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UCF held their second scrimmage of the spring inside the Bounce House on Thursday. Afterward, we were able to catch up with offensive coordinator
Chip Lindsey who talked about the day.
Recap:
Lindsey thought the offense responded from Tuesday when he wasn't as happy.
"We still have a lot of things to clean up, but we flew around and I thought we made some big plays on offense. Today's scrimmage, by design, we were going to throw it a bunch more. When you start doing that, that leads to protections and doing it right, testing our quarterbacks to make sure they understand what protection we need to be in. I thought that was good. By the naked eye, I don't think we had a ton of mistakes there.
"We made some big plays down the field. I thought the quarterbacks didn't put the ball in jeopardy too many times, even though we threw it 50 times. I thought they made pretty good decisions for the most part. Our wideouts made some plays down the field. Especially with the older group, we know we have some guys that can play. When we ran the ball, I thought we ran it well too. The defense was pretty vanilla which always makes things a little better too. Overall, really happy with how our guys responded from Tuesday."
I asked him to elaborate more about the big plays from the wide receivers.
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Flash made a couple plays down the field.
(Ryan) O'Keefe made one.
Kobe (Hudson) made a great play on a screen.
Jaylon Griffin caught one down the sideline... I think
Jordan (Johnson) caught one.
(JaJuan) Forte. Right at the end, we had a young guy catch a touchdown."
Lindsey then said the QBs were live in the scrimmage, so it was good to see how they react.
"That brings a whole new element for the offense and the defense. Now the play stays alive. I know
John Rhys (Plumlee) made one big play when the play broke down.
Mikey (Keene) did the same thing, scrambling for a first down, which is good to see for him. We played real football today. We'll look at the film and see, but overall I walked away feeling better than I did on Tuesday for sure."
They're mostly working with two groups. He said the QBs were still rotating.
"We'll continue that through spring I would assume. They both got the same number of possessions."
Lindsey sees the chemistry improving between the QBs and WRs.
"I think it's getting better. Obviously Mikey being here last year, I think you saw early on there was chemistry there with the older guys. But I really believe John Rhys is coming along nicely. When you narrow it down and start repping just a couple guys, that makes the chemistry come a little quicker. Over the last two or three practices I think I've seen that. A lot of things we do, there's decision making that takes place on the move or post snap. I think that stuff is getting better every practice."
I asked more about John Rhys and his decision making.
"Yeah, it is (improving). Just a couple examples. Today, his eyes are on the right side of the field where they're supposed to be. They're not late. Whether it's a one-high or two-high look, so I was pleased on the sideline seeing that. Couple things down in the red zone, I thought we've got to get better whether it was the run game or one of the throws he made. But really I thought he made a pretty big step forward today from that standpoint."
Lindsey talked about the competition on the offensive line.
"You can't never have enough guys that can snap the ball. If you've got one guy that can snap, you're really nervous if something were to happen. Herb has been rotating in several guys at center. Obviously
Matt (Lee) is a veteran guy and he can play all 80 snaps if he wanted to. At guard, I think he's still got a little competition especially on that left side. He's still finding which tackle combination works the best. The good thing about it is they're all doing good things which makes it hard. That's what you want. Depth is everything to win a championship or have a great season. You're going to have some bumps and bruises along the way, so you better have some depth."
Isaiah Bowser is being held out from scrimmages, so I asked about the RBs behind him.
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Johnny (Richardson) had a couple big runs, then was out pretty early.
R.J. (Harvey) is still rehabbing. We got a lot of young running backs in.
Mark-Antony (Richards) got some work.
Jordan McDonald. All of them played some. Really after the first couple drives, Johnny was out. It is what it is. Johnny has played a bunch. We know he's very capable. What we've seen out of him in the spring, he's grown. He's a better player. You may not see it on the field because he's electric all the time, but understanding protections, front and all the things that go along with it. Bowser is obviously a veteran guy that's very good at that stuff."
What do Mikey and John Rhys need to do to wrap up spring?
"Mikey, usually his decision making is really good. I think for him, it's maybe speeding that process up just a little. Also, making a few plays with his feet. Say you're in a third-down situation and it's five or six. It's not real clean. You know it's man coverage. So you should have an opportunity to make a play with your feet. He did that today. I think that was one thing that sticks out in my mind.
"With John Rhys, it's throwing balls that give our guys an opportunity to put their hands on it. A guy is running down the sideline and you want to throw a back shoulder ball. You want to throw it in a spot where he can catch it or nobody can catch it. You don't want that ball inside.
Today was the final scrimmage before the spring game.
"Today was a really big one for us. We needed to really throw a lot at those quarterbacks in the pass game and see who could execute when the rush is on and so forth, being live. I think we got a lot of good information. I'm excited to see the film."
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