The Kay Yow Spring Game was held on Saturday, April 7th at Carter Finley Stadium.

Unlike last year’s format, this year’s game was more of a true live offense vs. defense scrimmage.

To get a true sense of what we should expect in the fall, I am breaking down the performances of offense, defense, special teams, and looking at the players who provided marquee performances in the Spring Game (and, if they I think they will breakout in the fall once another team rolls into town…).

Weather Report:

Game started at 59 degrees with drizzle.  As the game continued, the temperature started to drop and rain increased.  By halftime, there was a driving cold rain towards the Murphy Center and it was windy.  By the end of the game, the temperature was 43 degrees and it was torrentially raining.  Not necessarily similar to Hurricane Matthew vs. Notre Dame, but still a gross experience for today’s spring game.  The weather did impact the overall attendance, I would estimate maybe 4,000 or so people there today, mostly crowded under the overhang on both sides of the field.

Offense:

We ran very vanilla schemes in the Spring Game.

Finley was the main QB for 1st string offense in the first half and McKay was the main 2nd string QB in the first half.  In the second half, McKay was the 1st string QB and Cornwell took the reins for the 2nd string.  Finley took more downfield shots today and was more accurate.  Interestingly enough, I thought he was a little less accurate on the shorter throws (crossing routes, hitches, outs) today than what he normally is.  McKay had some good throws, but also looked like he was rushing things at times (his unit had several false start penalties early in the game and looked like they were misaligned with formations a few times).  If McKay can learn to hone his throwing mechanics on every play, I think he could have a better deep ball than Finley.  He had several 30+ yard throws which made him look like he was just flicking his wrist and the ball was taking off.

At Running Back, Rhem, Eason, Robinson, and Collins got a great deal of carries.  Collins and Robinson are intriguing because they are both redshirt freshmen.  Robinson has a gear in the open field that Collins does not have, but Collins is better between the tackles.  I was surprised at how big Rhem looked to be.  He may very well be a fullback in some situations similar to what we saw with J-Sam at times.  Rhem is by far the most bulky carrier that we have currently between the tackles, but probably is the best we have in pass protection right now.  Robinson needs to continue to add some weight and needs to get a lot better in pass protection.  Collins flashed some potential on several passing plays to be dangerous out of the backfield as a receiving option.  Eason had a good long run late in the game, but simply outran the 2nd string defense until he ran out of gas.  With his open field speed, it would be interesting to see him in a kick returning type role (however, he is probably 5’7″ in cleats).

At Wide Receiver, it was a difficult day to catch the ball because of the wind and driving rain, particularly from the start of the 2nd quarter on.  In my opinion, Harmon, Louis, and Meyers could easily alternate with 100 yard receiving games with each other from game to game this year.  After them, we struggled to identify some backup options today.  Thayer Thomas was advertised as a quality depth piece this week, and made some good plays, but I was honestly expecting more from him.  With him being a slot receiver, the elements probably had a lot to do with his lack of a huge game.  To me, it will be interesting to see who takes the next step to backup Harmon, Louis, and Meyers.  Eric Collins had a good play (Erin Collins’ brother), but again, he is more suited to be a slot type receiver.  I think the opportunity is there for Max Fisher, CJ Riley, Emeka Emezie, and Thayer Thomas to be solid backup receivers, but I also think that Jasiah Provillon from New Jersey, who is enrolling in August, has the athleticism to contribute immediately at WR.

At Tight End, Autenreith and Parham started with Darden, Boselli, and Ruocchio backing them up.  Parham is definitely the most athletic of the bunch and could have had a big play in the passing game, but the officials missed an obvious hold by one of our linebackers on the play.  Autenreith and Parham proved to be solid in the running game and opened holes well. I think we will have a few growing pains with missing the reliability of Cole Cook in the running game, but overall, I think we have enough ability and athleticism with Parham and Darden to have our TEs as a bigger part of our passing game this year.

At Offensive Line, our starters were Tyler Jones, Terrone Prescod, Garrett Bradbury, Joshua Fedd-Jackson, and Justin Witt.  We excelled with running the ball to the left side early in the game.  Finley had an entirety to throw the ball from the pocket in the first two quarters.  Witt did not perform well early in the game and was called for a clipping penalty.  Witt appeared to lose leverage a few times when blocking running plays.  We are in great shape this year with running plays which use a guard to pull across the formation.  Strickland (a freshman) is extremely enormous and looks the part to have a big time role in a few years.  The big question I have for the offensive line is Will Witt start at right tackle, or will Emanuel McGirt finally live up to his billing and hype as a 4* OT and take away the starting spot?

Star Performers on Offense:

Kelvin Harmon – Gained quite a bit of upper body bulk in the off-season.  He will be an All-ACC Wide Receiver this year. He had an incredible touchdown on a long pass play from Finley in the first quarter.

Jakobi Meyers – He will be a matchup problem this year.  He started to put things together last year with the Florida State game, and capitalized on his abilities the rest of the season. He made a lot of great plays in the slot today, including some catches which have already been featured on various social media pages.  He is deceptively fast and is very, very athletic.  He will be a matchup problem because he is bigger and quicker than most nickels who will be covering him.

Joshua Fedd-Jackson – Another young star in the making.  He played some last year when Tony Adams was out.  Based upon what I saw today of him blocking in the running game and sealing up the A gap blitzes that the defense was bringing, he is going to have a great season and will have a NFL type future.  Adams was a great player for us, but Fedd-Jackson brings better size.

