Clemson had its second stadium scrimmage of spring practice today at Death Valley. A few of the more interesting themes we picked up:
-- Can't tell you how many times we've heard the offensive guys point out all the funky stuff the defense is throwing at them. A lot of stemming and games up front that make life difficult on the offensive line, and particularly the freshman offensive linemen. Tony Elliott noted that Brent Venables and his staff picked up new ideas from other staffs during the winter (including Alabama and Texas A&M) and naturally this is the time to try it out.
-- As we've noted, the scrimmages present a learning process for Elliott and Jeff Scott as they discover how much tempo their young guys can handle at this early juncture. There were some false starts and holding penalties today, but overall Elliott seemed pretty pleased when I spoke with him.
"Tempo is what we do," he said. "We're going to continue to push and try to strive for tempo. But it's just like a game: You've got to get a feel for what's working in the scrimmage, what are they handling. In the spring, you've got your entire package to pull from. Whereas in the season, you're going to game plan and be specific. But here, we're just trying to get the package in for the most part. We still don't have the whole package in, but everything is available.
"As a coach, you see some things from the sideline. And boom, you may call it before going, 'Oh man. They're not ready for that.' It's good for the young guys because they're getting that experience. But there are some growing pains, and just things where they have to continue to put in that work each and every day so they can have good command of the system."
-- As we've told you, exiting last week's scrimmage Elliott and Scott identified three specific things they wanted to correct in today's scrimmage: 1) center-quarterback exchanges, 2) negative-yardage plays that come as a result of the quarterbacks not getting the ball out in time, and 3) two or three deep plays that were missed but should have been made rather easily.
Elliott's take on those three areas today:
"The exchanges were much better. I don't remember any miscues there, where we had several in the previous scrimmage. We did connect on some plays down the field, which was a positive. We still had too many tackles for loss. As an offense, you want to go out of every game without having any. But we did have a couple where the defense was able to disrupt us in the backfield. And the quarterback's got to continue to gain confidence in being able to pull the ball and help make us right in some situations with his legs."
-- The defense controlled the red-zone situations today, and that frustrated Elliott. He said his offense moved the ball between the 20s but malfunctioned when close to the end zone. That was a big problem last year, and one the staff honed in on during its intensive self-study that preceded spring practice.
"We moved the ball into the red zone in the open-field portion of the scrimmage but we didn't come away with points," Elliott said. "And then we had some scripted red-zone situations where we did get the ball into the end zone, but it wasn't as consistent as we would like. That's an area we've got to continue to improve."
-- Short yardage and goal-line were a positive for the offense in the first scrimmage, but Elliott said that's been a bit of a struggle overall because of the glaring lack of depth at tight end.
"We're just trying to figure out, 'What can we do? What can we handle?' But there were some short-yardage situations where we converted. Then we would get a first down, but then we would have a miscue and back ourselves up and now you're trying to convert a third-and-long."
-- Venables was basically pleased with what he saw in the second scrimmage. He liked their competitiveness. He said his guys responded after some bouts of sloppiness and he was pleased with that.
-- I asked Venables if his interior guys on the DL are showing signs of possessing the edge that propelled and defined their predecessors. He's not willing to go there yet, saying D.J. Reader, Carlos Watkins and others have to demonstrate it over the long term before he's going to offer a favorable judgment on that count. You can tell this is a big question in his mind, perhaps the biggest as he prepares for the 2015 season.
-- Venables says Shaq Lawson has been "real strong" thus far. Said Kevin Dodd hasn't had a bad day yet. Said Ebenezer Ogundeko is growing and improving.
-- Albert Huggins has shown some good things for a young guy but is still learning the speed of the game and technique.
-- Richard Yeargin is "starting to play faster, stronger, more sure of himself."
-- A week ago, Venables seemed intrigued by Van Smith. I asked him for his take on the freshman safety's progress over the last week. Said he understands the game. Said he's still got plenty to learn, but he's "not overwhelmed schematically or physically."
-- Without a doubt, Venables is holding Jayron Kearse to a higher standard entering his junior year. He's reluctant to dispense praise of the safety, evidenced today when a reporter used the term "standout" to describe Kearse.
"Who said standout?" Venables responded.
Kearse told reporters he "dominated" the scrimmage, picking off one pass and dropping another interception. A few minutes later, Venables was wondering what all the fuss was about.
Kearse is ready for a breakout heading into his third season here, and it seems Venables' public takes on him reflect that. He's pushing him like great players (or potentially great players) should be pushed.
Hope everyone is doing well out there. The team is off the practice fields until Monday, but we've been filling up the notebooks with plenty of good stuff to roll out between now and then.
