[NU Sports] Spring Game

[Tom Maycock]

A little Spring Game, er, Exhibition recap:

The weather was the same as its been almost the entire late-winter/spring here 
in Chicago--cloudy, cold, windy. Then it started raining lightly about halfway 
through, so most of the fans moved up under upper deck to stay dry. Timing was 
unfortunate, as Sunday was actually pretty nice. Still chilly, but sunny. 

The first thing I noticed is that NU is finally getting its act together in 
terms of making a coherent, professional (albeit suitably relaxed) event out of 
this. They had a canned food drive at the gates, a table with simple but quality 

pre-printed programs and rosters, food vendors in operation, a very visible 
season-ticket booth down at the foot of the stands (with promotional 
give-aways), a PA announcer explaining the days events and announcing the game, 
the band playing all game, the video screen working (with replays!), and pre- 
and post-game comments from Pat over the PA. 

There were only a few hundred in the stands, per usual (and pretty good 
considering the weather), and there's no sense in making a huge deal out of the 
spring affair--no 70,000 in the stands like at Nebraska, but it's really nice to 

see the team making an effort to welcome fans and to show appreciation for their 

attendance. 

The event started with introductions of the various squads (running backs, 
quaterbacks, etc.), then some warm-ups and drills. The best part of this section 

(and really of the whole day) was seeing Persa out there in sweats jogging 
around, and throwing some passes during the one-on-one QB/WR drills. I'm more 
optimistic than ever that he'll be ready to go. I don't know that he'll be 
full-speed this year, but perhaps the offense around him will be good enough 
that he won't need to use his feet as much. 

The scrimmage was offense versus defense with a point scheme for both sides, and 

essentially the 1's versus 1's, 2's versus 2's, and so on. Something like 24 
players sat out (17 due to injuries, 7 or so by coaches decision), so the 1's 
weren't really the "1's" we'll see in the fall, but you could get a sense of who 

the likely starters and first-line backups will be. 

QB: Colter, Watkins, and Simian all played (in that order) rotating in with the 
different units. They all moved the ball well at times, but they all also missed 

some passes they should have made. Watkins had some good short throws, one laser 

TD pass, and then a couple of bad downfield misses. Simian showed some skills, 
including two nice TD passes, but overall looked to be the least ready of the 3. 

Colter wasn't spectacular throwing the ball (still recovering from arm surgery 
early last year I guess), but as we saw last year, he just makes plays. The 
highlights will show a couple of spectacular moments including a ridiculous 
zig-zagging backwards scramble followed by a great catch, as well as a very 
nifty TD run. 

RB: Smith sat out, Trumpy only carried a couple of times. Seems clear those guys 

will be the top 2. I would assume Schmidt will continue to play a role as well. 
Tyris Jones looked impressive, like he did in the fall scrimmage last year. Big, 

strong, some nice moves, at least one catch. I'd be surprised if he doesn't make 

some plays this year. I'd like to see more 2-back stuff with Jones or Schmidt 
alongside Smith/Trumpy. 

OL: I'm terrible at judging OL versus DL matchups, but they seemed to do OK, 
minus some starters. Certainly didn't dominate, and there were a lot of DL guys 
running free at times, so who knows. We all know they need to be better this 
year.

WR: Charles Brown has supposedly had a great spring, and he looked quick and ran 

nice routes, but dropped one key pass. Made up for it with a nice TD catch. 
Fields looked big and strong, Rashard Lawrence looked his usual self. Folks like 

Ebert, Dunsmore, and Jones sat out, so younger guys got a lot of reps. I think 
we all expect this to be a stellar group this year assuming everyone is 
healthy. 

DL: DiNardo and Browne took the day off, but I thought the guys that played 
looked bigger, stronger, and more athletic than last year. Tyler Scott looks to 
be a starter at the other end, Williams as bulked up, and guys like Carter, 
Hampton, and Mafuli all looked more like B10 players to me. I'm tentatively 
optimistic about this bunch. Overall, I'd say they had the advantage over the 
O-line. Good news for our defense or bad news for our offense? Who knows. 

LB: Johnson was out, and McNaul got dinged up very early on (head or should or 
something--nothing serious apparently). I didn't watch these guys a lot, but 
folks like Proby and Goodlow made some nice plays. 

DB: Pretty pleased with this bunch. Mabin sat out. Jeravin Matthews appears to 
have locked up the other starting CB position, and looked pretty impressive. How 

well he plays could be a big factor in the W-L column this year. Ricky Weina got 

the starting nod with Mabin out, seemed to do OK. I'll always remember him as 
turning in one of the best "filling in for injured starter" appearances for NU 
since Adrian Autry at Wisconsin in '96, so it'd be nice to see him get some 
playing time. Dugar and Bolden were out there. David Arnold saw a lot of time at 

safety. 

Ibraheim Campbell picked up from the fall scrimmage as a guy with the potential 
to be one of our best defensive players in the near future. He made some nice 
plays, did get burned on one TD. Ready to start at safety? Don't know, but 
wouldn't be surprised. I thought our safety play was a big problem last year, so 
we need someone to step up there. 

Special teams: the only punting was in the warm ups. Brandon Williams looked 
good. We know he can kick the crap out of the ball--he just needs to 
reduce/eliminate mistakes and our punting game will become a strength rather 
than a weakness. Both PKs (Budzien and Flaherty) looked pretty good on FGs. 
Accuracy was good, especially given the 20mph cross wind. Distance seemed 
OK--some low trajectories. I don't know that either have the leg of a healthy 
Demos, but it appears we have at least 2 viable options here. We really won't 
know until they start kicking ones that matter.

Tom