There was a little bit of everything going on at Stambaugh Stadium Saturday afternoon.  A situational scrimmage was held in the midst of Spring football.  There were plenty of bright spots for new coach Eric Wolford to bask upon.  Unfortunately for the players, Wolford is the guy who will go nuts for a couple of days trying to fix things that did not go as planned. 

The players in this environment are almost in a no-win situation.  The offense is going to gain some yards sooner or later.  The defense will nab an interception or record a few sacks.  Every play, someone had to do something wrong.  Unfortunately for the players, Coach Wolford stood comfortably 15 yards behind the offense with his whistle in his mouth and a tablet and inkpen in his hands.  Every play, Wolford would scribble some notes until the next play was ready to go.  Those notes combined with a weekend of film study will give Wolford all the ammo he needs to better prepare his team for the Spring game to be held on April 10. 

Wolford was satisfied with aspects of the practice game but says there are alot of things that have to happen.  “I told the refs before we started if anything was close to call it because I think that was a major problem from last year.  If you don’t get that corrected now, it is going to continue to be there.”  As whistles blew in the backround, Wolford went on to say, “They got backed up enough and put in second-and-long from penalties.  In fact, those boys (pointing to his offense) are over there doing up-downs right now for the penalties.  That’s good, they need that.”

Dominique Barnes (above), coming off of a solid year, had a nice afternoon for the Penguin offense.  Barnes scored three touchdowns and had 166 yards on eight receptions.  The big play from Barnes came when he  lined up split left and ran a post.  Kurt Hess threw a perfect ball hitting Barnes in stride on the 70-yard touchdown.

Marc Kanetsky and Hess split most of the time at quarterback.  The cerebral Kanetsky is proving that he can control a game by reading a defense and making good decisions without turning the ball over.  I think once the smoke clears that Kanetsky will be given the chance to run this offense.  Hess and Kanetsky both played well Saturday mixing snaps with the first and second units.  Both quarterbacks also had receivers drop a couple of passes that they threw.

Defensively, DB Brandian Ross (above) enjoyed the enthusiasm and competitiveness exhibited in the scrimmage situation.  “The receivers and the linemen have the biggest mouths.  When we get to shut them up it is the best feeling in the world.  That was like a conference game to me today.  It was physical, it was fast, and it was alot of plays, just like a normal game.”  

All-in-all, Wolford seemed pleased with the effort.  “There are obviously positives at some positions and negatives at others.  Usually, what happens is you compliment someone, and the next scrimmage it goes the other way.  When you compliment somebody, usually they come back the next day and  disappoint you.  We are going to see how the defense responds to a compliment.  Our linebackers played well running downhill and hitting their gaps.  I like what [Deonta] Tate is doing back there for us, he is showing potential.  [Jamaine]  Cook (pictured) may not have had alot of yards, but he makes guys miss.”

When asked about Dominique Barnes making some big plays, Wolford said, “Yeah, he needed to step up and make some plays here.  I think Dominique now understands that no one is grandfathered in around here.  In the past when you were ‘the guy’ around here you might have had a long leash, well,  these guys are all on a short leash nowadays.”