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"The other Wide Receiver spot" reaction from last night

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InHartWeTrust's picture
September 8, 2015 at 9:01am
51 Comments

I'll try to keep this brief, but with so much going on it's tough:  

  • I was pleasantly surprised to see James Clark get the start, but didn't see a whole lot of him after the first snap.  Still good to see this kid on the field and healthy, I look forward to seeing him make plays in the upcoming games.
  • Parris will be fine but may have set himself back a small bit in terms of meaningful snaps, given I felt he needed to really shine to be able to keep himself ahead of the 3 guys who were suspended.  Essentially I feel like he has an uphill battle to begin with and he made have increase the grade of the slope a bit, but nothing major.  What he really has going for him is that he is a beastly blocker with a ton of potential and speed, I think that will get him on the field.  I hope that he gets a lot of action over the next few weeks, even if it is in mop up time, to rebuild his confidence and show what he can do. I can ignore the young guy mistakes and chalk it up to nerves, until he proves otherwise with repeated drops - my only real concern is that he develops the "yips" due to the ball security issues he had, i.e. a true drop for an easy long TD, and then a catch/fumble that went into the books as a drop due to the refs.  It happens to Wilson last year, and I’d hate to see it happen to Parris too.
  • Dixon looked fine, although I didn’t really see much out of him.  I assume this means he wasn’t able to get open too often after VTs DBs.  It was, however, good to see him get the catch on the broken play.  That was more a result of Cardale making a play than anything, but he did a good job to fade back once his guy decommitted from covering him to go after Cardale.
  • Michael Thomas is going to be an absolute stud this year.  He looks better than ever, running very crisp routes and doing everything at a high level.  He had a tough assignment will Fuller last night and I think he passed with flying colors.  Breaking Fullers ankles last night could very well, in my opinion, be a springboard for him becoming a star in college football this season.
  • Braxton’s night really goes without saying; he has an outstanding game.  He showed great hands/ability to catch the ball downfield and he is electric once he has the ball, as always.  What he lacks in route running technique, he makes up for with pure athleticism.  He is going to have a great season this year, I was apprehensive to predict that prior to last night’s game but after seeing him play against arguably the best defensive backfield we will see this season, I am confident he will have a special year.
  • It was great to see Curtis Samuel make a tough catch on the deep ball on our first score, that was on outstanding adjustment and concentration on his part.
  • I didn’t see McLaurin on the field at all last night, not sure if I just missed him?
  • No Gibson, but no surprise there given the injury setbacks.

 

Overall, given the level of competition of VTs DBs, it was a solid night.  I expect Thomas to remain the #1 (obviously) and I believe Jalin will start as the #2.  The #3 is really up in the air at this point, Corey Smith and Parris Campbell both block well and have speed (but have showed some issues with ball security), Dontre Wilson is bound to get a fair amount of snaps, Dixon and James Clark will be itching to get on the field, and so on.  I think Braxton and Samuel will hold down the majority of the H-back snaps, with Dontre splitting time between H-back and WR.  I  also think Samuel will split time between H-back and RB.  There’s so much talent here that it’s really difficult to predict anything with much confidence, outside of Thomas and Marshall being the #1 and #2.

 

What were everyone else’s thoughts?

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