Saturday's second scrimmage of the spring featured plenty of jawing, a lot of hitting and a whole lot of football. It seems you can't have one without the other. The defense once again seemed to take control with a number of big plays. The defense is coming around rather nicely as players at every level and every position are stepping up to make plays. There is still have a spring to go but it is obvious the defense has made improvements.
DEFENSIVE LINE:
First Team (for most of the day): DE Jermaine Cunningham, DE Justin Trattou, DT John Brown, DT Torrey Davis
Second team: DE Dunlap, DE Lemmens, DE Jaye Howard (got a lot of reps), DT Troy Epps, DT Lawrence Marsh, DT Terron Sanders (also seemed to get a lot of reps)
Highlights from today: Justin Trattou comes from the blind side of QB Cameron Newton who caught him out of his eye at the last second and stepped up right into the grasp of Terron Sanders for a sack ... Rushing from the left side of the defensive line, Trattou blocks a pass from QB Tim Tebow ... Newton was sacked by two defensive linemen (not sure who) ... Carlos Dunlap was back too fast in the backfield and clobbered Newton who did get the ball off on a flare pass but was rushed and the play went for not much of a gain because he couldn’t lead him correctly ... Defensive line flushes Newton outside where Jerimy Finch is there to collect a sack ... Coverage sack on Newton. Troy Epps gets the sack ... Epps and Finch get Chris Rainey in the backfield on a toss right ... Dunlap sacks Tebow on first play of new series, he blew right by Jason Watkins ... Emmanuel Moody runs hard up the middle for a few yards—Moody then dances around with nowhere to go as the defensive line caved in the play
What I Liked: Carlos Dunlap and Torrey Davis were back ... As evidenced by the plays listed above, the pressure came from inside and out on the day. Dunlap showed his quickness and I wonder if the day off Wednesday may have helped him with fresher legs. He came off the edge with abandon on the day ... Epps was also active enough to be in several plays behind the line of scrimmage, besides the fact I think John Brown played first team most of the day and got more reps. Of course that meant that Brown was going against the first team offense much more than Epps ... Brown was active, but didn’t seem to make to many finishes on plays. He was still disruptive, which is what you ask from your defensive tackles ... Trattou was also mentioned quite a few times and as shown he tends to make those extra plays, the blocks, or pass break ups, etc. He is a fun player to watch ... Jaye Howard was really active and forced some things. I like his progress.
What I Didn’t Like: Jermaine Cunningham where are you? I didn’t see him do much today. Not sure if he didn’t get much time on the field or not ... The offense can still get the short yardage when it needs to. Even when they lined up Chris Rainey in the backfield on fourth and one, he plowed ahead for a first down right up the middle of the defense ... Trattou called for off-sides, but there were very few defensive penalties on the day ... There were a few more times today where the defensive ends lost containment on the quarterback. I guess that is just something that happens with these quarterbacks.
LINEBACKERS:
First team: Brandon Spikes, Dustin Doe, Brandon Hicks
Reserves: Jerimy Finch, Lorenzo Edwards, Chris Pintado, Brendan Beal
Highlights from today: Brandon Spikes should have intercepted Tebow pass that was under thrown in the middle of the field ... Newton throws a quick slant over the middle that was almost intercepted by Dustin Doe ... WR Louis Murphy gets zonked by Spikes and Doe on a short crosser over the middle ... Defensive line flushes Newton outside where Jerimy Finch is there to collect a sack ... Option pitch to Rainey, but Finch was there to force the play inside and the play goes for nothing ... Brandon Hicks has great coverage on Cornelius Ingram who reached back and takes it from Hicks and then rounds down field and smashes Jacques Rickerson, who did force him out of bounds. It was great coverage for the most part on a very hard player to defend ... Doe gets a scrambling Tebow for a sack ... Ingram was pressured by Doe and Spikes and overthrows Tebow on a throwback pass … Spikes blows up in the backfield and wallops Rainey right after he gets the ball ... Finch, Beal, and Epps stopped RB Mon Williams for no gain on an outside run ... Hornsby and Doe are there to make the tackle at the line of scrimmage on an option pitch.
What I Liked: Spikes is just a huge force at the line of scrimmage forcing quarterbacks to take notice of him or pay the price. He can be so disruptive with his size and strength up front. Spikes actually dislocated a finger during play and went off to the side to get it put back into place before returning ... Finch seemed to make a statement today and was in on a lot of plays ... Hicks showed again that he is going to be a good one ... The side line to sideline pursuit of the linebackers is great with this group.
