COCKYTALK SPRING PRACTICE REPORT: 4/3/14

[cockybusiness2]

Great read... I really thought we would see a fall off in play this year (rebuilding). After reading your report, I am excited about the up coming season. Could this finally be the year we win the East?

[bhs04]

Originally Posted by Spurticus

Moody has really been good this spring. Solid the first couple of weeks, but
the past two days this week, he's been around the ball A LOT and made some
nice defensive plays from the Free Safety position.

That's the best part about building depth is that you can always teach a guy the playbook.

Its the playmaking ability that usually drops off with the 2nd string and it kinda seems like even our backups know how to come up with a big play these days.

[Spurticus]

Originally Posted by cockybusiness2

Great read... I really thought we would see a fall off in play this year (rebuilding). After reading your report, I am excited about the up coming season. Could this finally be the year we win the East?

Probably a rubber stamp kind of response here, but we've got as good a shot
at it this year as anyone else in the East.

IMO, I think we'll get a good idea after game one where our team stands
with the rest of the SEC. A&M may have lost a few good players, but they
are still going to be a team you can't approach like you do Kentucky or
Vanderbilt. Win against A&M to open the season and I think we'll be in
contention for the East again this year.

[HeadCockFan]

Spurt is a beast.

[Flameout12]

Originally Posted by HeadCockFan

Spurt is a beast.

Spurt mode?

[4gamecockfb]

Georgia and Missouri will probably be our two games that decide if we win the east or not.

[Gamecocks1137]

Originally Posted by 4gamecockfb

Georgia and Missouri will probably be our two games that decide if we win the east or not.

Mizzou will not repeat next year, they had one year worth of luck in them, and that is gone. Georgia, maybe. Florida, I am not even worried about. Muschamp is a washup and will be fired after this season.

[GarnetSwarm1990]

Originally Posted by Gamecocks1137

Mizzou will not repeat next year, they had one year worth of luck in them, and that is gone. Georgia, maybe. Florida, I am not even worried about. Muschamp is a washup and will be fired after this season.

Mizzou will still be able to put up points. They didn't lose all those big tall receivers yet. Their D on the other hand we know nothing about as of right now. Florida always has a good D and if they put any sort of offense together they will be hard to beat in The Swamp. I hope we get revenge for that ass-whooping they gave us last time down there (on the scoreboard at least, it was an ass-whooping).

[qcgamecock]

Thank you Spurt!! Have you seen much of the 3DL and 4LB D and what did you think of it?

[Spurticus]

Originally Posted by qcgamecock

Thank you Spurt!! Have you seen much of the 3DL and 4LB D and what did you think of it?

Not yet. .. I do think that's part of what they do when the team moves
over to the far field for about 20 minutes of practice. When they do that,
they line Players / Coaches / Trainers / Field Security guys along the
sidelines, and the endzones to block most of the view of that part of
practice from the fans who are on the field closest to the road. .. Long
way away, and limited view of what little you can see. ... I think they
work on mainly run plays. (Wildcat formation, Hurry up offense and things
they don't want to make "too" public). So far during the practices, they are in
the 4-2 (With a Spur) That we usually run or a basic 4-3.

I'm going to finally get to go out to one of the scrimmages. I'm getting ready
now to head out to the stadium and I'll let you know if they work out of that
alignment this afternoon in the report IF they do use that on the field this morning.

[Spurticus]

Originally Posted by Gamecocks1137

Mizzou will not repeat next year, they had one year worth of luck in them, and that is gone. Georgia, maybe. Florida, I am not even worried about. Muschamp is a washup and will be fired after this season.

Originally Posted by GarnetSwarm1990

Mizzou will still be able to put up points. They didn't lose all those big tall receivers yet. Their D on the other hand we know nothing about as of right now. Florida always has a good D and if they put any sort of offense together they will be hard to beat in The Swamp. I hope we get revenge for that ass-whooping they gave us last time down there (on the scoreboard at least, it was an ass-whooping).

It's the same this year as every year prior. ... While we're discussing the
improvements / potential for the team this year based on our practices,
and dream about winning the East again, fans from every team in the
SEC are discussing their teams improvements / potential based on the
spring drills from their camps. ...... We're not going to face the same
Vandy, Mizzou, UGA, UT, UF etc.... that we saw last year. You just can't
tell how good (or not so good) we'll be this season based on what we're
doing in Spring drills. It's the SEC and it's ALWAYS a tough row to hoe
when you get into the Conf. Schedule EVERY SINGLE SEASON. The teams
that didn't play so well last year (or few years) might end up contending
for conf. titles this season (prime ex: Missouri from last year).

