After seeing that all of the quarterbacks did pretty well in yesterday's first scrimmage of fall practice, I thought back to the last two first scrimmages. 2010's first scrimmage was basically a debacle, while last year's was good but didn't include B.J. Daniels. Skip Holtz says all the time that he has to hold his excitement in check during scrimmages because every good play means there was a bad play at the same time. Still, after listening to his press conference after practice, he sounded pleased with just about everyone. The wide receivers didn't have a good day catching the ball, but that was really it. When Skip is down to critiquing which players Matt Floyd and Bobby Eveld threw the ball to because he wanted to see what would happen if they threw it somewhere else, then things must have gone well.
And the players weren't afraid to hit each other. Look for Reshard Cliett lighting up Jake Carlton, and then Chris Bivins putting a bit of a cheap shot on Floyd. (Don't lead with your helmet, Chris.)
Other stuff from the scrimmage and elsewhere:
-- Bradley Battles just cannot catch a break, can he? First Mo Plancher rejuvenates two years ago and knocks Battles out of the running back rotation. Then Darrell Scott eats up the carries he might have had a shot at last year. Now when Holtz is especially interested in seeing Battles play and he might finally have a chance at some playing time, he messes up his ankle three plays into the scrimmage. It's not broken, but he may be out for a while. And unfortunately there are plenty of backs who will take advantage of the extra reps.
-- Marcus Shaw had 96 yards rushing on just 10 carries. He's had a very up-and-down career so far at USF. He popped a long touchdown run in his first game as a Bull back in 2010, but he's been in Skip's doghouse for quite awhile because of academics. Shaw always had talent, though, and as long as he's eligible it seems like there should be some carries for him in the offense.
-- Other minor injuries: Aaron Lynch, D'Vario Montgomery, and Todd Chandler, who were held out of the scrimmage; and Tre Griffin, who had the wind knocked out of him. But they'll all be back soon. Always good to get out of a full-contact scrimmage mostly unscathed.
-- Holtz has been consistently shouting out Sean Price, Montgomery, Eric Lee, and Tashon Whitehurst as true freshmen who could get on the field this year. I have yet to hear or read any other names even come up in passing, and except for Bivins, I can't think of another true freshman who would realistically have a chance to play.
-- The official site has player interviews with Floyd, Willie Davis, George Baker, and Kayvon Webster.
-- Greg Auman also has a feature about offensive guard Damien Edwards, finally in a position to be a starter in his senior year.
-- We should see a new depth chart this afternoon, which I will obsess over.