Offensive Notes
- We got a small rotation at OG. Dowrey, Bates, Laurent, McGovern, by snap count, was the Week 1 order of preference. I doubt it stays that way.
- So how about that rotation at RB, huh?
- Not a lot of imagination from JoeMo in Week 1 as far as personnel groups. Every play saw “11” personnel - 1 RB, 1 TE, 3 WR.
- Not a lot of imagination from JoeMo in Week 1 as far as formations go. We got three flavors: 1) 2x2, 2) 3x1, and 3) a “trips”, with all 3 WR on one side, and the TE on the line, opposite side. And that’d be it. Every play was run from shotgun.
- There was a really cool TE screen that got blow’d up by some smart Kent State defenders in the 3rd quarter. That was about it for “trick” plays, though.
- Let’s move along.
Defensive Notes
- Kevin Givens gets off the ball better than everyone else on the defense, by at least half a body length. Impressive get-off.
- Sickels has a field day against RTs, and I wish he’d play over there more often. But, he typically does not. Schwan got dinged in the late 3rd / early 4th quarter, but I wouldn’t be surprised to seen Torrence Brown overtake him for the starting spot.
- Your coaches’ ranking of DEs: 1-Sickels, T2-Schwan/Brown, T4-Buchholz/Miller.
- Not a lot of action at LB to discuss. Bell and Wartman-White did flip-flop roles a little bit, but they’re mostly set. Bowen was the only other LB to get non-garbage snaps, and he didn’t get too many of those. First appearance was KSU’s 3rd drive.
- So we have a base 4-3. “Under” when Givens is on the field, to single him up on a guard, and let him penetrate and break things. When it’s White or Chavis, we’re in an “Over” front.
- We also have a heavy nickel - one of Wartman/Bell run off, and Koa Farmer runs on. Farmer made his first entrance on snap 6 of KSU’s second drive. One play later, KSU ran the funky formation for a big gain, and that was that for a while.
- We have a regular nickel. John Reid is your all-time nickel back. He’ll bump inside, and Christian Campbell / Amani Owuwariye takes boundary or field. Jordan Smith was the only other CB to get time at nickel on the inside. He got run there on KSU’s 6th possession of the first half.
- Your coaches’ ranking of CBs: 1-Reid, T2-Haley/Campbell, 4-Owuwariye, 5-J.Smith, 6-Garrett Taylor.
- Lot of different blitzers in Week 1, though were all out of “zone” schemes. All 3 LBs and both safeties came. Also a lot of corner blitzes - 4 or 5 of them - from both field and boundary, which takes some cojones, and speaks to Brent Pry’s confidence in his top 4 cover men.