Defense:

Overall, the 1st string defense played well today despite the conditions.  However, the passing game presents some difficulties because we are breaking in another new corner (Maurice Trowell).  The defensive line played well at times today, and I think that we have several stars in the making on the defensive line, but we are also missing some key players with injury.

On the defensive line, I was very impressed by the athleticism and ability of Grant Gibson and Xavier Lyas.  Lyas has very long arms and is incredibly fast off the edge for someone of his size.  James Smith-Williams had a couple of good plays in the open field. Roseboro provided some disruption but was also matched up against Tyler Jones and Terrone Prescod for much of the game (two very veteran offensive linemen).

In the secondary, Stephen Griffin showed what everyone has been talking about.  He is very athletic and can cover very well in space.  I think that he will definitely get the starting nod at nickel based upon what I saw today.  Freshman early enrollee De’von Graves showed a lot of athleticism on back to back plays in the second quarter and has a LOT of speed to bring to the table.  Morehead was solid as usual, Dexter Wright was called for a defensive pass interference. McCloud did a great job of shutting down his side of the field early in the game (he was covering Louis, who finished the game with only 1 catch). I think it should be very interesting to see who grabs the reins at the safety position opposite Morehead this season.  Tim Kidd-Glass and Isaiah Stallings have lots of ability but will they be able to overcome the experience of Wright?  Chris Ingram also performed well against Emezie today, and I look for him to press for playing time at CB as the season gets closer.  Does he have enough to take PT away from Trowell (a converted WR)?

Star Performers on Defense:

Germaine Pratt – He will be an All-ACC performer this year.  It has taken some time, but he has finally found his position on the football field.  He was one of Pro Football Focus’s top defenders in the ACC against the run last year, and he definitely showed that again today.  Every single time there was a stop on a running play early in the game, Pratt was slamming someone into the turf.  He brings a ton of kabam when he closes on the ball.

Louis Acceus – He will be a very fun player to watch along side Pratt this year.  He brings a lot of athleticism to the table and has a nose for the football.  He is still learning the position, but definitely showed some flashes of what he can do in run support and also in pass coverage against slot receivers today.

Jarius Morehead – Morehead was a steady force last year at FS and showed his athleticism early in his career with the INT vs. Notre Dame in the conditions of Hurricane Matthew.  Morehead mixed it up with several receivers today and provided some walloping hits which caused them to cough up a caught ball downfield.

Grant Gibson – Another young kid, but he will be another fun one to watch as he continues to develop.  He was a 4* recruit, and was probably only a 4* recruit and not higher due to his height (he is only 6’1″).  However, he was right there with Germaine Pratt in the backfield having a party and shutting down things early in the game.  I think he will definitely press for playing time this year behind Shug Frazier when he comes back from injury (Frazier was using a scooter board thing today and had his lower right leg in a cast).

Special Teams:

Snapping seemed to be an issue today, and it did not seem to be dependent on how heavy the rain was.  Hence, the importance of us using a scholarship for a snapper in the 2019 class.  Several times on extra points, our snapper just about snapped it over the head of AJ Cole.  Chris Dunn is as good as advertised and split the uprights on all of his kicks today.  Bambard had a good kickoff to start the game.  Just based upon pre-game warmups, Bambard needs to stick to kicking off and Dunn needs to be just a placekicker.  Dunn does not quite have the leg yet to consistently put kickoffs inside the 10, whereas Bambard does.  Bambard had an attempt late in the first half for an extra point and the ball was a line drive sideways through the uprights.

I think the punt return and kick return competitions should be interesting to watch.  Granted, none of the punt returns had tackles today, but the kick return to start the game was done by Stephen Louis and returned 24 yards.  Thayer Thomas and Jakobi Meyers were returning the punts today.  Again, if Thomas does not get the nod for these duties, look for Nakia Robinson, incoming freshman Jasaiah Provillon, or maybe even incoming freshman Tanner Ingle to get a chance to return kicks and punts this season.  Thayer Thomas did a good job of securing punts in a driving rainstorm today, but I am interested to see how he will do when he does not fair catch the ball and has people in his face trying to tackle him.

I was also impressed by our backup punter Trenton Gill.  Everyone knows what to expect from AJ Cole (who I thought had an off day – a couple of shanks early in the game).  Gill surprised me because he had some very good punts with great hang time in the 2nd quarter.

This Year’s Star Player Predictions:

Germaine Pratt, Kelvin Harmon, Ryan Finley, Chris Dunn (yes, I’m picking him to be a star, based upon what I saw today, he will be able to handle it), Jakobi Meyers, and Tyler Jones (protecting the blind side of the QB is very underrated).

This Year’s Surprise Contributors Will Be:

I’m thinking the surprise contributors (who played today) will be: Grant Gibson, Dylan Parham, Tim Kidd-Glass.  The surprise contributors who did not play today will be Ricky Person, Josiah Provillon, and Tanner Ingle (Provillon and Ingle will be joining the team in August).

Interesting Side Note:

JUCO DE Joe Babros was ejected in the fourth quarter for getting into a fight with Redshirt Freshman OL Liam Ryan.  Not sure what started the whole thing, but it is not a good sign for an incoming Junior College transfer player who was expected to contribute immediately.