Saturday Scrimmage Report
Saturday featured a full pads/live tackling scrimmage that saw highlights from both sides of the ball. It gave Marshall HC Doc Holliday and his staff a chance to evaluate the younger guys without the coaches on the field. “We didn’t see a lot of missed tackles. I thought we tackled pretty well. I thought the young guys played with a lot of energy. I thought some of the guy I mentioned yesterday really showed up today,” Holliday said.
Prior to the team portion of practice, the kickers lined up from a variety of distances and angles. I thought Shane Ciucci kicked the ball well. He gets great lift on his balls and more importantly, he gets it up fast (excited to see the quotes from this line). Think, Justin Haig but left-footed. I’d consider him to have the advantage in the kicking game at this point.
Offensively, I thought we looked sharp. We ran the ball with a purpose and our intermediate passing game was on point. We took our chances deep a couple times with mixed success, but passes in the 10-15 yard range were very effective. Grant Wells looked as good as I’ve seen him so far. He did not turn the ball over once. He was sacked a couple times, but overall, I thought he had a great day. Wells’ best throw of the day was a deep ball across the middle of the field to Nebraska transfer Jaron Woodyard for a 40-yard score. Grant let it go when Woodyard was about 20 yards off the ball and Woodyard just ran right underneath it in stride. “Woodyard, the kid from Nebraska, he just keeps getting better. We really like what we’ve seen out of him,” Holliday said of his speedy wideout. I know we say this every year it seems, but this year may be a little different with our speed. The trio of Willie Johnson, Woodyard, and Shadeed Ahmed can all get downfield.
Our four reserve running backs carried the primary load yesterday after the first series (Brenden Knox’s one and only). I’ve already hit on this during camp, but each of those guys have their own strengths. Sheldon Evans is very shifty. We saw that last year. Lawrence Papillon is both shifty and fast. Knowledge McDaniel is more of a between the tackles guy. Rasheed Ali is a little of everything. For me, I think Ali is really going to push for 3rd-string reps this year. Evans had a nasty jump cut off the left tackle and was able to avoid the defender for about a 12-yard gain. Papillon and Ali both displayed their speed on cutback runs. Both runs started off the right side, and as soon as they saw daylight, they put their foot in the ground and cut it back. Pap’s run was actually pretty incredible because I didn’t think he had a chance to get away from the defenders.
One young guy that’s really starting to come in is Amir Richardson. He caught a number of balls yesterday and was able to cut it up for yardage after the catch. Like Xavier Gaines, Richardson is a guy that changed positions and needed to add some mass to be able to be effective. “He was committed to changing his body. That’s been the biggest thing for him. He’s around 235 pounds now and he was already very gifted in the weight room,” tight ends Coach Kyle Segler said. On one play, he chipped down on the defensive end, and then broke out into the flat for a catch. That doesn’t sound all that impressive but what he did after the catch was. He looked very athletic sprinting up the field for a 20-yard gain through traffic.
The defense was not to be outdone on Saturday though. Saturday’s scrimmage really gave some of the younger/lesser experienced guys a chance to prove themselves and a few of them didn’t miss out of the opportunity. Defensive tackle T.J. Johnson had a very good scrimmage IMO. He was disruptive to say the least. On one play, he shot through the LOS and blew up the running back in the backfield. It drew a ton of excitement from defensive line coach JC Price. Honestly, I don’t know it didn’t cause a fumble. Another guy that seems to be settling in at his new position (cornerback) is Micah Abraham. Whether it was a read or he just simply played his assignment, he was great in run support on a couple occasions. He also broke up a couple passes. Abraham wasn’t the only player in the secondary that stood on Saturday. Redshirt freshman JoJo Evans made a couple plays. A day after defensive coordinator Brad Lambert mentioned him as a guy he wanted to see, Evans showed up. Evans crashed down from his safety position to blow up a swing pass to a slot receiver. It was very Malik Gant-esque. “I think we’re where we want to be at athletically in the secondary, especially at the safety position,” Holliday said.
The most impressive defensive play of the day came from a guy that didn’t even make the tackle. Instead, his effort forced the ball carrier out for bounds short of the marker. Koby Cumberlander showed unbelievable athleticism (and he took a good route) in tracking down Jaron Woodyard in space. Cumberlander was on the far side of the ball and ran him down. I honestly didn’t know he was that fast. You really just had to see it.
Marshall will utilize the next week as another week of fall camp. The following weeks will much more of a “game prep” type environment. I realize we don’t have anything set it stone for September 5th, but I think it’s coming soon.
