impressions of your team after one whole week

[BamaTee1]

Virginia Tech
Positives: We had a much improved offensive line in both pass protection and run and Trey Edmunds ran well. Not too many RBs run for 132 yards against Alabama. Its amazing the leap our offensive line has made from last year if we keep this up. Last year, our offensive line was horrible against some pretty bad teams.

Our defense was pretty good and we really only got burned once despite being very aggressive on defense. Our corners pretty much locked down the Alabama WRs. Our DL and LB kept the run game in check and kept McCarron on the run all night.

Negatives: Logan Thomas wasn't amazing but he made a lot of good throws that were dropped. He certainly wasn't 5 of 26 bad. Our wide receivers were absolutely embarrassing. DJ Coles caused a pick six by stopping on a route and Knowles dropped a lot of catchable passes. I am surprised we didn't use other receivers more. I worry that we won't be able to get our run game going because our passing game is such a mess.

Our special teams were absolutely embarrassing as well. You can't arm tackle a good returners and you can't kick such a flat punt against Alabama or you get embarrassed like we did last night.

Your defense was very good not pretty good. As for your o-line I thought Bama pressured Thomas a ton but he got throws away so sacks don't show up but lots of hurrys. As far as running game, besides the run for 77 yards he rushed 19 times for 55 yards. That's a 2.9 ypc. Not exactly mind blowing. You want your running game to be consistent not one blown assignment. Alabama needs work in this too. Our pick six was a great play by Sunseri. We also dropped a pick in the end zone allowing for the field goal next play after Va Tech had picked McCarron whose receiver did fall down. Yes there were many drops but Thomas had to zip it quick many times with pressure to receivers that were close to him with an Alabama defender right on them. I will agree though many should have been caught. Most the time they weren't going far but still should have caught them.

I think as the year goes on Va Techs defense is going to be one of the best.They have or least in Bama game some great defensive backs. As for special teams some bad tackling lead to most of that. Va Tech should be much improved this year IMO.

 

[RobToxin]

ARMY:

We're 1-0?!? Holy shit!

 

[trojanfan12]

USC

I saw what I expected to see from our offense and saw what I hoped to see on defense!!

Offense: Needs work and a lot of it!! It took the o-line too long to get in sync with one another, blocking schemes etc. and to get the run game going. Once the run game got going (it took until about midway through the 3rd quarter) the offense looked a little better. Neither qb separated themselves, so Kiffin is likely going to have do like Pete Carroll did with Leinart/Cassell and just go with his gut and pick one. Getting Redd and Morgan back should help with the running game too.

Defense: I liked the more aggressive defensive scheme. I don't know if it was our defense being that good or Hawai'is offense being that bad, but I can't complain about 8 sacks, 4 interceptions and countless hits on the qb!!

Bottom line: It was the kind of game that coaches love. We won the game, but the coaches have a lot to yell at the players about!!

 

[Boise4Life]

My impression is our offense sucks, our defense sucks, and our clueless, idiot of an OC SUCKS. In short my impression is our team sucks a fat one in general this season.

 

[Ironbreaker]

UW looks great across the board to me. Minor concerns with the lb's.

We beat a good opponent and made them look bad in the process. I know Boise has its haters and its baseless for the most part. They will compete for the MWC crown and the MWC is better than the AAC from top to bottom and it's not even close. The only team in the AAC that could win the MWC is Louisville, and they very likely would as Boise, while good is rebuilding.

 

[romeo212000]

yeah that was spot on

+1

plus FG kicker looked good

Thanks for reminding me. I forgot to mention OU finally has a kicker.

 

[romeo212000]

thank god we didn't play a good team.
not impressed by much.
everything needs to get a lot better.
but that's what 1st games are for.

Really? You weren't at least impressed with the D? What game were you watching?

 

[mallard666]

qb; After he calmed down Mariota looked sharp.
rb; Good lawd we're going to have a depth of riches there.
ol; Solid and in sync. They'll be plowing open a lot holes for a lot of yards. virginie will definitely be more of a test.
wr; Huff got a quiet 100 yds and had some great downfield blocks. Addison has nice hands.
dl; Damn they looked huge lined up against n-state's oline. solid play, good depth, got some sacks and stuffed the run. looked a little shaky when a mobile qb came in the game.
lb; Good job stuffing the run with the dline but looked confused in the passing game especially when they would lose track of the rb coming out.
db; Not bad except for the helmet to helmet by Mitchell. It wasn't intentional but still ...
special teams; Hey they blocked a fg! Kicking the ball out of bounds on kickoffs twice was unacceptable. No punts which is a good thing.

Overall this was a knock off the rust and give the 3rd and 4th stringers some playing time game. Next week will be a better measure of their progress.

 

[MI Nightmare]

Michigan:

Defense is as good, if not better than advertised. Could easily be one of the best in the Big Ten, if not the country.

Offense, Gardner still a little raw as QB. Got the tools, but needs to settle into the role a bit more. O-line/running game looks solid.

Now, this was CMU we are talking about. Will learn a lot more next week Under the Lights.

We will need a WR (over 5'11) to step up on a weekly basis. Gallon, Dileo, and Norfleet are exciting but they aren't going to be very effective on the deep corner and post patterns. Looking for Joe Reynolds or Jehu Chesson to step their game up and be consistent.

 

[jdwills126]

Michigan will go only as Gardner goes.

He needs to be able to free lance and tuck the rock and run for UofM's offense to be any good.

We beat a bad MAC team so I will watch the Irish game to get a better idea of where the Wolverines are at.

