[Post Game] Spring Game Reactions

I listened to Nadine Babu's podcast and she said it was supposed to be limited to 2 tickets per person...but there was a glitch in the system and you could order as many as you want. She heard about people who ordered 8, 12, 20 etc. just because they could and may not have used them all.
Hmm. It was two or four, and it limited me to those options. Have not heard this and I would figure it would have popped up on a thread here before now.
 

Hmm. It was two or four, and it limited me to those options. Have not heard this and I would figure it would have popped up on a thread here before now.
Likewise. I was limited to four as I tried to get six for my group
 



Hmm. It was two or four, and it limited me to those options. Have not heard this and I would figure it would have popped up on a thread here before now.
Definitely possible, I'm not a STH, just relaying what I heard her say. Maybe they fixed it quickly.

I wish they could have just opened it up to everybody to just show up. I doubt we would have exceeded 10K but we would have gotten closer.
 


Definitely possible, I'm not a STH, just relaying what I heard her say. Maybe they fixed it quickly.

I wish they could have just opened it up to everybody to just show up. I doubt we would have exceeded 10K but we would have gotten closer.
I think there would have had to be tickets to enforce distancing... I think that is some of the reason we saw the system we saw.
 

Hopefully this will be the last year we have to deal with this sort of thing for a few years. Something will happen in the future again I believe.
 


Loved the spirit and competitiveness obvious in that each team really wanted to win. OBs fine, as noted, A-B looked like another Johnson or Bateman, but not a fourth one at that level visible today. Team looked a bit bulky and slow (Nebraska looked quicker and leaner in their game) and speed was a problem last year. Mo should run as well as ever, and the backs-up improved. Defense will be the issue this year, as last year. Opening with Ohio State not a gift - conference games should not be opening games - they made that mistake in the 70s, too.
I am curious if others had the same observation as GPG about the team looking slow. I thought there was some impressive defensive line pressure from the DEs including Jah Joyner and MJ Anderson and DTs Pinckney and Cheney. From a quickness perspective, I was a bit concerned about the lack of separation for our WRs, but encouraged by the fact that they came up with a number of 50/50 throws. On the flip side, DBs made a few decent PBUs including Terrell Smith and Justin Walley. Overall I thought the team looked about where I expected them to be after last fall and finishing spring practice.

Edit: It was awesome seeing Braelen Oliver out there again flying around.
 



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Definitely possible, I'm not a STH, just relaying what I heard her say. Maybe they fixed it quickly.

I wish they could have just opened it up to everybody to just show up. I doubt we would have exceeded 10K but we would have gotten closer.
I agree, I have been to several spring games and honestly, the attendance is never close to 10K. They should have just opened it up.
 

I am curious if others had the same observation as GPG about the team looking slow. I thought there was some impressive defensive line pressure from the DEs including Jah Joyner and MJ Anderson and DTs Pinckney and Cheney. From a quickness perspective, I was a bit concerned about the lack of separation for our WRs, but encouraged by the fact that they came up with a number of 50/50 throws. On the flip side, DBs made a few decent PBUs including Terrell Smith and Justin Walley. Overall I thought the team looked about where I expected them to be after last fall and finishing spring practice.

Edit: It was awesome seeing Braelen Oliver out there again flying around.
I would like to offer an opinion but I was unable to get tickets. Hard to tell on BTN but the linemen looked big.
 

Loved the spirit and competitiveness obvious in that each team really wanted to win. OBs fine, as noted, A-B looked like another Johnson or Bateman, but not a fourth one at that level visible today. Team looked a bit bulky and slow (Nebraska looked quicker and leaner in their game) and speed was a problem last year. Mo should run as well as ever, and the backs-up improved. Defense will be the issue this year, as last year. Opening with Ohio State not a gift - conference games should not be opening games - they made that mistake in the 70s, too.
I don’t think physical speed was a problem last year, I think it was mental processing speed. If you have to play OSU I think opening with them is as good a time as any especially when they have a new QB. DiNardo says the good thing about opening with a conference game is that it gets more people watching across the country, which I think makes sense.
 

Out-of-the-gate this is not a political...vax or no vax...or whatever question. Just curious...

Here's the U's official policy on masks for the game:

"Masks: Fans are required to wear face coverings while inside University venues, unless they are eating or drinking in their assigned seat location. No exceptions will be provided to this policy."

Question: Were people complying...and even more interesting to me...was the U enforcing...the policy?

As I read this the only time one should not be masked was when eating/drinking. Otherwise masks were the rule of the day. I believe this "policy" is in line with the Governor's most current "guidelines," and not the U out on some kind of limb.

