Red Raider Gridiron :: Jeffers Shines In Third Scrimmage

Spring Game Preview:  I'm creating a position-by-position roster and spring game preview (I was thinking that I want something more handy that the official roster) and I will obviously publish here on DTN, but I also want to convert it to a PDF.  I write almost everything in HTML and if anyone knows how to convert HTML to a PDF document please shoot me an email (doubletnation AT gmail DOT com).

Jeffers' Big Day:  LAJ's Don Williams has a full recap from yesterdays scrimmage and the it appears that the offense was pretty good (not great, but pretty good).  RB Harrison Jeffers had 9 carries for 139 yards and 2 touchdowns and 4 receptions for 51 yards.  Not a bad day, except for the fact that if Jeffers had this sort of day, the defense may not have looked very good and Tuberville and Willis commented on the fact that there were too many missed tackles. Before getting to Williams article and some quotes, I wanted to take a minute and look at some statistics, in particular the quarterbacks:

Seth Doege:  24-46 : 1 INT : 332 Yards : 5 TD :  That's 7.2 yards per attempt (not bad) and a 56% completion rate, which needs to be better.  You love the 5 touchdowns, but the scrimmage was apparently set up to give the offense some scoring opportunities so take all of the touchdowns with a bit of a grain of salt.
Jacob Karam:  19-34 : 0 INT : 314 Yards : 5 TD :  Karam had 9.2 yards per attempt which is very good for this offense, and demonstrates that he's maybe not taking all of the easy stuff underneath, but looking a bit down field.  A 55% completion rate isn't much worse that Doege's and maybe Brown wanted his quarterbacks to throw the ball deep, especially if the cornerbacks were pressing (which they apparently were).
Running vs. Passing:  The offense ran the ball 37 times and passed the ball 80 times for a 117 play scrimmage.  For those of you keeping score at home, that's a 31% running rate.  The offense had 262 yards on the ground and 646 yards through the air for a total of 908 yards which works out to about 7.7 yards per play offensively.
Alexander Torres:  8 receptions : 110 Yards : 4 TD : Pretty good day for Torres who has touchdown receptions of 12, 11, 19 and 19 yards.

From the Williams article, here's head coach Tommy Tuberville on his two quarterbacks:

"It’s obvious Doege had a pretty good day throwing the ball deep down the field,’’ Tech coach Tommy Tuberville said. "Receivers caught the ball. We didn’t tackle very well on defense. That was the obvious observations, but it was a good scrimmage. Guys looked like we had a lot more concentration and ran to the ball better on defense.’’

And defensive coordinator James Willis again says the defense didn't make mistakes, but needs to finish plays:

"There wasn’t many mental errors, not a lot at all,’’ Willis said. "But to me, the biggest thing was tackling and finishing tackles. A lot of times we don’t go full speed tackling in practice, but what you have to do is make sure you get your body in position to make the plays, and sometimes we don’t.’’

Doege said that the corners pressed and the quarterbacks took shots down the field:

"It’s what the defense gives you,’’ Doege said, "and the defense pressed today, so we took a lot of shots down field and it worked for us.’’

I have a tendency to think that this effort was intentional on both sides of the ball, pressing the quarterbacks to get the ball down the field and testing the cornerbacks all at the same time.  As Wills says in Williams' article, it's better than they figure this out now.

Tuberville was also very complimentary to the day Torres had:

"He plays the ball so well in the air,’’ Tuberville said. "For a quarterback, you know if you’re throwing it to him, you just kind of hang it up to his outside shoulder and he can adjust to it. Having hands is one thing, but being able to adjust to the football the way he does is amazing.’’

And last, but certainly not least, Tuberville liked the way Jeffers ran today:

"Heck, Jeffers ran the ball hard again,’’ Tuberville said. "I think he really learned from that first scrimmage how to play and the speed of the game.’’

Notes, Notes and More Notes:  LAJ's Don Williams writes that the defense wasn't all bad, especially near the goal line:

The ball was placed at the offense’s 3-yard line to begin six consecutive series. The defense got three-and-outs in four of the first five possessions before allowing a nine-play, 97-yard drive for a touchdown. That drive also could have been a three-and-out except a defensive holding penalty wiped out an incomplete pass on third down from the offense’s 10.

During the defense’s hot stretch, Defensive tackles Colby Whitlock and Britton Barbee got penetration that led to tackles behind the line for Bront Bird and Donald Langley. Defensive end Kerry Hyder had a quarterback hurry and a tackle for loss, and outside linebacker Aundrey Barr tipped a pass that safety Brett Dewhurst nearly intercepted.

. . . Williams talks about a new play (and I think that TTUMAR actually broke this down before) where a receiver and/or running back goes in motion and under Leach, the quarterback would hand the ball off (possibly resulting in a fumble) and would generally only use one or two players but under offensive coordinator Neal Brown, it's a shovel pass (possibly resulting in an incompletion) and will use multiple players . . . OC Brown wants WR Lyle Leong to step it up:

"Lyle Leong wasn’t very good early in the week, to be honest,’’ Brown said. "He’s done some things in practice that we’re not going to stand for, and we’ve played (Eric) Ward in front of him some, and I thought he bounced back and had some really good plays today.’’

Video after the jump.

And Fox34 with a practice report: