Format: Started off as 2's vs. 2's, then a "punt" (no coverage, just kick distance) and the 1's v 1's took it. Alternated possessions this way--but after the first couple series, many personnel shifts, so it's a bit hard to track performance based on the variation in matchups.
Offense Overall. Looked good, but I'm not sure how much weight to put behind them, as the defense was less impressive, IMO. From what I could see, offensive depth is pretty good--most positions had what looked like a solid backup, with enough talented (and diverse) RB's and WR's to really wear down opposing D's.
Started with a LOT of work on the passing game. Passing looked solid, if unspectacular. Ran a lot of typical spread formations, tried to exploit mismatches...
The running game really set the tone, I think. The defense could keep up, so long as they weren't worrying too much about the run. Once the RB's started to get some touches, the D just kinda fell apart.
QB's:
Stanton looked GOOD. Only played the first couple series, though. He missed a couple of deep passes, but everything else was right where it needed to be. Seems he's been working on ball placement. His scrambling was enough to turn a broken play into at least a 'no loss' situation, and on a designed run, he easily broke free for 8 yds.
The backups all looked decent, if unspectacular. All decent scramblers, decent throws. The Frosh, Natale, got a lot of reps... made some bad reads (missed a few guaranteed TD's on blown coverages), but nothing else really stood out to me.
RB's:
looked good today. better than good. Teague and Caulcrick both showed good power, excellent burst, and the ability to break it open, given the slightest seam. great vision--teague reversed field beautifully on one play and went about 40 yards before one of the DB's could close with him. Mix this in with Stanton's running, and this could cause some major problems for people.
OL: I'm no expert, and I should have paid more attention, but the OL looked a bit suspect to me... One play saw one of the Guards get shoved back into the QB--on a 5 step drop--that worries me. They looked best when the entire line would run (and correct me if I'm messing up the terminology here) a zone scheme, basically moving the entire DL to the right or left... abandoning specific assignments and just playing 'moving wall.' The QB's could hide behind and throw off the rollout, find a seam and squirt through on foot, or hand it off. Two of the biggest gains came off this look
1. spread form, 3 WR stacked in the right slot, 1 (trannon) left. Sealed the R side of the line, and gave the look of a QB boot Rt, but hit a shovel pass to a WR out of the break... little shifty GOnzo clone... he hit a seam and took it about 40 yards through traffic.
2. Same sort of thing.... entire team going right, ran a left counter to teague. The entire D was shadowing to the right and lil' T just went untouched through a gap I swear my fat ass could have hit effectively.
WR's
Trannon: looked great. Good speed, cutting, made a couple jump balls. could be very dangerous this year.
Shabaj: got in behind the D several times, but the QB missed the read.
Scott: looked good out of the slot. He's a lot like Shabaj, small quick guy who gets lost in the shuffle, until the ball hits him in the hands and he's off.
As for the D. Well, I was less observant on that side of the ball. Basically you can infer a lot form the offensive performance. It seems to me that they're very good against a spread, in that they clamp down in those first 5 yards of space or so, but have trouble if they get out of position, or if there's a breakdown somewhere. Gave up a lot of no gain to short gain.... or a big breakout play.
CB's were helpless against the taller WR's (Trannon and Alexander looked like Braylon Edwards at times). Travis Key (#2 Right Corner) laid some great hits... Totally decleated a TE right in front of me, caused him to lose the ball.
The front seven held their own against the run for the first half of the scrimmage, but once the O started to feature the RB's... they gave up a lot of turf.
I'll refrain from too much more on this, as I don't have a chance to look at film and try to pick apart just what went wrong....
Bear in mind this was a working scrimmage type practice, and I'm sure the playcalling would differ greatly on both sides of the ball, were this a game. It seemed to me that the D was almost trying to brute force correct their weaknesses by deliberately putting a guy or two in a mismatch and seeing if he could work through it--they had some success, but just couldnt hold tight.
Special teams looked good. Punter was BLASTING them. averaged upper 40's 4.75 to 5 sec hang, and once he hit his groove it more along the lines of 50-55 yards consistently with 5+ seconds for the coverage team to get downfield.
New PK... looks to have good range, but got a bit shaky when they put a rush on him. Missed a 40 yarder and a 51, but in warmups was pretty consistent from 40-50 range... could be good with a bit of seasoning.
Overall, looked like a mid-B10 performance (potential)... but with a good summer, could challenge for a top-tier finish. Remember this team put some scares into the better teams in the conference (see
OSU, scUm, etc), and they're not really losing too much talent.
Then again, they lost to Rutgers last year, too... so who really knows?
Edit: By the way... Some of the sparties got into a discussion about B10 stadia. Consensus is that the SHOE is hands down the best place in the midwest to watch a college football game. I knew there was a reason I liked these folks
Edit2:
Spartanmag.com's take:
http://michiganstate.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=408954