I think you can honestly say that Vanderbilt might be the only team you
could say that the probable outcome of their season is pretty visible at
this point. Other than that, you have a UK team we usually get a tough
fight from every year but win, that has a new coach and staff, and a
couple of solid recruiting classes under their belts. They'll be improved
this year (IMO). UGA will have some question marks but they ALWAYS
have a class loaded with top recruiting classes from years prior so they
are ALWAYS going to be in contention for the conf. title. Mizzou lost
some big weapons, but they have a nucleus of that Eastern Conf. Title
team coming back this year. They will not be a team we can count on
beating again. If we beat them, we'll have to prove we're the better
team again this year. UF is basically fighting for their program's life.
The fans won't accept another sub 9 win season from their staff and I'm
sure they will go into every game this season with the mindset of getting
their program's respectability back. UT was a strong team in some
positions and weak in others, and I'm positive they know where they were
weak, and are working on getting those areas fixed. They have a hell of
a coach and good recruiting classes for two straight seasons to build on.

How well we do is all going to depend on the same thing those other
teams we play are trying to do. IMPROVE over the efforts from the year
before, and hope that your improvements are good enough to outplay
your opponents and trump their improvements. I think we're going to have
a team this year that will be much improved over 2013 ... That's not a
guarantee that we'll be an 11 win team again (or better) or will win the
East this year. If our opponents improve more rapidly than we did, it could
mean will be improved, but still fall behind team that did a much better
job of rebuilding and improving. ...... That's why we play the games.

JUST KEEP IMPROVING AND GO BEAT THE TEAM YOU PLAY THIS WEEK.

[qcgamecock]

Originally Posted by Spurticus

Not yet. .. I do think that's part of what they do when the team moves
over to the far field for about 20 minutes of practice. When they do that,
they line Players / Coaches / Trainers / Field Security guys along the
sidelines, and the endzones to block most of the view of that part of
practice from the fans who are on the field closest to the road. .. Long
way away, and limited view of what little you can see. ... I think they
work on mainly run plays. (Wildcat formation, Hurry up offense and things
they don't want to make "too" public). So far during the practices, they are in
the 4-2 (With a Spur) That we usually run or a basic 4-3.

I'm going to finally get to go out to one of the scrimmages. I'm getting ready
now to head out to the stadium and I'll let you know if they work out of that
alignment this afternoon in the report IF they do use that on the field this morning.

Awesome, I'm really enjoying the versatility of this team as Spurrier moves forward, the head ball coach has learned to keep an open mind and play to his teams/players strengths IMO and his assistants learn from the offensive genius.

[salvacock]

Always a great report. Thanks Spurt!

[CockOla]

Spurt-- Do you think we can ever turn around our ST play by keeping the same coach that came in with a lot of hype but has yet to back the hype up either on the field or recruiting trail?

[jcatalano3]

Hey Spurt, what is your opinion about our LBs progression compared to this point last year? I hear a lot of positive things from the coaches that I really hope is true. Their progression is crucial.

[Spurticus]

Originally Posted by CockOla

Spurt-- Do you think we can ever turn around our ST play by keeping the same coach that came in with a lot of hype but has yet to back the hype up either on the field or recruiting trail?

Not sure the coach is the issue. Ray Richlewski was probably the best
ST coach we've had in the past two decades here, and even though he
was here only one season, his Spec. Teams didn't really improve a lot
over that one season he was here, even with arguably the two best Kickers
we've had here since the 80s. (Succop and Lanning). AND even though we
had some speed and talent returing kicks. ...IMO, I think it has more to
do "Upper Management", basically saying the position coaches. I don't
think they want their best players used as blockers and return team
players and just want to use the walkons, or those players which might
not see a lot of PT during the games on offense or defense. Yet if you go
look at average teams that have above average / excellent S/T play,
those teams are loaded with players you see both on offense / defense
as starters or backups. ..This of course is just my opinion, but
Special teams play is ONLY as good as the guys down field blocking ahead
of the return personnel, or running down and getting off blocks to limit
the returners for the other team's yardage. There is where we have
sorely lacked in effort for the past decade or more. I think with Holtz's
teams, we just didn't have the athletes available to have Great S/T
plays. NOW, we have the athletes, but we just don't use enough of them
on our Special Teams play. I have yet to understand while looking at
Shaq Roland's High School vids of him returning kickoffs and Punts, why
we didn't at least give him a look as a Kick / Punt return person the
past two seasons ??? ... That is just one example of many I could use
to show where I think we just don't send our best players out there to
help improve our S/T play

[Spurticus]

Originally Posted by jcatalano3

Hey Spurt, what is your opinion about our LBs progression compared to this point last year? I hear a lot of positive things from the coaches that I really hope is true. Their progression is crucial.