Here are a couple of plays the LB’s would like back: Dustin Doe missed a tackle on a sideline pass to TE Aaron Hernandez in short yardage who turns up field for 20 yards or so ... Rainey made three front seven players miss on a screen pass and took the distance for 61 yards down the right sideline.
What I Didn’t Like: Still no A.J. Jones or Ryan Stamper in action ... A few missed tackles on the Rainey screen pass for the touchdown was some sloppy ball. There wasn’t a whole lot of that ... The linebackers, outside of Spikes, have had an issue with the defensive line and blocking the straight ahead short yardage runs. That continued a little bit today. I didn’t notice John Jones out there at all today.
SECONDARY:
First team: CB Joe Haden, CB Markihe Anderson, S Major Wright, S Dorian Munroe
Second team: CB Jacques Rickerson, CB Moses Jenkins, S Jamar Hornsby (played a lot with first team), S Ahmad Black
Third team: CB Janoris Jenkins, CB Jeremy Brown, S John Curtis, S Bryan Thomas
Highlights from today: WR Louis Murphy made a great catch of a pass along the sideline while being draped by Janoris Jenkins (two good players really making a good play and the offensive player came out on top) ... Dorian Munroe picks off a deep pass from Cam Newton in the end zone ... Carl Moore was being covered big time by Janoris Jenkins who didn’t allow Moore to get to the ball on one play ... Rickerson breaks up a Tebow pass near the defensive left sideline ... Haden breaks up a long pass to Murphy from Tebow ... Ingram pushed off on Ahmad Black on a long pass from Tebow, catches it with no penalty near the goal line --- great coverage from Black and should have been an offensive penalty ... Ahmad Black playing aggressive at the line of scrimmage, jumps a screen pass and almost intercepts it ... Moses Jenkins broke up a deep pass intended for Deonte Thompson ... Haden forces and collects the fumble on Kestahn Moore on a flare out pass ... Jeremy Brown broke up a pass and should have had an interception ... Bryan Thomas breaks up a long pass down the right sideline ... Haden broke up a pass to WR Deonte Thompson … Hornsby lays out Tate Casey on the hit of the day and next to last play of practice, then follows it on the last play with an interception on a deep pass that was ill advised by Newton to Chris Rainey, who was well covered ... Rickerson blitzes from the left side of the defense and gets a sack ... Coverage sack on Newton. Coverage sack on Newton. Epps gets the sack.
What I Liked: There are more pass break ups and interceptions coming right now than I can remember in a long time. One thing is the quarterbacks are aggressive, but the fact is, this secondary is just as aggressive. They only gave up three or four long plays on the day, so that aggressiveness is really paying off ... Jamar Hornsby took two steps forward today and was a star out there ... He has a new attitude this season the staff hasn’t seen from him ... Ahmad Black is still sticking his head I there making plays ... It was good to see Markihe Anderson and Major Wright back out on the field practicing … Janoris Jenkins, Jeremy Brown, and Moses Jenkins are all very good and will be heard from sooner rather than later. It is a very good group of corners.
Here are a couple of plays the secondary would like back: Brandon James beats Ahmad Black on a seam route for a touchdown pass of about 20 yards. Black told us later it was confusion in the coverage ... Newton hit a streaking Chris Rainey about 40 yards in the air and Rainey finished the play off for a touchdown for 62 yards.
What I Didn’t Like: There were the two really long plays that you would hope a fast secondary and defense overall would not give up. But, overall, the plays are coming now, so not much to gripe about on the secondary end right now.
ODDS AND ENDS:
Defensive Tally: Seven sacks, double digit pass break ups, three interceptions, three fumble recoveries, many tackles for loss. It was a good day by the defense.
Defensive Player of the Day: Jamar Hornsby played well all day but really knocked it out of the park on the last two plays of the scrimmage.
Runner Up: Carlos Dunlap was huge up front and faster than anyone could block. It is hard for me to believe he won’t start come the fall.
Quotable: Urban Meyer and Defensive Line Coach Dan McCarney were yelling to the troops before the scrimmage: “We’re playing SEC Caliber today, SEC caliber!!”
Visiting prospects: OL Kyle Koehne, OL Jared Wheeler, OL Kamran Joyer, RB Jarvis Giles
