Post-Practice Update (looong one)

Before we get to the scrimmage recap: Senior OL Sean Sheller, who was granted a sixth year of eligibility by the NCAA, broke the fourth metacarpal in his right hand in the last period of practice Thursday and will be in a club-like cast for a month. He and Rick Neuheisel both expect him to be able to practice, but the extent to which is a little premature. Depending on the cast, he'll probably start with just individual drills but could see increasing action. I'll have his video up this weekend.

On to the scrimmage:

* This is only my second spring ball, but my umpteenth scrimmage situation, and I can't remember seeing the offense not only move the ball better, but look better doing it. Last season's spring game featured some decent stats, but a lot of that was the 1s vs. 2s or even 3s, and I distinctly remember the bulk of the quality coming against the lesser defenses.

On Saturday, from the opening drive, the first-team offense looked impressive against the first-team defense. The defense had its moments - Nate Chandler, who we'll get to later, looked great - but Richard Brehaut started off sharp, even mixing in the ground game, breaking off a big 20-yard run to set the tone early. Johnathan Franklin and Anthony Barr each had solid runs in the first drive, and Barr hit the corner hard on an end-around and took it upfield. He still needs more open-field moves. Later in the drive, Brehaut had a nice dart to Taylor Embree, threading Sheldon Price, Sean Westgate and Alex Mascarenas, who started at nickel.

The drive ended in a field goal by Kip Smith, who finished the day 3-for-4 with kicks of 28, 42 and 45 yards, with a 48-yard miss.

* For the day, Brehaut finished 11-of-21 for 146 yards and a touchdown, a pretty throw on the run across his body to Ricky Marvray for a touchdown on the next first-team possession, on a ball Marvray wrestled away from Glenn Love. Marvray might have been the star of the day with four catches for 50 yards and a teeth-chattering hit on Sam Tai that bounced Tai's head off.
I thought Brehaut actually looked better than those numbers though, and he was hurt by a couple drops. He moved his feet well and worked in space, buying time for his wideouts, and he looked sharp in his checkdowns. On one play, he got a bad snap, quickly corralled it in and without hesitating, fired it to Marvray, who busted off a long run. Quite simply: Not a play Brehaut would've made last spring, maybe even last November. Of course, he had a couple overthrows - including one to Nelson Rosario that would've been a touchdown down the right sideline - but still, his best scrimmage, in my eyes.

* Brett Hundley, on the other hand, did not look very sharp, at least in the passing game. He was a wiz on the ground, rushing 10 times for 82 yards, with a 50-yard TD, against primarily the No. 2 defense. But his running numbers were so inflated because he missed a number of checkdowns and his progression reads were delayed. Of course, it's to be expected from a guy who should be picking out tuxes for his senior high school prom. He even admits that he's not where he wants to be in terms of his grasp of the offense. All in due time. The thing is, he knows it.

* A Tresey moment: The verbal energy from Joe Tresey thus far has been entertaining, to say the least, and it's hard to take your eyes off him between plays sometimes. However, sometimes it works: I watched him chew out Jordan Zumwalt for being out of position before the snap. Zumwalt took a couple steps to his left...and blitzed and absolutely annihilated Malcolm Jones in the backfield.