Saturday was a scrimmage. A lot of players didn’t get much action either because they are entrenched and don’t need extra hits on them — Dion Lewis — or banged up — Ray Graham, Jabaal Sheard and Hynoski.
The O-line is the biggest question mark as far as a unit that does not have the excuse of injury ravaging (secondary).
As expected, Wannstedt and offensive line coach Tony Wise are trying to figure out a puzzling situation on an inexperienced offensive line. The book ends, tackles Jason Pinkston and Lucas Nix, are still trying to jell with three new starters.
“We’re still working through some things,” Wannstedt said of the offensive line. “Right now, it’s two good plays and one bad play. The consistency with our offensive line is not where it ought to be right now. We have more experience on defense, so it’s going to be a work in progress.
“It’s not going to get solved today. It’s not going to get solve the first day of training camp.”
That was echoed by Zeise in his blog-dump. The center position is still unknown, though, Alex Karabin appears to have the spot over Lippert. Depth is also a concern, as there are hints that the back-ups are a noticeable drop-off.
Zeise also raves about how redshirt freshman DT Tyrone Ezall is playing. Greg Williams seems pretty shaky at linebacker. As for the secondary, there is optimism once the safeties get healthy.
Also, because the receivers are so good, we’ve gotten a good chance to see just how good the corners really are and I’m going to go out on a limb with this one (and if I am wrong, I’m sure some of you will remind me) — Saheed Imoru and Antwuan Reed – the two starting corners – will be better than Jovani Chappel and Aaron Berry were last year, both individually and as a tandem. Reed to me, along with Cross, are the most improved players on this team — coach kept telling me Reed could play even though every time I watched him last year he was struggling but I’ll tell you what, he’s taken the bull by the horns so to speak and he’s had a great spring. Once the safeties get healthy, this secondary could be really, really good. And that’s a good thing because I think the secondary was torched a few times last year and probably cost them the N.C State and Cincinnati games.
The lack of healthy bodies at the safety spot was echoed in a weak piece that somehow managed to completely whiff on the existence of Saheed Imoru and that he is penciled in as a starting CB. Glaring misses on a perfunctory story focused on injuries to the safeties makes it entirely forgettable.
