Saturday Evening Scrimmage Report

Today's scrimmage in Vaught-Hemingway was certainly a let down. While many players had good days and showed great potential, an upsetting large majority of the scrimmage was dedicated to third team vs. third team plays which is pretty damned boring. Here are our notes:

1. Jevan Snead didn't throw very much. He was only in for a couple of drives and most of the plays called during his drives were either runs or short pass plays. The same goes for Tapp. Stanley was in for a half-dozen drives or so and threw a great deal more than the other quarterbacks. He was mediocre as he threw a few picks (at least one was most certainly the fault of the receiver) and occassionally underthrew his targets.

2. All of the runningbacks had great days. Brandon Bolden and Devin Thomas got a lot of reps and both ran very hard. Bolden played especially well as he continued to demonstrate just how hard he can be to bring down.

3. Andrew Harris, while currently on the third team, showed incredible athleticism and was able to evade several defenders after the catch. Yeah, the defenders were also third teamers, but some of the moves he made took a great deal of skill.

4. I saw no fewer than three different t-shirts which utilized some sort of Houston Nutt related pun. Everything from "The Rebels are NUTTY" to "Welcome to the NUTT HOUSE" is seemingly printed on a t-shirt. Thankfully I saw nobody older than 13 wearing one of these shirts but I was still a bit disappointed. Seriously everyone, stop buying these damned things.

5. Jerrell Powe was a wrecking ball out there, against an offensive line made of walk-ons and freshmen. We, as a fan base, have shamefully hyped this kid to mythical heights. He's got potential and most certainly can contribute on our defensive front, but he's no messiah. During the scrimmage he got an encroachment penalty called against him for jumping the snap early and knocking Billy Tapp (who was wearing a red jersey) to the ground. Shortly after this penalty, several hundred people cheered, clapped, et cetera. One woman in my viscinity even said she was "glad to have him here." What the Hell, people? He committed a damned penalty and knocked over a guy who he wasn't even supposed to touch. That is absolutely nothing to cheer over.

6. Joshua Shene did not miss a single field goal. Being as how we haven't had a seriously capable kicker in several seasons, it would be nice to see Shene show up as a true special teams weapon this fall.

7. Jeremy McGee took a big hit and was escorted off of the field after being attended to for a couple of minutes. Hopefully he's alright.


Honestly, that's about it. Having third teamers practice against one another does not really lend to noteworthy practices or detailed and relevant practice reports. I understand that the coaches didn't want to have a lot of potential starters out there in order to avoid the injury bug so I'll forgive them, this time.