Tuesday Spring Practice, Talk With Grobe

It was good to get back out and see a little bit of this afternoon’s football practice, particularly because most of the ugly weather that’s been hanging around since last Thursday seems to have disappeared. Unfortunately I have a pretty hectic week and wasn’t able to spend two hours out there watching the whole practice.

Still, I was able to catch up with Coach Grobe and get some thoughts from him regarding Saturday’s scrimmage and the state of the team in general at this point in spring practice. Now that he’d had time to review film from Saturday he talked more extensively about the state of the offensive line and about what may need to be done to get a better look at where they stand.

“I think protection-wise I think we’re a little bit better than we’ve been. I think our guys are doing some good things in pass protections. Had a couple breakdowns, typically when we just didn’t pick out the right guy to block. Mental mistakes hurt us a little bit but I thought when we knew who to block we did a pretty good job at times, but I think until we get a chance to get a little bit further in spring it will be hard to evaluate that offensive line.”

It definitely isn’t surprising that coach is reserving judgment on the line right now, as that is exactly what he should be doing. It’s all well in good for myself and other fans to be concerned, and coach certainly is as well, but there’s a lot of time between now and August.

I also asked if perhaps some of the line’s struggles stem from the fact that they’re facing one of the strongest defensive lines around.

“I really hope that’s the case. That’s the theory I’m floating out there right now. I’m hoping that’s the way it is. I’ve got a feeling that guys like Boo Robinson are pretty tough to block and there are going to be times where we’ve got everything drawn up just right and we’ve got hats on everybody and we’re just getting beat by good players. I think part of that’s true. I think our offensive line is a little better than I think right now because they’re going against such good people up front that once in awhile those guys are going to make plays. Good players make plays. Right now we’re putting in a lot of different plays offensively, different protections and the running game and haven’t really settled a lot on our running game. I think it’s early to tell but I do think that our defensive front has some very talented kids that can run and make plays so that at times can make your offensive line look a little bit suspect when in fact it could just be that your defensive front is pretty talented.”

I guess I probably threw him a bit of a softball there, but I too hope that we have a very impressive defensive line this season and that our offensive will only be better for having to go against them on a daily basis.

One final interesting thing coach talked about what the play calling in Saturday’s scrimmage, and really in spring practice as a whole.

“We probably through the ball too much Saturday, and the defense has a lot to do with that. In order for us to be successful we have to throw a little bit against our guys but I think a key for us next season is going to be our ability to run the football. We weren’t very consistent, but we didn’t run it a lot so it’s hard to tell. I don’t know whether it will be in the scrimmage or whether we’ll emphasize it more in practice, but I’d like to get a better look at these offensive linemen. If we don’t run the football a little bit more we won’t be able to tell.”

A couple of notes from the short time I spent out at practice: FB Rich Belton, who tore his ACL early last season, was at practice today participating in a few drills. He didn’t have pads on and definitely wasn’t participating in anything involving contact, but it was good to see him out there moving around.

I also got a look at Ryan McManus working on his long snapping. He definitely has the strength to do it (most QBs are pretty good snappers, actually) but his accuracy (and sometimes his spiral) still need some work. I know he’ll get a ridiculous number of reps between now and August and I don’t expect it to really cause any problems in the long run.

I’ll miss tomorrow practice (I have an early evening exam) but should be back out there Thursday and at Saturday’s scrimmage, so I’ll have full reports from both of those.