Saturday featured a full pads/live tackling scrimmage that saw highlights from both sides of the ball. It gave Marshall HC Doc Holliday and his staff a chance to evaluate the younger guys without the coaches on the field. “We didn’t see a lot of missed tackles. I thought we tackled pretty well. I thought the young guys played with a lot of energy. I thought some of the guy I mentioned yesterday really showed up today,” Holliday said.
Prior to the team portion of practice, the kickers lined up from a variety of distances and angles. I thought Shane Ciucci kicked the ball well. He gets great lift on his balls and more importantly, he gets it up fast (excited to see the quotes from this line). Think, Justin Haig but left-footed. I’d consider him to have the advantage in the kicking game at this point.
Offensively, I thought we looked sharp. We ran the ball with a purpose and our intermediate passing game was on point. We took our chances deep a couple times with mixed success, but passes in the 10-15 yard range were very effective. Grant Wells looked as good as I’ve seen him so far. He did not turn the ball over once. He was sacked a couple times, but overall, I thought he had a great day. Wells’ best throw of the day was a deep ball across the middle of the field to Nebraska transfer Jaron Woodyard for a 40-yard score. Grant let it go when Woodyard was about 20 yards off the ball and Woodyard just ran right underneath it in stride. “Woodyard, the kid from Nebraska, he just keeps getting better. We really like what we’ve seen out of him,” Holliday said of his speedy wideout. I know we say this every year it seems, but this year may be a little different with our speed. The trio of Willie Johnson, Woodyard, and Shadeed Ahmed can all get downfield.
Our four reserve running backs carried the primary load yesterday after the first series (Brenden Knox’s one and only). I’ve already hit on this during camp, but each of those guys have their own strengths. Sheldon Evans is very shifty. We saw that last year. Lawrence Papillon is both shifty and fast. Knowledge McDaniel is more of a between the tackles guy. Rasheed Ali is a little of everything. For me, I think Ali is really going to push for 3rd-string reps this year. Evans had a nasty jump cut off the left tackle and was able to avoid the defender for about a 12-yard gain. Papillon and Ali both displayed their speed on cutback runs. Both runs started off the right side, and as soon as they saw daylight, they put their foot in the ground and cut it back. Pap’s run was actually pretty incredible because I didn’t think he had a chance to get away from the defenders.
One young guy that’s really starting to come in is Amir Richardson. He caught a number of balls yesterday and was able to cut it up for yardage after the catch. Like Xavier Gaines, Richardson is a guy that changed positions and needed to add some mass to be able to be effective. “He was committed to changing his body. That’s been the biggest thing for him. He’s around 235 pounds now and he was already very gifted in the weight room,” tight ends Coach Kyle Segler said. On one play, he chipped down on the defensive end, and then broke out into the flat for a catch. That doesn’t sound all that impressive but what he did after the catch was. He looked very athletic sprinting up the field for a 20-yard gain through traffic.
The defense was not to be outdone on Saturday though. Saturday’s scrimmage really gave some of the younger/lesser experienced guys a chance to prove themselves and a few of them didn’t miss out of the opportunity. Defensive tackle T.J. Johnson had a very good scrimmage IMO. He was disruptive to say the least. On one play, he shot through the LOS and blew up the running back in the backfield. It drew a ton of excitement from defensive line coach JC Price. Honestly, I don’t know it didn’t cause a fumble. Another guy that seems to be settling in at his new position (cornerback) is Micah Abraham. Whether it was a read or he just simply played his assignment, he was great in run support on a couple occasions. He also broke up a couple passes. Abraham wasn’t the only player in the secondary that stood on Saturday. Redshirt freshman JoJo Evans made a couple plays. A day after defensive coordinator Brad Lambert mentioned him as a guy he wanted to see, Evans showed up. Evans crashed down from his safety position to blow up a swing pass to a slot receiver. It was very Malik Gant-esque. “I think we’re where we want to be at athletically in the secondary, especially at the safety position,” Holliday said.
The most impressive defensive play of the day came from a guy that didn’t even make the tackle. Instead, his effort forced the ball carrier out for bounds short of the marker. Koby Cumberlander showed unbelievable athleticism (and he took a good route) in tracking down Jaron Woodyard in space. Cumberlander was on the far side of the ball and ran him down. I honestly didn’t know he was that fast. You really just had to see it.
Marshall will utilize the next week as another week of fall camp. The following weeks will much more of a “game prep” type environment. I realize we don’t have anything set it stone for September 5th, but I think it’s coming soon.
