If your interests lie in bland anduninspiring football, or sifting through a lot of chaff to find alittle bit of wheat, this year's East-West Shrine Game was the gamefor you. Though last year's game did produce the #2 rusher in theleague, Alfred Morris, and a couple of players who made the Ramsroster, Corey Harkey and Austin Davis, all three of whom I extolledin the review of that game, this year's game just didn't have much torecommend. The West won a dreary 28-13 mistake-filled affair. Therewas a turnover on the first play of the game. I don't believe asingle ball traveled longer than 8 yards the entire first half. Youknow, if they're going to dictate a bland game where the defensescan't blitz (though I'm pretty sure the West was breaking that ruleat the end) and you apparently can't even rush the FG kicker (and heslices one into the woods anyway), they should at least make theoffenses TRY to throw more than 25 feet downfield. (They did a littlein the 2nd half.) Better coaches would be a good idea,too. Today we got the Non-Clash of coaching Non-Titans: JerryGlanville and... Leeman Bennett? Seriously? Were Marion Campbell andDan Henning unavailable?Well, hopefully I can punch things up alittle. Non-professional scouting notes by position:
QB: Nothing special at QB. AlexCarder's (Western Michigan) first drive ended with a bad-looking INT,but he had the best numbers of anybody (9-11-95), and the INT waspart poor recognition and part poor route by Jasper Collins. Carderdid show nice rhythm in the short passing game, and threw well on therun, when he could outrun the DEs, that is. Arizona's Matt Scottmostly handed off, and he had to blow two timeouts because this isthe first time in college he's ever had to call a play in the huddle?What the hell are some of these college coaches doing? He did fire apretty bullet to the sideline that Chad Bumphis turned into a 57-yardTD. Seth Doege (Texas Tech) did not impress. He has a good play-fake,but he's tiny, he missed open receivers and threw a bad pick into acrowd at the end of the game. Collin Klein looks a lot more like TimTebow than Colin Kaepernick, which is not a good thing. Same goofyhitch in his delivery, same terrible accuracy on sideline passes...make it stop. I didn't see his speed as elite, either, though he didsome successful scrambling (5-35) here. Colby Cameron (LouisianaTech) threw a terrible sideline pick-six right before halftime. Readthe defense poorly, threw too late and threw too far inside. NathanStanley (SE Louisiana) couldn't get anything done on read options andhad a pass batted down despite his 6'4” height.
RB: Remember Johnny Cash's “A BoyNamed Sue?” I learned today there is a football player namedChristine. And no, pronouncing it “Kristin” doesn't help. AndMike Mayock's calling him one of the best RBs in the country, eventhough he broke a leg two years ago, tore an ACL last year and was inthe coaches' doghouse at Texas A&M this year and had only 92touches. Seriously? But Christine Michael was probably the mostcomplete RB in this game. Ran with good power, ran well aftercontact, showed nice jump-cut and cutback maneuvers, had a catch outof the backfield and ran well in traffic. Admittedly didn't havegreat numbers (13-42) to show for it, and he had a fumble hackedloose by Devin Taylor. Pitt RB Ray Graham (6-23) fumbled on the firstplay of the game switching hands. Zach Line (8-33) of SMU did sometough middle running, but nothing like I remember Morris doing lastyear. (Ask) Kerwynn Williams (8-28) was the closest thing this gamehad to a breakaway RB. He could get the corner, ran well aftercontact and bounced a draw for 12 for the longest run of the game.Zac Stacy (Vanderbilt) got stuffed a bunch of times and dropped apass.
WR: A couple of wide receivers lookedlike they'll be worth closer looks. Chad Bumphis (Mississippi State)is a little small at 5'11” 198 but made a variety of catches (4-92)and sped off with a 57-yard TD for the game's biggest play. AnthonyAmos (Middle Tennessee, 6'0”, 185) had 4 catches for 59, lookedlike a reliable WCO receiver and showed a little ability to get YAC.He also scored the first TD of the game on an end-around and drew adeep DPI. Corey Fuller (Virginia Tech, 6'3”, 195) looks the part,and had a 21-yard catch, but with a hold and a false start, hurt histeam as much as he helped it. The NFL Network gang fussed a lot overJasper Collins (Mt. Union), but he did not deliver. He ran an awfulroute that helped Carder get picked off in the 3rd andmuffed away a punt. TE D.C. Jefferson (Rutgers) will need to improvehis mental game; he missed a block to get a run stuffed and lined upwrong another time, causing a penalty. BC TE Chris Pantale made thegame's best catch, a 17-yarder off his shoetops.
