My Scrimmage Thoughts

• Mortensen and Barthel were just okay. The thing that Mortensen appears to bring to the table over Barthel (and maybe all the QBs?) is that he seems to be smart enough to not make mistakes that cause turnovers. If it's not there, he'll throw it away or get out of bounds. My guess on Barthel is that he plays ten times better under the lights than he does during practice. But that guess is about the only comparison to Matt Jones that you might make about any of these quarterbacks.



• Felix Jones was very impressive...especially at the beginning of the scrimmage. Yes, he did have a fumble. But I've seen many (and more highly touted) freshman RBs in the past that never showed the promise that he did last night.



• I'll admit it...when I first saw Darren McFadden at the scrimmage, I was a little concerned. During his first few rushing attempts, he did the infamous Cedric Cobbs "bounce outside" and get tackled for a loss. But all of the sudden, on about his third or fourth carry, he completely blew a guy up. Now...not a stiff arm, mind you...he ran over the poor guy like Cobbs never did when he was here. My very quick (much too quick I'll admit) impression of him changed immediately and he proceeded to get better and better until the scrimmage ended. And, as advertised, he has tremendous breakaway speed.



• We ran a lot of timing routes and very few (if any) running back screens. The timing routes were of the "take a two step drop and hit a receiver running an out and up" variety. And even though we haven't seen much of that during the past few years, the QBs and WRs seemed to execute these plays surprisingly well. As for the RB screens...well...apparently HDN removed them from the playbook when Mark Pierce (and Adam Daily) left town. Here's hoping he's just saving those plays for Peyton Hillis (who didn't play last night because of illness).



• Special teams is a mess. We seem to have several decent kickoff guys, but the best punter last night (Skinner) takes forever to kick the dang ball. Michael Coe will be okay as the punt returner...but there's room for someone else to step up. As for field goals, well, I disappointingly say that none of the new kickers looked good and the old ones looked the same (i.e. adequate). I think all the field goal blocks that happened were a good thing. I'd much rather those happen last night than two weeks from now and beyond.



• The biggest question still left is the defense. Don't get me wrong...there are still lots of big questions. But because many of the first team defense didn't play, a lot of questions are still left to be answered. Will we tackle better? Can we stop the run? Are we going to be better at linebacker? Will the secondary be adequate? Only time will tell.



• Reggie Herring's defensive unit pre-game warmup is worth arriving early to a game. It's impossible to describe it fully in writing...you have to see it. But the first thing I thought when I saw it was "military boot camp." And when plays are over with this season, it's possible the Hog defense may get a penalty for knocking the opposing offense down one more time just because they're sprinting to get back into formation. Compared to what I saw last night, every other defense in the country "loafs" around. I love it.

Overall, my impression of this team improved after last night. I'm still not ready to say they will have a winning season. But if the offensive line is as good as everyone says, and the impressive freshman running backs help compliment last year's returning backfield, we will be able to run the ball. And if that's combined with the defensive questions being answered positively, this team could surprise many people with its ability to compete in the SEC. It may not be very pretty...but it might be enough to win some games.