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New Fish
Doogman:
- Shoulder pads for the first time.
- Haener and Eason split 1st and 2nd team reps.
- Eason pressed early, was missing his reads, took a sack and threw the ball away, and then it seemed to click and he was lights out.
- Eason and Chico McClatcher combined on the "Play of the Day" streaking down the sidelines on the far side of the field. The ball dropped right into McClatcher's waiting arms and he raced the rest of the way for a pretty 42-yard touchdown pass as Dominique Hampton and Alex Cook looked on helplessly.
- Eason also hit Hunter Bryant down the middle for what likely would have been a touchdown had they not blown the play dead.
- Haener had three interceptions on the day with two coming from Elijah Molden and another coming at the hands of Myles Bryant in the endzone which halted a pretty 80 yard drive.
- Haener and the rest of the quarterbacks struggled a bit with high or off-the-mark snaps from all of the centers, but most of them came from Matteo Mele. Henry Roberts and Mele each got lots of snaps with the second unit while Roberts also got a series with the first team and had a failed snap for a fumble.
- Cam Davis looked smooth running the ball and he he lowered his shoulder on one play to burst through a tackle attempt by two linebackers.
- Richard Newton was probably the most-impressive of the group, bouncing a run outside and getting down the field for what would have been about a 20-yard gain.
- Sean McGrew was bottled up most of the day on his runs, but in the final 11v11 session he made the defense pay for over-pursuing, spinning out of a tackle attempt and reversing his field and running down the field for a big gain before they blew things dead.
- Terrell Bynum and Marquis Spiker each making big grabs with Bynum's coming on a third-down pass from Haener where he was able to haul in a long pass inside the five yard line with a defensive back all over him. Spiker drew a penalty on Trent McDuffie on a long pass and then later stepped up to make a big grab on an in-breaking route.
- Elijah Molden was the best player of the day with two picks -- one from Dylan Morris and one from Haener -- while Bryant added his in the endzone and walk-on Nick Juran added his second interception of camp, making a finger-tip grab on a pass from Morris to Puka Nacua who had the ball go right through his hands.
- MJ Tafisi and Jackson Sirmon each made stellar plays against the run, filling a gap and allowing their teammates to bottle up one of the tailbacks. Tafisi really plays with a forward-lean and Sirmon is just super-instinctive.
- Josh Calvert, Daniel Heimuli and Alphonzo Tuputala also were in and running around. Calvert had some nice coverage in 7v7 and 11v11 work, blanketing some running backs and even re-routing a couple of receivers on plays.
- Bob Gregory said after practice that he can definitely see the athleticism and instincts from the freshman linebackers, but he can also see their frustration at times because they aren't making the plays they were able to make in high school, so it is just motivation for them to figure things out a little bit more, like what the offense is doing on a certain play or out of a certain formation, and then being able to recognize that and be where they're supposed to be.
- In the kicking competition, Peyton Henry hit his only contested attempt, coming from 37 yards while Tim Horn's attempt from the same spot was blocked.
I was going to pile on in this Chico lovefest we have going on here, so I went looking for a very specific .gif to drive the point home that people forget that in UW's record-setting 2016 offensive performance, the seal was broken by a bomb to Chico. Poor linebacker had no chance 1v1 on the outside. I found the .gif:
View attachment 598
And I found the .gif in an article that's going to save me a lot of typing in this post. The Cliff's Notes version is that a lot of what made the offense so successful in 2016 was McClatcher's versatility.
To dive deeper, everyone here loves to shit on Petersen's offensive philosophy--and the results the last couple of years suggest this is warranted--but there are two facets of the offense that I really love: Tight ends and "The Chico Position." The offense relies a lot on personnel groupings that create ambiguity and mismatches, and plays are changed at the LOS to take maximum advantage. Guys like John Ross and Myles Gaskin are a nightmare for defensive coordinators because they're so good. Something that really stood out, though, was how, in spite of having a stud like Gaskin in the backfield, defenses would shit their pants[/i] whenever Salvon Ahmed would come on the field his freshman year. He'd go in motion, and you'd see seven guys pointing at him and scrambling to figure out where to line up to stop him.
Defensive coordinators hate amazing skill players. They haaaaaaaaate Chico McClatcher. They haaaaaaaaate Hunter Bryant. They haaaaaaaaate Ahmed matched with a second running back in the huddle. These guys come on the field, and it's "Is this 12 personnel or 11? Is this 22 personnel or 12? Should I match with goal line personnel or dime?" Trying to defend players who can play two positions without giving up anything at either is a nightmare. It makes things unpredictable and helps a smart quarterback put a defense on their back heel and abuse them--particularly less talented defenses that require positional soundness. We can argue all day whether maximizing such a system overcomplicates the offense when facing talent-laden defenses, but it's a beautiful thing when the system works as designed.
Chico was missed.
Welcome to 2015. I expect Lindquist to win the job. He can get the ball to chico anywhere on the field.
