[Strikeout King]

The blue team was spotted a 14-0 lead to start the game, and due to some offensive and defensive missed cues, they were up 28-7 at the ‘half.’ But behind a strong second half from Morgan Newton (three touchdown passes,) the starters had a chance to win in the end but came up short. Here’s some quick take aways.


— The first half simply wasn’t good. It’s a spring game, so these things are to be expected, but the teams were rarely playing together, despite noticeable improvement from individuals. A few blown defensive assignments for both teams lead to touchdowns and little offensive consistency was there.


— The second half, however, looked a lot better. Newton began to find a rhythm with some of his receivers, and despite the WR’s barely being able to catch a ball, some longer drives were sustained that lead to points. Good to see for players that are still getting familiar with each other.


— It’s hard to take much away from a spring game, but Rick Minter delivered some of what fans were wanting to see. While it was clear that the players need more time to get to know the system (it’s admittedly complex,) his play calling was much more aggressive than what we’re used to seeing. Multiple blitzes were called, despite not being allowed to touch the quarterback, and more often than not they succeeded. Good to see the defense being aggressive, as it seems like they will be counted on to create pressure and turnovers if the team is to be successful next year.


— One of the most disappointing issues of the day, though, was the continued dropped passes from the Wide Receivers. There were a number of plays where Newton threw solid passes only to watch the receiver manage to not reel it in. Including a huge 60 yarder that was a guaranteed touchdown for Brian Adams. It’s something that will have to improve over the summer, and hopefully the addition of a healthy Gene McCaskill will counter balance that.


— Post game Joker was a little disappointed with the over all performance. He believes “We gotta get every yard out there, and we left a lot of yards out there,” obviously pointing to the multiple missed opportunities for both sides. Additionally he pulled a trick from Coach Cal and called out his big names through the media saying “Our play makers may not even be on campus yet.” Granted, Joker pulled in a solid recruiting class, but he’s definitely hoping some players out there today will hear that and step it up over the summer.


— Clearly this team has a lot of work to do, but they showed a lot of individual improvement from Newton to Adams to Ukwu. Now they just need to find a way to turn individual improvement into team improvement and we might have something going by fall.










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