COCKYTALK SCRIMMAGE REPORT: 8/11/12

[Spurticus]

Fall Practice Report (8/11/120) ….Scrimmage

Well, this one is going to be kind of short because I was delayed getting out there, and when I got to the stadium, the parking around Williams Brice was packed, so I had to park a couple of blocks away and walk back. When I got there, they had already run about three series, so I didn’t take notes at this scrimmage the way I usually do. This one is just from memory.

I asked the guy in front of me how long they had been running, and he said about 15 minutes. He said that the team on the field was the third set for the offense. He said Connor threw a deep pass to DL Moore For a TD on his first series that was outstanding. Seth Strickland was running the offense when I arrived and it went quickly as three passes went incomplete and Tyler Hull booted a nice punt that Bruce Ellington made a fair catch on. Connor was back up with the offense on the next series and a loud round of applause went up as Marcus Lattimore came out with him. Marcus carred twice inside breaking off a nice 10 or 12 yard run inside and got hit pretty good at the end. The crowd kind of went quiet until Marcus bounced back up quickly. He carried on the next play as well, on a miss direction and gained about 4 yards and was off the field for the rest of the scrimmage. He went off the field like he came on, with a large round of applause from the crowd.

Connor moved the team past mid field with a couple of short passes, but this drive stalled after an interference call against a DB guarding Moore gained the offense 15 yards, but the next couple of passes failed to connect. Shaw threw high to an open Damiere Byrd, then on a third down play, he hit Buster Anderson over the middle on a nice skinny post, but the DB (number not seen) made a nice play to knock the ball out of his hands before Buster could secure it for the completion. Yates booted a Field Goal of about 44 yards splitting the uprights.

Andrew Clifford got the next set of downs and led a nice long scoring drive that was highlighted by a bullet pass to Buster in the middle, and on a third down play, he hit Shaq Roland on a deep crossing route for a big pickup down to the 25 or so. On a third and long play, Clifford hit KJ Brent on the back line of the endzone for a TD.

After a drive led by Strickland stalled near mid field and a punt by Hull that went near the goal line was fair Caught, Dylan Thompson got a series of reps and led a scoring drive of his own. His drive was made mainly with some tough inside running by Brandon Wilds who broke off two or three runs of over 15 yards each. One of which got the ball inside the 5, and Thompson capped the drive off with a TD on a keeper off the Zone read.

Connor was back up on the next drive and moved the ball from the 30 to the opposite 40 yard line with a Completion to DL Moore and a couple of short out routes to Shon Carson. From Near the 40, Connor found Jerell Adams on a deep out route near the sideline for a completion. The DB shoved him toward the sideline, but Jarell was able to tight rope and stay in, and turned up field for a nice 20 yard run to the endzone after the catch.

Dylan Got the last set of reps for the offense and made the most of it, but completing a nice pass play in the middle deep, to Buster Anderson to pick up a third and long. After a couple of 5-6 yard runs up the middle from Josh Blue, Dylan found Shaq Roland in the back of the endzone on a deep slant and fired a nice pass that Shaq Went up and grabbed, and came down with 1 foot in. …Spectacular Looking throw and catch on that play. !

The scrimmage ended with the Field Goal Units taking some shots against the defense from points at the 32 – 38 and 42 yard lines each. The first attempt was by Landon Ard and the kick was blocked by Devin Taylor in the middle. Taylor let out a huge Yell and he and his team mates rubbed it in by a round of chest bumps and some yacking toward the kicker. Most every field goal after that was made with the exception of Nick St Germain’s 38 yard attempt that went wide left.

Have to add that Akeem Auguste, Vic Hampton, Mike Davis, and Justice Cunningham were not in uniforms for this scrimmage. They weren’t in any kind of braces or tape and seemed OK, but after being dinged up this past week, I’m guessing they were exempt from the scrimmage. Jadevon Clowney who also was reported to have been banged up some, did participate and recorded a couple of sacks during the scrimmage.

Work was being done on the new scoreboard and it looks FANTASTIC. They were putting the lettering on the header that will eventually spell out WILLIAMS-BRICE STADIUM

[UncleSteve]

Awesome. Thanks for doing that!

[Shep]

Thanks for the report. I read in one of the other threads, something about Wilds possibly getting hurt, did you see anything?

[garnet_black215]

I said in another thread that all-around I thought it was a good scrimmage. I think Shaw's incompletion to Byrd can be credited to a wet ball, or at least that's the way it appears when it came out of his hands.

Glad to see Clowned back out there today, and hopefully all of the other injured guys will be back out there shortly, hopefully this week.

[garnet_black215]

Also Spurt I want to add that I think Cunningham did play today. I think he and D. Smith were both wearing #6.

[Spurticus]

Originally Posted by Shep

Thanks for the report. I read in one of the other threads, something about Wilds possibly getting hurt, did you see anything?

No, didn't see it. He seemed OK on the runs he made and didn't show any
signs of it coming off the field after Thompson Scored ?!?!

[Shep]

Originally Posted by Spurticus

No, didn't see it. He seemed OK on the runs he made and didn't show any
signs of it coming off the field after Thompson Scored ?!?!

Thanks.

[talon90]

When Shaq caught the touchdown, I yelled "end the practice" and Spurrier did, lol, not that he could hear me. Safe to say Spurticus, that a star is being born, in Shaq Roland? Did you go down to the autograph corner when it was over. Me and my son, Kyle talked to a guy with sandals on who said he was late to the scrimmage, too? Kyle got Jadaveon Clowney's glove! Wow!