OL: One of my favorite players of thisgame was Kansas LT Hawkinson Tanner (6'5” 300). He had an epicbattle with South Carolina DE Devin Taylor, which he ultimately lost.He got pushed around at times and got beaten for two sacks, one asack/fumble. He was beaten so badly on one play I initially thoughtit was a blown screen pass. Other times, though, he used his handswell in pass protection, and he made some pancake blocks and someabsolutely mauling run blocks. I think he's a player a good linecoach could turn into something. Nick Speller (UMass, 6'5” 290)run-blocked well and had some good moments in pass-protection. Hedidn't give up a sack, but did get beaten pretty good by Wes Hortonof USC a couple of times late in the game. Mike Mayock comparedTerron Armstead of Ark.-Pine Bluff to Rodger Saffold, for his size,natural bend and quick feet. He looked good run-blocking but gotcaught holding to erase a long Klein scramble.
DL: The star of this game was big (6'8”269) South Carolina DE Devin Taylor, who was a nightmare for the WestQBs. He beat Tanner twice for sacks, once with an impressive bullrush. He forced two fumbles in the first half with tomahawk chops onDoege and Michael. He flushed West QBs several times. He got suckedin a little bit on runs but showed he could set the edge. Cardertried to take advantage of him on a bootleg run but Taylor trackedhim down anyway. He outran the QB on a designed bootleg run! I don'tthink we're done seeing Devin Taylor this offseason. Another strongperformer came from, of all places, Princeton. 6'4” 270 DE MikeCatapano dominated Western Michigan's Dan O'Neill. He beat him tostuff a sweep, beat him to bat down a pass, put him on his butt inthe 1st to stuff a run and smoked him and held up Doegefor the sack/fumble in the 1st. Travis Johnson (San JoseState) played the read option really well, stuffing Klein a couple oftimes. Caleb Schreibis (Montana State) showed good edge rush and goodbull rush but got caught overpursuing other times.
LB: A.J. Klein (Iowa State) stuffedseveral runs early, showed he could play sideline-to-sideline andswallowed a draw play whole to close out the first half. DevonteHolloman (South Carolina) popped up a lot, blowing up a coupleof draw plays, though Collin Klein beat him on a scramble. Matt Evans(New Hampshire) also popped up a lot. On the Doege sack/fumble, Doegehad to eat the ball because Evans picked the back up out of thebackfield nicely, and Evans was the man who recovered the fumble.
DB: Illini corner Terry Hawthorne had aproductive game, with a fumble recovery to start the game and anexcellent INT in the back of the end zone in the 3rd,getting inside position and shielding off a much bigger receiver.Nigel Malone (Kansas State) had a huge game, returning a terriblepass for a short pick-six right before halftime and later breaking upan end zone pass. Sio Moore (Connecticut) looked like a strongin-the-box safety, stuffing several runs and destroying KerwynWilliams on a sweep. Aaron Hester (UCLA) should be fine, if he canget coached up. Great size at 6'2” 195 and he showed the skill toblanket receivers. But he badly overran a play to give up a 21-yardgain and committed a couple of long DPIs by making contact with hisman when he didn't really have to. Take those penalties away and hehad a strong game. (One should have been taken away anyway; the ballwasn't remotely catchable.) Branden Smith (Georgia) blew the playbadly on Bumphis' 57-yard TD by going for the INT, but he made up forit by picking one later. Jaleel Addae (Central Mich.) flashed thebest closing speed of anybody to shut down a short pass in the 3rd.Sheldon Price (UCLA) showed blanket coverage ability on deep routesand on punts. Khalid Wooten (Nevada) picked off a poorly-underthrownbomb from Klein at the end of the game. Earl Wolff (NC State)finished things off with a nice play in the end zone, getting insideleverage on the receiver to intercept a dumb throw by Doege.
ST: The East won the kicking gamedecisively. Caleb Sturgis (Florida) nailed 2 FGs and looked GregZuerlein-like on a 48-yarder that would have been good from 60. ZachBrown (Portland State), meanwhile, duck-hooked a chip shot into thewoods in the 2nd. Yeah, thanks for coming. KerwynnWilliams had the only interesting kick return, returning a bouncerfor 38. Those are usually harder to return for long yardage. I don'tthink the folks running this game even invited a decent long snapper.The punters had to make like Tim Howard all day to keep snaps fromgetting by them. Army WR Trent Steelman apparently also volunteeredfor that duty, and got to do it, not well.
Takeaway: Devin Taylor dominated thegame at DE and I'd think we'll see him again at the Combine, if notthe Senior Bowl next weekend. Looked like a lot of good DB talent wasthere as well. The best offensive player, though, may have been thekicker, Sturgis. Bland offenses run by bad QBs – the Shrine Gamepeople have to find a way to spice this thing up. Better players,less rules restrictions, or maybe coaches who have actually coachedin the last 20 years. I did not see a game-breaking RB or afield-stretching WR, either. If the Rams are to add significantoffensive talent in the offseason, I don't see much of it coming fromthis game.
Up next: I will probably concentrate onthe conference championships tomorrow. I may get the NFLPA game outon Monday; we'll see. Doesn't sound like that one was a thriller,either. The Raycom Classic should be hitting my DVR overnight, andthis week will be filled with Senior Bowl festivities.
-$-
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