I tried to tie every position into this. QB- Flynn/Perrilloux still running 1-1 with both getting near equal reps. Welker is still... WELKER, despite people saying he is "Far improved", etc... RB- I'll say it again, Murphy is the best one out there. Keiland is playing well and everything, just Murphy can catch, run inside, run outside, very Tiki Barber-esque. FB: (Haven't seen much out of these guys as a lot of the new sets have single backs.) When one is in there, Hester has been the guy, obviously. WR: LaFell is a monster in that anything you throw to him, he has a chance to catch. HE has great leaping ability, and runs with magnificent strides. RJ Jackson is raw and new to the position, but will be solid when the time comes. TE: Zinger is back out there, that's about all I can say. OL: this Hitt guy is a real bulldog, other than that, I'm not an O-Line expert, so I can't really say a whole lot, other than Arnold seems to be 100%. DL- Without Dorsey, but the line is still incredibly talented. Guys like Rahim, Jean-Francois, Woods, etc... etc... are all stars in the making. LB- It's hard to tell, because there isn't a WHOLE lot of contact going on... And to be quite honest, the D-Line stands out so much that the LBs get lost sometimes. CB- Jai and Hawkins are rotating at nickle. Jai is playing a shade better right now, but both can play. Safety: Curtis Taylor in LaRon's spot; Steltz in Daniels' spot. Got beat deep a couple of times, but a few were because of lost footing. Kickers: David is doing most of the kicking that I can see with Fisher doing the punting. Miles thinks one of the 2 punters we got will do kickoffs and start at punter from what I hear, because Fisher is inconsistent. He can bomb one 60 yds, then shank one 25 yards. All-in-all, this seems to be more the offense than the defense at this point. The plan seems to be that the defense is a monster, and they will not tinker with the formula until necessary, so they are just working on their base-sets, and conditioning, whereas the offense seems to be working a little more on the tricks and wrinkles of the new system, which is real spread out, but also real efficient. It is not geared for either the run or pass. it is real balanced. The only difference from last year is that a 3rd WR is used in the place of a FB.
I know they aren't really hitting yet, but one of the key's to Crowton's offense is WR blocking. Keep an eye on that and let us know how they look when they get around to it. I am slightly worried about this. I can't see Lafell taking out a linebacker, but hopefully I am just worrying over nothing.
Joe Addai seems to favor the power a hair over the speed, whereas Murphy favors the speed a little more to the power, but they do compare very favorably... What will land Keiland the role as starter, at least initially is pass blocking, because he seems to be a little ahead there, and with no fullback as protection in the new system, that is vital. I also wanted to add that for those of you who miss Muschamp's rowdy, fired up attitude on the sidelines, then you are in for a treat, because the new offensive line guy is a complete phycho... (in a good way, of course). he goes nuts when they do something good, and even more nuts when they do something bad.
Hester is still the best blocking back, I expect to see him in on third and long, even as a single back. Williams, Scott, and Murphy really need to learn how to pick up the blitz this year while we still have Hester. Next year, the best blocker might move to the top of the depth chart. Today Crowton stated in the Advocate that LSU would be running a lot this year and mostly with two-backs. Still, it's early in spring practice and they haven't implemented the whole package yet.
I love to see that too. I was surprised last fall, in discussing Muchamp, there were some who indicated they didn't care for it. It stems from competitiveness and I believe it fires up the kids-they feed off of it. If the coach is so fired up who wouldn't feed off of it. :thumb:
They do a little 2-back, 2-wide 1 TE now, but the belief is that once Toliver and Byrd get here, that will change. I have seen Trindon at RB and WR, and KR... haven't seen him do punts yet. That has been Jai E. and Chevis.
