Tyler Russell- awesome! That was the best freshman first game QB performance I have ever seen at MSU. He may or may not be a great fit for the spread, but there's no doubt that he can make plays, and there's no doubt after seeing some of the I-formation stuff as well as the spread and pistol stuff that we ran tonight that Dan will build the offense around him, and his strengths and will put the other players in a position where they can all make plays. I've always liked Tyler Russell, but this was totally and pleasantly unexpected. Screw the option if we're able to bomb people back to the stone age. At least the air raid siren made sense for once.
The o-line I thought was inconsistent at times. I would have liked to have run the ball better, but I'm not sure how much is on them and how much is on the running backs. I do know that Hevesey was upset at times. The best thing was their pass protection was fairly good, and they didn't commit penalties.
I thought our skill players in general looked very good- Green, Bumphis, Berry, Heavens, Arceto Clark. I thought the running backs looked OK, but I don't think anyone really separated themselves from the pack either. LaDarius Perkins I thought looked very promising. Elliot and Ballard both played OK. The backs were not bad by any means, but I want to see them take it up a notch.
The defense looked good- especially considering that this was a new scheme with new coaches, and I liked that again, we did a lot of stuff and threw the kitched sink at them. That made it really hard on Memphis. My biggest gripe with the defense was that we had some missed tackles and allowed them to get some extra yards, and we need to fix that. I am happy that we won the turnover battle. Chris White is a beast.
The special teams to me, looked the worst of any unit. They consistently had good returns, and we have to cover those kickoffs better. We can't keep allowing people to get to the 40. Also, we had a missed FG. Aside from that, we were adequate.
My criticism is nitpicking because quite frankly, we played really, really well. Especially for a first game. We do have some things that we need to clean up, but that's not to be unexpected. It's good to see MSU play a team that they were supposed to blow out, and they took care of business and did it. My hope is that we continue to do that and improve upon this and get better as the year goes along.
The o-line I thought was inconsistent at times. I would have liked to have run the ball better, but I'm not sure how much is on them and how much is on the running backs. I do know that Hevesey was upset at times. The best thing was their pass protection was fairly good, and they didn't commit penalties.
I thought our skill players in general looked very good- Green, Bumphis, Berry, Heavens, Arceto Clark. I thought the running backs looked OK, but I don't think anyone really separated themselves from the pack either. LaDarius Perkins I thought looked very promising. Elliot and Ballard both played OK. The backs were not bad by any means, but I want to see them take it up a notch.
The defense looked good- especially considering that this was a new scheme with new coaches, and I liked that again, we did a lot of stuff and threw the kitched sink at them. That made it really hard on Memphis. My biggest gripe with the defense was that we had some missed tackles and allowed them to get some extra yards, and we need to fix that. I am happy that we won the turnover battle. Chris White is a beast.
The special teams to me, looked the worst of any unit. They consistently had good returns, and we have to cover those kickoffs better. We can't keep allowing people to get to the 40. Also, we had a missed FG. Aside from that, we were adequate.
My criticism is nitpicking because quite frankly, we played really, really well. Especially for a first game. We do have some things that we need to clean up, but that's not to be unexpected. It's good to see MSU play a team that they were supposed to blow out, and they took care of business and did it. My hope is that we continue to do that and improve upon this and get better as the year goes along.