Scrimmage #3

[dapokes]

Now that I'm back up in Laramie, me and a few buddies went to go watch the scrimmage.
Here are a few observations.

-The WRs really seemed to step it up as the scrimmage went on. For the first part of the scrimmage, they were dropping EVERYTHING. Bolling, Morgan, Burkhalter, and Leonard were dropping passes.

-THE WILDCAT OFFENSE IS PRESENT! Man, that was pretty sweet to see DC bust out the Wildcat Offense on a 4th and short. Its was very successful.

-Fresh Faces to Find the Field:
#1 Frosh Impact- Alvester Alexander. This guy will find playing time fast. He was taking the snaps in the wildcat and for the most part looked solid.

#2 Frosh Impact- David Tooley. He's a tight-end that has done nothing but impress me so far. He had a TD today and another big catch down the middle of the field on a ball thrown by ACS. With all of the inconsistency in the passing targets. This guy should find some time on the field in several different situations.

#3 Frosh Impact- Shamiel Gary. He's the obvious pick here, as he is already solidifying his spot in the starting lineup. Watch out for Ghali Muhammad who's rocking #23. He'll be the heir to Chris Pro.

#4 Frosh Impact- Austyn Carta-Samuels. Now after the first 2 scrums, most of us may have thought that he'll be a red-shirt for sure...but I'm not convinced after this scrimmage. In the final 2 min drives (usually reserved for the #1 and #2 qbs) Benjamin led the ones and ACS supplanted Sween and thrived against the #1 D. Sween looked very solid, so I was a little confused...but ACS took the chance and had his best scrimmage yet. He made some other plays during the scrimmage and on the TD strike to Tooley, he looked off the Defense very well.

-Cowboy D looks more Dominant than ever: Nobody is going to be able to run on us this year. They were stingy by stuffing the run today. Our secondary looks good too. Tashaun looks bigger and more comfortable in coverage. Mark it down, our D is going to be better than it was the past few years.

Thats all I got for now. Just some stuff from the top of my head.

[seattlecowboy]

Thanks for the update ! How did Benjamin look to you ?

[seattlecowboy]

For the second straight scrimmage the University of Wyoming’s offense struggled.

And for most of Saturday’s scrimmage in Laramie the defense didn’t do a lot to contribute to those struggles.

There were 12 dropped passes and six offensive penalties. The run game averaged 2.7 yards per carry and the passing game completed just 50 percent of its passes with no touchdowns and two interceptions.

Needless to say, first-year coach Dave Christensen wasn’t happy afterwards, and for the second straight scrimmage he wasn’t shy about expressing his frustrations.

See Sunday’s story in the WTE about what he said about his receivers, but one thing he did say was that the defense had nothing to do with those drops. Christensen also thinks his offensive line isn’t physical enough, and he still doesn’t like the fact his running backs have a hard time running north and south.

But after this scrimmage Christensen had more of a broad-based criticism of his team.

“I’m disappointed in the mental toughness of our team,” he said. … “We’ve got to get tougher.”

Interestingly enough, I heard one player after the scrimmage say it was pretty hot on the field which could have led to the offensive woes. Do you think it’s been hot in Texas or Utah or any where else in the country this summer? That’s not a sign of a tough football team, is it?

But how do you instill that? That’s not something you can just give players, or expect them to pick up overnight.

“Toughness is a mental thing,” junior quarterback Robert Benjamin said. “Once you’re mentally tough, you’re physically tough.”

The physical part doesn’t seem to be the problem right now. Heck, the offensive line and receivers put in nearly 30 minutes of extra conditioning for their struggles after the scrimmage. And, the number of serious injuries are significantly down in fall camp compared to spring drills.

Seems like the Cowboys have a long way to go on the mental side of things. Just like the consistency issue Christensen harped on earlier in the week, toughness is another one that must be addressed and improved upon.

It wasn’t all doom and gloom from the scrimmage. Here are some highlights:

–Senior defensive tackle Mike Neuhaus had his second interception of camp when he picked off Benjamin. Both of his interceptions in camp have come against Benjamin. Maybe Neuhaus should get some work at receiver, a position he played in high school.

–Redshirt freshman defensive end Cory Orth blocked a 31-yard field goal, and senior defensive tackle John Fletcher played well on field goal and extra-point block teams. In fact, Christensen has been pleased with the progress of all his kickoff and punt units in fall camp.

–Senior kicker Jake Scott had his best scrimmage as he was a perfect 6-for-6 in field goals, with a long of 42. He also made all four of his extra points.

–Redshirt freshman running back James Caraway had a 65-yard touchdown run.

–Junior free safety Chris Prosinski had an interception to end the scrimamge, and he also had the hit of the day with a hard shot on senior receiver Greg Bolling. However, Bolling held on to the ball.

For an intersting read, see Sunday’s WTE and how three former college coaches who reside in the area have been impressed with what they’ve seen from Christensen and his staff thus far.

[MrTitleist]

I'm glad the defense is stepping up, if we're going to win some games this year, it's going to have to be on the back of the defense. The WRs dropping footballs isn't going to last long, DC isn't going to stand for it, and in this offense, pass catching is probably pretty important. dapokes, your report of Shamiel Gary is spot on with another poster than mentioned him this week, I'm glad we have that kind of talent. I still wouldn't be surprised if ACS redshirts just due to the # of QBs on the roster. A guy like that will be a special Cowboy QB, no need to run him out there as a true freshman and risk injury or let-down. Alvester Alexander sounds impressive from what you, and other posters have reported. While things may not look great for this year, I suspect that we've hit rock bottom and things are quickly looking up in the coming years.

[WYCowboy]

There are still 2 weeks until our first game. That may not sound like much, but it is time enough to work out most of the problems - especially the offensive penalties. If our upper classmen want to get much pt, they better step it up, otherwise our freshmen will be getting most of the pt. Neuhaus has been a hard worker ever since he got here. He just had some injury problems early in his career. He may be the biggest surprise on D this year.

[UW44]

Good post dapokes. My thoughts are similar. First of all, Alexander looked great. He has a good combination of speed and strength. He had a nice 60ish yard TD dash and looked very good running in short yardage situations. The WR looked terrible early on but started catching the ball consistently later in the scrimmage. Still if we drop half as many passes we will still struggle because we pass it so often. The defense was solid, but once the offense started clicking the D struggled to stop the passing game.

Benjamin looked good. He had a couple of mystifying mistakes though. He rolled out to throw a screen pass and tried to throw it through a lineman. Well...it didn't work, but it was a good play by the defensive player. On another play the pocket collapsed and as he ran he fumbled the ball. I think it slipped out of his hand but it may have been hit. Both plays were frustrating because they were very unforced and easily avoidable. He has to work on securing the ball and making the easy play. Aside from that he was accurate in his passes (the recievers dropped some very good throws which lowered his completion percentage) and especially impressive in his deep passes. There were a couple of deep balls that I thought were perfectly thrown but it seemed the WR's slowed down.

ACS looked very good as well, and he even played with the second string for a series and led them down the field against the first string defense. He will be a special player I think.

Sween was solid, and if it wasn't for Benjamin's running ability he would be the front runner.

The WR's?!! Well, I can say they got open and had they caught 8 more balls we would all be singing their praises. They just need to catch the ball and our offense will be much more productive.

[evilpoke]

These passes they were dropping - were they passes a high schooler should catch or were there some tough catches they went for?