As far as the scrimmage itself goes, there isn’t much to report.  It was a 36 play affair that featured mostly walk-ons, true freshmen, and some scholarship players who may or may not be called upon to play.

This article isn’t truly a scrimmage report.  Rather it’s a report on what stood out to be in the scrimmage, during yesterday’s practice, the attrition situation, and what all of it means for the program right now.

The wide receivers and the passing game

I have positives and negatives to report about Tech’s wide receivers.  First off, I think there’s talent there.  D.J. Coles is proven, Demitri Knowles made some tough catches right off the top of the grass, and younger players such as Joshua Stanford (r-Fr.), Charley Meyer (r-Fr.), Carlis Parker (Fr.) and Deon Newsome (Fr.) will all be good, in my opinion.

Newsome is taller than Eddie Royal, but he’s built similarly.  He’s got big biceps, and looks strong upstairs, but his legs are a little bit skinny.  He looks like he has good hands, and overall he’s further ahead of where I thought he would be.  Carlis Parker is a smooth looking athlete who can get open.

While there is definitely talent at the position, it’s almost all young talent.  Stanford, Meyer, Newsome and Parker have never played in a college football game before.  Some guys aren’t catching the ball smoothly right now.  In fact, Aaron Moorehead had the group do 90 pushups after practice for dropped balls.  At this rate, our wide receivers will at least have huge arms, haha.

I don’t want to play both Carlis Parker and Deon Newsome this  year.  Both were high school quarterbacks, and we know how that can go.  Parker played a little bit of wide receiver in high school, but he freely admitted after the scrimmage that his route running “sucks” (per Mike Barber’s Twitter account) and that he’s a very raw player.

D.J. Coles was limping around towards the end with an ice pack wrapped around his knee.  Like it or not, he’s probably never going to be 100%.  I’ve said I think he’s too heavy at 234, and Frank Beamer agreed.  But at this point, it is what it is.  If you’ve got a really sore knee, how do you do extra running and conditioning to drop weight?

I like the overall talent level of this group, but they aren’t going to hit the ground running.  You can count on that.

On the other hand, I thought Logan Thomas was pretty sharp.  He was very decisive with his throws, and he made some excellent throws.  There was no hesitation, which means he wasn’t throwing off his back foot and sailing passes.  He made his decisions quickly, and he trusted his receivers to be there.  That’s exactly what you want from your r-senior quarterback.  I’m encouraged by his progress, but I’m worried about his supporting cast.

As far as the backups go, here’s how I view them in one quick sentence for each…

Mark Leal : Good, solid player
Brian Rody: Solid, but as a walkon he’s limited
Brenden Motley : Improved, but a ways to go
Bucky Hodges : Hodges has a ton of work to do technically

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