Friday, September 4, 2015

Scrimmage Impressions



I was at the scrimmage against D-III Kean University last night at Wien Stadium.

In general, it was a nice evening and it was clear the CU coaches were not approaching this hyper-competitively. I can't remember the last time I've been to a Columbia game or scrimmage where our coaches weren't yelling in total anger 100% of the time.

But we clearly have plenty of work to do in the 15 days that remain until our season opener.

Here are my bullet point notes:


-Chad Washington was the MVP for Columbia. He was all over the field, making sacks, trailing plays quickly, just a total force. Niko Padilla was very strong inside as was Lord Hyeamang. Dominic Perkovic got into the premiere mix with the DL too.

-Lots of players were held out of the game for caution. That includes Cameron Molina, Toba Akinleye, and Marshall Markham. There were many others.

-The D-line and linebackers played well overall. The secondary seemed a little rusty and was burned for two long TD's. LB Hagen Patterson stood out on a couple of plays.

-Skyler Mornhinweg looked good passing and running the ball. But it's hard to give him a full report card because no long passes were attempted by any CU QB's. Anders Hill was also generally sharp.

-Alan Watson got most of the carries at RB and looked generally good. He, and all the RB's, seemed determined to ignore the holes inside and bounce everything outside. That may be out of habit after the last two years. Watson had one great run going off tackle to his right, but he needs to learn to switch the ball to his outside arm to avoid fumbles and to stiff arm better.

-Both fullbacks, Leander Cutler and transfer Jackson Conway, were used as receivers coming out of the backfield on a number of plays. That's always a tough play for a defense to cover, but only works if the FB's have good hands and can get extra yards after the catch. It looks like we're pretty close to getting there on that score. Both Cutler and Conway are really big and pumped.

-The WR's generally caught the ball very well. Freshman Brandon Krcilek is clearly on the rise. Andrew Dobitsch made a great run after a catch for a play that really stood out.

-Placekicking is still not where it needs to be. Most of the kicks elevated okay, but accuracy is not there yet. Noah Zgrablich is the primary kicker and he did have an excellent kickoff in the 2nd half. Chris Alleyne had some place kicks too, but was also not on target.

7 comments:

oldlion said...

Did Tre Gabriel do anything?

Peter Stevens said...

A few sobering thoughts

:Kean is ranked 146 in D3 national preseason poll and was 2-8 last year and in 2013. We need to keep this in mind when evaluating our performance.

As for Gtown, they beat Brown, HC and Marist last year. They have their QB, top RB and top 2 WRs back too. While they were 3-8, 6 of their losses were competitive. Only Harvard and Fordham routed them.

The bookmakers have made Army only a one TD favorite against Fordham. Given that this is Army's season opener and will be played in front of 30,000 rapid army fans in Michie Stadium tells us a lot about what the bookies think of Fordham. It is no coincidence that Fordham is favored to win Patriot league again.

Unknown said...

I completely understand why they didn't go deep. This is a west coast offense with a touch of read option. This offense is predicated on the running backs getting going and the play action off of it. This is going to be a "Kansas City Chiefs/ Andy Reid offense". Alex Smith- Skyler Morninwheg but he'll run more option plays. Jaamal Charles- Cameron Molina. Knile Davis- Jackson Conway. Remember that TE coach Joe D'orazio spent the past two seasons as a senior assistant to Andy Reid. Also, offensive coordinator Mike Faragalli is influenced by the CFL, an open read-option game predicated on sprerading the field and the play action. Skyler Morninwheg is the son of Marty Morninwheg who was the offensive coordinator of Andy Reid with the Eagles. To me, it all adds up to an offense that will run heavily, run a lot of screens to all position players, and use the run game to set up the passing game.

I remain, very truly yours, Richard Szathmary said...

I like the idea of 30,000 "rapid" Army fans Peter Stevens mentioned. I even hope enough of them caan be mustered if we real quick need an afrmed response against ISIS.

Big Dawg said...

I am a bit concerned about the 2 long TDs mentioned, as that was a major issue last year. Unless we were deploying the 2nd/3rd team secondary.

Anonymous said...

I would never have thought to hear the day when CU football would be compared to a pro style offense. Josh Gershfeld has done the unthinkable! That said, I would be very happy to call the offense generically efficient. Just settle down and make plays and have playmakers. Block, run, pass, catch, protect the QB dammit.

oldlion said...

I echo Big Dawg's concern. Last year basic coverage skills were not apparent. Poppe needs to address this.