Scrimmage No. 1 thoughts

The optimists will say the defense was just that good.

The pessimists will say the offense was that bad.

I think it was a little of both for Wyoming in its first scrimmage of fall camp Friday morning.

The defense, both the ones and twos, flew around and played well, especially in pass coverage. UW quarterbacks ran 23 times, and I would guess 80 percent of those were because the coverage down field was good.

Or, as coach Dave Christensen said: “Most of the issues were guys not getting open. The pass protection seemed good to me.”

The defense won the 128-play scrimmage 52-33 in  UW’s scoring system. There were no ones vs. ones. It was all starters vs. backups, or threes vs. threes.

The No. 1 offense scored just 10 points, and sophomore QB Austyn Carta-Sameuls was less than stellar. He was 9 of 17 for 89 yards and an interception (should have had two). He bolted after the scrimmage to talk to some of his coaches and didn’t come back until about 30 minutes later to talk to the media.

“I’ve always been a winner, and I hate losing,” Carta-Samuels said. “I haven’t done much losing, to be honest. After that I really needed a break and didn’t want to talk to anybody other than my coaches and air what I was feeling and what was going on for me. For me to lose leaves me a very sick feeling in my stomach. I’m 19 years old and I can cry like a baby after I lose.”

“I let down my teammates down, but there is a lot of room to improve.”

Some other observations:

–UW’s new Thunder and Lightning combo (see my story at www.wyomingnews.com or www.laramieboomerang.com) of true freshman receiver Robert Herron and JC transfer Jonathan Aiken saw a lot of playing time. Herron caught three passes for 32 yards. Aiken didn’t catch a pass but had a couple of long passes thrown his way.

–The longest play of the scrimmage was a 49-yard run by true freshman walk-on running back Vincent Bobbitt with the No. 3 offense.

–The defense had seven sacks and 24 tackles for a loss of 66 yards. Redshirt freshman Patrick Mertens and sophomore Mike Purcell looked great at defensive tackle with the No. 1 defense. They combined for 10 tackles and four tackles for loss.

–Some bad news at defensive tackle as junior Alex Stover’s career is done because of a lingering groin injury. He will remain as a volunteer student assistant coach.

–A ruling is out on linebacker Oliver Schober’s eligibility. The 23-year-old from Germany will have three years to play two. He was listed as a true freshman. Per NCAA rules, after you turn 21 and play with some “club” level sports, you lose a year of eligibility for each year you play.

–A buzz is going on about Schober’s ability to kickoff. Two of his three went for touchbacks in the scrimmage. One was an ugly line-drive that bounced at about the 20 and trickled into the end zone.

–Two of the more impressive freshmen today were defensive ends Sonny Puletasi and Riley Lange. Puletasi had two sacks and Lange had one. They worked mostly against the No. 3 offense.

–Senior Austin McCoy took the first reps with the No. 1 field goal and extra point team. He made a 24-yard field goal, but had a 20-yarder blocked. He doesn’t get the ball up as fast as sophomore Ian Watts, who will miss the season-opener because of a one-game suspension for a violation of team rules.

–The MRI on true freshman running back Nehemie Kankolngo’s knee is in, and Christensen said he expects him to be ready for the Sept. 11 game at Texas. Like Watts, Kankolongo was suspended for the opener for a violation of team rules. He didn’t play in the scrimmage.

Wyoming returns to practice twice Saturday, with the first at 8:45 a.m. Will post live updates via Twitter at www.twitter.com/rpgagliardi.

Thanks to all those that joined me for the live blog from today’s scrimmage. It was a blast and tons of great conversation. Will try to do it again Tuesday.