[Husker] Spring Game

[Mike Jaixen]

I'll fire off my thread again that got interrupted
when the transfer story came out.  Maybe we can get it
going again, even though I'm in no way an X's and O's
guy...

Zac Taylor reminded me a lot of Rich Gannon of the
Raiders under Callahan - throwing lots of short
underneath routes for a high completion percentage
especially early on. In fact, until Taylor's touchdown
bomb to Fluellen, the longest throw of the game was
the side judge marking a clip on a kickoff return.  On
some early throws on his first 2 drives, Taylor was
helped by some impressive catches by his receivers of
his first wobbly passes - especially Nate Swift, a 6-2
redshirt reshman.  That gave Taylor some confidence,
and he really got into a groove and made the Red team
pay for it later on with some nice deep balls.

However, the offensive line looks to be a problem spot
after being a pleasant surprise last year.  Very
little running room except on a couple of plays, and
the refs ignored several holding calls, especially by
Andy Christensen, a redshirt freshman lineman. 
However, part of this perception could actually be the
talent of Barry Cryer and Ola Dagundo, who were on the
2nd string line.  Taylor fumbled several snaps,
including 2 back-to-back from Gary Pike.  If that
doesn't get fixed, we will have turnover problems in
2005 like we did in 2004.

Beau Davis did an ok job being the sacrificial lamb
against the Blackshirts. (Anything would be an
improvement over his last appearance.) Jordan Adams
and Joe Ganz were limited to mopup duty late in the
game; Adams did connect on a couple of nice passes in
the 4th quarter against some 4th teamers.  In all
likelihood, Harrison Beck will likely be 2nd string
for most of this season.

On defense, I really didn't see much except that the
linebackers were moved up a couple of yards.  Bo Ruud
may have had the hit of the game against Isaiah
Fluellen.  (I missed the hit live, as I was
concentrating on Christensen's mugging of a defensive
lineman who didn't have a name on his jersey. Thank
goodness for HuskerVision replays...) I've heard some
people praising Steve Octavian's play, but I never
noticed him.  Jay Moore and Adam Carriker were
frequently getting good penetration.    When Titus
Brothers wasn't getting burned by a receiver, he was
able to make some nice deflections.  He also had some
nice kickoff returns.

I really miss having the 1's play against the 1's.  In
the old Spring Game format, it was easier to identify
people who could make plays. This format leads to
mismatches, which makes you wonder what's up when the
1st stringers DON'T dominate.

--- Sean McGrath <SeanM at omahasteaks.com> wrote:

> I too miss the x's and o's guys like Greg
> Mays who would come
> in and dissect the spring game and regular season
> games. While everyone
> is concentrating on the QB position we haven't
> really heard how the
> o-line looked or how the d-line performed and if the
> D looked better
> than last year. If we can't stop teams from scoring
> like the T. Tech
> game last season it will not matter who's at QB. 
> 
> Sean 


Mike Jaixen

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