Spider scrimmage notes

Hey, we got your first UR scrimmage notes! Here’s my thoughts on the starting quarterback, running back, and an inexperienced offensive line.

August 16, 2010; 12:00 PM • by Ross Catrow

Saturday I attended UR’s first full scrimmage of the Fall training camp. I stuck around for about 90% of the scrimmage and took notes for 70%, soooooo know that.

Hey, it was fun! If you’re sitting at home DYING to watch some college football (or have some kids (or friends) who are) this is could easily be Your Jam. The scrimmages are free, open to the public, and if you get there are plenty of seats in the shade of the sweet new press box.

The big questions for me coming out of the the one practice I went to a couple days ago were:

Who start at quarterback?
How will the young/inexperienced offensive line perform?
Who will starting at running back?

The QB’s

By now you probably know all about the QB drama, and are tired of hearing about it. Both Laub and Corp had their moments. Both had interceptions. Corp’s was on a tipped ball, with a nice return by LB Darius McMillan. Laub’s was just an errant throw right to DE Brandon Scott. Laub also was Tom Brady’d at some point and fumbled the ball, well technically an incomplete pass. Both QB’s executed a lot of passes across the middle and out to the sidelines well — I don’t think I saw any deep passes drawn up.

If it were up to me at this point I’d put in Corp as my starting QB. It feels like he made fewer mistakes. It’s definitely not super obvious at this point though. Good on Laub for making it a competition.

The OL’s

The offensive line is definitely the hardest thing for me to watch and “grade.” I can only tell you that there were a couple of sacks and the deffense put a good bit of pressure on both QB’s. I have in my notes #2 coming in untouched for two sacks. I’m not sure who that is because the official roster has rSR Max Prokell listed as #2, but he is a wide receiver.

A friend I was with had this to say “there sure are lots of dudes in the backfield.”

Another big concern is the snaps. There were *way* too many high snaps, low snaps, and weird snaps. I think Laub was on the receiving end of more of these than Corp which probably accounted for some of his bad plays.

The RB’s

The official Spring depth chart has rSR Tyler Kirchoff listed as the #1 running back with JR Garrett Wilkins and rFR Jovan Smith splitting the #2 spot. Wilkins is definitely faster and more shifty than any of the other players at the running back position. He broke at least two runs for 15+ yards.

Hey man, to be my starting running back you’d need to block and catch in addition to being fast. Is Wilkins a better package than Kirchoff? I don’t know. He sure is faster though.

Two other notes on the backs:

Kirchoff went down late in the scrimmage with what looked like a helmet to either the kidney, knee, or head (we couldn’t decide). He got up slow but eventually came back to play.
Jovan Smith is tiny. The roster has him listed as six pounds heavier than Wilkins, which is crazy. He looked thin on the field.

Special teams

A couple of other thoughts, in bullet point form:

The punter, has a good leg. He was booming them 50+ yards at times. He does have a slow release and was almost blocked a couple of times. This could be related to an inexperienced protection team?
SO Wil Kamin made 3 of 4 field goals with a long of 35.

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You can read the official write up of the scrimmage over on the Athletic Department’s website. The spiders will have one more scrimmage before the season open at UVa on September 4th.