Brian: For the past few years, we've gotten used to the defense dominating the fall intrasquad scrimmages. For the first time in a while, the BC quarterbacks acquitted themselves well in just the first scrimmage, which was closed to the public.
"The first-team defense dominated the offense in the first two series of the scrimmage, allowing just seven yards on six plays before sophomore QB Dave Shinskie found senior WR Ifeanyi Momah for a first down. Shinskie finished the day 9-for-14 for 81 yards and a touchdown.
His touchdown throw capped a drive that started on the 50-yard line. Shinskie rolled out to his left and threw on the run to the back of the end zone where sophomore WR Clyde Lee jumped and kept his feet in bounds for the score."
And Marscovetra, Rettig, Bordner and Cranmore:
"Sophomore QB Michael Marscovetra was efficient, going 7-for-9 for 52 yards. True freshmen Chase Rettig, Josh Bordnerand Shane Cranmore all saw time as well. Rettig was 2-for-5 for 14 yards, Bordner completed four of six passes for 38 yards and Cranmore completed his only attempt for six yards. None of the quarterbacks threw an interception in the scrimmage."
Despite the decent performances, Spaziani wasn't giving out many compliments:
"With the quarterbacks, my impression is that they need a lot of work. I saw some good things. They didn’t disappoint in their talent. They have physical talent. But obviously we’ve got a long way to go. There’s some inexperience there."
Unlike Spaz, are you encouraged by the play of the QBs in the first scrimmage? How do you see the fall quarterback competition playing out?
Jeff: I am absolutely encouraged by the play of Shinskie and the fact that we have one or more capable backups if he does not perform up to the level he needs to to get this team to the ACC Championship Game. Last season, Shinskie was good against bad defenses and OK or worse against decent defenses. BC's first team, even if there were a few injuries, is well beyond a decent ACC defense. If we can all agree that Shinskie did OK against the first team defense, I'm more than happy with that for a first scrimmage.
But, is the bigger story from the game that Ifeanyi Momah only played on the offensive side of the ball while our freshman receivers sat out with injuries?
Brian: It's true that Momah only played on offense, and that Colin Larmond Jr., Alex Amidon and Shakim Phillips were all out with minor hamstring pulls. But I hardly think this was a bigger story. With the return of Scafe and Ramsey, BC has a little more depth now on the defensive line and Spaz won't have to play Momah at DE out of necessity. I don't expect Larmond Jr., Amidon or Phillips to be out long with their injuries.
I definitely think the BC quarterback play is the biggest story line coming out of the first scrimmage. Consider this. As part of last year's first scrimmage, the four Eagles quaterbacks combined to go 14-of-26 for 91 yards and 3 INTs. In this year's scrimmage, the five QB candidates went 23-of-35, 191 yards, TD, a rushing TD and most important of all, no interceptions. It's not exactly a 1:1 comparison but there definitely seems to be improvement at the QB position, and BC seems leaps and bounds ahead of where they were at that position a year ago.