Game Notes Notes – UIW

Great bit of trivia to lead off this week about UIW’s second-year head coach:

Kennan, who was the quarterbacks coach for the Oakland Raiders when UCAhead coach Clint Conque signed with the team in 1983, came to UIW from a 13-year stint as executive director of the NFL Coaches Association in Washington,D.C.He was also an NFL assistant for 16 years.

Kennan was QB coach for the Raiders when they won Super Bowl XVIII in 1984, and was head coach of the London Monarchs when they won a World Football League championship in 1991.

The Suspensions:
It seems we always start the season this way.

The Bears will have five players suspended to begin the 2013 season, including starting running back Willie Matthews for the opening game against UIW.

Matthews will miss one game, while junior offensive lineman C.J. Simon, junior receiver Jacoby Walker, junior offensive lineman Jordan Kersh and redshirt freshman receiver Wyatt Hikins will miss the first two games. All are due to violations of team rules, according to head coach Clint Conque.

Former Players Now Coaches:

Former UCA offensive lineman Robert “Boomer” Cunningham and former UCA linebacker Seth Allison have joined the staff … Cunningham
is director of football operations and recruiting coordinator … Allison is assistant defensive backs coach.

Size Wise
The Bears are the team who has been a D1 program for a while now, but it’s UIW who has the 231 pound linebackers. It took a few years for the Bears to grow to look the part of a FCS school. UIW – on paper – is fitting the bill already.

Last Season Stats
It wasn’t a good year for the Cardinal in 2012. They finished the season just 2-9, scoring just 16 points/game and allowing 29. They were a pretty balanced team offensively, but neither the ground or air game was very successful. The defense wasn’t a lot better.

Depth Chart
With the above suspensions, there were certainly going to be some interesting things on the depth chart.

• Blake Veasley is the starting running back in game one. Transfer Danzel Williams the backup.
• We just saw a story listing only four freshmen who could see action early this season. The two-deep tells a different story – at least why Simon and Kersh are out. Stockton Mallet and Gilberto Garcia are listed as backups on the interior line. Freshman Bryan Manley and Sophomore D.J. Appe are battling it out for the right guard spot. Matthew Pearce, originally a defensive end, then a tight end I believe is making his move to offensive tackle after adding quite a bit of weight.
• No real surprises at the receiver position if you’ve been to any practices or scrimmages. We’ll get our first chance to see four guys listed as backups for the first time. Desmond Smith redshirted. Courtney Whitehead redshirted after transferring in a year ago. Jatavious Wilson is a true freshman. And Justin Burdette transferred in after one year at Southern Miss. Burdette missed some of the fall with an injury.
• There are some new guys making appearances on the defense as well. Bailey McIver is Jonathan Woodard’s backup at one end position. McIver redshirted his true freshman season a year ago. Terrence Partee and Jordan Toliver round out the list of four freshmen we were told to expect to play. Both are backups on the interior defensive line. Aum’Arie Wallace is set to see his first real playing time. And the battle for the WLB spot is still apparently a three-way tie including Ricky Wyatt who was primarily a special teams player last season. The other new name to the list is redshirt freshman Haywood Jeffries backing up Jestin Love at strong safety.
• Clay Murphy and Wilson are listed as possible punt returners.
• Wilson is also to be back deep on kickoffs with or without Dillon Winfrey.

Scrimmage 2 Notes

Some random notes added via ipad. Please excuse the lack of formatting.

First oline left to right
75-71-55-64-76
2nd
74-78-70-73-77
3rd
79-67-68-63-72

First dline left to right
90-57-91-93
2nd
42-99/97-98-95

Linebacker
43-49-16
2nd
53-46-25/24
3rd
53-47/51-50

Corner
26-8
2nd
23-19
3rd
36-41

Safety
2-28
2nd
7-1
3rd
30-31

Receivers rotated in and out so much it’s hard to label them in terms of first, second, third team. Watts, Lewis and Desmond Smith the first three receivers in though.

Two freshmen back to return first kicks: Wilson and Daniels. Winfrey back alone to return second set of kickoffs.

Murphy, Love, Winfrey each back to return punts. One punt blocked.

Hadnot, Burdette, 11 on offense (?) appear to be hurt.

Murphy holder for Camara who missed first wide left from about 42?

Love played linebacker in dime package.

Desmond Smith with good adjustment on underthrown ball. Comes down hard and limps off.

Not much success on the ground all day. Veasley had the best run but it ended with a lost fumble.

CJ Simon and Cade Camp were with the third team offensive line? Something fishy there. Someone is being punished or some suspensions are coming and they are getting the new guys more reps to get ready.