This post was edited on 4/1 6:41 PM by Larry_Williams
This post was edited on 4/1 6:47 PM by Larry_Williams
-- Can't tell you how many times we've heard the offensive guys point out all the funky stuff the defense is throwing at them. A lot of stemming and games up front that make life difficult on the offensive line, and particularly the freshman offensive linemen. Tony Elliott noted that Brent Venables and his staff picked up new ideas from other staffs during the winter (including Alabama and Texas A&M) and naturally this is the time to try it out.
-- As we've noted, the scrimmages present a learning process for Elliott and Jeff Scott as they discover how much tempo their young guys can handle at this early juncture. There were some false starts and holding penalties today, but overall Elliott seemed pretty pleased when I spoke with him.
"Tempo is what we do," he said. "We're going to continue to push and try to strive for tempo. But it's just like a game: You've got to get a feel for what's working in the scrimmage, what are they handling. In the spring, you've got your entire package to pull from. Whereas in the season, you're going to game plan and be specific. But here, we're just trying to get the package in for the most part. We still don't have the whole package in, but everything is available.
"As a coach, you see some things from the sideline. And boom, you may call it before going, 'Oh man. They're not ready for that.' It's good for the young guys because they're getting that experience. But there are some growing pains, and just things where they have to continue to put in that work each and every day so they can have good command of the system."
-- As we've told you, exiting last week's scrimmage Elliott and Scott identified three specific things they wanted to correct in today's scrimmage: 1) center-quarterback exchanges, 2) negative-yardage plays that come as a result of the quarterbacks not getting the ball out in time, and 3) two or three deep plays that were missed but should have been made rather easily.
Elliott's take on those three areas today:
"The exchanges were much better. I don't remember any miscues there, where we had several in the previous scrimmage. We did connect on some plays down the field, which was a positive. We still had too many tackles for loss. As an offense, you want to go out of every game without having any. But we did have a couple where the defense was able to disrupt us in the backfield. And the quarterback's got to continue to gain confidence in being able to pull the ball and help make us right in some situations with his legs."
-- The defense controlled the red-zone situations today, and that frustrated Elliott. He said his offense moved the ball between the 20s but malfunctioned when close to the end zone. That was a big problem last year, and one the staff honed in on during its intensive self-study that preceded spring practice.
"We moved the ball into the red zone in the open-field portion of the scrimmage but we didn't come away with points," Elliott said. "And then we had some scripted red-zone situations where we did get the ball into the end zone, but it wasn't as consistent as we would like. That's an area we've got to continue to improve."
-- Short yardage and goal-line were a positive for the offense in the first scrimmage, but Elliott said that's been a bit of a struggle overall because of the glaring lack of depth at tight end.
"We're just trying to figure out, 'What can we do? What can we handle?' But there were some short-yardage situations where we converted. Then we would get a first down, but then we would have a miscue and back ourselves up and now you're trying to convert a third-and-long."
-- Venables was basically pleased with what he saw in the second scrimmage. He liked their competitiveness. He said his guys responded after some bouts of sloppiness and he was pleased with that.
-- I asked Venables if his interior guys on the DL are showing signs of possessing the edge that propelled and defined their predecessors. He's not willing to go there yet, saying D.J. Reader, Carlos Watkins and others have to demonstrate it over the long term before he's going to offer a favorable judgment on that count. You can tell this is a big question in his mind, perhaps the biggest as he prepares for the 2015 season.
-- Venables says Shaq Lawson has been "real strong" thus far. Said Kevin Dodd hasn't had a bad day yet. Said Ebenezer Ogundeko is growing and improving.
-- Albert Huggins has shown some good things for a young guy but is still learning the speed of the game and technique.
-- Richard Yeargin is "starting to play faster, stronger, more sure of himself."
-- A week ago, Venables seemed intrigued by Van Smith. I asked him for his take on the freshman safety's progress over the last week. Said he understands the game. Said he's still got plenty to learn, but he's "not overwhelmed schematically or physically."
-- Without a doubt, Venables is holding Jayron Kearse to a higher standard entering his junior year. He's reluctant to dispense praise of the safety, evidenced today when a reporter used the term "standout" to describe Kearse.
"Who said standout?" Venables responded.
Kearse told reporters he "dominated" the scrimmage, picking off one pass and dropping another interception. A few minutes later, Venables was wondering what all the fuss was about.
Kearse is ready for a breakout heading into his third season here, and it seems Venables' public takes on him reflect that. He's pushing him like great players (or potentially great players) should be pushed.
Hope everyone is doing well out there. The team is off the practice fields until Monday, but we've been filling up the notebooks with plenty of good stuff to roll out between now and then.
This post was edited on 4/1 6:41 PM by Larry_Williams
This post was edited on 4/1 6:47 PM by Larry_Williams
