G&T Blog matters: Zags’ redshirts, Cougs get fiesty, Vandals’ Marc Millan breaks out

A sampling from the past week of entries in The Spokesman-Review blog, Sportslink at spokesman.com/ sportslink.

3: It probably would have been ideal if center Ryan Edwards had the opportunity to redshirt last season but the Zags’ lack of interior depth took away that option. The opposite is true this year with three players capable of playing the ‘5’ in Przemek Karnowski, Domas Sabonis and Kyle Wiltjer.

On Wednesday, three major fights broke out between the scout team offense and the regular defense with more animus and far more players than usual getting involved.

Gabe Marks and Sulaiman Hameed began the first brouhaha, with their teammates quickly converging on the pair. The conflicts were large enough and long enough to detract from practice as coaches spent more time than they’d like pulling frustrated players away from each other.

Still, defensive line coach Joe Salave’a is glad his team still has some fighting spirit.

“Yeah, you never want to lose reps,” Salave’a said. “That’s what you can’t have. But part of that, I’d rather have guys flying around and have that competitive spirit than not.”

Jacob Thorpe

Among all the turnovers (eight against Arkansas State), penalties (including three unsportsmanlike conduct flags, one against the coach himself) and the Vandals’ general fourth-quarter pratfall, one particularly stellar effort was all but overlooked – linebacker Marc Millan’s 18-tackle performance, including five for loss. 

“That was good to see,” coach Paul Petrino said. “Marc gives great effort. He gets into trouble when he tries to do everybody’s job.”

John Blanchette