MGB: Spring game five quick thoughts

Brett Vito · April 23, 2016

MGB:

http://meangreenblog.dentonrc.com/2016/04/unt-spring-game-thoughts.html/

FirefightnRick · April 23, 2016

We have no idea what we have and won't until opening day vs SMU after the QB takes a hit or 5.

Rick

NorthTexan95 · April 23, 2016

Morris has a less than 50% completion rate but he's clearly the best option? Granted, Shanbour was going against mostly second teamers but he was clearly the best offensive player on the field today. Based on just today you have to be a bit worried about Morris. He was often inaccurate and his last interception was a horrible decision.

The offense really took awhile to get going. The defense got tons of pressure, receivers dropped passes, and routes were incorrect. As the day went on the offense looked sharper.

MeanGreenDan · April 23, 2016

10 minutes ago, NorthTexan95 said:

Morris has a less than 50% completion rate but he's clearly the best option? Granted, Shanbour was going against mostly second teamers but he was clearly the best offensive player on the field today. Based on just today you have to be a bit worried about Morris. He was often inaccurate and his last interception was a horrible decision.

The offense really took awhile to get going. The defense got tons of pressure, receivers dropped passes, and routes were incorrect. As the day went on the offense looked sharper.

I'm worried about Morris too, and confused by why Vito seems so smitten with him.

DeepGreen · April 23, 2016

If you listened to the last 15 minutes or so of the scrimmage, Scott Hall had some interesting comments about the offense.

1. Hall didn't sound like a fan of the spread; but also admitted that football had changed so much since he was QB at North Texas

2. Did not like the fact that the offense requires the QB to look to the sidelines for every play; did not like cards being used for play calling

3. He mentioned that he always had four plays that he could call, depending what the defense was showing. In other words, the QB made some decisions.

4. Did not like the fact that a UNT's QBs wore red jerseys so as not to be hit; believed every player had to scrimmage in full contact, game conditions.

5. Did not see any offensive linemen in a 3 point stance, something that would not bode well for a lineman trying to make it to the NFL. Not enough ground game in these new offenses of today.

6. Complimentary to all the new athletic facilities.

Hall was not very flattering in his comments on what he saw on the field. Anyone else listening to the broadcast can add more of Hall's comments.

THOR · April 23, 2016

i enjoyed what i saw from morris...a tall, athletic, spiral throwing qb...no issues with him starting...shanbour looked small out there compared to morris....shanbour did well, good throws, completion percentage, but i've got no problem with morris...

DeepGreen · April 23, 2016

22 minutes ago, FirefightnRick said:

We have no idea what we have and won't until opening day vs SMU after the QB takes a hit or 5.

Rick

See my comments when Scott Hall was on the broadcast.

Mean Green 93-98 · April 23, 2016

11 minutes ago, DeepGreen said:

Did not see any offensive linemen in a 3 point stance, something that would not bode well for a lineman trying to make it to the NFL.

He was referring to the tackles, specifically. The guards line up in a 3-point stance.

DeepGreen · April 23, 2016

8 minutes ago, Mean Green 93-98 said:

He was referring to the tackles, specifically. The guards line up in a 3-point stance.

Yes. I should have been more specific.

El Paso Eagle · April 23, 2016

32 minutes ago, DeepGreen said:

If you listened to the last 15 minutes or so of the scrimmage, Scott Hall had some interesting comments about the offense.

1. Hall didn't sound like a fan of the spread; but also admitted that football had changed so much since he was QB at North Texas

2. Did not like the fact that the offense requires the QB to look to the sidelines for every play; did not like cards being used for play calling

3. He mentioned that he always had four plays that he could call, depending what the defense was showing. In other words, the QB made some decisions.

4. Did not like the fact that a UNT's QBs wore red jerseys so as not to be hit; believed every player had to scrimmage in full contact, game conditions.

5. Did not see any offensive linemen in a 3 point stance, something that would not bode well for a lineman trying to make it to the NFL. Not enough ground game in these new offenses of today.

6. Complimentary to all the new athletic facilities.

Hall was not very flattering in his comments on what he saw on the field. Anyone else listening to the broadcast can add more of Hall's comments.

I have always been a big Scott Hall fan but he really seem like someone who had the " old school" was better way. But as you said he did say he was more comfortable in the old smash mouth football .

Paulie Walnuts · April 23, 2016

30 minutes ago, DeepGreen said:

4. Did not like the fact that a UNT's QBs wore red jerseys so as not to be hit; believed every player had to scrimmage in full contact, game conditions.

