2004 Shrine Game Report

[Novato]

http://www.gbnreport.com/shrinereport.htm

Defensive linemen... Things seemed to come in twos for this year's Shrine defensive linemen. For starters, a pair of highly rated players coming in did nothing to hurt their draft status. TCU DE Bo Schobel, for example, looked every bit the part of a natural pass rusher and, on this day anyway, certainly played the part. Schobel showed a very quick, long first step which allowed him to consistenly get the jump on the OT in front of him; and once he got leverage, Schobel was able to keep his man off balance with a good punch move; he also showed a nice change of direction move; and while not overly bulky, Schobel also did a nice job holding up against the run, even when double-teamed. Schobel, though, occasionally didn't get much penetration when he wasn't able to beat his man with his initial step. Same story for Western Michigan DE Jason Babin, another highly-rated pass rusher who generally lived up to that billing in the San Francsico. Babin, in fact, was almost unblockable as he was able to consistently beat his man off the snap with a very quick first step and then got good arm extension to keep him off balance; Babin also showed excellent closing speed, and while he doesn't look overly thick in the lower body did a solid job holding the point of attack against the run. At the same time, a couple of small-college DEs were also able to give pro scouts something to think about. Indeed, when all was said and done, Idaho State DE Jared Allen made a pretty good case that he was in fact the best defensive lineman at this year's Shrine game. The rangy Allen, who is listed at a full-sized 6-6, 285, showed both the quickness to consistently beat his man to the outside as well as the strength to pressure the QB off an inside power move. And while he lacks real closing speed, Allen covered a decent amount of ground with a long loping stride. Another Division 1-AA DE, Isaac Hilton of Hampton, didn't quite get the results Allen did, but worked hard and showed some interesting potential. Hilton, who has bulked up to almost 255 pounds, was very quick off the snap, though, probably more than any other player at the Shrine game, he struggled with the footing. When he was able to keep his footing, Hilton consistently turned the corner off a hard outside rush, although because he got upfield so quickly, he tended to overrun the play on occassion; he also did a nice job of stretching out a couple of sweeps, but still needs to do a better job of disengaging from blockers. Meanwhile, Washington State DE D.D. Acholonu also showed terrific upfield quickness; indeed, he looked like he was shot out of a cannon on more than one play, although like Hilton he tended to run himself out of the play if he didn't beat his man to the corner outright; Acholonu also didn't appear to find the ball that consistently in his haste to get upfield. He also didn't look anywhere big enough to be an every down DE, but with that speed and upfield quickness could find a home somewhere in the NFL as a 3rd down pass rush specialist.On the other hand, another pair of highly-rated DEs - Pitt's Claude Harriott and Kalen Thornton of Texas - came to the Shrine looking to erase some doubt in scout's minds after both had somewhat disappointing regular seasons. However, while both showed some flashes in San Francsico, both may have ultimately left with more questions than answers. Harriott, for eample, did come off the snap reasonably quickly and appeared to get leverage on his man on more than one occasion, but just didn't have quite the speed/strength to fully turn the corner and exploit the advantage. Harriott, though, did do a pretty good job defending the run. For his part, Thornton did come off the ball very hard on a couple of plays where he was able to beat his man to the corner and put some heat on the QB, but otherwise spent way too much time head-faking and hand fighting with his man and seldom got much penetration.

There were also a number of outstanding performances from the DTs in San Francisco. Unheralded UCLA DT Ryan Boschetti, who tended to get lost in the shadow of DE Dave Ball and DT Rodney Leisle with the Bruins, for example, had a terrific Shrine game. Boschetti got great penetration all afternoon as he consistently came off the snap with real urgency, kept his pads low and his feet moving, and got excellent arm extension to keep his blocker off balance. Boschetti generally lined up alongside another Pac-10 DT, Terry Johnson of Washington, who also spent a disruptive afternoon in the opposition backfield. Like Boschetti, Johnson got an excellent jump off the snap, used his hands and arms well to keep his blocker off balance and kept his feet moving; Johnson also did a good job holding the point of attack against double teams on running plays and showed nice lateral straight line speed chasing down a sweep. Yet another Pac-10 DT, Amon Gordon of Stanford, also had a solid outing, although unlike his conference couterparts there wasn't much finesse in Gordon's approach; he was simply a battler who kept his moving - forward or laterally - to keep the pressure on his blocker. Meanwhile, Jared Clauss of Iowa also got a lot of upfield penetration; he did tend to play too tall at times, but generally got off the snap well and showed decent lateral movement. At the same time, a couple of DTs who struggled to get off the line of scrimmage at last month's Blue-Gray game in Montgomery had strong comeback efforts at the Shrine game. For Boston College DT Doug Goodwin it was something of a hit and miss day at the Shrine game. When he got a good jump off the ball, Goodwin was very effective as he was able to keep his pads low and get leverage resulting in a pretty good upfield push; too often, though, Goodwin came off the ball very slowly and either was driven off the line of scrimmage or stuffed at the line. Christian Ferrara of Syracuse, for example, did a much better job last week of coming off the ball, kept his pads low, and got his arms out and into his blocker; Ferrara also showed decent lateral movement and speed. Same story for Dietrich Canterberry of UNLV who was able to get some upfield penetration after being pretty much stuck on the line of scrimmage in Montgomery; Canterberry, though, still looked rather slow. In fact, the only DTs to disappoint in the Shrine game were Ohio State's Tim Anderson and Darion Scott (though each also played a number of snaps at DE). Anderson did make a couple of plays upfield, he also held the point of attack reasonably well, especially when double-teamed, but tended to play too high on occassion and too often ended up stuck at the line of scrimmage arm-wresting with his blocker. Same story for Scott, who does gets credit for versatility - he played both DT slots and LDE; Scott also showed good speed when he wasn't blocked, but showed neither the strength to make much headway bull-rushing nor much lateral surge.

[Skeletor The Invincible]

Bo Schobel is an interesting prospect. Good blood lines.

[Sweet Sassy Molassy]

Oh man, those paragraphs make my eyes hurt. Good info otherwise.