Spring Game

[TMFT]

Saw @Walt542 outside the stadium.

Decent turnout for a Thursday night.

Somewhat reminiscent of last year where I’m not blown away by the offense (but that turned out being because our D was so solid last season, so we’ll see).

Seems like Fernando Mendoza’s passes are sailing on him some.

Alberto Mendoza has been leading the 2nd team offense.

Kaiden Turner (RS-Jr #14) has been all over the place when he’s been on the field. Very nice.

D hitting really well.

 

[76-1]

Saw @Walt542 outside the stadium.

Decent turnout for a Thursday night.

Somewhat reminiscent of last year where I’m not blown away by the offense (but that turned out being because our D was so solid last season, so we’ll see).

Seems like Fernando Mendoza’s passes are sailing on him some.

Alberto Mendoza has been leading the 2nd team offense.

Kaiden Turner (RS-Jr #14) has been all over the place when he’s been on the field. Very nice.

D hitting really well.

Thanks for the update...

Hopefully this is the start of Kaiden Turners breakthrough season...

 

[Big Red Crimson Buffalo]

Saw @Walt542 outside the stadium.

Decent turnout for a Thursday night.

Somewhat reminiscent of last year where I’m not blown away by the offense (but that turned out being because our D was so solid last season, so we’ll see).

Seems like Fernando Mendoza’s passes are sailing on him some.

Alberto Mendoza has been leading the 2nd team offense.

Kaiden Turner (RS-Jr #14) has been all over the place when he’s been on the field. Very nice.

D hitting really well.

Fernando seeing what some real pressure looks like. A bit shaky. But, I thought Rourke looked pedestrian in the spring game last year while Jackson looked better. Hard to gauge all of this.

 

[Big Red Crimson Buffalo]

Thanks for the update...

Hopefully this is the start of Kaiden Turners breakthrough season...

It looks like it will be Fisher and Rolijah Hardy. But Jones will rotate in just like last year.

 

[TMFT]

Fernando seeing what some real pressure looks like. A bit shaky. But, I thought Rourke looked pedestrian in the spring game last year while Jackson looked better. Hard to gauge all of this.

I had the same impression of Rourke last year. So, shows what I know. Hopefully it’s just a quality of defense issue and that he’s still getting acclimated.

 

[Big Red Crimson Buffalo]

You should see the specimen in #94 Kyler Garcia. This kid is a true freshman and looks like an NFL grown lineman. That dude is built.

 

[sparkeyreturns]

Saw @Walt542 outside the stadium.

Decent turnout for a Thursday night.

Somewhat reminiscent of last year where I’m not blown away by the offense (but that turned out being because our D was so solid last season, so we’ll see).

Seems like Fernando Mendoza’s passes are sailing on him some.

Alberto Mendoza has been leading the 2nd team offense.

Kaiden Turner (RS-Jr #14) has been all over the place when he’s been on the field. Very nice.

D hitting really well.

I thought Kaiden Turner was going to be the next Micah McFadden by his highschool highlights. Glad to see he I starting to show a bit.

 

[red hornet]

How the new DLs look, Wheeler & Ratcliff? TIA

 

[TMFT]

How the new DLs look, Wheeler & Ratcliff? TIA

The eyes aren’t as good as they used to be so I can’t give a report necessarily on individual DTs, but inside runs generally didn’t seem too effective, so it seems like they held up fine.

There were multiple solid runs however by Black & Hemby. Hemby can scoot.

 

[Big Red Crimson Buffalo]

How the new DLs look, Wheeler & Ratcliff? TIA

Wheeler is one big dude #0. We have depth there. They rotated a lot of guys. And from what I could tell, they generally made life uncomfortable for the QBs. Guys were getting a push in the middle of the line to where I noticed that the QBs had to get out of the pocket. Watching it, you forget about the other guys still in there that we had play last year. Landino, Tucker, Burris.
This Kyler Garcia kid, I looked down there and thought “how does this true freshman look like he has the physique of a 5th year senior?”

They had LeBron Bond out there playing a bunch at WR. Now, a lot of that is due to necessity but they did have 5-6 true freshmen getting quite a few reps mixed in with starters..

 

[MTBRider22]

I had the same impression of Rourke last year. So, shows what I know. Hopefully it’s just a quality of defense issue and that he’s still getting acclimated.

