It was a great time at the Shoe, sat right near the entrance in the SE corner to people watch. I need to brush up on my 2007 recruits, but Nate Oliver was here, along with Mark Wetterer and Lebron Daniel. Ginn Sr. was around, as were Youboty, Everett, Whitner, Kudla, Sims, Salley, Schlegel (looking very redneck) and surprisingly enough, Will Smith. Saw Santonio do an interview from the other side of the endzone, but he didn't come over. Robiskie's younger brothers and father were here. Spotted HAYN doing a good job as usual. Troy, Jamario, and Barton are awesome with the fans, as are most of the former players. As for the game:
QBs: Smith is Smith, one of the most talented and respected guys on the team. He was on the headset and helping Schoenhoft out in the second half. Seems like a cool dude off the field as well. He and Zwick looked very sharp. Todd and Rob were inconsistent, Schoenhoft has a cannon but miscommunicated at least twice, missing a receiver by 10+ yards. Both stared down receivers. Robbie is very nimble, but quick to run. Boeckman looked mobile enough, and ran the option with MoWells once.
RBs: Pittman actually dressed but didn't play. All three guys looked good, Maurice in the 2nd half when they let him get the ball in space. Beanie is huge...not nearly as squat as #13. The kid will live up to the hype. He threw an "ole" block on Lawrence Wilson after Skinner got blown up. Nothing much from the fullbacks.
WR/TE: Robiskie and Hartline are the next stars on this team, they both show great body control and hands. Hartline's fumble came when he tried to stop himself from going down, pretty much an unforced error. He also lined up in the Shot-Ginn position at least once. Lyons may have had the best catch of the day. Ginn had his ankle wrapped coming out for the 2nd half, but looked OK. Hall and Dukes were fine. The tight ends were involved a bit. Nicol looked very good, Frost dropped a couple, and walk-on John Larson caught a long one in the 4th quarter. Devin Jordan didn't even have his jersey on, so I'm thinking he is done for good.
OL: Tackles seemed to have a bit of a problem, especially Boone and Skinner. Rehring saw most if not all of his time at guard and was good. Whaley and Cordle were steady at center. Mitchum and Person were OK with the second team. Kerr was quiet, not sure how much he played. Hard to judge this unit with Datish and Barton out and Downing playing a half.
DL: Was very impressed with Abdallah and Wilson, who bullrushed Skinner and Beanie as mentioned above. Denlinger had his safety, Penton made some noise. Barrow was very quiet. Gholston, Patterson and Richardson were fine in their time, David is a leader on the sidelines.
LB: Homan is an absolute stud, and I'd be dumbfounded if he doesn't get time this season. Hoobler looked under control and very good in pass coverage. Terry was playing a lot of snaps at a down position a la Carpenter. Spitler and Kerr were there, but didn't do a ton. Freeman had a ton of tackles, but he's looked better. Grant and Laurinaitis did well in the 2nd half. There is an embarassment of riches at OLB.
DBs: No one played spectacularly well, but there wasn't anyone burnt either. Nick Patterson was carted off, but came back w/o pads and was playing around with a kid after the game, so he should be OK. Coleman appears ready to contribute. The only guys who didn't get much time were Welch and Roberts. Still a 4-way race to start opposite Jenkins. Safeties were very quiet, but they didn't have a whole lot to do based on the offense that was run. Russell did get run over by Beanie one time. Again, not much separation between the 1s and 2s here.
ST: Skeete lives, but never saw the field. Pettrey/Pretorius looked good, Trapasso was steady, but all punts were automatically fair catches. Makridis, the backup long snapper, got hit with a penalty. Lots of combos on the returns, including Beanie in the triangle position with Haw and Gonzalez on the opening kick.
All in all, this team is gonna be studly again this year, and a long time to come. This team is extremely young (not including Jordan, only 27 juniors/seniors on scholarship), and the winners of the 2006 position battle will be still be around in 2007 for the most part. QB will be one race to watch.