Fumbled snaps, small holes, sacked quarterbacks and even a
partially blocked kick. The offensive line’s performance
endured all of these miscues, showing all the signs of a unit still
struggling to find its identity before the start of the season.
While the Bruin’s aerial game looked crisp, the offensive
line seemed to struggle to create a ground presence early on during
Saturday’s scrimmage as running back Chris Markey was
swallowed up by defenders on every touch. “We were struggling
some in terms of the run game,” coach Karl Dorrell said.
“I thought we would run the ball a little bit better today,
but we weren’t able to do so. That’s something we got
to continue to work with. … We should be able to run the ball
more effectively.” Though members of the offensive line
acknowledged that the defense did throw them a lot of blitzes,
catching them by surprise, they still felt there was much progress
to be made. “We just came out with no tempo,” guard
Shannon Tevaga said. “They came out with a lot of blitzes, so
the run game was off and on. We need to work on reading the
linebackers and moving the running game away from the zone
blitz.” With the exception of a few breakout running plays by
Jeremy McGee and Kahlil Bell, the team’s running backs had a
difficult time getting past the line of scrimmage against the
revamped starting defensive unit. Markey received the most touches,
but went only 10 yards on nine carries. “There were lots of
things I think we should have done better today,” center
Robert Chai said. “The run game is all about the offensive
line; the only thing we can do is go look at the tape and see what
we did wrong.” Throughout the afternoon, the offensive line
also allowed five sacks and had a few mishandled snaps under
center. After the loss of three starters on the line to graduation,
this season’s group has a tall task ahead of itself if it
hopes to duplicate last season’s offensive production on the
ground. But despite the relative inexperience of the squad, Dorrell
feels they will be able to make the appropriate adjustments before
the team opens up against Utah on Sept. 2. “We’ll see
what the tape looks like,” Dorrell said. “It’s
hard to determine why those things happened. It could be a bad read
by a tailback or just some bad execution up front, but we’ll
see. There’s always stuff to work on at this
point.”
COWAN PATIENT: Pat Cowan, in a battle with Ben Olson for the
starting quarterback position, had an up-and-down day, taking snaps
from both the first and second offensive units. After some early
jitters, the redshirt sophomore settled down and finished with 95
yards and three touchdown tosses. Dorrell has yet to name a
starter, but gave indications that a decision is not far away.
“We will make a decision here soon,” Dorrell said.
“This week would be the week to do that. … Like I said,
when we start tapering down, we’ll start solidifying
positions.” Despite the uncertainty, Cowan, who took the most
passing plays on Saturday, is staying patient, feeling he has done
all in his power to solidify his role on the team, no matter what
that role may be. “It’s difficult to pay attention to
other people, because then you lose focus on what you need to do
for the team,” Cowan said. “I’m going to prepare
as if I am the starter even if I am not named the starter, because
I have to be ready to play and I will prepare myself to
play.” NOTES: Wide receivers Junior Taylor
and Marcus Everett were held out of the scrimmage on precautionary
measures. Both are slated to play in the home opener against
Utah.