talhadfoursteals
Active member
So I made my way up to Wildcat Stadium today to watch the Cats scrimmage and here are my thoughts.
A. There are a lot of nice looking RBs. Behind a veteran line and a the second team line, who will see some time this year, and has the potential of being very solid, the Wildcat Running game accumulated 300 yards on the ground. I was extremely impressed with Barrinton Collins and Kris Parham. Of course, I liked what I saw from Booker, Hinds, and Tucket. Not to mention the FBs who got touches. In my opinion, Parham has really made some great improvements, and Booker seemed like he had some great ball control. But for a true freshman, I was really impressed by Collins performance. What this tells me is that Weber is stacked at RB and with the experience of the OL will be able to rack up a lot of yards. Yes, the FB job is wide open, but from what I saw, I think, there are two or three really strong candidates (Finai, Tolutau, Heimuli) who not only can block, but can receive and run with the rock. Weber can present a finess back, a purely speedy back, go heavy, or use a number of passing options out of the back field including screens, options, and shovel passes. I came away from the scrimmage thinking, "no one should ever under-estimate Mac's ability to find good running backs."
B. The offense, even with racking up a lot of rushing yards, at times looked confused. Granted, this is because there was a lot of switching between 1st, 2nd and 3rd team players. The coaching staff have a lot of players available. Weber's team is perhaps the deepest its been ever, and they were looking at different schemes and personnel. 11 different receivers caught balls today. True Freshmen Darchon Taggart and Eric Shufford both had really nice scrimmages for the Cats today. Red-shirt freshmen and sophmore transfer Xavian Johnson and Chase Nakamura both looked good too. I think, including the TEs and backfield (RBs, TBs, and FBs), that Weber's receiving corp might end up being really solid. Another area where the coaching staff did an excellent job reloading.
C. Recruiting class...There are a lot of true freshmen who are going to be seeing substantial time this year. Not to mention a number of other underclassmen who will be also be playing who are coming from the 2010 and 2009 classes. The recruiting at Weber has really picked up. There is depth at almost every position and the teams overall talent is very impressive.
D. OL...WOW!! You can say what you want about skill players, but if you don't have an OL, you don't have CRAP. There were times that the OL was providing such a push that the running game was averaging 5 or 6 yards per carry. Also, there was a time that Hoke had over 10 seconds in the pocket. The starting OL is good, but I saw a lot of really good things from the 2nd string too. Land, Carrington, Rasmussen, Ragnosson, Robinson all looked solid playing on the 2nd team. That should really worry the other Big Sky teams.
E. The Defense was manhandled by the OL but there were some really nice pushes by the DL. What is nice is that this DL has to face one of the best OL's in the FCS and that will only make them better. The Beast didn't play today, so his inclusion in the future will make the DL better. However, I was really pleased with the play of Pletcher and Sauni Veteson (another BEAST). Also, it was nice seeing Myers and Washington getting a lot of reps, and both looked solid and ready to contribute.
F. QBs: Maraz...YIKES!! He is going to be really good in the future. He looked really comfortable leading the 3rd team. Yes, Hoke and Jordan are both better, which tells us one thing, that Weber's QBs are being under-rated. HOKE is gonna shock a lot of people this season and when Jordan comes into the games the offense won't lose anything. He will be pushing Hoke and helping Hoke get better all season.
G. Return and Special teams. There was a 50 yard Field goal attempt, that did go wide left, but had plenty of leg behind it. The kick would have been good from 55. If McClain can start hitting those kicks with some consistency that will really give Weber another valuable weapon. Even if they have to punt it was nice seeing how much Epperson has improved since last season. AS for the returners...once again Weber is loaded.
Final conclusion...the Sky better be as good as it is being billed, if not, Weber is totally being overlooked and under-rated and roll off a lot of wins.
A. There are a lot of nice looking RBs. Behind a veteran line and a the second team line, who will see some time this year, and has the potential of being very solid, the Wildcat Running game accumulated 300 yards on the ground. I was extremely impressed with Barrinton Collins and Kris Parham. Of course, I liked what I saw from Booker, Hinds, and Tucket. Not to mention the FBs who got touches. In my opinion, Parham has really made some great improvements, and Booker seemed like he had some great ball control. But for a true freshman, I was really impressed by Collins performance. What this tells me is that Weber is stacked at RB and with the experience of the OL will be able to rack up a lot of yards. Yes, the FB job is wide open, but from what I saw, I think, there are two or three really strong candidates (Finai, Tolutau, Heimuli) who not only can block, but can receive and run with the rock. Weber can present a finess back, a purely speedy back, go heavy, or use a number of passing options out of the back field including screens, options, and shovel passes. I came away from the scrimmage thinking, "no one should ever under-estimate Mac's ability to find good running backs."
B. The offense, even with racking up a lot of rushing yards, at times looked confused. Granted, this is because there was a lot of switching between 1st, 2nd and 3rd team players. The coaching staff have a lot of players available. Weber's team is perhaps the deepest its been ever, and they were looking at different schemes and personnel. 11 different receivers caught balls today. True Freshmen Darchon Taggart and Eric Shufford both had really nice scrimmages for the Cats today. Red-shirt freshmen and sophmore transfer Xavian Johnson and Chase Nakamura both looked good too. I think, including the TEs and backfield (RBs, TBs, and FBs), that Weber's receiving corp might end up being really solid. Another area where the coaching staff did an excellent job reloading.
C. Recruiting class...There are a lot of true freshmen who are going to be seeing substantial time this year. Not to mention a number of other underclassmen who will be also be playing who are coming from the 2010 and 2009 classes. The recruiting at Weber has really picked up. There is depth at almost every position and the teams overall talent is very impressive.
D. OL...WOW!! You can say what you want about skill players, but if you don't have an OL, you don't have CRAP. There were times that the OL was providing such a push that the running game was averaging 5 or 6 yards per carry. Also, there was a time that Hoke had over 10 seconds in the pocket. The starting OL is good, but I saw a lot of really good things from the 2nd string too. Land, Carrington, Rasmussen, Ragnosson, Robinson all looked solid playing on the 2nd team. That should really worry the other Big Sky teams.
E. The Defense was manhandled by the OL but there were some really nice pushes by the DL. What is nice is that this DL has to face one of the best OL's in the FCS and that will only make them better. The Beast didn't play today, so his inclusion in the future will make the DL better. However, I was really pleased with the play of Pletcher and Sauni Veteson (another BEAST). Also, it was nice seeing Myers and Washington getting a lot of reps, and both looked solid and ready to contribute.
F. QBs: Maraz...YIKES!! He is going to be really good in the future. He looked really comfortable leading the 3rd team. Yes, Hoke and Jordan are both better, which tells us one thing, that Weber's QBs are being under-rated. HOKE is gonna shock a lot of people this season and when Jordan comes into the games the offense won't lose anything. He will be pushing Hoke and helping Hoke get better all season.
G. Return and Special teams. There was a 50 yard Field goal attempt, that did go wide left, but had plenty of leg behind it. The kick would have been good from 55. If McClain can start hitting those kicks with some consistency that will really give Weber another valuable weapon. Even if they have to punt it was nice seeing how much Epperson has improved since last season. AS for the returners...once again Weber is loaded.
Final conclusion...the Sky better be as good as it is being billed, if not, Weber is totally being overlooked and under-rated and roll off a lot of wins.
Look for a lot of activity off of the edge with Pletcher, solid, and Bowers will be steady. White on the inside will be the stop-gap and should be stellar!