Baseball and Spring Game Hineysight

I haven’t done any hineysight for awhile, and I’m sure my avid followers are curious about my take on the Spring Game and on the baseball collapse Friday night against Miami.

I’ll  talk baseball first.   We had a blowout win against Miami on Friday night (first game of a 3-game series), and we gave it away in the ninth inning.  Actually, the game went into the 12th inning, but we had already given it away in the ninth by blowing an 8-run lead.  Coach Monte Lee has already acknowledged that this one is on him, and I have to agree.  When you’re playing the first game of a 3-game series, your primary concern should be to win that game, not games two and three.  We were obviously thinking more about winning the series than winning game one of the series.  This was evident from the pitching rotation.  With Miller tiring and concern over too many pitches for him (a justified concern), we went to a young, unproven sidearm thrower who struggled to throw strikes and was hit hard when he did throw strikes.  We went too long with him, and then went too long with Gilliam, who also struggled to find the strike zone.  I fully understand Coach Lee’s logic – we’ve got a big lead, all we need is a ground ball for a double play – then, we’ve still got a lead, all we need is an out.  So, he stuck with pitchers who weren’t getting it done in order to save pitchers for the next two games.  Of course, it didn’t help that we missed some defensive plays that we normally make, and that our hot hitting early in the game cooled off in the extra innings.

I don’t know how much  that loss took out of the team mentally and physically (the game lasted over 4 1/2 hours), but they certainly did not look sharp in the first game of the double-header on Saturday, a 6-1 loss.  I have to hand it to Coach Lee and the team for the way they came back in the second game of the double-header (game 3 of the series) as they pitched well and got the timely hits they needed to win 8-3.  I don’t mean to bash Coach Lee – I think he’s doing a great  job with this team and that he’s the coach we need.  He’s already gotten 26 wins out of a team with a .245 batting average.  The hitting will get better, and I’m confident we will be in good shape from here on out and get into the playoffs, maybe even host a series.

Now the Spring Game.  I left the first game of the baseball double-header in the 4th inning to catch the football game.  One thing that really struck me during the pre-game was the number of recruits on hand.  They were on the sideline during pre-game warmups, and when they started filing up into the stands to watch the game, the line seemed to go on forever.  I didn’t count them, but I would bet it’s easily the most we’ve ever had here at one time.  We’ve already gotten several commitments from recruits in attendance.

We played four quarterbacks, and three of  the four looked like they are ready to take us on another run at a playoff and possibly a championship game.  The only one of the four who did not look ready to do that was our incumbent starter, Kelly Bryant, who took us there last year.  That doesn’t really concern me at this time, though, because we all know what he can do.  If he is still the No. 1 guy after Fall practice, it will be because he deserves it and because the coaches feel he gives us the best chance to win.  I feel that he was at a disadvantage with the format of this game due to the over-protective nature of the game regarding the quarterbacks.  The defensive game stats show that 12 sacks were recorded.   This is very misleading, because all the defense had to do was touch the quarterback and the whistle would blow ending the play with a sack.  So, essentially, Bryant’s run option, which makes him so dangerous,  was taken away.   That impacted the other QB’s also, but maybe not as much as Bryant.  Even with these restrictions, each of the QB’s showed that they can be effective running, both in designed plays and in scramble situations.  Trevor Lawrence is very fast – that was probably the biggest surprise to me about him.  I knew he had an arm, and Lord what an arm!  It looked like the 50-yard completion to Tee Higgins on his second throw was effortless, just a flick of the wrist.  He had another long completion later that was called back on a bogus sack call where a defender (I think Wilkins) managed to touch Lawrence as he was releasing the ball.  Certainly not a legitimate sack, but I think Dabo was putting pressure on the officials to ensure no QB got hit.  Hunter Johnson looked very comfortable running the offense when he was in the game, and he threw the ball very well, as did Chase Brice.  They both completed long passes and showed good touch on the short ones.

Aside from the QB’s, the most impressive athlete on the field was Tee Higgins.  He is Mike Williams all over again – uncoverable in a one-on-one situation.  He just out-fights, out-jumps, and outruns defenders.  He was actually covered pretty well by the White team defenders but managed to either put them on the ground (he helped Fields fall down on the first long pass) or out-jump them to get the ball at the peak of his leap.

Travis Etienne (give the ball to No. 9) showed that he still doesn’t need much of an opening to bust through into the secondary, and some guy named Ty Thomason looked very good running for the Orange team.  Amari Rodgers looked very good as a receiver, and he really made me feel good about our return game.  I predict he’ll break one for the distance next year, maybe a kickoff and a punt return.  And the old man of the receiving corps, Hunter Renfrow, clearly still has it.  He still has the ability to get open, but it looks like he’s gotten a little tougher this year, as he had to fight for a couple of his catches.  James Skalski was in on a lot of plays on defense, as was some guy named Baylon Spector.   Isaiah Simmons looked good, and of course Christian Wilkins had fun out there.  Among the new guys, I was most impressed with Derion Kendrick.  He’ll be a big contributor in the return game, and I expect they’ll find other ways to get him into the game.  K. J. Henry also looked impressive.  Will Spiers, who was our punter last year, was not the best punter on the field yesterday.  I really liked the consistency of Carson King, kicking for the White team.

I realize that the Spring Game is just one snapshot, and that a lot more will go into deciding who gets on the field in the Fall, but I like what I saw yesterday.  We have, I believe, more depth at every position, other than maybe the secondary, than we’ve ever had.  And I believe  that any of our four quarterbacks would be starters at many other highly rated teams.   Looking forward to September.