The Good, The Bad and The Ugly — 2010 Spring Game

A few random thoughts after watching Saturday’s Red-White Spring game.

The Good

• Wow.  A big “welcome to the party” to young guns Brandon Mitchell and Jacoby Walker!  No surprise that Mitchell could zip the ball.  His 151 total yards on 11 plays (6 rushes, 5 passes) speaks to his big-play abilities.  But Walker, who should really still be in high school, flashed his great promise by posting 207 total yards and 2 TDs in leading the White to victory.
• In years past, it might have been impossible to split up the team and have two equal squads that could play a competitive game.  Not so now.  The depth seen at most all positions was impressive, and tells you how far Bobby Petrino has brought this program in a short amount of time.
• Like last year, the defense showed the propensity to wreck havoc while forcing turnovers.  The 11 sacks and three fumble recoveries tells us that this squad will be opportunistic once again in 2010.  Defensive ends Demario Ambrose (6-5, 270) and Ryan Calender (6-7, 241) both led the way with two sacks each.
• Defensively, middle linebacker Terrell Williams (6-3, 237) and defensive tackle Patrick Jones (6-1, 309) really stood out.  Williams had countless big hits (7 tackles), including one on the goal-line versus Ronnie Wingo, Jr.  Jones was hard to move up front and managed 6 total tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, and a forced fumble to boot.

The Bad

• After having near perfect conditions for most of the spring practices, the weather didn’t cooperate much Saturday.  The intermittent showers that plagued the Razorfest activities during the afternoon carried over during the game, and likely kept the big crowd away.  The UofA attendance estimate of 30,000 was laughable to say the least.
• The kicking game seemed a little shaky Saturday night.  Despite the fact that the defense wasn’t allowed to rush, we saw a missed extra point, one that hit the upright and a punting game that was average at best (38.0 avg. on 8 attempts).  Look for incoming kickers Eduardo Camara (5-8, 160, Cedar Hill, TX) and Russellville’s own Zach Hocker (6-0, 170) to challenge in the fall.

The Ugly

• Improvement was evident on the defensive side of the ball.  But on Saturday, that didn’t translate to stopping the “chunk plays” as the coaches like to refer to them.  11 plays of 20-yards or more were surrendered by both sides combined, including plays of 88 (TD), 50, 69, 38, 31(TD), 47 and 44(TD).