Keep in mind that QB is the toughest position to rotate into. You're controlling the whole offense and have to adjust on the fly. There's just no way that anyone, especially at this level, can just step in and in a few months have the entire thing down pat. It takes reps, reps, and more reps to get there.

 

[rcaulfie]

It's definitely difficult to gauge when your team is going against itself, whether various plays are due to good plays by one side or bad plays by the other. But the biggest thing I wanted to see was the depth chart. Surratt, Kamara, Fisher, Ponds and Benson all didn't play. I'm sure there were others that I didn't notice, I was kind of far up watching it. But the younger Mendoza is the backup, and Wilson was 3rd team. I thought Alberto looked pretty good, definitely a lot better than Grant. And it looks like it's Black and Hemby as 1a and 1b, with Beebe behind them. Beebe looked good though, I imagine we will see all 3 like we did last year with Justice, Lawton and Black. The starting OL from L to R was Smith, Ajani, Coogan, Lynch and Michalski. I imagine Benson will be starting above Ajani. WR's were Cooper, Becker and EJ Williams with the 1's and then saw a lot of Bond, Kendrick and Jordan with the 2's. I'm sure I'm missing people, would have loved to have recorded it so I could go back and see more. I didn't see Jackson, but I wasn't looking for him. Staes appears to be the starting TE, and I thought he looked good, with Nowakowski backing him up. Then Bomba at 3. I'm sure West was sitting at 4, which is probably why he went in the portal. Just a hunch, though, but it is a shame cuz I'm sure he would still be used some as 4th string, plus would play a lot of special teams.

 

[rcaulfie]

Oh, and another thing I wanted to mention that I saw. Surratt didn't even dress and he was with another guy.....can't recall the number....but they were kind of tossing the ball around and Cignetti walked up to them and said something to them, and walked away and then they tucked their shirts in. I thought that was funny.

 

[Walt542]

It was nice to meet you TMFT. The bus is great!

I was disappointed that the QB from Troy did not show much. Looks like Alberto is the second guy.

I thought Wheeler did a nice job. Not CJ West yet, but looked pretty stout in there. Hardy was impressive too. Jah Jah got in on a few plays nicely too. Haven’t seen too much mention about him. It is tough to tell when they are playing each other but I really liked Beebee. He has good speed and cuts. Black also looked good. Didn’t see what I wanted to out of Hemby. He went up the middle a couple times and just ran into the scrum. I remember Justis sliding off guys for a few additional yards so maybe he can learn to do that rather than just stopping.

 

[Walt542]

Of the freshmen, Bond is going to be good. He looked like he belonged out there. I also liked Baldwin. Good speed and seemed to have an instinct for the ball.

 

[Hatchets7times]

Black needs to get a bunch of calls.
He's gonna be a tuff tackle for many ..
He and Hemby will both more than avge R.B.'s

 

[Jssanto]

Fernando seeing what some real pressure looks like. A bit shaky. But, I thought Rourke looked pedestrian in the spring game last year while Jackson looked better. Hard to gauge all of this.

Shaky under pressure is a bad reputation to have. Can you coach someone though that?

 

[mushroomgod_1]

Saw @Walt542 outside the stadium.

Decent turnout for a Thursday night.

Somewhat reminiscent of last year where I’m not blown away by the offense (but that turned out being because our D was so solid last season, so we’ll see).

Seems like Fernando Mendoza’s passes are sailing on him some.

Alberto Mendoza has been leading the 2nd team offense.

Kaiden Turner (RS-Jr #14) has been all over the place when he’s been on the field. Very nice.

D hitting really well.

I'm late but wanted to share some of my impressions from the game--

1. With a lot of the studs being held out, there weren't a lot of "wow" moments, but when we were done my buddy and I agreed there was significant improvement from last years spring game. What was so impressive was 1. improvement in overall depth; and 2..all 3 levels on the depth chart being so well schooled....so few penalties and obvious mistakes....We just radiate reliability/confidence. We definitely looked like part of a legit BT team even without the stars playing. I've watched spring games at IU off and on for 40 years, and this is just different.

2. To me, all 3 TBs looked like studs. Fast and tough. And competent....no fumbles by them. I think we're at least as good, and probably better, than last year.

