Update On Thursday's Practice.

[calvin]

I remember going to the first scrimmage the year after we won our last SBC Title and we were breaking in a new QB and Phillips and Meager were battling it out and our offense looked horrible and I came home and told my wife it could be a long year b/c we didnt look too good. In Dodge's first year I didnt know what to expect and then when I went and watched us last year during practice I thought it was going to be rough season. Well after today and seeing our 1st team O against our first team D in what was basically a live scrimmage, I come away inconclusive, but I do feel a lot better right now then when watching us practice some last year.

The D still has a lot of work to do, I didnt see them stop our O very much except when they stunted and our O line missed an assignment and they were able to get a couple of sacks. But Deloach is not afraid to get iinto someone's ace, even Tobe, he rode him hard today. So it was a little disappointing to see them not look sharper. Usually the defense is ahead of the offense but that didnt look like the case today.

Now the positive. I thought Riley looked really really good. I didnt see him have an incompletion. He threw a beautiful 15 yard out route to move the chains and he stepped up in the pocket and threw a few strikes in the middle of the field and he also had a nice scramble. I know the last 2 years have been rough so it has been hard to be excited but I think we forget how highly ranked Riley was, he was probably the highest recruit we have had since I have been following the team. And there is reason to be excited about him. He was impressive. Not to bash Vizza, b/c I really liked him, but I sat in the end zone last year when we played Troy and see you can see everything from the end zone but there were several times when we had people open and Vizza underthrew or just flat out missed guys. So it is a bold statement but I think if Vizza was here he would have been beaten out by Riley. In just the scrimmaging today Riley looked better than I ever saw Vizza look.

I really hope that this year we committ to the run and run to set up the pass. We have 2 really good backs. Lance Dunbar looked really good, had several long runs and I think with Riley's speed we can run the zone read this year and have 2 threats back there. So for our defense's sake I really hope we make a point to establish the run and get the ball in our best 3 players hands (Riley, Cam and Lance.)