Spring Game Overview

      The 2013 spring game came to a close giving some fans and coaches something to look forward to for the upcoming season. The team also got film on things that may need to be worked on. I noticed a lot of things that EMU could get better at, and things that the team was solid at doing. Also due to weather and field conditions the game was moved to the indoor practice facility.

      Going into the spring game I was excited to see what the offense would look like for this upcoming season. Stan Parish now the offensive coordinator made me curious how he runs a offense. Would he be a mostly be running the ball, or a coach that likes to throw it deep? But I didn't see either, I saw a offense that really mixed it up, passing the ball and running the ball not just sticking strictly to one.

       Something I thought was solid for this team was the WR's and TE's. The wide outs caught just about every ball thrown their way, they didn't drop any easy passes, and came up with a few impressive catches. These guys broke tons of tackles to get more yardage and even ran over some of the defensive players.

        Also give the QB's credit for throwing the ball spot on, Tyler Benz is tall and can see over his offensive line and did a nice job with throwing the ball on the run. There were a lot of play action passes and he was able to complete passes while off balanced. He took off running on a few plays where he knew he couldn't throw the ball which is a good thing to see. Having a dual threat QB will really help this season. He can find lanes and make his way to get enough for first downs.

       Something that needs a lot of work is the special teams. The first time they went out on the field the snap to the punter was over the punters head, and resulted in a loss of yardage. The next time was better but almost got the punt blocked. The final time the special teams was on the field ended up with  a blocked punt. Not much blocking helped the punter out, and the punter need's to get the ball off quicker. Defense made it look easy getting to the kicker.

       Defense is much improved from last season, I could see steps in the right direction in stopping the run. Defense did a nice job holding the offense on third and short situations and was able to stuff the running backs in the backfield.

        The pursuit of this defense also impressed me. After every play you would see about 8 defensive players around the ball carrier. The defense was working well together and able to stop the offense quicker and able to be more physical when they have to deal with short yardage situations.

         It was a very helpful spring practice and gave a good glimpse at the future EMU team. Also the spring game didn't have the incoming freshman play in it, so still a lot to look forward to this fall.