I think we're going to have the best LB/Spur unit in the SEC this season
Hands Down. With the improvement these young guys made from game one
to game five last year was remarkable, and to see how they built on that
improvement from midway to the last part of the year was amazing. They
were constantly out of position and had poor tackling skills and that one
area of our team cost us the Georgia game. It all stated coming together
at mid point of the year and it showed drastically how far we'd come
when we played Arkansas. From there it was (still young and some issues..but)
consistent improvements each game for the remainder of the year.
Watching the scrimmage yesterday, and seeing first unit O run against
first unit D, Our defensive front OWNED the offense, and the backers
and spurs were the biggest reason for the several plays where the defense
stuffed the Running backs at the line, and they showed good lateral
pursuit shutting the wide runs down, or limiting them to short yardage.
I have no problem saying what I did above, and feel confident it's an
accurate statement. We will have the premier Linebacker unit in the SEC
in 2014

[Roosterboy]

Originally Posted by Spurticus

Probably a rubber stamp kind of response here, but we've got as good a shot
at it this year as anyone else in the East.

IMO, I think we'll get a good idea after game one where our team stands
with the rest of the SEC. A&M may have lost a few good players, but they
are still going to be a team you can't approach like you do Kentucky or
Vanderbilt. Win against A&M to open the season and I think we'll be in
contention for the East again this year.

Spot on.
Georgia I think will have a down year with Mason at QB.

Kentucky I think will be improved, but still far below us.

Vanderbilt I think will struggle to win 6 games.

Tennessee is a wildcard...they look to have some very good skill guys, but lost their Oline.

Florida is another wildcard. Will again have very good defense, but a new OC leaves a question mark of what they will do on offense, and how much Muschamp lets him call plays.

Mizzou lost a lot of talent from last year...but I think that game could hold the winner of the East.

You are right about TAMU game....a win and we are in good shape...let's assume we probably lose to Auburn (hope we don't, but we don't historically play them well ever it seems) I think we still have a game cushion with a win over TAMU...the winner of the SEC East could have two losses this year...that is how unknown the division looks to me this year.

[henmania]

Originally Posted by Spurticus

I think we're going to have the best LB/Spur unit in the SEC this season
Hands Down. With the improvement these young guys made from game one
to game five last year was remarkable, and to see how they built on that
improvement from midway to the last part of the year was amazing. They
were constantly out of position and had poor tackling skills and that one
area of our team cost us the Georgia game. It all stated coming together
at mid point of the year and it showed drastically how far we'd come
when we played Arkansas. From there it was (still young and some issues..but)
consistent improvements each game for the remainder of the year.
Watching the scrimmage yesterday, and seeing first unit O run against
first unit D, Our defensive front OWNED the offense, and the backers
and spurs were the biggest reason for the several plays where the defense
stuffed the Running backs at the line, and they showed good lateral
pursuit shutting the wide runs down, or limiting them to short yardage.
I have no problem saying what I did above, and feel confident it's an
accurate statement. We will have the premier Linebacker unit in the SEC
in 2014

I agree with you. I must say I was skeptical of Botkin but he did a great job taking his talent and getting a lot out of them. I hope our OL shows the same improvement.

[Spurticus]

Originally Posted by henmania

I agree with you. I must say I was skeptical of Botkin but he did a great job taking his talent and getting a lot out of them. I hope our OL shows the same improvement.

I've had that same issue the past two / three years and it turns out that
I jumped to conclusions way too early. I thought our Head Coach made a
HUGE mistake making Ward the DC just before we played Nebraska in the
Cap 1 bowl in 2011/12. Turned out to be one of the best hires Coach
Spurrier's made since he became the coach at South Carolina. I thought
Botkin was a decent hire after the 2012 season, but realized that he
was coaching kids with a lot of experience and had two years under coach
Johnson. Last season in the first four / five games, I was having serious
doubts about his coaching AND felt the same way about our replacing
Lawing with Adams at the start of 2013. Since mid point of last year, I came to realize
that those two coaches might have been Godsends to this program.
I think you need to give a coach two / three seasons to shape up a
program that is either in total shambles, or starting with a lot of young
guys due to graduation, or players leaving early for whatever reason.
If they do it in less than three, GREAT, but three seasons is time to
bring the young guys to leadership status, and get the guys behind
them on the same page with your schemes and coaching styles and allow
your leaders to work with them on becoming leaders themselves.