Highlights from the Watermelon Scrimmage

Thanks for the patience folks on my recap from the Watermelon Scrimmage in Litchfield Saturday. I had to make one last trip to the State Fair yesterday (you may have caught a glimpse of me on the Twins pre-game show - no, I wasn't Chewbacca, but he was holding my "You're my boy, Roy" sign).

There is no winners and losers in a scrimmage, but if I had to pick one team that looked the best, it was no doubt AAA school New London-Spicer. This is my third year covering the scrimmage (time flies) and the Wildcats have been more impressing each year.

I can't remember what one of their coaches said, but it was something like we have 25 guys that run 5.0-second or below 40-meter dash. The time could have been faster. In other words, NL-S has speed and it really created problems at times when I saw them against Hutchinson and Litchfield.

Willmar looked a ton better than they did a season ago when they couldn't get a first down against the Tiger defense. The Cardinals are w/o three-year starting quarterback Mike Dunham, but his little brother and three-year varsity contributor Alec Saunders looked plenty good running the offense.

Little Dunham made a nice throw down the sideline to all-state everything Jordan Smith for a touchdown. Smith, who could play DI in probably all three of his sports, also intercepted a Jackson Hallahan pass and would've returned it for six.

Litchfield will ride the Nic Johnson train it appears. The bruising fullback, who started at quarterback last season before getting injured, barreled through the line when I saw him run. He hit a NL-S defense so hard he broke something on his helmet. Aaron Solbrack returns at quarterback for the Dragons.

As for the hometown team, it wasn't a terribly impressive showing, but Hutchinson really doesn't show much because they know G-SL coaches are there. The one thing that concerned me was the line play. First off, the offense could start one senior and the same could be said on defense. Still, there wasn't too many holes, forcing the backs to bounce it outside. This team doesn't have a Cory Shufelt, so its success will be up the gut.

Seth Hintze took most of the snaps with the first team. He ran the option a few times, which is probably his strength because he can use his legs. Jaedon Scott has good hands receiving a pitch as well. Hintze did struggle throwing into the wind, but that is expected right now in his maturation of taking over the QB role.

I really compare this team to the team of 2006 in that there will be a lot of juniors on the first and second units. At times, the team of 2006 took its lumps, but came together at the end to reach the section finals and fall a touchdown short of an 11th straight state appearance.

Imagine how solid this team will look next year having to replace only a handful of seniors compared to this year where the offense only has split end Mitch Cannon, center Brad Hauer and fullback Jacob Brusehaver back on offense. On defense, linebackers Erik Bute and Brusehaver return. That's 17 spots to fill in. It takes time to adjust.

You'll see it in my game preview Thursday and in all my blogs this week - the winner Friday with G-SL is the team that turns the ball the least. Hutch can't have any center-QB exchange problems and it has to take care of the ball - whether they are going through the air or running through the line.