Scrimmage #1 Observations

Mean Green 93-98 · August 13, 2016

3 hours ago, Christopher Walker said:

Buyers at Inside WR is interesting.

What do you mean by that? As in a trainwreck? As in he's awesome? Or just that it's weird to see him in a different position?

Mean_Green09 · August 13, 2016

Just now, Mean Green 93-98 said:

What do you mean by that? As in a trainwreck? As in he's awesome? Or just that it's weird to see him in a different position?

He didn't get a ton of targets but he looks quicker as a WR than he did as a DB. He will be in the two deep and maybe a starter. He made a nice transition

MGNation92 · August 13, 2016

My observations:

1. Morris looks a lot more comfortable in the offense. I had my doubts in the spring but he's settling in

2. Mason Fine looks tiny but man that kid can sling it. I know they want to redshirt him but I thought he was better than O'hara

3. I know Smiley is in the doghouse but we need him back there on punt returns because Ivery and Wyche do not look comfortable returning punts

4. Rutherford looks like he's really stepping up. Goree too. Like what I'm seeing out of the smaller, shiftier guys. They can be huge(pun intended) in this offense

5. Kelvin Smith didn't have the best day and TE looking really thin. Dillman in a leg brace, maybe an ACL? Means and Chumley also both out

6. Defense looking better than expected. Secondary is banged up and you can tell but they competed well

UNT90 · August 13, 2016

1 hour ago, Wag Tag said:

Just went from 3 wins to 5! "F" potential GMG

Rah rah rah sis boom bah.

SilverEagle · August 13, 2016

I was busy talking with Chuck Mills and Coach Bahnsen, plus a "notable" supporter, but here are my observations.

The defense still needs to improve greatly on their tackling. The DB's were punishing people and Finney got an interception off of Fine, but there were few big plays behind the line of scrimmage. But then, I don't think they were going 100% either.

#4 Wyche, had a spectacular run up the middle in the scrimmage. But the question is this.....great running or bad tackling? He also had a great punt return, straight up the middle. But the same question applies. Having said that, Wyche is a good addition to the team. He has deceptive speed and he is a decisive (one-cut-and-go) runner with very good vision.

#44 Smith, looked pretty good. Someone observed earlier in the week that he doesn't have blazing speed, but he makes people miss a lot.......I agree.

Wilson and Ivery looked pretty much where they should be. And considering that Ivery did not participate in spring ball, that's pretty impressive.

Tucker #25 also looked good out there.

WR's

89 Willie Robinson should get the ball on short routes as much as possible. He had what I thought was one of the best runs of the day off a short route.

3 Gooree made some good catches and I don't remember any drops.

2. Rutherford made some impressive grabs, but dropped some easy catches in the ol' bread basket. Spectacular catches are great, but catching the "ordinary" throw-and-catch on third down is even more spectacular in my mind. That's a long way to say I REALLY HATE IT WHEN A RECEIVER DROPS THE EASY PASS WHEN IT COULD HAVE TURNED INTO A FIRST DOWN.

31 Buyers made some good plays. He'll be the one they would go to when they absolutely need the 3rd and three catch.

Both 88 and 8 (the Oklahoma boys) looked good. They made the ordinary as well as (in the case of 88) the splashy catch. They look to be very confident receivers.

87 had some good catches and some disappointing misses. I'm intrigued by a 6'2" X 250lb WR.

I don't remember seeing them throwing to Griffin.

QB's

As of 8-13-16 here is how I would rank them.

5 Morris, 6, Fine, 18, O'hara......... Shanbour advised me that he could not participate today. He also advised me that the situation was very temporary.

Morris looked more "aggressive" in his play than what I observed in the spring. Yes he was Rah Rahing it up some, and he was, for the most part, delivering the ball where it needed to go.

18, O'Hara looked better than Greer, but he has a lot of catching up to do. He has pretty good speed as he ran one in for a score on a goal line situation. But his arm strength is not as good as Morris or Fine.

But if you want to know who impressed me more, it was Fine (#6 on your program). Whatever energy Morris was trying to give to the offense by pseudo cheer leading....Fine was at a slightly higher level. He was a little faster than I imagined him being. His arm strength and accuracy were also better than I anticipated. But the most impressive thing to me was his confidence. He is clearly the leader when he is out on the field. He is not going to be a bus driver unless he is given strict orders to do so. Today he looked fearless out on the field. His whole body-language-attitude is "attack, attack".

