Coach Eric Wolford and his staff are going to have to really take a deep look at a few things as a result of the first scrimmage held Saturday morning.  Wolford said he will have a depth chart in place on Monday and that he has a good idea of who his 60 top guys are.  The cog that got jammed was the offense on Saturday.

This past offseason, Wolford said he was recruiting heavier on the defensive side of the ball for depth and guys who have the ability to finish a game.  Last season, YSU had consecutive weeks of nightmares, losing games that they were winning with less than two minutes remaining.  It wasn’t just a couple of times either, but rather almost every week in the last seven games.

The most obvious improvement to the 2011 version of Wolford’s tenure is the defensive front.  The ones, or first string, had trouble running the ball and protecting whatever quarterback was taking the snaps.  Don’t get me wrong, there were some offensive sparks in the scrimmage, but mostly through the air.  The offense averaged 422 yards per game last season and has it’s quarterback and running game back.  On Saturday, either the defensive unit played over its’ head or the offense underachieved.  There was not much of a running attack through the first 100 plays.

For Wolford, it is a Catch 22 situation.  Is the defense that good?  Was the offense that bad?  Was it a combination of both?  However he analyzes things, he will know that offensively, there is much to do before the Michigan State opener.  One of the concerns this week was offensive line depth.  The five starters are solid.  However, there is a drop off after that of unproven raw talent that needs to step up.  Zach Larson going down for the year didn’t help much.  In fact, Wolford has moved Zach Conlan from defense to offense to try to plug that leak before it gets out of control.

One of the brightest spots was the touchdown catch that Pat White hauled in from Kurt Hess covering about 40 yards.  White made a nice catch in the back right corner of the end zone.  Another bright spot was a lack of dropped balls by receivers.  Coach Andre Coleman has been working hard to try to prevent something that started during Spring practice from spilling over into Fall camp.