Scrimmage Report

I attended the scrimmage for season ticket holders Saturday, and just a few thoughts and observations.  Note that I could not stay for the remarks so I have no idea what anyone might have said.

Usual caveat.  Scrimmages are hard to judge.  As Coach said afterward, you want to have plays made on both sides of the ball and that did happen.  Coach also says that you should be able to close your eyes and tell by the popping pads that a good football team is out there.  That was certainly true.  The scrimmage was on the practice field and with the fans standing right on the sideline you can really feel the impact much more than you can in the stands.

The day's biggest hit was on a pass down the sideline, about 15 feet in front of me.  Knapke had led Dieter, who was open, but freshman safety Jamari Bozeman was on the read and he timed in perfect and just clobbered Dieter.  It was a clean and very good football hit.  No one was injured.  (In fact, I didn't see any injuries in the scrimmage).

The offense scored a bunch.  Johnson and Greene did not play much, so most of the day was Knapke and James Morgan at QB.  It was also a day for Fred Coppet to show what he could do.  He told Coach that he couldn't sleep the night before the scrimmage (note this if you think these guys don't care...this was A SCRIMMAGE)  and he got the ball a lot and he was very, very effective.  He said afterwards he wants to prove himself because of some high profile additions to BG's running back corps, and I would say he does that.

He also made the point that people think the Baylor offense is all about passing, which is not accurate.  EIU put up some huge running numbers when Babers was there.  When you have everyone all spread out, there are gaps for running as well as passing.  BG also looks to have a very strong o-line.  Greene and Coppet both should have ample opportunity to make big plays.

Beyond them, depth is still going to be important, though, because both of them have had a tendency to get injured and neither is the biggest RB.

The defense seemed to really compete.  They felt they were embarrassed the week before and while I didn't see that scrimmage I did think that the defense played hard and competed and made some plays.  They played with pride, celebrated when they got a deflection or a turnover.

James Morgan got some snaps at QB.  He's a freshman literally in his first days at this level.  He made some good throws and some not so good throws and at one point Babers was chewing him out.

Very nice turnout of season ticket holders and BG says the attendance was up significantly over last year.  It certainly got the blood flowing for me.