Spring "Game" Notes

It was a gorgeous spring afternoon in CVille yesterday, and the football program made it's annual right of passage with it's "Spring Football Festival." I attended the festivities, and took a few notes I'd like to share with you, in no particular order...

-- First, let's talk about format. This has been a long time gripe of mine: we never play a straight-up scrimmage. Until we do, we'll never draw 10,000+ fans. People want to see a game, or at least a reasonable facsimile of a game. All of this oddly-scored offense vs. defense / situational drills stuff is for the die-hard Virginia Football dorks, only. If we want a big crowd of enthusiastic fans, split the team into two squads, kick the ball off, and play a scrimmage!

-- Perry Jones. Perry Jones. Perry Jones. The other running backs looked decent, but Perry Jones really caught my eye. His cuts were decisive and at top speed, and he really flashed some breakaway ability. He looked explosive and dynamic. Very impressive.

-- Marc Verica still looks like Marc Verica. Capable of throwing the prettiest pass you'll ever see, and then making a bad read and throwing a wounded duck directly to the free safety in the very next play. Despite his obvious warts, I think he's still our starting QB. (Ross Metheny and Michael Strauss showed off a couple of very good arms, but they still look like exactly what they are --- freshman quarterbacks. They had trouble reading our vanilla spring game defense; the same D they've been practicing against for the last three weeks, minus any overly tricky blitzes.)

-- WR Dontrelle Inman looks rock solid, and ready to deliver the goods in his senior season. He and Verica hooked up on a nice 25-yard cross early in the "game."

-- Back to Marc Verica for a second... His ability to throw a nice deep pass has always been underrated. I expect to see us take some shots downfield this season to take advantage of this, especially out of play action.

-- We've been hearing all spring about how Tim Smith has emerged as our best wide receiver. Mike London has been quoted as saying that Smith is "like a blur." Yesterday, Smith ran a handful of post routes, and it's true, the guy can really burn.

-- Cam Johnson at defensive end is a natural and obvious position switch. I think he'll emerge as our 2nd-best defensive player this season, behind Ras-I Dowling. Cam was putting constant pressure on the QBs yesterday, until he rolled his ankle and left the game. I predict double-digit sacks for him this season, if he stays healthy and on the field.

-- Another DE that really caught my eye is Bill Schautz (who just about a week ago moved from OLB.) Schautz was in the backfield on almost every passing play, and would have been credited with a pair of sacks, if such things existed in this wacky spring "game" format.

-- Keith Payne looked slow to me. Like running in quicksand slow.

-- Ross Metheny looked quick. He ripped off a 20-yard scramble at one point, as protection broke down.

-- He might not see the field much this season due to the logjam of players at the position, but redshirt freshman wide receiver Bobby Smith looked like a BEAST. He's huge (listed as 6-5, 205) and strong. I'm not sure how fast he is, but at one point he had back-to-back receptions, one in which he tore away from a tackler and another in which he deilvered a wicked stiff-arm in order to generate some serious RAC yards. He might be a candidate to move to tight end / H-back at some point in his career, but right now he's looking like a monster of a possession receiver. The WR pecking order appears to be Tim Smith, Inman, and then Kris Burd... my money is on Bobby Smith to make a strong bid to be that #4 receiver in 2010.

-- I left the spring game feeling pretty good about our defensive line. In addition to Cam Johnson and Bill Schautz, Zane Parr also had a good day. He was active and aggressive whenever he was in the game. Justin Renfrow was credited with two "sacks." Nice day for the d-line.

-- For those of you who haven't been following the spring practice updates, one of the bigger position switches was moving Terence Fells-Danzer from linebacker to fullback, to help spackle a woeful lack of depth at that position. There's been a lot of hype about TFD quickly taking to his new position this spring. I saw it with my own two eyes yesterday --- the guy looks like an adequate lead blocker, but he was fast in the open field and showed off some sure hands when it came to catching the ball out in the flats. A 24-yard screen pass on 3rd and 19 proved it yesterday. I won't be surprised if TFD emerges as an offenive weapon at fullback for us this season. Look out for that fullback screen, ala the heyday of Jason Snelling.

-- Ross Metheny probably outplayed Marc Verica in the latter stages of the afternoon's festivities. He threw a nice pass 27-yard pass to WR Quentin Hunter and later tossed a beautiful TD pass to walk-on WR Ray Keys.

-- At one point, Michael Straus got into the hot passing action and threw a beautiful 25-yard touchdown strike to walk-on TE Kyle McCartin.

-- Our kickers were pretty bad yesterday. Jimmy Howell's punting was great, but the field goal kicks were not good, from all three kickers.

-- Kris Burd has some great hands. He showed flashes last year, but this year I think he's ready to settle in as a solid starter. He's not the biggest receiver and he's not the fastest receiver, but he might be the most dependable because he just tends to catch everything near him.

-- Ras-I Dowling is a stud. No ifs ands or buts about it. Stud.

-- Chase Minnifield isn't a slouch, either. Our cornerback position is definitely our strongest position heading into this season.

-- At this point, it's pretty clear. The Virginia Defense >>> The Virginia Offense


That's all I've got. I wish I had spent more time watching the o-line, linebackers, and safeties, but there was really only about 45 minutes of meaningful action to digest, and my eyes are glued to the QBs, receivers, and Perry Jones.

At this point, here's my [educated] guess on who will start against Richmond on September 4th:

QB) Mark Verica, Sr.
RB) Perry Jones, So. / Dominique Wallace, RS Fr.
FB) Terence Fells-Danzer, Jr.
TE) Joe Torchia, Sr.
WR) Tim Smith, So.
WR) Kris Burd, Jr.
LT) Landon Bradley, Jr.
LG) Austin Pasztor, Jr.
C) Anthony Mihota, Jr.
RG) B.J. Cabbell, Sr.
RT) Oday Aboushi, So.

RDE) Cam Johnson, Jr.
DT) Nick Jenkins, Jr.
DT) Matt Conrath, Jr.
LDE) Zane Parr, Jr.
WLB) Ausar Walcott, So.
MLB) Steve Greer, So.
SLB) Jared Detrick, Jr.
FS) Corey Mosley, Jr.
SS) Rodney McLeod, Jr.
CB) Ras-I Dowling, Sr.
CB) Chase Minnifield, Jr.

K) Robert Randolph, Jr.
P) Jimmy Howell, Jr.

If it shakes out like this and we suffer no attrition (however unlikely that may be), we'd have eight starters returning on offense and ten starters returning on defense for the 2011 season. That could set us up for a very good year. Patience, Hoo fans.

And who knows... maybe the 2011 spring game will actually be a GAME.