3. H. Wheeler; EJ Williams; H. Staes; and Mario Landino are four guys who just 'look the part' in terms of build/stature.

4. R. Hardy is just a flat out play maker. He has Walker-like instincts.

5. I would have liked to have seen M. Jackson. Bond is a play maker but he's a freshman and so damn small. Myles Kenrick looked like someone to watch. So fast. He has slot size but I don't know the plan for him. He had happy feet and dropped one once in the middle of the field. Staes is a big target and is probably someone who will get offset from the line a lot and targeted in the middle. I could still see Cig trying to get a veteran slot guy.

6. Riley Nowakowski surprised me by catching a couple down field a ways...albeit with the 2nd unit. He may get a little more receiving action that I thought.

7. The one guy I was disappointed in was Charlie Becker......didn't see much out of him.........

8. We have a ton of DBs. I wonder if we lose a couple yet in the portal, especially as Baldwin, Stewart and D. Henderson all looked the part physically and scheme wise. It seems like Sharpe might be the "other" corner.

9. I think we're still looking at another hedge guy even adding the kid from KSU.

10. Freshman and RS freshmen I noticed: Stewart; Baldwin; Henderson; Kendrick; Bond; Q. Clark; PJ Nelson; J. Bell. Also, a couple of the young OL looked like prospects.

11. Kaden Turner and Isaiah Jones flat out smack people. I've always liked Turner and I hope he stays and gets more PT. He'a a guy who I could see portaling out, unfotunately. In general, there was some hard hitting going on.

 

[red hornet]

Excellent summary for us who could not be there. Thnx. Mushroomgod.

 

[vesuvius13]

I'm late but wanted to share some of my impressions from the game--

1. With a lot of the studs being held out, there weren't a lot of "wow" moments, but when we were done my buddy and I agreed there was significant improvement from last years spring game. What was so impressive was 1. improvement in overall depth; and 2..all 3 levels on the depth chart being so well schooled....so few penalties and obvious mistakes....We just radiate reliability/confidence. We definitely looked like part of a legit BT team even without the stars playing. I've watched spring games at IU off and on for 40 years, and this is just different.

2. To me, all 3 TBs looked like studs. Fast and tough. And competent....no fumbles by them. I think we're at least as good, and probably better, than last year.

3. H. Wheeler; EJ Williams; H. Staes; and Mario Landino are four guys who just 'look the part' in terms of build/stature.

4. R. Hardy is just a flat out play maker. He has Walker-like instincts.

5. I would have liked to have seen M. Jackson. Bond is a play maker but he's a freshman and so damn small. Myles Kenrick looked like someone to watch. So fast. He has slot size but I don't know the plan for him. He had happy feet and dropped one once in the middle of the field. Staes is a big target and is probably someone who will get offset from the line a lot and targeted in the middle. I could still see Cig trying to get a veteran slot guy.

6. Riley Nowakowski surprised me by catching a couple down field a ways...albeit with the 2nd unit. He may get a little more receiving action that I thought.

7. The one guy I was disappointed in was Charlie Becker......didn't see much out of him.........

8. We have a ton of DBs. I wonder if we lose a couple yet in the portal, especially as Baldwin, Stewart and D. Henderson all looked the part physically and scheme wise. It seems like Sharpe might be the "other" corner.

9. I think we're still looking at another hedge guy even adding the kid from KSU.

10. Freshman and RS freshmen I noticed: Stewart; Baldwin; Henderson; Kendrick; Bond; Q. Clark; PJ Nelson; J. Bell. Also, a couple of the young OL looked like prospects.

11. Kaden Turner and Isaiah Jones flat out smack people. I've always liked Turner and I hope he stays and gets more PT. He'a a guy who I could see portaling out, unfotunately. In general, there was some hard hitting going on.

Thanks for the report from Spring Game, it sounds the team will be better than last year. Glad to hear a few defensive players hit hard because IU needs to do that against the better B1G teams they play. I like to hear the freshmen are so fast and Bond could out run hits despite being small. Kenrick is fast so I will look for him this season. Now I know why coach Cignetti is more calmer this year and I can't wait for the season.

 

[IUgradman]

Cignetti has said the depth is improved and there are no glaring deficiencies on the roster.

He also said the team can be as good as it wanted to be which makes me think it has a high ceiling.