Looking forward to Saturday Scrimmage

I talked with Paul Haynes after practice this morning, and the head coach is excited to find out even more about his team on Saturday when the Golden Flashes hold their first true scrimmage of the preseason.

The practice will be good-on-good, with first team-offense vs. first-team defense, second-team offense vs. second-team defense, and so on.

The performances in the scrimmage will pretty much set the first depth chart. Right now Haynes said he likes the depth that this team is creating.

I'll be particularly interested in watching the offensive line, the linebackers and of course the quarterbacks. Depth on the offensive line was a question with the loss of some key players to graduation, but that unit has looked particularly good blocking for the run in the last few weeks. If they can open holes against a what is a very good first-team defensive line on Saturday, that's a good sign heading into the new season.

If that defensive line can keep a young linebacking corps clean, I want to see if that group moves and makes plays. I talked to Brian George yesterday, and he is very encouraged by the linebackers. He expects to have as many as five ready to play in the rotation by opening night.

Both Haynes and George have prepared blogs that will be available on the Football Blog very soon.

I've been impressed by Colin Reardon's arm, but also his mobility at quarterback. Same with David Fisher, who is also an impressive leader as a senior, as I've written here before. But I'm also looking forward to seeing true freshman Nathan Strock in action, as well as sophomore Brett Maxie. Can either of them continue their chase for playing time?

On another note, the second edition of "The Archer" comic strip is almost complete. The draft Chuck Ayers turned in is a whole lot of fun. After the "Origin" story in the debut, now we are getting into some of the fun stuff as the comic Dri battles our versions of the mascots of the teams we play this season.

The press we are getting for the Heisman campaign is a big surprise. I got a text from a friend today showing a photo of a Kent State alum in the military who was reading about the campaign in Guam. The story took up the entire back page of Stars & Stripes, with a jump to the inside containing the entire comic strip.

Pretty cool stuff.

And speaking of cool, Kent State senior Corey Conners is on to the semifinals of the United States Amateur golf championship. If he wins in the semifinals tomorrow, I'll be driving some 10 hours to watch him play in the championship. And, oh by the way, if he wins tomorrow, as a finalist he'll qualify to play in the Masters.