re: Scrimmage reports from peeps and stuff

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It was nice to get out and watch some football on a beautiful day. Hocker got it started by hitting a few punts that would make some guys in the NFL jealous. The Aussie punted ok, but Hocker was on another level. Bielema does things in warmups that I haven't seen before. The LB's were high stepping sideways over hurdles. The D on O lineman looked like they were practicing a high kick routine at one point. It's very structured with a lot going on at once. The staff seems to get every detail. I heard Chaney constantly telling the offense to stay off the white when they were on the sidelines to avoid sideline warnings. There were a lot of little things that were constantly being hit on. To the action...

The format was 1s vs 1s with a lot of subbing and different players getting looks with the 1's on both sides. The ball was constantly being reset back to the 30 yd line. Gain 20 yards and they would just reset the ball back to the 30. Each group would get around 8-10 plays then Bielema would yell out for the 2's vs 2's to be ready and the next play those guys would sprint out on the field and start their 8-10 plays.

1st team defense dominated against the run vs 1st team offense. 1st team offense dominated the 1st team defense in the passing game. Brandon Allen looked great. One incompletion on a drop by Horton when he took his eye off the ball when he had about 20 yards in front of him. Horton made up for it though by having the best day of the WR group. He made a great catch over the middle for about 25 yards on 3rd down and Bielema ran out on the field to give him five. Bielema does that quite a bit, he gives out praise more than criticism and the assistants seem to do the critiquing. The overall vibe is much more positive than the Petrino regime. Getting back on track, Wilson looks pretty good at WR, too. I think that group is going to be better than I was expecting. Cowan and Herndon had nice catches on deep balls. Drew Morgan looks like he is going to play this year. He got whipped pretty good on some run plays and he was blown up a few times after the catch but he finds ways to get open.

As good as Brandon Allen was, AJ Derby did not look good to me at all. Buehner didn't look good either. Austin Allen threw one pass, and my guess is they want to redshirt him, but if Brandon goes down, he is our best option. The ball jumps out of his hand.

Alex Collins started off very strong in the run game with the 2's vs 2's but he was slowed down by the 1's defense. He is already splitting time at 1st team RB with J Williams, so my guess is that Collins is going to be the starter. Williams looked good, but Collins just looked better to me. Collins consistently turned 0 yards runs into 2 yard runs, and he has the rare combo of the quick burst + power + balance. Holmes is quick but goes down to easily and Walker had a few nice runs. Arinze trucked Bennet on one run.

Hunter Henry got reps with the 1's 2's and 3's. Made a nice catch and ran through a tackle, then bobbled a pass and fell down on a play that would have gone for a big gain.

OL didn't dominate like I had hoped. However, we have some D-lineman that look the part. Flowers, Smith, Winston, and Wise are monsters and they are all very athletic. Petrino was a lot better recruiter than he gets credit for.

I thought Lake and Spaight stood out at LB. I was surprised to see AJ Turner running with the 3rd team. He's not as big as the other LB's. Peters was running with the 2's.

The secondary is my biggest concern. My fear is that a good passing team is going to pick us apart. Tiquentin Coleman was the standout of that group today. Made some great hits and drew two high fives from Bielema. Mitchell mad a nice play at CB, but overall this group had the worse day, imo. Hines was running mostly with the 2's and the 1st stringer got burned quite a bit. I think it was Carrol Washington, but I could be wrong.

We seemed pretty balanced. My guess is that we were 60/40 between run and pass, and we were in shotgun more than I was expecting. On offense it seems like we are trying to mirror image what Bama did this year.

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