First, there was obviously the pre-game jolt of excitement with the Kaden Smith commitment. And it's worth mentioning again - he's a difference-maker from the TE position, just a dynamic player. First prospect to pick up a Stanford offer in the 2016 class, as well.
There were a few other visitors of note at the game, as well
Three of Stanford's 2015 signees - Frank Buncom, Austin Maihen and Jack Dreyer were on hand, and they were seated next to Kaden Smith. 2016 Utah safety Keenan Pili, who has offers from BYU and several Pac-12 schools (but not Stanford, and given the depth on Stanford's DB board, it's a bit hard to know if they'll get to him), was also on hand. Potential walk-on candidate, local OL Matthew Gutwald was there as well.
I also spotted Brennan Scarlett.
As for the game itself, here are some initial observations. If you were able to watch the game, please feel free to chime in/start your own thread with additional comments.
It was obviously a completely dominant effort by the defense. That's what the scoreboard (funky scoring system and all) read, and that's what happened. This was a result of a)the 2nd/3rd team offenses doing basically nothing and b)the first-team offense's inability to advance the ball once they got into scoring territory, and then missing three field goals.
On the flip side, Solomon Thomas and Harrison Phillips were very productive and got penetration on a pretty regular basis. Blake Martinez did what Blake Martinez does, and several defensive backs had pass breakups. (Kodi Whitfield on a Hogan pass attempted for Austin Hooper, Alijah Holder just ripped away a completion to Hooper.)
But, clearly, there were some issues on the offensive end - the majority of which came with the reserves - that extended beyond just the stellar effort of the Cardinal defense. So, a different result today than in some prior scrimmages where the offense had the upper hand.
Here were the lineups.
First team OL: Murphy (LT), Garnett (LG), Shuler (C), Bright (RG), Tucker (RT)
*Fanaika (RG) and Bright (RT) also rotated in with the first unit. Johnny Caspers got at least one series with the first OL at center.
Second team OL: Tucker (LT), AT Hall (LG), Caspers (C), Fanaika (RG), Bright (RT)
*Lucas Hinds also rotated in.
-With Stanford light on RB's and WR's, basically all of the scholarship skill guys rotated in with the first/second units.
Defense
-Since Stanford only had four defensive linemen, they basically all played with every unit.
-Joey Alfieri (OLB), Peter Kalambayi (OLB), Blake Martinez (ILB), Kevin Palma (ILB) got the start. Noor Davis also got some time with the first team. Mike Tyler, Luke Kaumatule, Sam Shober (OLB), Craig Jones, Bobby Okereke, Davis, Jordan Perez (ILB) rotated in with the second team.
-Dallas Lloyd, Kodi Whitfield (S), Alijah Holder (CB), Alameen Murphy (CB) got the start in the secondary. Brandon Simmons and Calvin Chandler were the second-team safeties; Denzel Franklin rotated in with them as well. Terrence Alexander played some nickel and also second-team DB, as did Taijuan Thomas. Ra'Chard Pippens and Ryan Gaertner rotated in with the second team as well.
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-Let's start with the special teams. Not only did Stanford miss all three field goals (Conrad Ukropina), but they were very inconsistent on punts, as well. Alex Robinson did get off one that traveled 50-plus yards a bit later in the scrimmage, but his first two were shanks, and he was up and down throughout.
Jake Bailey is going to push Ukropina for that punting spot when he arrives on campus. Bailey has a huge leg, and if everything goes smoothly with the transition it would surprise no one if he takes the starting job.
I thought Ukropina showed a bit more pop on his kicks throughout the open practices this spring than in previous years, but obviously he struggled pretty badly today. There will be competition at kicker there, as well, with Charlie Beall and perhaps Bailey. Or, they might do something like Beall/Ukropina on 40 yards and in w/Bailey as the long field goal man. In any event, there's clearly a lot of uncertainty surrounding Stanford's special teams units entering the summer.