He did say this - that knowing you won't get hit slightly changes the way a QB plays. But he also said he had a medical redshirt from a hit from Booger during a Spring game LOL. So there's that.

Texas Stranger · April 23, 2016

1 hour ago, DeepGreen said:

3. He mentioned that he always had four plays that he could call, depending what the defense was showing. In other words, the QB made some decisions.

Those 4 plays were Toss Left, Toss Right, Lead Dive and Draw.

Cr1028 · April 23, 2016

Quote

1. Alec Morris is clearly UNT’s best option at quarterback

Morris worked with UNT’s first-team offense and had his moments, hitting Tee Goree for a 28-yard touchdown and O’Keeron Rutherford for a 50-yard touchdown.

Morris ended up completing 17 of his 35 pass attempts for 261 yards with his two touchdowns. He also threw two interceptions, but showed what UNT needed him to this spring.

Quinn Shanbour also played well, throwing for 315 yards and three touchdowns, mostly against UNT’s deep backups.

UNT coach Seth Littrell wasn’t ready to name a starter and had good things to say about Morris and Shanbour, but Morris certainly seems to be in a good spot.

Wow, Vito really has it out for Shanbour. Second team defense is clearly way farther down the depth chart to Vito than it is to me. Regardless of who he lined up against, he is clearly better than the bums that they trotted out there last season. That shows me plenty about Dan McCarney and Chico. They wrote their own pink slip.

Edited April 24, 2016 by Cr1028

NorthTexan95 · April 24, 2016

42 minutes ago, Cr1028 said:

Wow, Vito really has it out for Shanbour. Second team defense is clearly way farther down the depth chart to Vito than it is to me. Regardless of who he lined up against, he is clearly better than the bums that they trotted out there last season. That shows me plenty about Dan McCarney and Chico. They wrote their own pink slip.

According to others Morris has looked the best in previous weeks and that includes Harry. Perhaps the difference we saw between him and Shanbour today had more to do with Morris going against the 1st Defense and Shanbour going against the 2nd Defense. But going by just what we saw today, Shanbour looked much better. If Morris isn't able to move the ball in the fall I have no doubt Littrell would put Shanbour into the game.

Edit: Ok, I have a little doubt as to how fast Littrell would switch from Morris to Shanbour during the season. We'll see.

Edited April 24, 2016 by NorthTexan95

Harry · April 24, 2016

2 hours ago, MeanGreenDan said:

I'm worried about Morris too, and confused by why Vito seems so smitten with him.

Morris did not have a good day and anyone saying otherwise wasn't watching. That said, it is one day. That is why I don't like spring games from an evaluation standpoint, never have. People want to draw conclusions from them, and it is impossible to do so. I did think Shanbour had the better day, however think about this.. Our starter has played mop up in a few games. Shanbour sat out last season with an injury and has never played in a college game to my knowledge. The other two don't realistically even fit into the picture in my mind and most likely Littrell's. What is crazy is even with all these issues, we are better at the QB than we were last year. Bar just isn't very high in this program right now. Believe me, Littrell is going to have to change that fast if he wants to secure some much needed wins and get this thing off the dime.

UNT90 · April 24, 2016

43 minutes ago, Harry said:

Morris did not have a good day and anyone saying otherwise wasn't watching. That said, it is one day. That is why I don't like spring games from an evaluation standpoint, never have. People want to draw conclusions from them, and it is impossible to do so. I did think Shanbour had the better day, however think about this.. Our starter has played mop up in a few games. Shanbour sat out last season with an injury and has never played in a college game to my knowledge. The other two don't realistically even fit into the picture in my mind and most likely Littrell's. What is crazy is even with all these issues, we are better at the QB than we were last year. Bar just isn't very high in this program right now. Believe me, Littrell is going to have to change that fast if he wants to secure some much needed wins and get this thing off the dime.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Morris has thrown exactly one pass at the collegiate level.

One.

I'd say his and Shanbour's experience level is just about dead even.

EDIT: that is correct. One pass. On the bright side, he completed it for a 6 yard gain. Against Charleston Southern.

In the only live game appearance of his collegiate career according to this site:

http://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/players/alec-morris-1/gamelog/

Morris's "experience" should be a complete non-factor in any decision on who starts at QB. If not, we really haven't moved too far from the old style of deciding who starts at QB.