[Spurticus]

Originally Posted by garnet_black215

Also Spurt I want to add that I think Cunningham did play today. I think he and D. Smith were both wearing #6.

May have been... I saw someone standing on the sidelines in street clothes
that looked like him, and when I didn't see his number 87 I figured he was
laying low for this one.

[JDRAY^#]

Went to the scrimmage for about an hour and saw some good things and bad things. Marcus had a few carries and busted one for about 25 yards, then the coaches pulled him off. He looks back to normal 100%. Shon Carson and Kenny Miles looked pretty good, but Brandon Wilds impressed me the most out of the backups. Brandon ran behind his pads and seemed to put in to practice what Coach Sands taught him (less juking and run downhill and through defenders). Mike Davis was on the sidelines in his jersey and shorts, so he didnt play. Qb's did some good things and bad things. Shaw (who wasn't wearing a glove on his throwing hand) looked comfortable in the pocket and made some good throws, as well as Dylan Thompson. Both threw some nice passes to open receivers and some were dropped. They each threw an interception while I was there. Andrew Clifford actually looked the best i've seen since he's been on campus, but he was also going against the 2nd/3rd string defense. The WR's had some dropped balls, that hit thm right in the hands. Out of the WR's Shaq Roland looked the best to me. He ran some good routes and can contort his body mid-air to make some great catches. Bruce and Ace played descent but not many opportunities were thrown their way. Bruce and Ace had some passes thrown over their heads, which wasnt their fault. Bruce had a pass for about 15-20 yards over the middle b/t 3 defenders and didn't come down with it. Rory Anderson played well as usual had some 15-20 yard completions, but Jerell Adams was a beast. He caught everything thrown his way and had a bunch of yards after catch and a TD while I was there. Tyler Hull can punt the crap out of the football, from the one punt I saw from him. Oline looked pretty good, still need some time to build some chemistry, but looked good. One thing for sure is we have some depth on the Oline. Defense was hard to judge today, I think its just because they are playing against their own teammates and not another team. 1st string Dline looked great as usual and the backups did pretty good as well. We have depth on the Dline. I wanted to see Darius English get in there but didnt see him while I was there. Jordan Diggs stood out the most to me out of all the new faces on defense. He looked to make good reads and took good pursuit angles to get to the football. The DB's struggled at some times and still need some coaching and some more time gel together, especially after the first string unit to provide depth. Grady Brown will get them in check, he was helping all the DB's and they seemed to progress little by little throughout the time I was there. Chaz Elder seems like he could earn a second string spot maybe a starting role later down the season. Rico McWilliams was in a yellow jersey on crutches after his knee injury from earlier, but he seemed to be happy and was interacting with the players and taking mental reps.

[Spurticus]

Originally Posted by talon90

When Shaq caught the touchdown, I yelled "end the practice" and Spurrier did, lol, not that he could hear me. Safe to say Spurticus, that a star is being born, in Shaq Roland? Did you go down to the autograph corner when it was over. Me and my son, Kyle talked to a guy with sandals on who said he was late to the scrimmage, too? Kyle got Jadaveon Clowney's glove! Wow!

He looks very good when he can run the route and find an open area,
however, he has issues getting off of press coverage, and when the
DBs hang with him, he doesn't seem to be able to fight for position and
make an effort to get the ball. I think he'll play this year, but he needs
to hit the weight room religiously starting now, and bulk up. He needs
to get with some of the upperclassmen WRs and work on getting
separation and using his body to get position. .... It'll come. You can
tell the guy is going to be a good WR. He just needs to fine tune the
fundementals.

[usc1]

Originally Posted by Spurticus

No, didn't see it. He seemed OK on the runs he made and didn't show any
signs of it coming off the field after Thompson Scored ?!?!

Wilds got his ankle wrapped up in ice and walked off the field in crutches. I'm guessing he either twisted it or sprained it otherwise we'd be hearing more about it. Hope it's not too serious.

[GamecockMastermind]

Spurticus do they record stats for the scrimmage? If so I would like to take a look at them.

[Pappop]

Stats

http://www.gamecocksonline.com/sport...081112aab.html


Did K. Smith not play today?

[Spurticus]

Originally Posted by GamecockMastermind

Spurticus do they record stats for the scrimmage? If so I would like to take a look at them.

They're probably up already on Gamecock Central, and USCSports.com.
I'm sure all the paysites have the info as well if you know someone
who subscribes to those. ....Also, the TV Websites (WOLO, WLTX, WIS)
may have them as well on the sports section.

[rjmims6017]

http://www.gamecocksonline.com/index-main.html
Videos are up.

[crowcutta]

did lattimore wear a brace?

[salvacock]

Thanks Spurt and JDRAY^#. I am loving it! I am excited about the season. I appreciate the time and trouble you guys go through to bring us some Gamecock news.

[Spurticus]

Originally Posted by crowcutta

did lattimore wear a brace?

OH YEAH

He's been wearing a brace the entire Fall, and he's already said he's not
practicing or playing without one ever again

[Spurticus]

Originally Posted by salvacock

Thanks Spurt and JDRAY^#. I am loving it! I am excited about the season. I appreciate the time and trouble you guys go through to bring us some Gamecock news.

My pleasure man.... Glad to help

Thanx for the kind words