-If there was a bright spot to be found within Stanford's offense, it was clearly the play of Kevin Hogan, who concluded a very strong spring with a 13-19, 187-yard, pretty close to mistake free afternoon, even though he was without the services of Devon Causte (mild hamstring strain) and Francis Owusu (undisclosed, but not serious), and, for part of the game, Michael Rector, who rolled an ankle. Austin Hooper was the primary beneficiary of Hogan's strong afternoon - he had a game-high 5 catches for 103 yards, though he was a bit loose with the football on a long completion from Hogan that allowed Alijah Holder to swoop in there and strip the ball out.
-The other bright spot was, as expected, Christian McCaffrey. McCaffrey was second on the team behind Hooper with 55 receiving yards (on three catches), and gained 38 yards on 10 carries. (Barry Sanders was the leading rusher - 55 yards on 10 carries.) Stanford used McCaffrey in several different ways, and they'll do that this season.
-For the not so bright spots - both Ryan Burns and Keller Chryst really, really struggled. Some inconsistent second-team offensive line was probably partially to blame, but both guys had their share of bad misses. Burns finished 9-18 for 67 yards, Chryst 1-8 for 7 yards. Both guys were much better in the open scrimmages than they were today. Burns got the second team reps, but really neither guy did much to help his case today. That said, this was only one day, and there's no denying either's physical tools. So this will be a big spring and summer for both. But, even though both Chryst and Burns did some nice things this spring, there's a very, very, very large gap between Hogan and both of them.
-It was not entirely unexpected given all of the various personnel groupings, but things were pretty sloppy. Multiple delay of game calls, plus several timeouts to prevent delay of game calls. That's stuff that will need to be cleaned up during camp.
-Especially given the amount of time they were on the field today, really have to be impressed with both Harrison Phillips and Solomon Thomas. Those guys were frequently around the ball making plays. If all four of Stanford's top defensive linemen (Aziz, Scarlett, Thomas, Phillips) can stay healthy, that unit has a chance to be quite productive again this year.
A few more defensive stats: Blake Martinez had a game-high 11 tackles. Solomon Thomas had seven, including a sack. Craig Jones had six, and Bobby Okereke and Denzel Franklin had five apiece.
There were a few other visitors of note at the game, as well
Three of Stanford's 2015 signees - Frank Buncom, Austin Maihen and Jack Dreyer were on hand, and they were seated next to Kaden Smith. 2016 Utah safety Keenan Pili, who has offers from BYU and several Pac-12 schools (but not Stanford, and given the depth on Stanford's DB board, it's a bit hard to know if they'll get to him), was also on hand. Potential walk-on candidate, local OL Matthew Gutwald was there as well.
I also spotted Brennan Scarlett.
As for the game itself, here are some initial observations. If you were able to watch the game, please feel free to chime in/start your own thread with additional comments.
It was obviously a completely dominant effort by the defense. That's what the scoreboard (funky scoring system and all) read, and that's what happened. This was a result of a)the 2nd/3rd team offenses doing basically nothing and b)the first-team offense's inability to advance the ball once they got into scoring territory, and then missing three field goals.
On the flip side, Solomon Thomas and Harrison Phillips were very productive and got penetration on a pretty regular basis. Blake Martinez did what Blake Martinez does, and several defensive backs had pass breakups. (Kodi Whitfield on a Hogan pass attempted for Austin Hooper, Alijah Holder just ripped away a completion to Hooper.)
But, clearly, there were some issues on the offensive end - the majority of which came with the reserves - that extended beyond just the stellar effort of the Cardinal defense. So, a different result today than in some prior scrimmages where the offense had the upper hand.
Here were the lineups.
First team OL: Murphy (LT), Garnett (LG), Shuler (C), Bright (RG), Tucker (RT)
*Fanaika (RG) and Bright (RT) also rotated in with the first unit. Johnny Caspers got at least one series with the first OL at center.
Second team OL: Tucker (LT), AT Hall (LG), Caspers (C), Fanaika (RG), Bright (RT)
*Lucas Hinds also rotated in.
