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2004 Spring Practice (official thread)

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Rehring is young but he's got plenty of time on his side to improve his game. I agree Nutty that Thomas Matthews looked good. It seemed to me on some of Troys passes he really wanted to run but held up and threw it.
 
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I really think the coaches did Troy Smith a disservice when they said no hitting the QBs. He really looked out of his game and they would blow the wistle just as he was starting to make something out of nothing. I would not take too much from this game as far as how moves where on the depth chart. Lot of players being held out for safty made the game a different ball game. I was really looking forward to seeing if Zwick could hit Holmes but Holmes was not in after the 1st quarter. Lot of young guys out there and was nice to see some hitting and players getting excited. Lets get to fall practice and get the freshman in there and see what happens. I really enjoyed the day at the stadium, even if the game was not the most exciting. Beautiful day and chatty crowd. I had some good discussions with random people who were sitting around me and it was rather nice. Might have even been one of you guys. They were very knowledgeable, quit a change from past year, talking to people who did not have the first clue who was who and what was going on.
 
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I personally think Zwick did quite well. As SnG mentioned, Smith was hamstrung by the no touch rule. I think he really needs to work on his throwing on the run if he's going to be an effective scrambling QB.

I thought Tony Gonzalez did a nice job getting open in seams and he and Zwick seemed to have a rhythym going...I heard somebody say that about Zwick and Jordan(HS teammates), but unfortunately Jordan was on Gray.
 
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The 2-hand touch rule definitely hurt Smith, but you could tell he had trouble running even the most basic offensive drives. Zwick is clearly ahead.

Playmakers on O: Tony frickin Pittman... no hesitation, he just takes off with a nice burst. Good speed to the outside, could be a real asset with our quicker OL.

Tony Gonzales... Showed good speed. Caught a few balls in traffic. I think he'll be a reliable receiver this year.

Playmakers on D: Jay Richardson... showed great speed on the pass rush. Expect big things.

Thomas Matthews... always looks better in the Spring Game, bit of a tweener but makes plays

Whitner & Schlegel, always around the ball.

Underwood & Youboty, both will see time at corner.

Anybody notice how huge Brandon Maupin is? He's a hair taller than Simon Fraser and a good 40 lbs. heavier. Complete monster.
 
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Yeah, we were also talking about what a beast Maupin is. Wow. Send pics of that guy to every B10 QB.

Tony G. had some very nice grabs -- we thought he looked much better than Bam in this game. He was the player who surprised me most.

Definitely also had some great conversation with the folks around me. It was a studious crowd. You could see the attentiveness, like 80,000 coaches or something. :)

Pittman was a revelation. Later on, we were making a Warrick Dunn comparison. He's going to bring us a nice change of pace. Also noted that he did an excellent job of hanging on to the ball. Could be be the #2 tailback come opening day? Scarlet line also did a nice job of opening up some holes.

Whitner could be All B10 this year. It's great to see a top recruit developing so well into a top player.

Now what about that kicking game??? Oh man oh man, JT must be as close to livid as he has ever been. Trapasso got off a couple of nice looking kicks late, but snapping was very shady, and holding was shady on place kicks. There wasn't much to feel good about there at all. Huston did get a hold of a long FG attempt that had the distance from 52 but went left. Nice leg there.

Zwick / Smith. Clearly in this game, Zwick had a better touch and was making better decisions. TS really disappointed after getting off to a solid start. He did a good job early of avoiding the rush, and had some nice touch on short passes in his first stint. When he came back, all of that went away. He seemed to lock in on Bam and missed what should have been easy completions. Zwick was able to take advantage of the good running game and did a nice job of looking through progressions, and throwing the ball safely when under pressure. Nothing flashy, but good smart quarterbacking. That "battle" appears over to me.

It was nice to see a low number of penalties, and for both offenses to take care of the ball well. Grey had a fumble and int, but that was a really undermanned squad on the o side of the ball.
 
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I hope Smith got the message as clearly as the crowd did. If his being the better QB is defined by plays breaking down and having to scramble then no thanks. He sounded frustrated in his post game comments, but playing a game where you force the QB to execute from the pocket is a legitimate coaching technique IMO. Scrambling is his strength - he needs to work on his weakness.

I was blown away by Pittman. He took some serious shots and bounced right back. Schlegel was singing his praises post game. Just a spring game, but I was not expecting to see that king of performance - and one that has been consistent with the rest of his spring.
 
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I think im not definatly sold on zwick. Smith may have been limited do to not being able to run, but what happens when we need him to pass...not run. I would rather have Zwick in there if we were down by 4 with 2:00 minutes left...jmo


I dont know how much Matthews weighs, but he was making plays all over the field. I think he is heavier then some of the K-state lbs as well right? Its always good to have that kind of speed. Maybe they should have matched him up with KW II during the fiesta huh?
 
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I know Ross is a senior, but man Pittman hits the hole and is fast! He has vision too. He's not the second comin gof Clarett. but I thgink he has the pure RB talent that ROss and HAll lack. I hoep we get to see alot of him this coming year.
 
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Pittman was really impressive. I like the Dunn comparison.
Youboty played well
Zwick looked poised. Quick release, strong arm and moved around the pocket very well.
Richardson, Maupin and even the lineman from Akron St. V played well. I'm having a brain fart, forgot his name.

The staff won't admitt it but Zwick solidified his starting job.
 
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Offense - Pittman
Defense - Richardson

For those that say Smith was limited by the touch rule, I say he wouldn't be walking today without it. Jay Richardson could have absolutely blew him up two or three times if allowed. Troy spent WAY too much time running around trying to find somewhere to throw the ball and will have to make a lot of big plays with his feet to make up with all the yards he'll lose via the sack.
 
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Sims looked very good. I noticed he was very aggressive with his blocking, and he had no trouble getting downfield - he especially had one nice downfield pancake on Whittner. On the defense, it will be hard to keep Matthews off the field if he continues to play like he did in the spring game.
 
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Coach Manipulation in Draft?

Regarding Smith and Zwick most notably, does anyone think that the coaches had it planned that Zwick would get drafted second for motivational purposes? Throw controversy in the kids face and see how he deals? I never thought of it but my dad, who I took to the game, suggested it. I dismissed his thought, but I'm now sort of pondering it. I thought Z looked terrific. He scrambled left a couple of times and even jumped and made good throws.
 
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BrutusBobcat said:
Definitely also had some great conversation with the folks around me. It was a studious crowd. You could see the attentiveness, like 80,000 coaches or something. :)

Pittman was a revelation. Later on, we were making a Warrick Dunn comparison. He's going to bring us a nice change of pace. Also noted that he did an excellent job of hanging on to the ball. Could be be the #2 tailback come opening day? Scarlet line also did a nice job of opening up some holes.
Click to expand...

Brutus,

I remember discussing the Warrick Dunn comparison with the guy in front of me. Don't tell me out of the 45k people there, that was you? If so, that's funny. If not then I remember the guy in front of me and I making that comparison as well, only Warrick not being as big (at least we thought). He definitely seemed like he had an excellent combination of shake and power, reminiscent of an FSU-type tailback.

___________
 
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