for him to get it together, but he was a ghost Saturday. Pretty concerned about Moore’s durability throughout the season, but the way we rotate guys he should be ok. Barnes or somebody will have to be a quality #2 this year though. Tackling has to improve. Didn’t see much of Willard that stood out, Beasley certainly looks the part. We have a bunch of “coverage LBs” seems like. Secondary looks good and well coached, we have some good size/speed at corner with the young guys and Brewer. Rashard Hall needs some serious strength/tackling work. What’s the deal with Carlton Lewis? He was a 4-star I believe, I was expecting him to make some noise this offseason and push for a spot.
I think we can say for sure now that Dabo will not be directly involved in the playcalling. Unless something changes drastically, we’re going to be using a system of large cards with colors and numbers, and all of that happened so quickly that there’s no way that Dabo could get involved. It took 5 different guys to signal in all the plays, and its clear that Morris has emphasized speed over anything else at this early stage. At the very least, this team will play offense at a breakneck pace.
It was also good to see a commitment to the run, we needed it on Saturday or else our offense would have done nothing. I thought all of the QBs did a poor job on the deep ball, that’s something that has to be worked on with this group. I also can’t imagine that we’ll end up running the zone read/veer that much, I just don’t see any of Cam Newton in Boyd or Stoudt.
And finally, I really hope Zimmerman gets a chance to take kickoffs. He was absolutely murdering it on Saturday, he has a huge leg and was doing a great job punting in addition to his kickoffs, which he was putting out of the back of the endzone. Benton is good but I have a feeling Zimmerman could do a better job on the kickoffs. As far as field goal kicking goes, it’s gonna be hit or miss again, unless Lakip turns out to be good. You have to think he’ll have a shot against the rest of this crew.
Well he wont be involved in signaling in plays for sure.
Not all of those guys are actually signaling, some are decoys.
I think both lines will be better than you give them credit for but Goodman does worry me. The Oline was split up in a way that guys that never even practice beside each other were having to play together. I’m a firm believer in an offensive line being a unit and needing to know the guys they’re playing beside to be successful.
I can’t wait to get the new guys in this summer and see what they can do to shore up weaknesses and make us better.
I agree with your take on Breeland and Meeks, but can you go into more detail about Peters? I only watched the game once, so I’m sure you were able to look at more plays for each player than I saw, but I remember thinking he falls down a lot, which usually is an indication of a lack of athleticism.
I saw him trip up yes, I wont hold that against him at this stage.
He just needs to work on his footwork more. He’s with the receiver, and has good leverage on him, which is the important point in my eyes.
It seems like Stoudt is a better pro-style QB than Boyd & McNeal, but too immobile to be a good fit for Morris's offense.
I get the feeling that Stoudt would beat out Boyd in a pro-style offense as a Whitehurst-esque tall, pocket-passer & smart game manager. But it seems that Morris’s offense requires a QB who is a running threat. Boyd and McNeal seemed to be running threats, but Stoudt did not.
QB accuracy was disappointing. I’m not sure Clemson if has a good QB on the roster.
Dwayne Allen seems to be regressing over the last two years. I get the feeling that he has tons of talent, but isn’t working hard to develop his talent because he thinks he’s entitled to a starting job at Clemson and big NFL paycheck, a la Jamie Harper. I hope somebody challenges him for the starting job.
Defensively, I think we’ll be OK if we can get the interior of the DL shored up a bit. We are OK at LB right now and with Steward, Townsend, Anthony, and Goodsen showing up this summer, we should be great there by the end of the year. The secondary looked really good, but I’m not ready to anoint them game ready yet. Our WRs are really mediocre (Hopkins excepted) and couldn’t get open verses ANYONE last year (including BCs slow ass linebackers). Covering that bunch well doesn’t make you a world beater by anyone’s measure.
Offensively, I want to just shake my head, but generally agree with DrB in that you can’t draw too many conclusions and the defense SHOULD have the upper hand here. Boyd looked fairly comfortable running the show, but I’d hoped that he’d be a little more comfortable with his throws at this point. At WR we have Hopkins and that’s it. Allen hasn’t shown me shit so far and the rest are a mediocre bunch AT BEST. IMHO we need AT LEAST 2 of the folowing guys hitting campus ready to play (Bellamy, Watkins, Peake, Bryant, McClain). We are going to need 4 skill guys on the field that can make plays for us unless Boyd turns into Cam Newton over the summer. Assuming that Ellington is at 100%, thats one. Count Nuke as a 2nd. If Allen will get his head on straight, he could be a 3rd, but I’m not convinced that he’s going to be the guy unless McClain pushes him hard. That means that we need a couple of guys that can stretch the field. Hoping for freshman to save you is a losing bet generally, but with 4 guys (Bellamy, Peake, Watkins, and Bryant) with their kind of ability coming in, having two studs out of those 4 doesn’t seem too unlikely. Normally, I’d be hoping for 6 wins, but if our coaching staff can avoid spending half the season figuring out who the 11 best players are and coach those guys up, I see a reasonable chance of going 8-4
Unlike Dabo/Napier last year, I expect Morris to stand up to Dabo and insist on playing the best players.
Dabo is doing on-the-job training to learn how to be a head coach, but he’s not stupid. So I expect that Dabo learned a lesson last season about being too loyal to upperclassmen (like Ashe & Dye) instead of playing superior young guys (like Hopkins).
I also don’t see Morris being stupid enough to let the RBs decide who plays like Dabo did last season.
From everything I've heard
Bryant is ready. He put on weight and played really well at prep school. I think Watkins will be another immediate contributor with Bellamy being a fairly solid backup RB. Seems to me like Peake might take a little longer to get up to speed.
by PenthouseTiger on Apr 13, 2011 2:33 PM EDT up reply actions
I just still dont see anything that convinces me that changes will be made fast enough for this year
And I still see us getting eaten alive during that Auburn-FSU-Va Tech stretch. We’ll be lucky to start 3-2.
Observations from the game
Watched the replay on ESPN3. Couple things.
Boyd has speed to get out of the pocket and do some damage. I like this aspect combined with Morris’ insistence to throw the deep ball. We’ll take all the cheap first downs we can get. Durability is a concern though.
I like the power formation we ran on the goalline. I was worried we were going to pull an Oregon and go orbit option or. throw screens or something. Man the F up down there.
Didn’t think there was anybody more dramatic on the sidelines than Dabo but it seems like Morris wants to be SEEN coaching ‘em up as bad as Dabo does. Maybe that’s just me.
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