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The best free reports we have available are from Baylor's twitter account and the official recap on BaylorBears.com. Unlike last time, where I was relatively quick on the trigger, we'll start with Briles' thoughts on today's events.
"I saw some stops; I saw some scores. Neither side is completely happy," said Baylor's sixth-year head coach. "But that's what you want, because that means you've got a football team when you don't have one side dominating the other."
I can certainly agree with that; too often we've seen our offense simply rip our defense to shreds all through the line. Today's scrimmage followed in the footsteps of that last week where the defense actually acquitted itself quite well, as you'll see from the stats. If Briles is happy, I'm happy.
Before we get to the stats, the recap graciously answered the biggest question facing our offense in the absence of Troy Baker: who was playing where? As we talked about immediately after that news broke, Kelvin Palmer has moved from center to right tackle in Baker's place, his spot in the middle being filled by Stefan Huber. I would expect the Palmer move to stick given his past performances at the tackle spot. He filled Baker's spot capably when the sophomore needed rest last season, including the Holiday Bowl against UCLA. Huber is less experienced, having only played spot duty in relief of Ivory Wade, but they felt good enough about his potential to move him to right guard, our biggest hole, in the first place.
Speaking of right guard, that critical spot appears to be filled at the moment by sophomore mauler Desmine Hilliard, another backup who saw more action as last season bore on. The recap doesn't say it, but I've heard that fellow sophomore Laquan McGowan and former-DT Jason Osei have been backing him up in practice. Both have outstanding size, particularly McGowan, but that size comes at a price. Neither is quick or consistent enough to date to unseat Hilliard. Probably needless to say, I'm not totally comfortable with what we've got going on here, shifting guys around so late in the game. Injuries suck.
Passing stats from #Baylor's March 28 #SpringBU scrimmage: Bryce Petty 18-25, 251 yds, 3TD. Seth Russell 14-22, 169 yds, TD.
— Baylor Football (@BUFootball) March 29, 2013
72.5% completion for Petty today running the first offense with Tevin Reese, Clay Fuller, Jay Lee, and Antwan Goodley as his primary receivers. I've heard good and bad things about his day-- even the recap I linked above talked about the offense going three and out several times in the scrimmage, something probably not attributable all to him-- but you can't argue with the stats. His TDs went to Goodley (32 and 63 yards) and Lee (32 yards again, what are the odds of that?), but Fuller was reportedly the most impressive performer. The full WR stats:
Receiving stats from #Baylor's March 28 #SpringBU scrimmage: Antwan Goodley 5-115yds, 2TD. Clay Fuller 6-104. Lynx Hawthorne 6-51, TD.
— Baylor Football (@BUFootball) March 29, 2013
Good to see Hawthorne get back on the field after missing the last scrimmage, but there's another name missing from these reports that I wish wasn't: RS-Fr Corey Coleman. He's still out with the same hamstring issues that have plagued him all spring. I'm also curious how Tevin Reese only ended up with 2 catches for 18 yards given the opportunity before him to be The Man in our receiving corps. I suspect he's a known quantity and we're trying to see what guys like Lee and Fuller can do. Hawthorne played with the second offense, led by QB Seth Russell. Their biggest problem of the day came from a defense that backed up last scrimmage's 8 sacks with 6 more today. 3 came from true sophomore (to be) Jamal Palmer on the second defense.
#Baylor's March 28 #SpringBU scrimmage defensive leader: Jamal Palmer six tackles, three sacks and one fumble recovery.
— Baylor Football (@BUFootball) March 29, 2013
That's a heck of a day.
As for the running game, the results don't yet match up with the potential, probably because of the instability of the offensive line. Lache Seastrunk, the self-styled Heisman candidate, has had particular trouble getting going in the three scrimmages thus far, but I'm not worried about him or battery-mate Glasco Martin. We know what they can do.
Rushing stats from #Baylor's March 28 #SpringBU scrimmage: Glasco Martin 8-60 yds and Lache Seastrunk 12-42 yds.
— Baylor Football (@BUFootball) March 29, 2013
You can view the rest of the stats from today's scrimmage in the recap above. When you're looking at the defensive stats, know this: from what I understand, Javonte Magee rotates at both DE and DT with the first unit, leaving Palmer and Shawn Oakman as the DEs with the second team. I don't know enough about the DT rotation to say much other than that. I'm curious where Suleiman Masumbuko is playing since he had 2 sacks of his own today.
I'm going to try to find out more about the defensive secondary since we all probably have so many questions. The linebackers are obviously set with Bryce Hager and Eddie Lackey leading the way and Sam Holl filling Dixon's old spot, but who is playing beside Ahmad at safety? I'm fairly certain it's Terrell Burt, and the reports I've read are good, I just don't know much else.