Saturday was also the first day his team went full speed to the ground tackling and not surprisingly the long time defensive coordinator wasn't pleased with how his defense performed.
One thing that just jumps out to me is that we have to be a much better tackling team, Pruitt offered. Guys need a little bit better form to finish. On the offensive line we need to learn how to finish.
Any time the ball was out on the perimeter today I didnt see our O-lineman going and peppering the defensive players, knocking them off the ball carrier.
While there were physical concerns that Pruitt had for his team, there also were some mental issues according to the head coach. The goal in the first scrimmage was to find out who the best players on the team are, meaning they limited things schematically. Pruitt wanted to let the players play and with no coaches on the field see how they react to the good and the bad of football plays. Pruitt said he found out quickly his team has work to do emotionally.
I could have turned my head while the ball was being snapped and not watched the play and then looked back around and I could have told you what happened without looking at the down and distance all based off body language. And thats not a good thing, Pruitt explained.
Theres going to be adverse situations in the games. Theres going to be situations where things dont go our way; how are we going to play? How are we going to respond?
Added Pruitt, Its like I told the guys out there today, theres a reason they put four quarters on the scoreboard. You want to play well in all of them and obviously you want to play well on every play but theres going to be times when things go your way and sometimes theyre not. The big thing that I saw was body language. To me, a lot of guys carrying their feelings on their shoulders. One of the most important things in any sport is to be able to keep your poise. Keep your poise, play the next play. Thats one thing we need to improve on for sure.
The inability to keep their mental poise compounded itself through the scrimmage Pruitt said as both sides of the ball had too many unforced errors.
Way too many penalties on both sides and they were all pre-snap penalties. Lack of discipline, some of its lack of poise, just being able to get lined up and function. We definitely have to improve there. The interesting part is when does it happen? Not a whole lot of penalties at the beginning of the scrimmage, but toward the end, where you start trying to figure out who has some mental toughness, who can sustain. Thats when the penalties show up. That definitely has to be addressed.