War Eagle Extra has moved!

You should be automatically redirected in 4 seconds. If not, visit
http://www.wareagleextra.com
and update your bookmarks.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Saturday's scrimmage: news and notes

Real quickly here are some of the high- (and low-) lights of Saturday's scrimmage that we, the media, once again were not able to watch:
  • The big news was that safety Mike McNeil suffered a right leg injury that required several emergency vehicles to arrive at Jordan-Hare Stadium. Nobody was offering many details about what happened, but it sounded serious enough that McNeil could be out for a while.
  • Safeties coach Tommy Thigpen said Mike Slade, Drew Cole and Christian Thompson will fill in for McNeil while he's out.
  • The defense hammered the offense by a 61-34 final.
  • Here's how Gene Chizik answered a question about who won: "You know, that’s a little premature because you don’t know what’s happening until you go back and watch the film. … You hesitate right now by looking at the score that went back-and-forth early on to decide who beat who. I’m a little reluctant to do that."
  • We'll help him out: The defense won by 27 points.
  • Running backs coach Curtis Luper owned up to the game's one-sidedness: "They handed it to us pretty well today. It was a good old-fashioned whupping. It's not all bad. You like to see the defense do well sometimes. We've been spanking them pretty good."
  • The offense focused on passing more. It didn't work out so well. Quarterback Kodi Burns said the offense scored on its first possessions, then "things kind of went downhill a little bit"
  • CB Neiko Thorpe had an interception return for a touchdown.
  • DE Antonio Coleman, who had a practice field spat with coaches last week that he termed a "miscommunication,"had a couple of sacks. "I talked with the coaches, coach (Ted) Roof and coach (Tracy) Rocker, and they told me I had to be that leader and step up and get it going. And once I get it going, everybody will follow me, and that's what happened." He had another good quote about his day. "I pride myself on stopping the run, but any time you drop back your quarterback, you must want me to hit him, because I'm going to get back there," he said.
  • Offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn said he probably had enough game film to evaluate his the three quarterbacks -- Burns, Neil Caudle and Barrett Trotter -- and narrow the field to two. He wasn't offering anything more specific than that, however.
  • RB Onterio McCalebb broke off another long run. RB Ben Tate scored a touchdown.
  • Wide receivers coach Trooper Taylor liked what he saw out of Tim Hawthorne, who he thinks is emerging as a threat. He also liked what he saw out of recently-moved Harry Adams' deep-play potential.

No comments: