Spring Game / Draft Weekend

Just a quick recap from the weekend:

1. NFL Draft - Purple
Chris Cook, I told you...just 4 picks later than I had thought. Too tough to tell how they made out overall, but I have to give Spielman and company the benefit of the doubt. The track record has been pretty good, and they seem to be confident in the players they pick so we'll see what happens over the next season or two. I hate the grading/winners & losers breakdowns, so I'll just say I think they did okay. Nothing jumps out at me as a great choice, but I think everyone they picked could fit a need potentially and have a chance to make the team.

2. SPRING GAME!
Turned into a lovely day out at TCF for the game. I watched when I wasn't tracking down Jace or his yellow Gopher football that he thought he should throw on the ground every 3rd second. Brew summed it up on the radio..."it was good vs. good. we didn't want to show anything because we know MDTN will be studying this for the opener." Really? This is comical. Good vs. Good...IALTO. Now for the good, the bad, and the ugly.

GOOD
- OL looked to be okay. The backs had some room to move around and we ran the ball effectively at times.
- QB, well at least one QB. AWEB looked the best of the 3 and he will clearly be your starter come September.
- Defensive line played pretty well against the run. They didn't have much of a pass rush, which is concerning, but overall I thought they were okay.
- LB depth looks solid. There's a lot of inexperience still in this unit, but I was happy with how most of them looked.
- DB, Lewis, a JUCO transfer, put a huge hit on McKnight which was a surprise to me. I didn't think he would be much of a hitter. I feel okay about our S situation going into the year, especially if/when Theret comes back.

BAD
- I still don't think either of our current backs has any kind of explosiveness. Bennett and Eskridge will be fighting for 3rd or 4th string when the new kids hit campus.
- WR drops were a problem throughout the game. AWEB and the QB's struggle enough without adding a few incompletions due to drops, this was kind of frightening.

UGLY
- #5 is not good at throwing the ball. He did hit a TD pass late in the game from about 38, but the guy was all alone and I think the 3rd string DB was covering. He missed a lot of short throws and threw a pick. He's at his best on the roll out and throwing or running outside of the pocket - if he's going to play we have to do more of this.
- Crowd = less than 5,000...ouch. I know it was a crappy day, or at least looked like it was going to be, but that's a really low number. I think they should be able to draw 10K, but their marketing dept sucks. Seriously, I know the product isn't super great, but promote it - it's college football and people will come!

So the next step is actual Summer practice leading up to the season, and I have to say I'm really not sure what to think of this year's club. I believe the offensive scheme change will be a good thing and we will have a bit of a running game this season...unlike the past 2 years. The defense, despite having basically a whole new group of players on the field, will be fine. Cosgrove is maybe the only sure thing this club has on the staff, can you believe it...a 2nd! year DC on our team!! Woo-hoo! He didn't leave! Brew continues to talk a big game and say all the right things, but this truly is the year where we have to see it. At least 2 victories over good teams might be mandatory with the home schedule they have in order for him to keep a job. We'll learn more on September 2nd when we travel to MDTN to play a pretty nice team on a Thursday night. Right now, I think it could be anywhere from 3 to 8 wins...but regardless, it will be fun.