Rich Brooks talks about preseason position battles and Mike Hartline, but no mention of his home grown tomatoes

Now that the football season is less that three weeks away, Rich Brooks has put off twittering about his home grown tomatoes and started to get this team ready for the upcoming season. The first official preseason scrimmage was held yesterday afternoon and it appears that Mike Hartline is in control of the first team offense.

Brooks said that the first team defense was not as aggressive or as good as they have been and he attributed that to them being “dead legged”. Hartline and the first team offense had their way with the defense, marching down the field on the first two possessions and scoring on a 15-16 play drive and then a 8 or 9 play drive. Brooks said that “Hartline threw the ball very well. He must have had an incompletion, although I can’t remember if he did or not”

While Hartline has a firm grasp on the QB starters job hading into the season, Will Fidler seems to have moved into the backup position, leaving Newton and Mossakowski battling for the third string position. Brooks comments about the QB’s backed up what we have been hearing: “Will didn’t have a particularly great day. He had one great throw deep to Adeyemi. The freshmen looked like freshmen. They’re working with the seconds and thirds. Everything around them isn’t functioning correctly all the time either. That doesn’t help them. There’s obviously talent in both of them. They do some really good things, but they’re a ways away and we’ll have to see how that all plays out.”

According to the notes from the scrimmage on the UKAA site , there are lots of positions that are up for grabs on the depth chart, even though the season is three weeks away. Here are some more of Brook’s comments on the team and the depth chart battles:

On the progress of the offense as a whole:

“It’s night and day where we were a year ago. Matthews has helped on that receiving end, being such a big target and talented. Randall Cobb looked very good today. Hartline threw the ball accurately — deep, short and middle, in every situation. I think he missed one check today, other than that he was pretty good.”

On the WR corps:

“Cobb and Matthews did some good things. Ross Bogue caught some. So did Lanxter, caught maybe three or four. It was pretty good by everybody. I don’t think I saw a drop. That’s a shock. Last year I saw a whole bunch of ‘em.”

On the Offensive Line:

“It was OK. I’ll reserve judgment because that needs a little more film study to tell some of that. We mixed it up a little bit. (Freshman Larry) Warford went with the first (team). We moved (right guard) Stuart Hines to the left and then moved him back the other way.”

Brooks also singled out JUCO transfer DeQuin Evans, who was working wiwth the first team defense and had a sack in the scrimmage today. He also said that freshmen linebackers Qua Huzzie and Ridge Wilson have done very well and he thinks the LB corps are in pretty good shape.

All in all, it looks like Brooks and company still have some decisions to make before that September 5 matchup vs Miami of Ohio and most of these battles will be won during the sweat and pains of preseason practice, but it looks like a competitive situation:

“All of them are being battled right now. Tight end’s a battle, tailback is going to be a battle. Alfonso did OK today. Moncell made some nice runs. CoShik came back and carried the ball a little bit. The freshmen continue to get better and looked a little less like freshmen, but they’re still freshmen. The offensive line is still competitive. Defensive end is very competitive.”

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