Let’s just leave this here.
My uneducated observations:
- It’s a spring game, so it’s hard to know what to make of defensive prowess and ability since they know we’re throwing 80% of the time. I did think the secondary showed flashes of greatness even without Ellis out there.
- O Line looked surprisingly good, chiefly because Greene looked to be healthy again and Jah is just a big ass dude. I think they’ll be fine.
As a general reminder, Elyiss (#10) is 6’7” and 255. Jah is possibly 8 feet, 500 pounds. Lawd.
- A lot of buzz around Millender, and a lot of head scratching around Pug. It will be interesting to see who QB2 will be, though I think Gunner has proven he can’t be knocked out of games unless you literally knock him out. And that would be for a play.
- A definite strength will be the RB and TE rooms. Dowdle looks like he’ll be a solid contributor and Prothro is everything as advertised. There seemed to be no such thing as a contested ball with Prothro. I feel like I saw our TEs lining up at wide out. Smart.
- Receivers had their moments but no one really stood out as elite, at least from the parts I could see. To be fair, it’s hard to get separation when the defense knows it’s a likely pass. Looked like they’re trying to find ways to get Bell into some situations where they can use his speed on sweeps. Blackshear sightings late in the game.
- I miss Thorson already. Punting was not bad, but not inspiring like Brett could only do. Woodring is Woodring, and that’s a good thing.
- it felt like our defensive line did a good job of getting in the backfield and at least being disruptive, so Havoc could be a little better but, again, you can do that when you know what’s likely coming.
- more to the point, the lines look deep and I don’t have the usual trepidation about having only a couple core guys with no one behind them if they go down. Smart has done well to address this for 2026.
- Bryson Beavers, for a kid who was taking his last high school exam four months ago, looked very comfortable and has some real upside. I’d like to see him develop and hopefully we can keep him around a while.
Aside from that, it was a beautiful day and I was in Athens, and as a completely surprising bonus, my girls were there and I got to explain football to my oldest, who now is looking forward to coming to a real game this fall. And at least this didn’t happen yesterday:
What were your thoughts, if you watched?
Gunner looked a little more comfortable in the pocket. Probably because he knew he’d get pulled the first time he ran. It’s hard not to be a fan of a guy that gives you 100% with amazing work ethic . That he’s reached his ceiling is also the problem.
The secondary looked good as advertised. Lots of batted balls at the line of scrimmage. Not sure who to credit or blame there.
Pug looks like he’s aiming the ball with less than good results. He just never looked comfortable. He seemed to be pressing too much and played tight. Ryan looked like the more experienced guy.
Beavers looked extremely comfortable. Is he that good I sure hope so.
Bobo connecting on a screen pass was perfect. Nine QB’s on the roster.
The RB room has lots of good options with quality depth.
Looks like we are planning to see more TE’s lined up outside. Both lines of scrimmage seemed to fight to a draw. There was more QB than last year. It’s going to be a long off season waiting to see the finished product. Just stay healthy and don’t get in Mudcat’s car.
QB pressure.
Today was clearly not the day I decided to proof read before hitting reply.
Who knows. I watched much of the first half. Chauncey Bowens looked great to me. Jaden Riddell is going to be difficult to keep off the field.
On defense, it looked like Isaiah Gibson did some good things. Q Johnson has some freakish athletic traits (the batted ball he had on a bootleg by Puglisi was really good).
If CMB uses more 13 personnel and gets Gunner to hit seam routes a happy fanbase we shall be. Having his son throw a WR screen was a definite chef’s kiss to the world.
Gunnar’s my guy, but I will say that #15 looks like a potential starter at QB once he gets more experience.
He and Beavers both looked the part.
Looked like what we’ve come to expect:
Big, fast, deep, athletic. Embarrassment of riches at TE.
QBs and WR’s remain a question mark.
Pug didn’t look great although during his time with the ones he had better results. Some eval is going to consider the offense that each QB was running. That said, I saw 6 QBs -Stockton, Puglisi, Montgomery, Beaver, Millender (who impressed me a bit) and Jake Bobo. All but Bobo outplayed Pug in my eyes and Bobo just had a few nepo snaps. Pug, you have the raw talent, but you need to figure this game out.