Fall Scrimmage Recap—They'll be better in two weeks

The first, last, and only public scrimmage of the Fall was held tonight at Bronco Stadium in front of a respectable crowd of nearly 16,000 rabid fans. In lieu of Kevan's usual Computer Wore Tennis Shoes play by play rundown of the event, I'll give a more high level recap of the scrimmage—highlighting who stuck out, who didn't, and just what we should expect in two weeks at the Georgia Dome. Live football is back people...tell your face to get excited!

Depth chart notes

• The first team defense and offense were about what you've come to expect. Cedric Febis is indeed your starting strong safety, and he looks absolutely enormous out there. Didn't really have a big night in that I barely noticed him or heard his name called...but honestly, the first team defensive line was so dominant and the playbook so vanilla it was hard for anyone in the secondary to get many looks. 
• Jerrell Gavins also did get the start opposite Taylor. He looked pretty good in coverage, but also very small. Not David Augusto small, mind you, but when he was covering Burks or Boldewijn it was more pronounced.
• Second team strong safety looks to be Jeremy Ioane, with Travis Stanaway backing up Iloka at free safety. 
• Hunter White and Jonathan Brown look like 1A and 1B at the nickel position, saw them rotating a lot ala Tevis/Percy.
• Malcolm Johnson looked good, and he's definitely our #3. Pecking order tonight looked like this: Martin, Harper, Johnson, Ajayi, Lambert, Hogan (walk-on). Did not see Wright run the ball tonight, but it's safe to say that he's probably an OR with Ajayi who I'd say is NOT needed this year depthwise.
• Joe Southwick was the 2nd team QB, but I was more impressed with Hedrick. Not that Southwick really did anything wrong—he had a beautiful long TD pass to Boldewijn late...but Hedrick just seemed a bit more consistent—completing his first 6 passes and turning in some big runs.
• Bryan Douglas and Quaylon Ewing-Burton were the 2nd team CBs and both looked very good. QEB broke up a sure-fire TD pass to Boldewijn early in the scrimmage.
• Blake Renaud got a few snaps with the second team at MLB and looked good, also walk-on Travis Saxton had a few series in there as well at OLB. Didn't see Percy tonight, but I have a bad astigmatism.
• Forget what I said earlier today about Harman. He's probably going to be the punter and kickoff specialist. Looked good in both capacities. Van Ginkel, Goodale, and Frisina are all competing for FG specialist, and I don't know if I saw any of them miss tonight. Good luck with that one, coaches. Van Ginkel also tried some punting, but Harman's looked much better. 

They are merely freshman

If you'll pardon my late '90s alt rock reference, I'll briefly run down what I saw from the true frosh and the untested redshirts. The future looks bright.

• Jeff Worthy, Sam Ukwuachu, and Blake Renaud are all big and disruptive. Ukwuachu could stand to put on a few lbs., but has a big frame and got in on quite a few plays with the 3rd team. 
• Blake Renaud, in my opinion, will be playing this year. He had a great "stick" on 3rd down, bringing the ball-carrier down in the backfield. Looks like an instinctive player and has very good size.
• Jay Ajayi will be a very good back for the Broncos, he's not huge, but for some reason looks at least a head taller than our top three. He's also not super fast, but still managed some nifty runs when he was in.
• Lee Hightower is going to be one big cornerback.
• I've been way off on the pronunciation of Eric Agbaroji's name. I still can't quite pronounce it, but trust me, if you heard the way the PA announcer was saying it tonight, you've probably been saying it wrong.
• Dillon Lukehart completely laid out Ajayi at one point. Beautiful form tackle.

Good stuff that happened

• The first team D played lights out, getting a sack from Jarrell Root on their first play from scrimmage. All told, the Bronco first team O never got into much rhythm until the 2 minute drill portion of the scrimmage.
• Kellen Moore finally got of the scoring schnide with a beautiful TD pass to Gabe Linehan, who broke two tackles on his way to the endzone. Linehan is going to be a star for the Broncos...I think you already know about Kellen.
• Mitch Burroughs had a good night, making on spectator near me wonder out loud where he's been the last two years. In the football facility, man. In the football facility.
• Little Burroughs bro Dallas looks very hard to cover. Unfortunately, he was outrunning his QBs throws as well. Almost hauled in a really long one.
• Doug Martin looked like Doug Martin. Only 6 carries on the night for 33 yards, but he also snapped off a 51-yard kickoff return that got the crowd pumped for more hamster action.
• DJ Harper looks like he hasn't had even one, let alone two, season-ending knee injuries. He'll be a big contributor this year.
• Southwick's aforementioned TD strike to Boldwijn was absolutely beautiful. I think we'll be seeing a lot of that this year...except, you know, with Kellen throwing them.
• Troy Ware made some really nice grabs. Impressed by his hands.
• Matt Miller also looked good, got some nice YAC on a few passes and looks like he'll be the holder on PATs. This is going to make Dave Southorn very nervous.

Bad stuff that happened

• I hope that Aaron Burks injury isn't as bad as it looked. He fell hard and awkward after coming back toward the line for a pass. Tried to get up and then fell back to the turf. He ended up being taken off on the cart. Looked like a possible ankle roll to me. Get well soon.
• Special teams needs to work some kinks out. Several blocked punts, several dropped punts. Choate, as you can imagine, is probably not a happy camper.
• Dropsies by the wide receivers. It wasn't terrible, but there were a lot of very catchable balls that ended up on the turf tonight.
• Root's sack on Kellen came from Kellen's blind side, meaning it was allowed by new RT Charles Leno, who'll be getting his first start in the Georgia Dome. Hope it was an anomaly.

Miscellany

• Walk-on RB Phillip Hogan and TE Holden Huff are the original odd couple. They were in the same huddle at one point and I think Hogan goes up to the top of Huff's tube socks.
• Kirby Moore got quite a bit of action with the 1st, 2nd and 3rd teams. You can tell he wants to be on the field.
• Back to Huff, if that kid puts on about 30 more lbs. he is going to be an absolutely massive target for future QBs.
• BYU commit and Elite 11 quarterback MVP Tanner Mangum was on the sideline for the game. I found this odd for some reason.
• Ribbon boards look nice, as do the brighter LED displays on the scoreboards. The MWC logos are absolutely ginormous, so if you're in the 2 percent of people that like the logo, you're going to be stoked.

What'd you see?