Friday Night Lights-Scrimmage

[Stallion]

At least 10 SMU players have posted videos asking fans to come

[gostangs]

First I saw of this was yesterday. They want people to come out on a Friday night to watch a scrimmage, they need to let us know in advance - and push it. Send out emails to Mustang Club and all Dallas area alums.

Tired of the "SMU fans dont care" B.S. we had 4k fans in Tulsa just a week ago - way more than many long successful programs.

SID do your job and let us know about this - otherwise don't expect everyone to come running last second.

[Balatro Diabolus Ex]

so the biggest infusion of young redshirt, transfer and new talent in 30 years on the Hilltop and apparently nobody gives a damn about the first open scrimmage.

Didnt even know about it until you posted this yesterday (and thanks, by the way) I dont use twitter, and I'm not big on the other social media. I got a couple of emails from SMU this week about basketball, a banquet for football on the 7th, and Lettermans social on the 8th before the spring game, but none of them mentioned the scrimmage. Dont know if I can make it by 7, but I'm going to be there for at least part of it.

Thank you for posting, but dont be too hard of folks, most didnt hear about it until the last minute.

[Comet]

Yeah there seems to be an issue communicating this to fans. And I don't think "check players' twitter" is really an adequate strategy.

[JasonB]

Especially when most of our fan base has blue hair

[PoconoPony]

A little advance notice would have over come the blue hair syndrome.

[Stallion]

General Observations:

they didn't have rosters and I was casually watching in the game while talking to others so others might add

-very well run structured practice-they played extreme uptempo for about 2 hours straight and everybody got plenty of work

-Rafe Peavy started kind of slow. It was windy early and I think he threw 2 Ints-BUT later he really got in the grove and seemed to have a consistent strong performance including a 70 yard TD run on a delayed QB keeper-another 40-50 yard run-looked a lot like Garrett Gilbert rushing the ball. Very dangerous at about 4.6 or 4.63 when the defense is spread out. Probably best play of game was when I believe they may have been simulating a closing drive. He threw a picture perfect 50 or so yard pass in the air to I believe Proche streaking to center field which went for about a 70 yard TD. Once he settled in he was throwing consistent nice passes. He's only about 6-1 though but he has good QB running speed that can really be effective. It seemed like Peevy played more than Hicks but it might have been because he kept more drives alive

-On opening play of the game Ke'mon Freeman took a simple sweep 75 yards to the house exhibiting better speed than I remember. In fact, I couldn't remember who he was without the roster because he looked fast. Kemon has always been a physical freak but may have either trimmed down or improved speed. He made several other great runs in limited work. If Ke'mon develops home-run speed he's going to be an All-Conference type player-not just a good option like last year

-Another play of the game was Shelby Walker catching a hard thrown pass about 25 yards down field snagging it one handed with hand stretched to his right like a shortstop. Surprised every one especially the DBs who surrendered inside coverage and he took it to the house. Shelby made several nice catches.

-Proche made a bunch of great plays including a great 30 yard pass to the corner of the endzone. I think Hicks threw it but not sure. Hicks made a nice 30 yard pass standing tall in his own endzone to complete a well placed ball on the sidelines. Didn't seem like Hicks was quite as consistent as Peevy. I believe he made a poor throw that was intercepted in the center of the field. The only explanation for that one was he forgot what color he was wearing. He started kind of slow like Peevy. Threw multiple Ints too

-The Offensive star in the running game might have been a No. 31 who I have no idea who he is. Not on roster-probably ran for 100 yards and was consistent all nite running hard-getting quickly upfield and making some nice cuts. Not much to look at. Looked about 5-9, 180 but he ran hard and played well. The whole team and coaching staff were really pumping him up though

-They played all 4 TEs. Epps is a good looking TE who they even spread wide on occasion. I think Rau did catch a nice 2 point conversion in the back of the endzone right after Peevy's home run ball.

-Kevin Thomas caught a lot of balls-probably 5-6 made some nice gains but again I don't remember a lot yards after catch-hoping to see him become more elusive after the catch

-Trey Quinn made a beautiful catch in the corner of the endzone where he somehow got a foot down. It was one of those "did he actually catch that" catches. Quinn is another one of I didn't know who he was until I got home. Others around me commented he made several other catches but I didn't focus on him because I thought he might be a walkon w/o the roster. He probably had a pretty good nite.

-One of the QBs lofted a high pass to the corner of the endzone which I thought was overthrown but Alex Honey with his long arms and 6-4 frame tracked it down making it look like an easy catch. Great sign

-I didn't notice until late in the game but I think they had No. 6 Elijah McQueen the true freshman getting some reps with the First Team Defense at the Star position. Again since I didn't have a roster I didn't figure out who No. 6 was until I got home. Couldn't really tell ya how he played but he was in there with No. 1 Defense late in game

-CB Christian Davis made a beautiful interception on an underthrown ball early

-Both Jordan Carmouche and Noah Spears were wearing yellow shirts I believe-which is disappointing because you'd love to see these guys take over in their redshirt Freshman year.

-When you give up about 4 plays over 70 yards its pretty obvious the Offense got the best of the Defense-although on the field the Coaching staff said it went to Overtime-they didn't keep score on the scoreboard

-General consensus especially after some early poor throws by both QB when the wind was swirling early-was that the offense looked pretty sharp for a spring game. Huge improvement in the general feel of the game that sometimes turn sloppy, with a bunch of dropped passes, penalties etc. This is a much better coached team with better athletes than we've seen in awhile. Again really impressed with the tempo of the entire 2 hour practice whether they were making plays or mistakes

[mrydel]

So you are saying the defense on the first play picked up where they left off with Navy.

[Stallion]

yep there were probably 4 plays over 70 yards. I know Miichel Onu was out-there were probably 6-7 on both offense and defense who were wearing yellow and didn't play. Couldn't really tell you who was playing back there. No roster and I was having touble keeping track with all the new kids

[ALEX LIFESON]

So you are saying the defense on the first play picked up where they left off with Navy.

I just hope we can see their punter, at least once this season. LOL

[Stallion]

I maybe wrong about Epps. It looked like Epps was the Arizona St TE/H-Back but Brandon Benson is No. 10 on the roster. Epps is No. 11. They may have been looking at Benson in the TE/slot/H-Back position-may make sense because as I said they had him lining up outside at the Field Receiver spot some. Whoever it was caught several passes and looked very athetic. I' loved Benson in high school and he had outstanding leaping ability as both a WR/DB. One of my favorite recruits in the Class

[Hoop Fan]

That was epps, he moves well. All the TEs line up wide at various times though. That's part of the offense, Even going back to last year it was common, remember in the second half of Houston game we drew a key pass interference on that formation. I think the formation draws a cover corner away from the receivers and give a size advantage on that far side usually as a second read. Team played hard tonight I thought.

[Stallion]

after reviewing my observations I easily cited about 8 TDs and it really wasn't a complete list-just comments from memory. I'm sure I missed several so offensively we put up a lot of points in the scrimmage. Coutland Sutton played limited reps. H did drop a very nice pass from Hicks though-its almost more exciting when our receivers-other than Courtland - are making so many nice plays-since we know Courtland will get the job done

[edwa]

My roommate said no.31 was a walk on/ transfer called merek pierce, he was a friend of my roommates brother. Not entirely sure if true but the dude lit up the field today.

[Stallion]

Good job-I found him-he's a Valpo transfer from Frisco St Paul High School..owns the school records in the 100m and 400m dash along with the 4x100 meter and 4x400 meter relay...awarded the Thomas Oborny sprinter award his senior year.

http://www.valpoathletics.com/football/ ... NXxyYWcFZU