First Scrimmage: George shines in intial live action
The Cougars held the first major scrimmage of fall drills on Saturday. The focus was looking at younger players like O’Neil Chambers and a host of fullback candidates. TE Dennis Pitta, RB Harvey Unga and FB Fui Vakapuna did not participate.
Did coaches meet the objective?
Yes and no. They got players on film and can evaluate them but without the big guns, Max Hall and the offense were not exposive, but not bad. Andrew George had several huge catches and proved very productive after the catch with big runs. Chambers had a nice fake and go route on a play action and corner G Pittman swallowed the move allowing Chambers to take off down field and haul in a 35 yard pass. If Chambers hadn’t stepped out of bounds, he would have scored. “I tried to keep my feet in but I was too far out,” said Chambers, who was taken aside after practice by Bronco Mendenhall for some one-on-one pointers.
Brandon Howard intercepted Kurt McEwen and while whistles were blown by officials and later the flas were picked up, Howard ran 40 yards for a touchdown.
Hall finished 11 of 15 for 157 yards and one short touchdown. Gaskins, who is solidly No. 2 was 2 of 3 for 21 yards.
Here is a quick look at the scrimmage:
The first offense went against the first defense just once, on the first possession and after J.J. DiLuigi ran for 13 yards on a nice, weaving run, he didn’t turn around quick enough on the next play and a Hall pass hit him in the legs. The drive ended after one first down.
The second possession had Brenden Gaskins and the second offense went against the second defense and the big play was a toss to Landon Jaussi for a first down. In the series Bryan Kariya got the first of many carries at fullback. The series lasted seven plays and died after Kariya got caught at the line.
The third possession had Hall going against the third defense. George made a huge catch and run to get the ball down field and after another big third down catch by George, Hall used DiLuigi on a couple of runs to get the ball inside the 10 but he missed George on a TD try, throwing behind him as Steven Thomas knocked down the pass. Wayne Latu had several carries in the series with mild success. Mitch Payne kicked a field goal from short range.
The fourth series featured McEuen and the third team against the first defensive secondary and linebackers. B.J. Peterson had a nice 12-yard reception for a first down but Howard picked off McEuen for a TD to end the drive.
Hall took the fifth series and had the first team against the second defense. He used DiLuigi on some handoffs and fit in carries by Latu. Chambers made a nice catch at the line and ran for a first down and this is the series in which Chambers caught Pittman and made a huge 35-yard reception, an easy catch against blown coverage. Hall threw his only TD pass to end this series, just a short shot to fullback Kelly Bills.
In the sixth series, Gaskins went against most of the first team and the drive featured handoffs to Latu and Kariya for small gains.
Hall failed to move the offense in the seventh series and it was three and out. The other series were given to McEuen and Stephen Covey and amounted to nothing special.
The standout player of the scrimmage was George, sometimes overshadowed by Pitta on the field.
I believe the coaches were pleased but not blown away by the scrimmage. With Hall’s big weapons out, it was a watered down affair.
“Sometimes it’s not just having those guys (Pitta, Unga and Vakapuna) on the field for what they can do, it’s having them out there for potentially what they will do and just having the threat of them on the field makes the defense have to account for them,” said assistant head coach Lance Reynolds.
To sum it up, the defense keyed on the players featured while the big guns were in the cupboard. And it showed.