 

[mutiger]

Missouri

Mizzou did what we were supposed to do Murray St whipped them. After going to vanilla on defense to start the game and giving up 2 TD's and too many yards....Mizzou shut out Murray St the last 3 Qtrs while only giving up 97 yards of total offense. Mizzou also had 3 INT's.

Offensively Mizzou looked like the Mizzou of the Big 12. The main reason? Mizzou is healthy. Mizzou is loaded at the offensive skill positions and we are going to a lot of points in the SEC. The WR depth is scary good and we have 3 legit RB's. Josey made his return to the football field 21 months have the nasty knee injury vs Texas by going for 113 yards and a TD on 13 carries. Hansbrough also went for over 100 yards rushing and 2 TD's. Franklin threw for 318 yards and 3 TD's spread the ball around to all the talented WR's. Tons of size and speed for Mizzou on offense

Mizzou will surprise people in the SEC now that we are healthy

 

[starbigd]

Texas:

Daje Johnson emerging as one of the most exciting players in CFB. You will all know his name by Oct/Nov
OL: mixed bag. Push in the middle still lacking. Namely Walters and Espinosa. 2nd unit dominated. They are a more talented group than the first string.
WR: 2 top options missed camp and it certainly showed as M Davis was rusty
DL: Cedic Reed took some big steps. MB was solid
LB: mixed bag. Edmonds still lacks instincts. Santos came off the bench and looked like he may take over h MLB spot
DBs: not worried at CB. Texas is really deep. Safety is not her story. Thompson looked much better, but Phillips still takes poor angles and is not a plus tackler

It's not really the entire second unit. That line didn't dominate until Perkins and Harrison got out there.....and they destroyed the DL. Move those two to the first string and we have the best OL in the conference.

That move would put Mason and Espy on the bench. You'd have Hawkins at LT, Harrison at LG, Hopkins at C, Perkins at RT, and Cochran to RG

 

[WizardHawk]

First impressions? Well I've had an erection that has lasted more than 4 hours over it so I probably should get that looked at.

Offense: Still the pro style plays now in a new up tempo format. Less plays available, but run them faster. Not a huge fan of it, but it seems the way college is all going now so there we are. It was sloppy at times, but hard to argue with nearly 600 total yards and 38 points in an opener. They have a ways to go to get comfortable in this style of play, but first impression is they are farther ahead then I would have ever guessed so thumbs up.

Defense: Had enough depth to stay fresh enough to not even allow a late 4th quarter TD despite both teams running the hurry up. Over 170 plays combined for both teams and the D still had legs late. Should help them out vs teams like Arizona and Oregon where they struggled with late quarter conditioning.
Secondary was flat out shut down the whole game. Think Boise had one long pass the whole game and that was even contained. Questions about where this secondary is at after Desmond Trufant graduated? Answered.
D line was great at times and good the rest. Not a lot of pressure on their QB which was a surprise given the return of our stud pass rusher, but they managed to contain the run and didn't let their QB get much yards with his legs. Not bad at all for a first game.
LB's? Mixed bag there. The team really rallied to the ball well, but the coverage over the middle was very very soft for the first half and parts of the 3rd quarter. Still, they got the tackles they needed. There were some broken tackles here and there, but overall it was more than a passing grade.

Bottom line: Great first game given how many other teams bombed on their first tries, but only time will tell what this game means. Prove it against Pac level teams and I'll buy into it more.

 

[FSUmanager]

We looked outstanding. Wait...FUCK!!! 4 more hours until we finally play.

 

[HuskerinBig10]

Nebraska

Concerns to start the season Special teams and defense.

Offense
QB - average. His throwing was OK, it was is running that was not OK.
Receivers - very talented. Fast, can catch, can block, and can tackle Bell, Turner, and Enunwa will give everyone trouble. The backups of Moore and Westerkamp are also playmakers
Tight ends - New ones, not much happened to them. Nothing good nothing bad. One catch on a tipped ball that was crucial though.
running backs - pretty good. Abdullah, Cross, and Newby all had good games
O Line - should have dominated what looked like an over matched opponent, Wyoming. I don't think Taylor was sacked.


Defense
LOL, Ha Ha, OMG, WTF, ineffective, joke, clowns, all opposing running backs will have career days, all opposing QBs will have career days, some receivers will have career days. There are 124 teams in the BCS, so, the bright side, Nebraska defense cannot finish 200 in total defense.

Special Teams
Way better than expected. Way.
Redshirt freshman punter boomed kicks and coffin cornered critical kicks. His first punt was 58 yarder that was fair caught. It only got better from there.
Kickoffs were mostly touchbacks.
No fumbles on punts.
Kenny Bell had great kick returns, probably averaged 40 yards
Kenny Bell made a huge open field tackle on a boomed punt.
The only negative - The new walk on kicker shanked an extra point after making the first four extra points and a FG attempt.

 

[HuskerinBig10]

Nebraska did have one sack which was then negated because the player making the sack was called for a rougher the passer penalty. You probably won't see that very often.

The QB ducked his head, the defensive end's arm then went around the neck, so it was the correct call because no one wants head injuries anymore, but the QB ducked into it. If the QB would have not tried to avoid the tackle(duh, everyone will try to avoid a tackle) then he would have been hit in his right rib cage.

 

[pitman]

We looked outstanding. Wait...FUCK!!! 4 more hours until we finally play.

Good luck tonight manager. I hope i get to watch part of the game, I have some work to do up at the race track.

 

[Texas Fight]

Overstreet is built like a tree.

 

[Taz_Hokie]

Beamerball is no longer a thing. I wish they would stop saying that phrase.

 

[Texas Fight]

Beamerball is no longer a thing. I wish they would stop saying that phrase.

I was saying that phrase... but it was more of a memorial of sorts.