Not looking for a merit debate (although understood it probably can't be avoided). Could not tell from the BTN telecast what folks were doing in the stands.
 



Here's the U's official policy on masks for the game:

"Masks: Fans are required to wear face coverings while inside University venues, unless they are eating or drinking in their assigned seat location. No exceptions will be provided to this policy."

The fortunes of walking beer vendors have just taken a major turn upward
 

Out-of-the-gate this is not a political...vax or no vax...or whatever question. Just curious...

Here's the U's official policy on masks for the game:

"Masks: Fans are required to wear face coverings while inside University venues, unless they are eating or drinking in their assigned seat location. No exceptions will be provided to this policy."

Question: Were people complying...and even more interesting to me...was the U enforcing...the policy?

As I read this the only time one should not be masked was when eating/drinking. Otherwise masks were the rule of the day. I believe this "policy" is in line with the Governor's most current "guidelines," and not the U out on some kind of limb.

Not looking for a merit debate (although understood it probably can't be avoided). Could not tell from the BTN telecast what folks were doing in the stands.
There were people walking around with signs on sticks that said mask up if not eating/drinking. There was a gentleman who was in the middle on putting a chip in his mouth when he was told to mask up. He left shortly thereafter. I nursed two beers the entire game and "complied".
 


I am curious if others had the same observation as GPG about the team looking slow. I thought there was some impressive defensive line pressure from the DEs including Jah Joyner and MJ Anderson and DTs Pinckney and Cheney. From a quickness perspective, I was a bit concerned about the lack of separation for our WRs, but encouraged by the fact that they came up with a number of 50/50 throws. On the flip side, DBs made a few decent PBUs including Terrell Smith and Justin Walley. Overall I thought the team looked about where I expected them to be after last fall and finishing spring practice.

Edit: It was awesome seeing Braelen Oliver out there again flying around.
I don't think they necessarily looked slow, but definitely less polished at the skill positions than in 2019. I've promised myself that I'll keep my expectations low after last year's disappointment. OL, DL, Mo, CAB, and Morgan (to an extent) have me optimistic, but here's how I'm grounding myself:
  • I'm worried about separation at WR. Every team will put their best cover guy on CAB, and while he'll still produce at an acceptable level, he's not Bateman. I was encouraged by Jackson, Boyd, and even Geary yesterday, but this isn't a game-breaking group IMO. They'll need to win 50/50 balls (like yesterday), go over the middle, and be methodical about moving it through the air. Loved seeing multiple RPOs from Morgan yesterday. Looked like 2019.
  • I liked Potts in his limited run last year, but I don't think he or Wiley is an impact RB. Mo will obviously carry it as much as he can handle, but it would be nice to have somebody closer to his ability to sub. I'm hopeful Ky Thomas is a game-breaker.
  • Still quite worried about the back 7 of the defense and whether they can play at B1G speed. Last year was embarrassing. Durr is obviously a stud and there's talent elsewhere, but potential doesn't = wins. On the positive side, I was VERY encouraged by the play of Lindenberg yesterday. Very fast and way bigger. Gibbens made some plays as well. Oliver is back. Didn't hear MSM's name one time. Swenson looked like the best S and made a couple open field tackles and at least one PBU...I don't think that's a great sign. I remember one flash play each from Nubin and Glaze, but I don't remember hearing Walley's name. Smith was involved, but really only impacted the last series.
  • ST's have been subpar for years. The transfer kickers will likely help, but punting and both return groups are still huge question marks to me.
 

I don't think they necessarily looked slow, but definitely less polished at the skill positions than in 2019. I've promised myself that I'll keep my expectations low after last year's disappointment. OL, DL, Mo, CAB, and Morgan (to an extent) have me optimistic, but here's how I'm grounding myself:
  • I'm worried about separation at WR. Every team will put their best cover guy on CAB, and while he'll still produce at an acceptable level, he's not Bateman. I was encouraged by Jackson, Boyd, and even Geary yesterday, but this isn't a game-breaking group IMO. They'll need to win 50/50 balls (like yesterday), go over the middle, and be methodical about moving it through the air. Loved seeing multiple RPOs from Morgan yesterday. Looked like 2019.
  • I liked Potts in his limited run last year, but I don't think he or Wiley is an impact RB. Mo will obviously carry it as much as he can handle, but it would be nice to have somebody closer to his ability to sub. I'm hopeful Ky Thomas is a game-breaker.
  • Still quite worried about the back 7 of the defense and whether they can play at B1G speed. Last year was embarrassing. Durr is obviously a stud and there's talent elsewhere, but potential doesn't = wins. On the positive side, I was VERY encouraged by the play of Lindenberg yesterday. Very fast and way bigger. Gibbens made some plays as well. Oliver is back. Didn't hear MSM's name one time. Swenson looked like the best S and made a couple open field tackles and at least one PBU...I don't think that's a great sign. I remember one flash play each from Nubin and Glaze, but I don't remember hearing Walley's name. Smith was involved, but really only impacted the last series.
  • ST's have been subpar for years. The transfer kickers will likely help, but punting and both return groups are still huge question marks to me.
Yeah, I chalk a lot to it being a split squad Spring game. Other than a couple trick plays (which were awesome) the offense was very vanilla. Totally agree the ST needs to be better this season...hard not to be, but it needs to be respectable...at least a neutral impact with some positive impacts sprinkled in.
 

