Friday Night Lights-Scrimmage

[Mexmustang]

Tonight was not intended for fans, but for high school players and coaches and family members. It was not touted by the Mustang Club nor to season ticket holders. After signing in fans were welcome under the same conditions as any spring practice-sign in, no cameras, etc. But the world did not come to and end for those of you not following twitter accounts of 18-19 year old boys...The upcoming Spring Game is for family and fans, hopefully we can have a good turnout.

[Stallion]

The Ponyuptempo site, the SMU Football site, Chad Morris' site and just about every site of every Coach on the Staff, and about 10 personal pleas from SMU players have been hyping this Friday Nite Lights for a couple of weeks.

[Stallion]

a brief snippet of Kemon's 75 yard TD run and Shelby Walker 1 handed snag

https://twitter.com/SMU_Football/status ... 0723229696

[Stallion]

"huge prospect" -has about 3-4 BCS offers-damn that's a big high School kid-reported to be 6-7 looks taller-makes Chad Morris look like dwarf

https://twitter.com/mikeruth18/status/8 ... 9487989760

[JasonB]

Don't undersell the Shelby walker TD catch. That ball was 100 miles an hour and somehow he made that one handed catch. He had several big plays tonight, I have never seen him step it up like that.

The offense had the huge run by freeman on the first play of the game, but then went a very long stretch of time where they basically did nothing. Wind played a factor. On a lot of those drives, they were focused on the passing game, and neither QB was consistent enough to sustain drives.

The second half of the scrimmage, they moved the ball more consistently and Peavy in particular picked his game up. His long run up the middle was nice, but so was the TD run in the redzone drill.

Part of the reason the offense picked it up was that they went back to the running game. 31 had a really nice night. The offensive line looks bigger. K Smith at left tackle looks like Beachum. He stands out with his size, but he still has nice mobility. OL looks like it had more size, and this is the best I have seen the line run up the middle since Morris arrived.

In pregame warmups, I paid attention to Sackville. He was punting the ball "normal" style, and his kicks were high and over 50 yards straight into the wind. He did not punt during the game, but he was much improved I thought in warmups than I have seen before.

With Epps, Rau, Becker, and others, there are some legit TEs on this team. Becker looks like he has put on good weight. Rau had the nice two point conversion catch and looks like a prototype.

One HUGE change - they were hitting on KO and Punts. Haven't seen it before under Morris. Not sure if it was because it was so bad last year or because we have depth, but it was really nice to see. Proche had a nice punt return.

Hicks was definitely the starter at the beginning of the game, and was given the only "overtime" possession. His arm looks stronger on some throws, but still had accuracy issues. Hicks looks like mobility has improved over last year.

Peavey was a little shaky in the beginning, but was the better QB the second half of practice. A little shorter than Hicks, but definitely more mobile.

Starting DL - Williams and Gary inside, Badejo and Lawler outside.

33 looked like a real player at LB to me. Ward could be something, he certainly looks the part. McNew has gotten bigger. Split time with the 11/17/48 starting crew.

Second possession, Hicks through a bad pass deep, which Wyatt deflected to McQueen for a really nice diving interception.

Wyatt later got his own pick of HIcks.

Sutton and Wyatt were starting, Davis and Lancaster second string, Jeanlys was third string.

14 showed a really nice leg on kickoffs and FG. Hit a kickoff deep in the endzone against the wind for a touchback.

Clemons was one starter at safety, and the others rotated in - K Williams, Onu, and McQueen are all in the mix.

They did the two minute drill for two possessions at the end. First one - Hicks threw a pick to Clemons on the first play. Second drive was Peavy and that is the drive he through a perfect ball against the wind to Proche over the safety right down the middle. Proche looks like he has better top end speed than last year and looked solid.

In the OT drive, Hicks was QB and the defense dropped a pick before the FG was kicked.

I came away thinking that defensively, the LBs look better and the secondary looks better, but I am not sure if the DL is ready.

Offensively, I came away thinking the line played better, we seem to have depth everywhere at skill positions, but the QBs aren't where I would like them to be.

One final note about QB - DJ didn't play at all, has a knee brace. But he stood behind the quarterback on every play and tried to act out the play how he would run it. I was really impressed with his engagement level and how he was trying to get the most out of the practice even though he couldn't participate.

[Digetydog]

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

John Paul II is located in West Plano off Coit Road. While a very nice school, their FB team plays in a very low level league. One year, they made the playoffs with a losing record. When I watched them play a couple of years ago, there we're a couple of players who were OK, but nobody wow'd me.

http://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/S ... oolID=4302

He ran the 200 in 23.03 and the 400 in 50.27. In comparison, Shelmire ran a 22.17 in HS

[edwa]

Either way. he was very impressive and wouldn't be surprised is he competes for first team reps.

[Stallion]

no we are 4 deep at RB with guys with 1,000+ potential

[longbuzzer]

We had a pretty good basketball team emerging in the Garland facility in relative anonymity. That problem was solved when Moody re-opened and madness burst on the scene.

Hopefully we will see a repeat when the football season lights go on and fans realize this team is for real. Reality is we have lot of dormant and/or fair weather fans to convince.

[TidePony]

If football can get the kind of fan support we saw in Tulsa, it will be off the charts.

[Charleston Pony]

I hoped when Ford was built that SMU would eventually be able to fill the place with our own fans...or at least come close with 25k plus no matter who the opponent

[JasonB]

When TCU established themselves as a winning team, they were at about the 20K mark in attendance. After LT showed up and they had double digit seasons, they bumped to 30K and never looked back. That is how SMU football and basketball attendance are going to be.

[leopold]

"huge prospect" -has about 3-4 BCS offers-damn that's a big high School kid-reported to be 6-7 looks taller-makes Chad Morris look like dwarf

https://twitter.com/mikeruth18/status/8 ... 9487989760

6-7, 300

Offers from us, Missouri, TT, Memphis among others

http://247sports.com/Recruitment/Mike-R ... tInterests

[Stallion]

I believe this is McQueen's interception

https://twitter.com/CoachJessLoepp/stat ... 0991817728

[Digetydog]

I believe this is McQueen's interception

https://twitter.com/CoachJessLoepp/stat ... 0991817728

Whoever made that throw - YUK, but McQueen did a great job of getting back into coverage after making a bad first step forward.