UW-Akron thoughts

The first thing I thought was, That's the closest I've ever come to actually predicting the final score of a game. Two points, not bad.

Overall, about what you'd expect from an opener against a weak MAC team. Lots of good, but lots to work on, too.

-P.J. Hill does look better proportioned, although his rear end is still quite prominent. I remember watching warmups before the season opener in Cleveland two years ago and the guy next to me saying P.J. looked like a guard that had gone through the wash. Great description, but doesn't fit as much any more.

No matter what the guy looks like, he can play — great feet, great burst, great strength to punish tacklers at the end of the play and move piles. Can't get too greedy, though, like he did on the fumble.

-So Akron plays a 3-3-5 defense. How's that working out for them? I just can't see that as an effective defensive setup against anyone anymore, even the Spread, which can gash you with runs if you aren't in the right spot.

-Great catch by Garrett Graham on Allan Evridge's first pass. As long as Travis Beckum comes back from this injury and is in tune with Evridge, his absence for these first couple games will mean good things for Graham and Lance Kendricks, who looked like he belonged out there. Graham blocked really well, too.

-Evridge made a really nice ball fake on the touchdown pass to Graham. Overall he played well, with the obvious exceptions being the interception he threw in the end zone on a terrible pass, and the almost-intercepted ball in the first quarter. Gotta tighten that up, but he's excused for having some rust. Also liked the way he ran the ball with power, although he didn't seem ready to take the hit at the end.

-Early on O'Brien Schofield made a great spin move to record a sack. If he's anything above average it's a huge plus for the defensive line. Matt Shaughnessy was active early from the other end spot.

-I want to single out two linemen for their play: John Moffitt and Andy Kemp, who showed great athleticism. On P.J.'s first long run, Moffitt pulled to open up a hole. A pulling center? Haven't seen that around here since Al Johnson, I believe.

Kemp was equally proficient pulling, throwing the key block on P.J.'s 1-yard touchdown run later, absolutely burying his guy. These two guys are the least-heralded of the Badgers' five starters (and you could throw in Josh Oglesby, too), but if they're able to do these sorts of things against better defensive fronts, it will really make life easier for our backs.

-So all facemask penalties are going to be 15 yards this year in college? I don't like that rule. The one called on Jae McFadden early was definitely a 15-yarder under the old standards, but some just aren't that malicious.

-Glad to see Evridge and Paul Chryst get Kyle Jefferson involved early. After suffering a case of the drops in camp, it was nice to see him get some easy catches in space and make yards after the catch. Now let's see him stretch defenses like he did at times last year.

-Zach Brown looked faster than I remembered on a run around left end. He should be solid again, if not considerably better than solid.

-The third-stringer, John Clay, looks like a beast just lined up in the backfield. He ran well today, closed the game strong.

-David Gilreath should have caught that pass in the end zone, Evridge threw a nice ball. The upside to that was it let Philip Welch come in and get a field goal under his belt. His kickoffs were generally OK, not Taylor Mehlhaff-esque, but Akron's vaunted kickoff return game didn't break anything long.

-We had problems covering their tight end. Jay Valai did not stand out as having a great performance. Allen Langford and Mario Goins covered well, with the exception of a play where Langford got beat deep but the pass was off-target.

-Brad Nortman only got one punt in, but it was a good one. Not so worried about that spot, for the moment.

-McFadden seemed to play pretty well, he was in on a lot of tackles (11).

-Only saw Oglesby in the Jumbo package, not Jake Bscherer, and Carimi was in at left tackle on the game's final possession. Is Bscherer redshirting?

-Read that Kirk DeCremer is likely done playing college football. That's a big loss, I really liked what he showed last year as a pass rusher and guy who in general was around the ball a lot.

-Akron's quarterback, Chris Jacquemain, had horrible footwork and arm mechanics. Our pressure had something to do with that, but even on plays where there wasn't much pressure his fundamentals were atrocious.

-Saw a clip of Terrelle Pryor in Ohio State's game against Youngstown State, he looks like the second coming of Vince Young.

-Finally, Ian Allen, the analyst on the Big Ten Network's broadcast, gave quite possibly the worst performance of a guy in that spot that I have ever heard. Not even exaggerating here, he was absolutely awful. Almost everything he said was 100% wrong — worse than generic or cliche, it was wrong. Please, BTN, don't send him to any more of our games this year, he's the analyst Minnesota deserves.

We rushed for more than 400 yards and put up what looked like a box score from a high school game. Good start, and the run-all-the-time was the approach I advocated, but it would be nice to see a little more diversity next week.