Black and Gold Quick Thoughts

by RPT on Apr 18, 2009 5:20 PM CDT

It wouldn't be a Missouri spring game without some ugly grey weather, but let's just say we weren't quite expecting the ugly play on the field that we got today. We'll have full analysis later in the week on The Fastest 40 Minutes in Podcasting, but here's a quick rundown of what you might have missed if you weren't at Faurot this afternoon:

Yes, Blaine Gabbert has a cannon. This was apparent when he decided to roll left and fire the ball 55 yards in the air, about 12 more than required to reach a receiver. The kid's got a gun, no question, but he's got to be smart with the football. BG looked good throwing the screens and flares, but had the tendency to stare down receivers on longer patterns. He telegraphed the out route to the left sideline that resulted in Kip Edwards' INT.
Speaking of whom, Kip Edwards looked very solid today.
The 1st string defense, in addition to not surrendering a first down, looked very stout and did so WITHOUT playing nickel. Andrew Gachkar looked very comfortable sliding over into the slot, which is extremely comforting to me.
Coulter and Jacquies Smith showed very, very impressive burst around the ends. I couldn't gather much on the DT play, although Dominique Hamilton very nearly had an interception. And, yes, Hamilton almost coming away with the pass was as funny as it sounds.
Don't get carried away when I say this, but Jimmy Costello simply did not look very good today**. He didn't look comfortable, his passes were all over the place and he inadvertently tried to get receivers killed.
To be fair to the QBs though, it was a pretty patchwork WR corps out there today. Jerrell Jackson had a solid day, both through the air and on the ground.
Not much to tell you from the running game, other than that Gabbert and the two freshman have some wheels when they decide to scramble.
Dalton's first play? A botched handoff fumbled for a turnover at his own 1-yard line.
Glaser's funniest play? Fumbling the football when attempting to truck a defender and ending up trucking his own guy. Haven't laughed that hard at a "UR DOING IT WRONG" moment in awhile.
Have I mentioned how much I love Kenji Jackson yet? KJ13 was laying the wood today.
No idea who won the O-Line/D-Line battles. Hard to tell which unit was good and which unit was bad.
Another nice ceremony for the seniors plus Maclin plus Lonnie O'Neal.

**Again, this was one practice and it's very, very easy to take things out of context. Trust in Dave Matter and Gabe DeArmond here - they were at all practices and have a better feel for the day-in, day-out potential for these guys. But, all in all, it just was not a clean or red-letter scrimmage for most of the players on the field.

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