Sounds like students were a large part of why it was empty. trying to sell their free tickets. not sure how many they were allocated but id guess its between 2-3k
Students could get tickets out of the same pool as everyone else, no separate allocation AFAIK. But yeah I saw a ton of people grabbing as many tickets as they could and trying to sell them.
 

Seems to be a lot of worry about the WRs. I feel like it is still a solid unit, still seems to be at least as good as teams like Wisconsin, Iowa, and NW. We got spoiled by Bateman and Johnson and having one of the best wr units in the conference.
 

My concern with the WRs wasn't speed, it was butter fingers. In the second half, it seemed that they had a hard time catching balls that hit them in the hands or the numbers.
 

My concern with the WRs wasn't speed, it was butter fingers. In the second half, it seemed that they had a hard time catching balls that hit them in the hands or the numbers.
Yeah that was ... not gud.
 

I just got done watching the whole game and yeah I agree with what a lot of people said. The team did not look good.

QBs still locked onto guys way too much. Both had guys open or check down, but instead looked for one guy usually deep and didn’t even turn their heads for other options or check downs. Morgan will struggle like last year if not worse now that he doesn’t have NFL WRs around him. Morgan is too locked onto CAB and threw many risky balls. Annexstad had some awful throws too, especially at the end of the game.

WRs were almost never open and looked slow as molasses. Can we stop calling ourselves WR U? Drops were a problem too. I’m starting to think PJ got lucky with Johnson and Bateman. Maybe CAB too, but that is it for good WRs other than maybe the freshman that showed some promise as people mentioned. Needs to get some muscle as he looks small. Might not get to redshirt him though.

Running game struggled. After Mo were are not going to have a good running game at all. This is also supposed to be an o line I keep hearing buzz about with experience and seniors, but was not impressed. Worried again after these guys we will be very bad for years.

I know they said multiple times the d was limited, but still played way too far off of guys. With that being said, there should have been some more short passes or the WRs should have gotten more separation, but that didn’t happen. Defense was also slow and gave up too much in the first half. Tighter in the second half, but you can’t be giving up stuff like that to start games.

As others have said special teams is joke. Very close to missing all the field goal tries and the one kicker kicks too many line drives. Once the transfers arrive cut these guys please.

I watched honestly hoping for some excitement and promise, but it feels like since the 2019 players are getting less and less (soon to be none), the fuel tank in this car is getting more and more towards empty without a gas station for miles.
 

I just got done watching the whole game and yeah I agree with what a lot of people said. The team did not look good.

QBs still locked onto guys way too much. Both had guys open or check down, but instead looked for one guy usually deep and didn’t even turn their heads for other options or check downs. Morgan will struggle like last year if not worse now that he doesn’t have NFL WRs around him. Morgan is too locked onto CAB and threw many risky balls. Annexstad had some awful throws too, especially at the end of the game.

WRs were almost never open and looked slow as molasses. Can we stop calling ourselves WR U? Drops were a problem too. I’m starting to think PJ got lucky with Johnson and Bateman. Maybe CAB too, but that is it for good WRs other than maybe the freshman that showed some promise as people mentioned. Needs to get some muscle as he looks small. Might not get to redshirt him though.

Running game struggled. After Mo were are not going to have a good running game at all. This is also supposed to be an o line I keep hearing buzz about with experience and seniors, but was not impressed. Worried again after these guys we will be very bad for years.

I know they said multiple times the d was limited, but still played way too far off of guys. With that being said, there should have been some more short passes or the WRs should have gotten more separation, but that didn’t happen. Defense was also slow and gave up too much in the first half. Tighter in the second half, but you can’t be giving up stuff like that to start games.

As others have said special teams is joke. Very close to missing all the field goal tries and the one kicker kicks too many line drives. Once the transfers arrive cut these guys please.

I watched honestly hoping for some excitement and promise, but it feels like since the 2019 players are getting less and less (soon to be none), the fuel tank in this car is getting more and more towards empty without a gas station for miles.
Shocking report coming from you.
 

I just got done watching the whole game and yeah I agree with what a lot of people said. The team did not look good.

QBs still locked onto guys way too much. Both had guys open or check down, but instead looked for one guy usually deep and didn’t even turn their heads for other options or check downs. Morgan will struggle like last year if not worse now that he doesn’t have NFL WRs around him. Morgan is too locked onto CAB and threw many risky balls. Annexstad had some awful throws too, especially at the end of the game.

WRs were almost never open and looked slow as molasses. Can we stop calling ourselves WR U? Drops were a problem too. I’m starting to think PJ got lucky with Johnson and Bateman. Maybe CAB too, but that is it for good WRs other than maybe the freshman that showed some promise as people mentioned. Needs to get some muscle as he looks small. Might not get to redshirt him though.

Running game struggled. After Mo were are not going to have a good running game at all. This is also supposed to be an o line I keep hearing buzz about with experience and seniors, but was not impressed. Worried again after these guys we will be very bad for years.

I know they said multiple times the d was limited, but still played way too far off of guys. With that being said, there should have been some more short passes or the WRs should have gotten more separation, but that didn’t happen. Defense was also slow and gave up too much in the first half. Tighter in the second half, but you can’t be giving up stuff like that to start games.

As others have said special teams is joke. Very close to missing all the field goal tries and the one kicker kicks too many line drives. Once the transfers arrive cut these guys please.

I watched honestly hoping for some excitement and promise, but it feels like since the 2019 players are getting less and less (soon to be none), the fuel tank in this car is getting more and more towards empty without a gas station for miles.
First off, not surprised you looked for every negative thing you possibly could from the practice but some of your takes are pretty laughable.

The O-Line you keep hearing about was divided up over two teams. And we had a number of key players on both sides of the ball who didn't take part in the practice.

You knock the defense but then say the offense struggled to run the ball and the WR struggled to get open....seems like those offensive struggles might be in part due to the defense.

On top of all that it is silly to try and draw any conclusions from a practice. I am sure the offense kept things super vanilla and I know they mentioned at one point the defense was only allowed to blitz like 4 times total or something like that.
 

My concern with the WRs wasn't speed, it was butter fingers. In the second half, it seemed that they had a hard time catching balls that hit them in the hands or the numbers.
Drops are definitely a concern, hopefully they can work some things out over the summer and fall camp to correct it.
 

I don’t think physical speed was a problem last year, I think it was mental processing speed. If you have to play OSU I think opening with them is as good a time as any especially when they have a new QB. DiNardo says the good thing about opening with a conference game is that it gets more people watching across the country, which I think makes sense.
Agreed. If we’re gonna play them, let’s do it week one.
 

Drops are definitely a concern, hopefully they can work some things out over the summer and fall camp to correct it.

I remember Jackson dropping a pass and then the true freshman WR dropping a pass. Who else drooped easy targets?

I kjnow there was a couple that were not the best throws, that could have been caught.
 


I just got done watching the whole game and yeah I agree with what a lot of people said. The team did not look good.

QBs still locked onto guys way too much. Both had guys open or check down, but instead looked for one guy usually deep and didn’t even turn their heads for other options or check downs. Morgan will struggle like last year if not worse now that he doesn’t have NFL WRs around him. Morgan is too locked onto CAB and threw many risky balls. Annexstad had some awful throws too, especially at the end of the game.

WRs were almost never open and looked slow as molasses. Can we stop calling ourselves WR U? Drops were a problem too. I’m starting to think PJ got lucky with Johnson and Bateman. Maybe CAB too, but that is it for good WRs other than maybe the freshman that showed some promise as people mentioned. Needs to get some muscle as he looks small. Might not get to redshirt him though.

Running game struggled. After Mo were are not going to have a good running game at all. This is also supposed to be an o line I keep hearing buzz about with experience and seniors, but was not impressed. Worried again after these guys we will be very bad for years.

I know they said multiple times the d was limited, but still played way too far off of guys. With that being said, there should have been some more short passes or the WRs should have gotten more separation, but that didn’t happen. Defense was also slow and gave up too much in the first half. Tighter in the second half, but you can’t be giving up stuff like that to start games.

As others have said special teams is joke. Very close to missing all the field goal tries and the one kicker kicks too many line drives. Once the transfers arrive cut these guys please.

I watched honestly hoping for some excitement and promise, but it feels like since the 2019 players are getting less and less (soon to be none), the fuel tank in this car is getting more and more towards empty without a gas station for miles.
You must have been watching a different game...
 




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