Bumped from Diaries

What a difference a year makes.  Last year's spring game was packed, there was a buzz, the defense played with intensity and matched our awesome offensive -- WITHOUT WOODNEY AND WWII!!11!

This year's spring practices started during the tournament and ended in closed practices, culminating in last night's "spring scrimmage" we'll call it.

But the weather was nice and the wife was out of town, so I convinced my brother to go with me and get reacqauinted with your 2008 Louisville Football Cardinals.

Overall, the theme of the night was: meh.  The offense looked okay (except for a few very bright spots in the backfield), the defense looked ok, the format, the long time in between plays, and the pre-snap penalties stifled the flow of the game and limited the action.  My brother and I ended up talking about how E5, DC, Jennings and Samardo will share time at the 4/5 spots most of the time, and then leaving early to get some White Castle on the way home.

With 12 series, including 3 each by the 2nd and 3rd teams, there wasn't a lot of football to evaluate.  But a few things seemed apparent:

1. Our running game is going to be a strength.  Bolen is a known quantity of known quality, so watching him run 4 straight plays up the middle got pretty boring.  But getting to see Powell and (especially) Vic Anderson was really the highlight of the night.  And maybe its my Tiger Pride showing, but Vic looked better last night than Powell.  Both can make guys miss (Mr. Bryant and Mr. Woodney, your jock straps are still on the 35 yard line, could you go pick them up?), and both are very fast.  But Vic seemed to get a lot of YAC and did not go down easy.  I really hope we run the ball ALOT this year, and do a lot of swing passes and screens to powell/vic, because they are both very exciting players and will be bright spots.
2. The passing game is not great, and I think a lot of that is the WRs.  Scott Long -- we were all so excited about him last year, but when he took over for Mario in mid-season, he really never lived up to it and dropped what seemed like a lot of balls.  Well, same thing last night.  Maybe he's just a practice all-star or something, and maybe QBs just aren't giving him the ball right, but if Long is our #1 WR, we are in trouble.  Spillman dropped a couple, other guys didn't get open, Cantwell missed the guys who did...overall, the passing game was not impressive.

Maybe it was the play calling, but we ran a couple terrible plays: 1) Scott Long dragging over the middle (like Mario used to do, with the same predictable result), 2) Quick comeback to Spillman (good for 3 yards), and 3) Timing fade route where QB takes a quick drop and just heaves it down the sideline without looking (a/k/a, a "Woodson").  These plays were run a few times with poor results.

Anyway, Cantwell has a cannon, and so look for him to air it out a lot.  If they have him throwing quick hitches and underneath routes and dink/dunk (except to powell/vic out of the backfield)...well, I just hope they know more than me and figure out how to get Cantwell to throw the ball to an open Long 20+ yards down the field.  

The tight ends were there, I guess, but I didn't seem them do anything, but they are a RS Frosh and converted senior LB, so anything they give us is a plus.

3. The offensive line looked good, gave Hunter time and opened up some holes.  I don't know if the OL will be a plus, although having Wood and Bussey as the anchors will help.  But it won't be like 2002 (which we hear every summer when replacing OL)
4. The defensive line is going to be solid.  Heyman and Grady are the best we've got. There are enough bodies that we should have options and be protected against injuries.  Got my first look at Tyler Jessen, the JUCO....my first thought was "why is that fullback playing DL?"  Not a good first impression.
5. The LBs we saw last night will not be the LBs we see against UK.  I hope.  Bryant was abused by Vic (see above), but made some tackles.  Dexter Heyman, there's a spot waiting for you to start as a Frosh.  
6. The secondary -- a tale of two corners.  It was the best of coverage, it was the worst of coverage.  It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of leaving your man wide freaking open.  It will be a season of frustration, it will be a season of promise.  Johnny Patrick played really well last night.  He had some great pass break-ups, playing the ball and getting physical without getting a flag.  I don't want to get all ZOMGJOHNNY PATRICK on you, but he played well.  On the other hand, there's Woodney.  For a "fast" guy, he's not very quick, and he does not seem to be very good at tackling.  He is still okay covering a guy, but that was not his weakness last year (as long as don't play the cover-2 don't let steve johnson run free!!!!!).  He got some flags (offsetting once!) but we'll hear his name incorrectly pronounced a lot this year, because his guy is going to get the ball thrown to him.  

Travis Norton -- the one play in the Miami game in 2006 was a sign of things to come.  I hope he gets better.  Chaz Thompson was out there.  

7) The Safties had no impact that I saw.  They were generally near the ball on Cantwell's heaves, and I didn't see anyone just streaking wide open down the middle of the field (except Amobi Okeye at halftime when he was late for the jersey presentation session).

Frankly, with all the penalties and with the format, we just didn't get to see a lot of football.  So all of these observations are based on the 3-4 times during the whole night that may be isolated incidents that have no bearing at all on where the players really are at this stage of their development.  

But hope springs eternal.  The RBs are young/exciting, the QB has a cannon for an arm, the back-ups throw nice balls, we have a bunch of WRs who seem to have physical tools, the DL is good, one of the young DBs is showing promise, about 7 guys didn't play on defense who will see time in the fall, and Midnight Madness should occur before we are officially eliminated from bowl eligibility.  

But with an easy, 8-home game schedule, and a healthy team with low expectations....lets just say it won't be as bad as last year.  And that's worth something.