Photos by Matt Guardabascio

Both sides showed flashes, but—as expected—the defense stole the show at Poly’s spring game.  Rather than split the team into two groups, the defense competed against the offense, earning points for every stop.  Two defensive touchdowns helped spur the D to a 25-13 lead at halftime, and a 34-24 win at the end of the game.

Defense

There’s no surprise that it was the defensive side of the ball that looked incredibly sure of itself in the spring game.  After all, with 9 players on defense with starting experience last year, and 7 of the team’s top 10 tacklers back, this will be one of the more experienced defenses in the nation, and certainly one of the more talented. 

The focus in the spring game was on Corey Waller—Waller, who is naturally a DE, spent a good amount of time at linebacker as well (where he’s already drawn notice from the LA Times’ Eric Sondheimer in Poly’s first Passing League appearance), and was essentially on the field all day.  Even when the second and third team defenses were in, Waller stayed on the field, trying different positions and feeling out the nuances of the system.

That system looked as complex as you’d expect, with so many starters back.  When we decided to cover spring games this year, we also decided not to tip coaches’ hands on formations and new wrinkles—since it is June, after all, and there’s a full three months for that.  Anyway, it’s a shame we put that restriction on ourselves because Poly’s defense looks like they’re in midseason form right now—obviously systems always look clean in shirts and shorts, but the D showed a lot of different faces, and looked comfortable in all of them.

The secondary showed its speed and talent in the air, with a heck of a pair of starting corners in Kameron Jackson and Dabness Atkins, and Salamo Fiso could be a surprise to a lot of people at linebacker this year.  Defensive linemen always have an advantage before the pads are put on, but last year’s top tackler, DT Michael Teo, looked even harder to handle.

All of the above guys will be seniors next year—one more name stood out in the spring game, linebacker Matt Rowe, who will be a junior.  Rowe was plenty vocal in the spring game, begging defensive coordinator Jeff Turley to put the first unit any time they were left on the sideline too long, and was aggressive and confident in run and pass support on the field.  Of course since both of Rowe’s older brothers got PAC-10 scholarships to play football (Kenny to Oregon and Alfred to USC, both were in attendance), that shouldn’t exactly be a shocker—if he has a good 2010, Turley and the Rabbits will be happy with their framework for 2011.  Turley’s son, Jeff Jr., also a junior-to-be, will be a rangy ball-hawk at safety this year, and he tracked down the best interception of the day in the spring game.

Offense

With so much talent and expectation on the other side of the ball, the Poly offense is just looking for something to build on in the shorts-wearing scrimmages.  Obviously, it’s hard to tell much of anything in the run game, and that will be a big piece of the Jackrabbit offensive game plan.

The offensive line is bringing back size and experience, anchored on the outside with senior tackles Phillip Mose and Zachary Palacios.  The two towers stand over six feet and tip the scale at almost 600 pounds combined.  They showcased their improved footwork in pass coverage and looked comfortable laterally when moving the pocket.  With three diminutive signal callers, that could be a key this season.

Juniors Chaiyse Hales, Emmanuel Lara and sophomore Cory Smith are all competing and all took snaps, but head coach Raul Lara said Hales ran with the first unit because he’s the only one returning with experience.  He was 10-for-27 for 94 yards last season in relief work, and looked good on the move.  Lara also threw well on the run and had the scoring drives by keeping the ball high to his big targets.

Returners Earnest Pettway and Josiah Blandin are joined by Gregory Hyes to make a nice trio of receivers over 6’3” with good hands.  Pettway came out of the three-point stance last year and was second on the team in receiving yards with 254 to go with two touchdowns.  Hyes showed his ability to separate on the long TD pass from Hales.

As is always the case, the Jackrabbits have a stable full of capable running backs.  Senior Kameron White will see a lot of time, but was out because of the impressive (and inevitable) post-season run by the Trackrabbits.  He averaged almost five yards-per-carry last season with 320 yards and four touchdowns on 68 carries.  Gerald Wicks took the first snaps with the first unit and set the tone with two nice early runs, but this year Poly could go over last year’s 18 different players to register a carry.

With the way the defense looked— and coach Lara said as much after the game— the offense won’t have to do too much to keep their defense in good position.  Prepare for a lot of references to the 2000 Baltimore Ravens this season.

Here are a few photos from the game: