my overall breakdown on the appy game

qb's - hatch appears to be beyond lee in game management. all of lee's plays ran down to the wire on the game clock and seemed as if there was mass confusion on his adjustments. lee, though, is a better passer. despite the wacky int, he has a better eye for recievers and mismatches on the field. hatch tends to go to the tight end a little too much. i cant count how many times he threw into triple coverage on dickson. and if theres triple coverage on a tight end you know one of atleast two of our recievers are open. hatch has some of the best scrambling abilities ive seen in an lsu qb in a long time, probably ever. he gets good yards on busted plays and the designed qb option draws are actually effective for once. crowton really needs to work with hatch on his pre snap check downs and overall vision of the field. the tight end is a 3rd option and he went to the well a little too much despite all the tight coverage on dickson. thats just not good at all. hatch appears to be the man and if i see more of the same negatives in game two, miles might want to let lee get more game snaps.

rb's- kudos to scott and murphy. keiland was just flat out weird today. wasnt making the upfield cuts necessary to get first downs. he just let the defense move him out of bounds. be a man and take someone with you across the first down marker for god sake. if charles scott had enough gas in the tank to take it all the way, murphy and scott would never see the field. i think murphy will come into the light as the number two back if williams cant get back into his zone. this is the first game so i have more than enough respect for keiland to get back up to speed.

o-line - dominant on both facets. barksdale blends in well and you cant even tell theres a new starter in there.

recievers - exceptional. no dropped balls really. byrd made an exceptional cut in the comeback route for the td and lafell had a good day as ususal. props to mitchell for coming into the light on the screen pass. i thought doucet was back for a second.

d-line - exeptional also. did a great job containing appys qb and creating running lanes for lbs to break through. just wondering where the hell pittman was. tremaine johnson did a good job though. al woods looks to have slimmed down a bit but still looks like a monster out there.

lb's - cant really judge since the nickel package was out there most of the game, but did a good job on containing the option and blitzing assignments. the cat will be let out of the bag once sec play begins.

secondary - really good and mediocre at times. when i say mediocre i mean in bad position pre snap. i dont know why there was so much cushion against 4 and 5 wide out sets. they did lay the wood on recievers and always stayed on them to make the contact for incomplete passes. this is not the interception group we saw a year ago so were gonna have to get over that. of course appy is not a deep threat team so that could easily change. reminds me of arkys secondary last season. stayed with every reciever stride for stride and made good contact to force incompletions. secondary also did a good job on blitzing assignments. very quick to get to the qb. very, very quick.


overall - this team has some things it needs to work on from week one to two. the offense just needs more development from the qb position, which should come in time, and the defense just needs to be flat out tested by a balanced offense. i am however most confiedent of our defense being more capable against the spread now. seems were finally getting a handle on it and have the perfect personnel in the nickel package. i know appy state is no florida, but we werent exactly missing tackles either. thats the only difference i see in better athletes on the field.

intangibles - the officiating has simly got to get better. they missed one blatant hold call after another. and the pass interference call not made on byrds pass was just asnine. i thought they just werent paying attention that early in the morning but they go ahead and make detailed personal foul calls on our 0-line. that tells me right there they are watching the play from beginning to end and still not making the appropriate calls. i cant count how many times i saw an appy st o-line player with his mits stuck in the back of the collar of one of our d-linemen. just pathetic. and we still scored 41.

that is all.