Brown edged Yale 14-7 in Saturday’s scrimmage at Providence, R.I.
Logan Scott hit freshman WR Robert Clemons on a fade route in the red zone for the Bulldogs lone TD.
The biggest issues for Yale right now are consistency and familiarity on offense, along with inexperience on the defensive line and in the secondary.
There are a lot of new pieces to the puzzle still getting acclimated to the offense. The Bulldogs certainly have talent. However, they haven’t named a starting QB and their top two WRs and starting TE missed last season.
On defense, the Bulldogs are simply young.
“I’m definitely very concerned about our d-line and secondary,” Tony Reno said. “Guys who are continuing to improve and doing everything we ask of them. But there’s a learning curve and growth cycle.”
Reno rattled off a few players that played well Saturday: DT Kyle White, DE Beau Palin, LB Andrew Larkin, DB Foyesade Oluokun, OL Wes Gavin and Clemons among others.
He also mentioned DT Copache Tyler. Tyler 6-3, 280-pound freshman, who was also a standout wrestler in Springfield, Ill. Right now, Tyler is taking first-team reps as the 3-technique. Reno said he has great leverage and has been very dependable in camp so far.
The starting QB job has come down to Roberts, Hank Furman and Eric Williams. All three are pretty close, according to Reno.
“At 12:55 p.m. I’ll know,” said a joking Reno, about naming a starter 5 minutes prior to its season opener against Colgate on Sept. 21.
Reno said Brown is very good and have a talented QB in Pat Donnelly, who looked sharp Saturday.
“You could tell when he comes into the game because they are much smoother,” Reno said. “They are good up front on both sides. They have some big WRs. They’ll be a force to be reckoned with.”
LOOKING AT COLGATE
Meanwhile, the Red Raiders, who Yale opens with on Sept. 21, dropped to 0-2 on Saturday. Colgate fell 37-34 to Albany. The Red Raiders turned the ball over four times in the first half. They will have three games under their belt before taking on Yale.
"[Colgate] will have three games under their belt before taking on Yale."
ReplyDeleteThe late start is a big hindrance to the Ivy teams, particularly when facing out of league foes early in the season. The rest of college football has over the past 10-15 years moved the start back earlier and earlier. Puts the Ivies at a even greater competitive disadvantage out of league, and would not be surprised if it increased the risk of injury. It would seem very reasonable to start one week earlier and allow each team a bye week.
I agree with you, anonymous, except that for the last 6 years Yale played a Gorgetown team with two or three games played and won all six, albeit somewhat sloppily in some years. So this hasn't really been an Eli problem... yet. That said, I would dwefinitely go to an eleven game season, a two week earlier start, and one bye week. The problem with this, of course, are the very tight regulations on when practices can officially start... but it's time to rip off that fig leaf.
ReplyDeleteChris, a quick fact check, it was actually QB Logan Scott with the lone TD pass against Brown, not Morgan Roberts.
ReplyDeleteInteresting stats from the two scrimmages:
Roberts 1 TD, 1 INT
Furman 1 TD, 1 INT
Scott 3 TD, 0 INT
Williams 0 TD, 1 INT
Russell 0 TD, 0 INT
During Monday evening's session at the NYC Yale Club, Coach Reno said there are 4 QBS in the mix for the starting job: Morgan Roberts, Hank Furman, Eric Williams and Logan Scott.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it pretty well wired for Roberts - the import? If he doesn't get the job it will hurt efforts to recruit other transfers as needed in the future. To get quality transfers, you have to guarantee them a slot, I would think. The whole motivation for these guys is to play, given the fact that their route to stardom has been blocked at the previous address.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good point,and Roberts has had an excellent preseason camp. Of the others, I felt Scott was the best of them last year, even with little playing experience. The highly touted Williams was the biggest disappointment. His interceptions cost Yale games and made every Yale fan jittery when he went back to throw. This preseason has not shown any significant improvement.
ReplyDeleteFuhrman looked the best in the intersquad scrimmage today -- by far
ReplyDeleteObviously Roberts will get a very good look, but I don't think it hurts Yale credibility very much in transfers if he doesn't win the job right away. Plenty of other transfers have started right away, so explaining that one happened to lose a competition, for whatever reason, doesn't seem like a big deal.
ReplyDeleteI think that anyone transferring to Yale is hedging his bets by getting a more valuable degree in the event the second football opportunity does not workout due to lack of skill, injury or other circumstances.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, if transfer players aren't good enough to start, it validates the argument that the players coming directly from high school are of higher quality or more experienced, not that the coach would rather lose with his own recruits.
Most players know that the Ivy League gets enough recognition from the north eastern press and NFL scouts that they will not be over-looked and may, in fact, be more noticeable if they turn out to be a big fish in a little pond.
If a player is really talented and just wants a bigger stage for a showcase to become a high draft pick, then they will follow the Russell Wilson route and won't transfer to an Ivy League school but go to an FBS school like the University of Wisconsin.
Part of the fun this season will be to see how FBS QB transfers to Ivy League schools will do.
Are other schools besides Yale relying on transfer QBs?
ReplyDeleteThe most prominent FBS transfer is
ReplyDeleteformer Stanford QB Brett "the Sheriff" Nottingham on the Columbia football team.
Link to Columbia Spectator article: http://www.columbiaspectator.com/2013/04/16/former-stanford-qb-nottingham-will-join-columbia-football
The article states that Nottingham
will be able to make an impact on the field immediately, as there is no playing restriction on student-athletes coming from a Football Bowl Subdivision school to a Football Championship school.
ESPN initially reported in December that the quarterback planned to transfer. Nottingham had served as the primary backup to Andrew Luck as a sophomore before classmate Josh Nunes won the starting job in training camp for the 2012 season.
In December, Nottingham told The Bootleg that—based on his research of the Columbia football program along with Mangurian and offensive coordinator Jaime Elizondo’s offensive schemes—he wanted to play for the Light Blue.
“Columbia is one of the world’s premiere universities in one of the greatest cities in the world,” Nottingham said. “Once I took a closer look at the Columbia football program, their offense, and once I spoke with coach Mangurian and Elizondo, I knew Columbia was the perfect and natural fit for me.”
Nottingham, who has two remaining years of eligibility, appeared late in two blowout games for the Cardinal last season, completing five of eight passes for 22 yards. As a sophomore he served much the same role, by appearing in five games and completing five of eight passes for 78 yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback should have an immediate impact on an offense that ranked last in the league in total yards, and seventh in passing. He’ll be throwing to a receiving corps led by rising junior wide receiver Conor Nelligan, who made 62 receptions for 636 yards.
An improved passing game should also help first-team All-Ivy running back Marcorus Garrett find more holes to run through. The rising senior ran for 957 yards and five touchdowns last year.