Edited April 24, 2016 by UNT90

North Texas Shep · April 24, 2016

Over all I was okay with what I saw. We at least put damn points on the board. They really should have let Shanbor take a series with first team. Regardless, we have two QBs better than any QB we fielded last season, and we can score. Looked like the defense was pretty limited but did not look horrible. They got some good pressure. Best spring game/ practice we have had in years.

Ben Gooding · April 24, 2016

37 minutes ago, Harry said:

Morris did not have a good day and anyone saying otherwise wasn't watching. That said, it is one day. That is why I don't like spring games from an evaluation standpoint, never have. People want to draw conclusions from them, and it is impossible to do so. I did think Shanbour had the better day, however think about this.. Our starter has played mop up in a few games. Shanbour sat out last season with an injury and has never played in a college game to my knowledge. The other two don't realistically even fit into the picture in my mind and most likely Littrell's. What is crazy is even with all these issues, we are better at the QB than we were last year. Bar just isn't very high in this program right now. Believe me, Littrell is going to have to change that fast if he wants to secure some much needed wins and get this thing off the dime.

Vito, Mac, and the Mac enthusiasts damn sure were making assumptions after last year's spring game.

EagleGreen · April 25, 2016

Great day for football, nice weather. The play was par for the course, no birdies or eagles, a couple of bogies but overall par. It's early and right now we look like we did last year. There is only one direction to go from here and it's really Littrell's job to get us going in the right direction. Let's hope he knows what he is doing...

SSP · April 25, 2016

On April 23, 2016 at 6:58 PM, Cr1028 said:

Wow, Vito really has it out for Shanbour. Second team defense is clearly way farther down the depth chart to Vito than it is to me. Regardless of who he lined up against, he is clearly better than the bums that they trotted out there last season. That shows me plenty about Dan McCarney and Chico. They wrote their own pink slip.

Seriously...

hahaha

i love how he won't mention who led the team in tackles too.... Playing against our 1st string.....

We have big people in our family, Vito... And own a lot of property. ???????????? ?????

❤️,

Your fave Mean green football fam

GO MEAN GREEN!

Mike Jackson · April 26, 2016

17 of 35 in a scrimmage is not very good in which you know you are even going to get wrapped up let alone taken to the ground. We don't have a vaunted defense returning from last year. I would love for someone to explain what is wrong with Conner Means. I left when it became apparent that Shanbor was the only other QB that was going to get meaningful snaps. I hope the running game is good shape and contrary to Vito's expert analysis it consists of way more than just Alec turning around and handing the ball off. Other than the defense looking better I didn't see much substantially different. The QB looked better in this scrimmage but they are supposed to.

untcampbell · April 26, 2016

It appeared to me that Alec abandoned the play pretty quickly in attempt to avoid the "sack." Remember a sack was one anywhere.

I actually think his stats would've been better if QB's were open to taking the hit, big body and all, allowing him to hang in there a split second longer.

Shanbour has better running ability so abandoning the play for the run is more the natural maneuver. The timing that he might abandon the play is not much different in the no hit or hit the QB scheme.

My take is that I am happy we have Morris and think he should be #1. I felt Shanbour gives us a chance if AM is injured (ironic that this QB, who gives me reason to believe, follows an ineffective AM and is also #5). None of the other QB's deserved any additional time, and frankly I saw 2014 and 2015 inthe 1-2 series they were out there.

GMG

GOMG2013 · April 26, 2016

7 hours ago, untcampbell said:

It appeared to me that Alec abandoned the play pretty quickly in attempt to avoid the "sack." Remember a sack was one anywhere.

I actually think his stats would've been better if QB's were open to taking the hit, big body and all, allowing him to hang in there a split second longer.

Very good point. One touch and you are down does take away from his size advantage. I'm not saying he is Big Ben, but it's not crazy to think he can be able to break a tackle and extend a play. We will have to wait to see vs SMU.

MGNation92 · April 26, 2016

2 hours ago, GOMG2013 said:

Very good point. One touch and you are down does take away from his size advantage. I'm not saying he is Big Ben, but it's not crazy to think he can be able to break a tackle and extend a play. We will have to wait to see vs SMU.

To that point Shanbour had about a 60 yard breakaway run for a TD that was negated because someone barely touched him. That's probably to the house in a real game situation

MeanGreenHoops · April 26, 2016

Both Morris and Shanbour looked better than anything we trotted out there in last years spring game. Remember how last years 1 offense couldn't move the ball on last years 2 defense?