I'll make a reckless and/or bold statement after only seeing him once. If Morris (God forbid) goes down, and Shanbour is not able to play, I don't see how they don't put Fine out on the field.

addendum: Both Chumley and Means were not dressed out today. Chumley was wearing a boot. I couldn't see what might have been wrong with Means.

Edited August 13, 2016 by SilverEagle

Mean_Green09 · August 13, 2016

Goree struggled today. You could tell he was a bit frustrated.

Bussey is in the two deep and probably a starter

greenminer · August 13, 2016

15 minutes ago, UNT90 said:

Rah rah rah sis boom bah.

Some fans just want to be fanatical and optimistic.

Shame on them!

Paulie Walnuts · August 13, 2016

I havent heard much from anybody about the O-Line. How are they looking?

Mean_Green09 · August 13, 2016

27 minutes ago, Paulie Walnuts said:

I havent heard much from anybody about the O-Line. How are they looking?

I thought they were better in pass protection than the spring game. At times they struggled to open up running lanes. Thought they handled the multiple blitzes well. Rice had a few bad snaps.

Its a work in progress.

outoftown · August 13, 2016

5 hours ago, Christopher Walker said:

The lines seem about evenly matched, so really I'm not sure what to take of that.

When the ball is actually in their hands, our RB core seem hard to bring down. That however could be attributed to poor tackling in some of this defensive backfield.

That scares me. Maybe I am just too pessimistic, but with the small numbers etc, I have a hard time believing both lines could be good. That leaves both lines to be bad as the most likely scenario (of course that is maybe just a bit too blackand white).

GMG24 · August 13, 2016

1 hour ago, Paulie Walnuts said:

I havent heard much from anybody about the O-Line. How are they looking?

I heard not good things from a buddy who was watching.

BillySee58 · August 13, 2016

1 hour ago, Mean_Green09 said:

I thought they were better in pass protection than the spring game. At times they struggled to open up running lanes. Thought they handled the multiple blitzes well. Rice had a few bad snaps.

Its a work in progress.

I think people, coaches and fans, should expect a bad snap here and there by Rice. He's never played center in college, and if he's still botching snaps at this point it's going to happen in the games. Just have to hope they don't come at critical junctures.

Cerebus · August 13, 2016

2 hours ago, Paulie Walnuts said:

I havent heard much from anybody about the O-Line. How are they looking?

The reason I never put much stock in scrimmages is because winning and losing starts with your linemen on both sides of the ball. The problem when you play scrimmages is you never really know if one side did well because they are good, or the other side is just bad.

The linemen on the Dickey bowl years (with the exception of Booger, he was a destroyer of worlds) always looked mediocre against each other. You never could tell if either of them was any good. Then they played other teams and manhandled them, there was a reason the linemen on both sides of the ball dominated the all conference teams. And a reason we won.

Long story short, it all depends on how good the linemen do, you won't really know how good they are until they play other people.

UNT90 · August 13, 2016

15 minutes ago, dd992emo said:

I said it months ago and I'll say it again. Because of his abilities on the field and his "intangibles" Mason Fine may very well be the starting QB by October. He's that good of a football player and an even better person.

We all hope you are right.

GreenN'walinsVet · August 14, 2016

1 hour ago, UNT90 said:

We all hope you are right.

NOT ALL! I hope he never sees the field this year because Morris is that good and then if Fine really is the real deal then we can have the next 4 years to look forward to.

UNT90 · August 14, 2016

26 minutes ago, GreenN'walinsVet said:

NOT ALL! I hope he never sees the field this year because Morris is that good and then if Fine really is the real deal then we can have the next 4 years to look forward to.

If Fine is BETTER than Morris I want him on the field yesterday.

See USM.

Mean_Green09 · August 14, 2016

2 minutes ago, UNT90 said:

If Fine is BETTER than Morris I want him on the field yesterday.

See USM.

He isn't. Not at this stage. Is he better than our previously recruited QBs? Yes. Is he worthy of a scholarship? Yes. He still has a long way to go.

We tend to over hype backup QBs around here.

Morris is the starter and it's not even close.

