UM spring game liveblog

by Jay, San Diego, Saturday, April 11, 2009, 12:28 (6255 days ago) @ Jay
edited by Jay, Saturday, April 11, 2009, 12:34

Anything jump out? I'll pull out what I find interesting and update below.

http://www.freep.com/article/20090411/SPORTS06/90411024/1048/sports/Transcript+of+today...

12:13 Scott Bell: Practice hasn't started off on a very good note. They began with the kicking game, and there were some badly missed kicks and a botched snap in the handful of attempts. They've now switched to punting, and the first snap for that was bounced to Zoltan Mesko. As U-M beat writer Mark Snyder pointed out, Michigan did lose Sean Griffin to graduation, and he could possibly be an NFL snapper. The scrimmage has not yet begun.

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12:18 Scott Bell: Three plays into the scrimmage: A rollout pass from Forcier to Odoms for a first down, a pass to Odoms in the flat and a 9-yard scramble by Forcier. All were run out of the shotgun.

12:21 John: Is Forcier wearing a non-contact jersey?

12:22 Scott Bell: Yes, Forcier - who just ran in for the first score in the scrimmage - has a red No. 5 on his jersey. They're blowing the play dead when he's running into any sort of contact. The offense scored pretty easily that drive, which is good or bad news - depending on if you're an offense or defense kind of guy.

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12:26 bob: what kind of defensive alignment were they using 3-3-5 3-4 4-3?

12:27 Scott Bell: It's only the third drive so far (the 2nd drive, quarterbacked by David Cone, was a 3-and-out) but the defense has already shown a variety of looks. The most common has been a variation of the 3-4, but sometimes they've had a member of the secondary being one of the "4s". This is probably a variation of the spinner position new d-coordinator Greg Robinson has talked about

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12:40 Scott Bell: There's the second touchdown of the scrimmage: A Tate Forcier pass to Roy Roundtree.

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12:46 Scott Bell: So far it has been pretty offense heavy. There haven't been many jaw-dropping plays on defense, but the defense hasn't given up a really big play yet - something that definitely plagued it last year. Forcier has been impressive so far, and all of the tailbacks are gaining pretty decent yardage when they carry the ball. Minor started, but Smith, Carlos Brown and Kevin Grady have all gotten carries, too.

12:46 Scott Bell: Anddddddd 15 seconds later, the defense gives up a big play. Carlos Brown broke a run for 82 yards and a score.

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12:56 ryan: Is Forcier fast enough to run this offense? I know he wont be Pat White but does he have enough speed to be a threat running?

12:57 Scott Bell: It's kind of unfair to make too much of a judgment given the circumstances today (red jersey), but Forcier has impressed me so far. He seems pretty slippery and has good football speed. They've run a fair amount of rollouts for him as he seems to throw his best when he's on the run

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1:14 Scott Bell: Tate Forcier just hit Roy Roundtree on a deep vertical pass for a 50-yard completion. That's the second longest TD of the day. The ball was in the air for ~45 yards. It was against the third-team defense, though. An impressive throw nonetheless.

1:16 Nick from Ohio: How would you grade each position?

1:17 Scott Bell: I think that's kind of unfair given some of the reasons I listed earlier. There's been a relatively small sample of plays and it's unfair to be too hard on a third-team defender that gets burned by the first-team QB. I would say that the running backs have probably been the most solid position group as a whole on the day, with safety or linebacker being the shakiest.