1st, a couple of disclaimers; you are not going to get a run down of every position here. Its impossible to watch every position and make any kind of judgement in a 2 hour practice (of which about 45 minutes was true scrimmage time) unless you film it and can go back and analyze both sides of the ball. My focus was on the offensive formations/schemes and the running back position. I really didn't pay attention to the defense. Also realize the offense we saw saturday was maybe 1/20th of the entire offense b/c its still early in the spring and I would guess its the most "guarded" practice since its the one open to the general public and possibly could be scouted.
Formation-wise, we saw some of the same 1 back 3 WR sets that we've seen in the past, though the alignment of the RB was slightly different. This was by far the most widely used formation and we were fairly balanced out of it with our running game and passing game. The focus was on two running plays and a few pass route combinations attacking our cover 2 zone. We ran the ball with a stretch off tackle play that is completely new for K-State and an inside zone play between the tackles. We have a solid backfield IMO with Alsup, Clayton, and Fisher and Alsup looks as quick as he has since he was a frosh. Their was a defensive emphasis on stripping the ball and our backs did a nice job of hanging onto the football. We also utilized a 1 back, 2 TE, 2 WR set which we have used some in the past, mainly with bigger backs; last year with Mann, then in the past with guys like Saba and Joe Hall, though now we used our tailbacks out of that look. Finally we used some 2 back looks, mainly split backs (much of the time with 2 TBs) with 2 WRs. There were a couple of plays we ran out of the I, which has been a staple the last few years under Snyder. Every time we ran split backs we threw the ball.
Our passing combintions were a lot of zone flood routes using 3 WRs to one side at different depths. At times, especially out of 2 TE, we would flood the deep hashes and the short hashes and look to the TE or RB in the middle of the field. Throwing to the TE was definately an emphasis for the day. No WR really stuck out either positively or negatively IMO.
I thought our top 3 RBs all had some positive moments and we have a pretty skilled and deep backfield. McNeese stuck out the most at FB, though we didn't use FBs much on the day. Norwood and Alstatt were the leading recievers. QBs rotated a lot and I didn't really notice one sticking out a lot, though again I was focusing the backs so I didn't pay particular attention to who was in and who looked the best overall.
The highlight of the day was probably the 5 (offense) on 3 (defense) box drill at the end of practice. The offense was placed at the end of a 10 yard by 7 yard box and given 3 plays to score with a simple handoff from a QB to a RB. Definately an emphasis here on competition and enthusiasm as evidenced by our trash talking offensive and defensive coordinators during the drill. For those folks that like the "fiery" coaches, Raheem Morris is definately going to be a favorite.
