Fighton247 Board

Not so easy to analyze a non-tackling scrimmage, especially when you're in a live setting and can't run plays back to watch individual players over and over again. But here is what I rambled into my iPhone during the scrimmage, and I'll add notes on top of that when possible.

In chronological order beginning with first play of game.

* Anthony Sarao a very quick, explosive athlete, takes off like a shot on a blitz from the outside but forgets to pay attention to what Wittek is doing, which is fake a handoff and bootleg in the opposite direction, losing Sarao entirely and creating plenty of space for a downfield completion to Flournoy.

* Wittek has a cannon for an arm, throws bee-bees, hits Blackwell with a beautiful strike

* DJ Morgan has big TD run bouncing things outside, and I notice Scott Starr really getting pushed downfield by the interior OL. Scott will need to get stronger and react quicker, but that's what experience is all about.

* Antoine Woods looks short to me, maybe 5'11"?

* Defense is blitzing safeties like crazy the first couple series; McDonald and Starling both sent often from the edges.

* For all the talk about Demetrius Wright supplanting Starling as first-team safety, he is on the sidelines holding his helmet while Starling lines up with the starters for the 1st quarter.

* Wiley fights off Lee and breaks up a pass beautifully

* Walker looking good in pass pro, he's on an island vs. Horton a few times and keeps him at bay. I notice a few times during the course of the day that he is susceptible to the pass rusher suddenly juking inside, it gets his feet a little tangled up because he's concentrating so hard on that outside edge.

* Whole OL doing nice job with pass pro, nice pocket for Matt all along

* Barkley and Lee in sync early, MB putting ball right on the numbers. Slants to Lee are damned near impossible to defend.

* Wiley beautifully times a hit on Blackwell on a fade to the WR's outside shoulder to cause an incompletion in the end zone. Wiley has a great scrimmage overall; people don't throw on Robey so they try Wiley and Isaiah is up to the task. His only shortcoming: abysmal hands. He dropped at least two balls today for picks.

* Kessler takes over for second series with the "B" team. Galten, Guertler, Hobbi, Garness, Markowitz comprise the 2nd team OL.

* Kessler throws gorgeous pass on the run off a bootleg for a first down, beautiful touch, to Grimble. Follows this up with an atrocious, wobbly ball which McAllister picks off; not sure what Cody was attempting there, nobody was open.

* Flournoy catching passes all over the place, he is clearly the 3rd WR, it's not even close, Blackwell is far behind him in terms of confidence, aggression, everything at this point.

* I've always maintained that WHO the QB chooses to throw to tells you everything. Barkley is throwing to Flournoy a lot, which means he has confidence in him and that Devon is running good routes and getting separation. Blackwell, not so much... but stay tuned, Victor has four years to play football here.

* Pomee is quite a physical specimen-- his lower body is huge, he has what NFL scouts call a great "bubble". Lots of power with this kid; at one point he catches a ball in the flat and turns it upfield down the sideline, and it's a scary sight for whomever the reserve CB is out there trying to knock him out of bounds.

* Pass protection still looking good, DJ Morgan doing nice job on blitz pickups and at one point meets Kennard and rides him outside the pocket.

* One near pick to Wiley is an ill-advised throw where MB is trying to hit Lee for a long one in the end zone; Wiley simply darts in front of Marqise at the last moment. Alas, he drops the ball.

* One cool play design: Lee comes in motion towards Matt, then at the snap reverses himself and goes right back out in the flat to receive the pass, like a naked screen.

* 2nd team defense: K. Greene, Sarao, Burnett, Andrew, McAllister, A. Brown, D. Wright, Tavai, #91 (DT), Baucham, and either Townsend or Breslin depending on the play.

* 2nd team features Flournoy, Pomee, Farmer, Wittek/Kessler, sometimes Grimble and Lee even line up with them.

* Hobbi looks good at center! Moves his feet, keeps his arms out and his head on a swivel, looking to see who he has to help out in pass pro.

* Flournoy grabbed a lot of catches in this scrimmage but could have had several more; Wittek missed him wide open on one downfield pass, Kessler overthrew him open in the corner of the end zone, and Matt threw late to him once resulting in a near pick.

* Barkley consistently late on some throws as scrimmage wears on, missing Lee a few times when he's open because he's given the DB's a chance to close ground on Marquise. Wiley and Lee really have a great battle all day long.

* Graf looking good in pass pro, sometimes his feet get a little "nervous" but he's looking pretty athletic out there, bending his knees, moving his feet, arms out, nice balance, etc.

* Matt seems to be having fun slinging the ball around without too much regard for consequences, but at one point he throws a ball downfield which almost gets picked, and Kiffin gesticulates towards him pretty emphatically afterwards, "What are you doing? Who are you throwing to?" Barkley responds by gesturing back at him as if trying to explain.

* Matt shows great instincts on one play where there's a big backside rush, and he senses it and immediately breaks the pocket to the right, looks downfield, and gets rid of the ball. Nice awareness.

* I'll tell you this about Buck Allen: if there's not a hole, he'll run the ball right up there anyway and initiate contact. That's a tremendous sign. He is an aggressive, fearless runner from what I can see.

* Next play, Allen DOES get a hole, runs through it and makes a nice move for about 10 yards. This guy doesn't mess around out there, no tippy-toeing with him.

* Not sure what Jeremy Galten is thinking on some plays when he pulls and gets so deep in the backfield that he's almost bumping into his own RB. This also has the effect of allowing a defender an easy path into the backfield to disrupt a play. Galten needs to flatten that pull out and not loop around so much. He had this issue last year as well.

* Watching this scrimmage, I really wonder why Kyle Prater left. We have nobody on the team at WR with his size, and with Blackwell still looking a ways off from being an everyday contributor, and Farmer nursing injuries fairly often, I have to wonder if Kyle would be getting some reps at the moment.

* Blackwell is reprimanded coming off the field after a half-hearted effort on a throw that whizzes right by him from Matt. Not sure what happened there but he gets an earful from the coaches leaving the field, and his body language isn't great. I just think Victor's confidence is a bit shaky right now.

* WR's getting open (mostly Lee and Flournoy) but the QB's having trouble delivering the ball on target in this scrimmage.

* Lee takes a pass and makes about 15 yards out of it with a great move; this is the kind of natural, instinctive thing that I hope George Farmer develops. Right now George looks very mechanical next to Marqise-- I would guess he's thinking too much out there.

* Morgan Breslin drops back a few times from his DE spot; on one play he marks Grimble pretty well down the field on a pass play. He has a very quick first step and gets a sack on Kessler at one point as a result. Looks like he'll contribute this season as a pass rusher for sure.

* Soma takes a dumpoff pass and plows over #27 (DB) in one of the more electric moments of the scrimmage. Soma looks good caching passes. Not sure how good he is as an ISO blocker at this point; that will be the key to his success this season.

MVP's: Flournoy, Wiley, Robey (nobody even tried to throw on him), Walker/Graf (kept Horton and Kennard from doing much), Pullard (all over the field), Heidari (nailed a 47-yarder with room to spare), and Marqise Lee.