Watched the scrimmage today and these are the things that jumped out at me:
- Best Player: Stafon Johnson
- I was going to say a tie between Stafon and Chauncey, but I really liked the way Stafon hit the holes. When Stafon scored his 2nd TD, you saw a little bit of everything: setting up a block, nice cut/burst, and great vision. Credit to C.J. Gable for his performance last season, but in my mind, Stafon is clearly the #2 tailback.
- Biggest Surprise: Brandon Carswell
- Ran very nice routes and showed great hands on a few catches.
- Biggest Disappointment: Patrick Turner, Fred Davis, and JDB
- Patrick Turner was nonexistent the entire scrimmage. I saw him suited up and on the field, but I don't recall him being in any play.
- Fred Davis dropped a few balls that hit him square in the chest. To me that's disappointing considering he's an All-American candidate and starting senior.
- I know Coach Carroll praised JDB's performance and his stats look good on paper, but his incompletions were all balls that could have been intercepted. He had one pass where he nearly the WR/TE in the back. He rushed another pass to Anthony McCoy. He forced a throw on a post route to David Ausberry that would have been intercepted by an above-average CB. Am I saying JDB is a bad QB? No, but I still think he's an average QB when pass protection is anything less than par.
- Play of the Game: Allen Bradford's 30 Yard Run
- Yeah, I know Stafon's run where he sped down the sideline and cutback to the middle was exciting, and I also know Vidal's TD catch where he had to readjust and make a leaping grab was great as well, but none of them came against the 1st team defense. The way Allen made Rey miss in the backfield and then turned it up a gear and sped past Kevin Ellison for a 30 yard gain was outstanding.
- Overlooked Play of the Game: Taylor Mays closing the gap on Allen Bradford
- I've seen no mention of this play. Allen took the handoff going left and made a great cut in the opposite direction that literally opened up an entire side of the field. As he sped past the outside DE/LB, Taylor Mays came racing in, cut the angle, and took Allen down. I think Allen gained less than 10 yards on that play, but it should have been a 15+ yard run.
- Most Embarrassing Play of the Game: Ronald Johnson's Kick Return
- So RoJo hesitates and drops the ball but luckily it doesn't get away from him. He then runs laterally and shows nice burst up the middle and towards the sideline. All that stood before RoJo and the end zone was Joe Houston and Thomas Williams (same team). Instead of racing away from Joe by continuing up the sideline, he decides to cut back towards the middle of the field, which confuses Thomas Williams causing him to run right by Joe and he ends up being tackled. If you didn't know already, Joe Houston is a KICKER.
- Straight Beastin': Sedrick Ellis
- Did his usual job of clogging the middle, but what really impressed me was his ability to run down Allen Bradford and prevent him from turning up field. You could see the two jawing at each other from the several run-ins.
- Other Random Thoughts:
- Desmond Reed should be the punt returner.
- I'm not sold on Vincent Joseph being the kick returner. Yes, he averaged 20+ yards on his returns, but he also made several bad decisions (e.g. choosing to try and leap frog Cary Harris and nearly coughing up the ball in the process).
- Shareece Wright would have had the hit of the day, if he was allowed to hit the QB.
- At the moment, I think Josh Pinkard deserves to start over Taylor Mays. He showed great coverage one-on-one.
Overall, I came away impressed with the team. I don't think we'll be as dominant as some people are claiming, but we are definitely NC caliber.