-With Stanford light on RB's and WR's, basically all of the scholarship skill guys rotated in with the first/second units.
Defense
-Since Stanford only had four defensive linemen, they basically all played with every unit.
-Joey Alfieri (OLB), Peter Kalambayi (OLB), Blake Martinez (ILB), Kevin Palma (ILB) got the start. Noor Davis also got some time with the first team. Mike Tyler, Luke Kaumatule, Sam Shober (OLB), Craig Jones, Bobby Okereke, Davis, Jordan Perez (ILB) rotated in with the second team.
-Dallas Lloyd, Kodi Whitfield (S), Alijah Holder (CB), Alameen Murphy (CB) got the start in the secondary. Brandon Simmons and Calvin Chandler were the second-team safeties; Denzel Franklin rotated in with them as well. Terrence Alexander played some nickel and also second-team DB, as did Taijuan Thomas. Ra'Chard Pippens and Ryan Gaertner rotated in with the second team as well.
##########
-Let's start with the special teams. Not only did Stanford miss all three field goals (Conrad Ukropina), but they were very inconsistent on punts, as well. Alex Robinson did get off one that traveled 50-plus yards a bit later in the scrimmage, but his first two were shanks, and he was up and down throughout.
Jake Bailey is going to push Ukropina for that punting spot when he arrives on campus. Bailey has a huge leg, and if everything goes smoothly with the transition it would surprise no one if he takes the starting job.
I thought Ukropina showed a bit more pop on his kicks throughout the open practices this spring than in previous years, but obviously he struggled pretty badly today. There will be competition at kicker there, as well, with Charlie Beall and perhaps Bailey. Or, they might do something like Beall/Ukropina on 40 yards and in w/Bailey as the long field goal man. In any event, there's clearly a lot of uncertainty surrounding Stanford's special teams units entering the summer.
-If there was a bright spot to be found within Stanford's offense, it was clearly the play of Kevin Hogan, who concluded a very strong spring with a 13-19, 187-yard, pretty close to mistake free afternoon, even though he was without the services of Devon Causte (mild hamstring strain) and Francis Owusu (undisclosed, but not serious), and, for part of the game, Michael Rector, who rolled an ankle. Austin Hooper was the primary beneficiary of Hogan's strong afternoon - he had a game-high 5 catches for 103 yards, though he was a bit loose with the football on a long completion from Hogan that allowed Alijah Holder to swoop in there and strip the ball out.
-The other bright spot was, as expected, Christian McCaffrey. McCaffrey was second on the team behind Hooper with 55 receiving yards (on three catches), and gained 38 yards on 10 carries. (Barry Sanders was the leading rusher - 55 yards on 10 carries.) Stanford used McCaffrey in several different ways, and they'll do that this season.
-For the not so bright spots - both Ryan Burns and Keller Chryst really, really struggled. Some inconsistent second-team offensive line was probably partially to blame, but both guys had their share of bad misses. Burns finished 9-18 for 67 yards, Chryst 1-8 for 7 yards. Both guys were much better in the open scrimmages than they were today. Burns got the second team reps, but really neither guy did much to help his case today. That said, this was only one day, and there's no denying either's physical tools. So this will be a big spring and summer for both. But, even though both Chryst and Burns did some nice things this spring, there's a very, very, very large gap between Hogan and both of them.
-It was not entirely unexpected given all of the various personnel groupings, but things were pretty sloppy. Multiple delay of game calls, plus several timeouts to prevent delay of game calls. That's stuff that will need to be cleaned up during camp.
-Especially given the amount of time they were on the field today, really have to be impressed with both Harrison Phillips and Solomon Thomas. Those guys were frequently around the ball making plays. If all four of Stanford's top defensive linemen (Aziz, Scarlett, Thomas, Phillips) can stay healthy, that unit has a chance to be quite productive again this year.
A few more defensive stats: Blake Martinez had a game-high 11 tackles. Solomon Thomas had seven, including a sack. Craig Jones had six, and Bobby Okereke and Denzel Franklin had five apiece.
