clt says great tailgate and environment, but biff having sleeves ruined the day
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I missed this tweet and wasnât looking for him. I saw him run from one sideline to the other during some downtime, but never noticed him playing. Did anyone else catch some of his snaps?
Estimates were over 5000. The home side of the field was pretty full. Tailgating was terrific and Biff visited our and many other tailgates. Student section about 30%. It appeared that a whole lot of students partied hard and skipped the game. Which is typical. When we win the skipping will stop.
Observations:
Jones is clearly the #1 QB now. Williams was okay but really didnât shine. Johnson was below average. Foster was a surprise and appeared to be a leader now.
Handy gets too excited and jumps offside but is super quick. Monroe will be a really good LB. DBâs are still a work in progress. Not impressed with the speed of our WRâs. Byrd was awesome and the white OL were beasts and really pushed their weight around.
I think we have the makings of a really competitive team. I am excited. Go Niners!
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I can comment on the crowd. Iâve been to every Spring Game and this crowd was good not great. I am a bad estimator of crowd size but I would guess 5 or 6,000. It certainly didnât measure up to the first couple of spring games but much better than last year. It wasnât a packed house but a good crowd.
The game itself was much more of a football game than âshowâ when Healy was coach. I like the team we are assembling. It is tough to evaluate the team when it is playing itself and split in half. Individuals were easier to evaluate. I thought Jalon Jones, Shad Byrd, the white team offensive line and size of the lines stood out to me. Byrd looked surprisingly better than last season. That says a lot about his work and our offensive line.
We are going to line up and run the ball. The offense is exactly what Biff said it would be. The man tells it like it is.
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From what I saw, there is no competition for QB1. Itâs Jonesâ job. He was quick and decisive and accurate. Williams looked like him and receivers werenât on same page and some of that was happy feet from pressure. Foster was accurate with his throws, just sometimes it was the offense he hit in the chest and sometimes it was the defense. He had one interception given back on penalty and two other interceptions dropped. Black only played handful of snaps so canât judge him. It looks like from the game that qb runs will be a big part and Xavier, jalen and foster are all quick and athletic and can throw on the run.
Running backsâŚByrd looked like a different man than last year. He ran with a purpose and looked good. Robinson looked like it was his first game and he was too hyped up but didnât get a lot of Carries. Rutledge was in shorts and didnât play. The one broke the 80 yard run.
Receiver, not sure we can match last years group but Bradley definitely looks like a deep threat. Hestera looked good playing the slot. We had a lot of redshirt freshman receivers who made plays here and there. But need to see who steps up.
Offensive and defensive lines are definitely bigger and more physical than anything we have had before. And biff said after the game that we had four offensive linemen who werenât there yet. The white team had lots of running lanes early while the green team had a defender in his face and no running lanes outside the 80 yard gain. Isaac Washington seemed to be in on many tackles.
Linebacker or pash rush specialist, we definitely have much speed here. Clooney, ekwonu, and Handy looked like theyâre gonna wreak havoc. Handy had some mental breakdowns but he lived in the backfield making plays
Defensive backs looked much improved over last year. And are playing closer to the receivers and there was no having receivers 5 yards behind them. There was a couple pass interference calls against the green back in first half on deep routes so have to watch out for that.
Itâs hard to tell how good we will be but itâs obvious, we are bigger and faster and more athletic as a whole and that we will be more physical which has been a problem of ours in the past. As biff said after the game, we had more impact players who arenât here or who didnât play too.
Our offense looks deliberate and cram the ball down your throat with runs and play action passes and looks like the deep ball will be important part of our offense.
I would say 5-6 thousand there last night, probably couple thousand more than year before. Home side was pretty filled in and about 20% of normal amount of students there.
Gonna pick a nit here and reiterate something I said before. Byrd was already one of the better kick return men around be cause he runs so well in the open field. I think the difference we saw last night was the improved OL opening good, sometimes huge holes for him. Once he is past the DL and the LBs in the box, he is a highly effective weapon for the same reason he is a good KR. He may have also been running harder too because of the crowded RB room and wanting to preserve his spot. There were other times where the holes didnât open and he got swallowed by our run defense.
Nonetheless, the point is that he will probably be a pretty consistently featured weapon in our run attack, based on last night.
Also - Micah Bell. I cant say I remember anything about him last season, but he got a lot of touches last night.
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I agree that part was the offensive line with Byrd but like on his touchdown run, the defender met him in the backfield and Byrd ran over him and carried him into the end zone. Seemed he had more energy and confidence and that very well could be the change in the offensive line play
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Standouts to me were:
Jones, clear #1.
Byrd
Handy, if he can improve snap discipline
OLine
Think we may have a couple of TEs that can make plays
Had a bunch of recruits beside and behinds us.
Huge D lineman recruit with about 15 lanyards from VT, Clemson, SC, etc. three seats down from me. Nice guy. Love this is the type of kid we are recruiting.
From Hunterâs write-up:
Byrd was the gameâs leading rusher with 107 yards on 5.4 yards per carry.
âLove it. Iâm really happy about the turnout,â Poggi said. âI canât wait for South Carolina State to come here and have it absolutely packed to the rafters.â
who is going to play quarterback? Jones seemed to answer that immediately. He completed six of his seven passes, including the best throw of the evening, a 22-yard dime on the sideline to wideout Jack Reynolds. It even got former Charlotte quarterback Chris Reynolds, Jackâs brother, out of his seat.
Foster had a strong performance in the second half, completing seven of his 12 passes for 104 yards and the game-winning touchdown to Reggie Givhan
After a comment about predictably vanilla offensive looks:
Schematically, the defense showed a few different looks, including a 4-3 under, 4-2-5 and quite a bit of single-high safety.
Poggi said that Charlotte fans didnât really see four-star running back Durell Robinson on Saturday, who had three carries for -8 yards.
The transfer portal window has re-opened, and the 49ers are still planning to add more talent to this roster to prepare for the first season in the American Athletic Conference.
I had a thought about that last quote. There were so many lesser known guys getting snaps that I wonder if some of that wasnât intentional to give them highlight reels for the portal. We have too many players and are looking to add more. I think we will have a fair number of exits in the next few weeks.
Robinson told me after the game that practicing against this defensive line is definitely going to help him when he plays against other teams.
I did wonder about the rotation of players, especially at qb where black and foster didnât take a snap in the first half. I mean at the end, jaden Bradley, WR was playing safety so could of been certain players on snap counts
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I will add that Byrd tends to fall forward when tackled in the middle of the field. That white offensive line was impressive, very impressive.
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Wow. 107 yards? Damn Byrd!
Tailgate was fantastic. The podcast with the group of 5 guys was a lot of fun. Didnât really pay much attention to the game.
I heard that some free shots at a medical vehicle might have caused some temporary ADD symptoms during the game
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Who are the 4 OL that are not here? Austin Johnston?
Thanks everyone for the breakdowns! Itâs much appreciated for those of us who couldnât be there. Iâm really excited about this team, but TRYING to temper my expectations. The reports on Jalon Jones are encouraging. How many years of eligibility does he have?
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I think 2 years eligible. Not sure
Pj wilkins and jasper parks
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