Dont get wrong Fine has a pretty strong arm. He is pretty accurate. He does stare down WRs. He does leave the pocket a little early. I don't think he could survive the beating yet. I'm excited to see his growth, but let's not get carried away.

UNT90 · August 14, 2016

10 minutes ago, Mean_Green09 said:

He isn't. Not at this stage. Is he better than our previously recruited QBs? Yes. Is he worthy of a scholarship? Yes. He still has a long way to go.

We tend to over hype backup QBs around here.

Morris is the starter and it's not even close.

Dont get wrong Fine has a pretty strong arm. He is pretty accurate. He does stare down WRs. He does leave the pocket a little early. I don't think he could survive the beating yet. I'm excited to see his growth, but let's not get carried away.

One practice. We don't know anything yet.

North Texas Shep · August 14, 2016

10 hours ago, Marty said:

No Flusche? Maybe he has some minor injury.

I don't think so. He just wasn't playing much. Which is surprising... I thought he had a chance to start this season.

Ben Gooding · August 14, 2016

1 hour ago, UNT90 said:

One practice. We don't know anything yet.

He needs to be redshirted. We need him to sustain the building project, not launch it.

Side Show Joe · August 14, 2016

4 hours ago, Cerebus said:

The reason I never put much stock in scrimmages is because winning and losing starts with your linemen on both sides of the ball. The problem when you play scrimmages is you never really know if one side did well because they are good, or the other side is just bad.

The linemen on the Dickey bowl years (with the exception of Booger, he was a destroyer of worlds) always looked mediocre against each other. You never could tell if either of them was any good. Then they played other teams and manhandled them, there was a reason the linemen on both sides of the ball dominated the all conference teams. And a reason we won.

Long story short, it all depends on how good the linemen do, you won't really know how good they are until they play other people.

I totally agree with this. Line play really dictates the overall success of both the offense and defense, and we just can't gauge it yet.

Cr1028 · August 15, 2016

On 8/13/2016 at 10:10 AM, Christopher Walker said:

#6 Mason Fine is going to be fun to watch develop.

On 8/13/2016 at 11:16 AM, Green P1 said:

Morris and Rutherford look like they've developed quite the chemistry. Rutherford looks like he's ready to be the big tall wr recruit that finally pays off.

On 8/13/2016 at 0:06 PM, Mean_Green09 said:

He looks like a top 5 maybe top 3 QB in CUSA. For sure top 5.

In in total control out there. No incompletions in the 0-10 range. He suffered some droops down the field.

On 8/13/2016 at 0:53 PM, southsideguy said:

which qb hitnumber 88 between the defenders on the bomb for TD. The guy did two things I have not seen from UNT QB in awhile. Hit the guy in stride and did not telegraph he was throwing the ball there. Nice play!

On 8/13/2016 at 1:01 PM, Mean_Green09 said:

Fine

On 8/13/2016 at 2:38 PM, MGNation92 said:

My observations:

1. Morris looks a lot more comfortable in the offense. I had my doubts in the spring but he's settling in

2. Mason Fine looks tiny but man that kid can sling it. I know they want to redshirt him but I thought he was better than O'hara

On 8/13/2016 at 2:47 PM, SilverEagle said:

But if you want to know who impressed me more, it was Fine (#6 on your program). Whatever energy Morris was trying to give to the offense by pseudo cheer leading....Fine was at a slightly higher level. He was a little faster than I imagined him being. His arm strength and accuracy were also better than I anticipated. But the most impressive thing to me was his confidence. He is clearly the leader when he is out on the field. He is not going to be a bus driver unless he is given strict orders to do so. Today he looked fearless out on the field. His whole body-language-attitude is "attack, attack".

UNT90 · August 15, 2016

On August 13, 2016 at 9:41 PM, Ben Gooding said:

He needs to be redshirted. We need him to sustain the building project, not launch it.

Littrell said at the fan meeting that the best players will play. Period. And in direct response to a question about Fine.

Not one swinging D on here knows how well Fine or Morris will handle live game action. Being mobile is going to be huge this year. I think we see second and maybe even third team QBs start 2-4 games this year due to injury. If Fine wins the 2nd team job, he will play this year.

Whether you like it or not.

Edited August 15, 2016 by UNT90