The rain held off long enough to get the first practice of the year in-- outdoors! I tried not to spend much time in any one area- for the first notebook- I tried to see who was in the depth chart...
A good number of fans and media turned out for today’s first spring practice. Notably- Maxx Williams was in attendance, and Dexter Foreman was not. Transfer?
Marcus Jones wore a green jersey and did not participate in contact drills, but- looks just as quick as a year ago. Another WR not wearing his proper jersey was Malcolm Moulton- he wore brown.
The first drill of the year for the QBs and WRs was practicing bubble screens. We saw it a lot in practice a year ago, but- never in the game. Hopefully we see more of it in 2012.
Jimmy Gjere and Foster Bush both wore orange jerseys and had partial participation. Gjere looks a lot bigger in the lower body. Another player to appears to have added lower body weight is Zac Epping. On the other end of the spectrum- Ernie Heifort (wearing #75) could use a few pounds.
Epping played with the first team at RG, but did do some snapping. Mottla, Epping an Christianson were the only players that practiced snaps.
The depth chart at OL appears to be-
LT- Eddie Olson -- Marek Lenkiewicz -- Ernie Heifort
LG- Tommy Olson -- Caleb Bak -- Joe Bjorklund
C- Zach Mottla -- Jon Christianson
RG- Zac Epping -- Sean Ferguson-- Kyle McAvoy
RT- Josh Campion -- Luke McAvoy
I fully expect Gjere and Bush to crack the 2 deeps when they’re healthy.
David Cobb is clearly bigger than a year ago and James Gillum is definitely not as big as advertised. Cobb and Kirkwood took most of the first team reps. Gillum played a lot. Devon Wright wore a brown shirt and looked even skinnier than a year ago. Cole Banham is tiny, but- did get a little work.
None of the WRs stood out in the drills. Making me wonder out loud if McDonald will be ready to start from day 1. Derrick Engel is skinny, but- flashed some nice hands in the pass shell. The best WR performance of the day was turned in by Isaac Fruechte. He’s not as big as I thought he would be, but- he had a nice day in the pass shell. On 3 consecutive reps he caught passes from MarQueis Gray. The first was a deep post that he caught in traffic that would’ve gone for a score, on the second he got in behind the defense (blown coverage) and caught a wide open bomb and the 3rd was a curl route completion.
MarQueis Gray took all of the first team reps, but- Max Shortell also got a ton of playing time. Max looked great throwing the ball. He appears a little smoother running the ball, but- his arm strength and accuracy are light years ahead of the other QBs. Philip Nelson took the 3rd team reps. Accuracy was a problem from both Gray and Nelson, but- Shortell looked great.
Don’t expect much right away from Alipate and Gregory- McGhee, they both were having trouble lining up, catching the ball, and- most importantly- with footwork.
Tracy Claeys did a lot of work with the DTs. He preached about playing through double teams, saying- it’s part of the position- I don’t want to hear any complaining about it. Scott Ekpe is a physical specimine. He is long and lean and moves really well. He looks like a bigger version of Cockran. Speaking of Cockran- he’s still really skinny, but- appears to have added some good weight.
The defensive line units that I saw were?
Cockran, Hageman, Botticelli and Wilhite
Perry, Hahn, Delaney, Amaefula
Garin, Legania, Ekpe, Simpson
The linebacker units appeared to be?
Reeves, Rallis, Dominic Schultz (a walk on RSFR??)
Hill, Matilus, Manuel
Grant, Westerhaus, Edwards
A walk-on on the first team? Edwards on the third? Matilus, Westerhaus and Rallis at MLB? A lot of curiosities at LB. I’ll keep an on eye on this unit in the future.
Briean Boddy was in attendance wearing number 29, but- I didn’t see him play in the pass shell. The other JUCO corners were active in drills.
Defensive back doesn’t appear to have the depth as the other defensive units. While the other units rotated 3 teams- the DBs mostly played 2…
Stoudermire and Carter (a welcome surprise) played with the first team at corner, backed up by newcomers Martez Shabazz and Jeremy Baltazaar. Both JUCOs have nice quickness and speed. Both performed well on their first day of practice.
With Brock Vereen not participating fully due to injury- Derrick Wells and Cedric Thompson got the majority of the reps at safety. They looked very good in the pass shell coverage. Their relief, Levine and Watkins- didn’t fare as well.
The pace of practice was good. There was a lot of teaching going on. A lot of time was spent on special teams, which is much different from a year ago- when the entire spring was spent learning the basics.
This post was edited on 3/22 7:47 PM by Zach Johnson
A good number of fans and media turned out for today’s first spring practice. Notably- Maxx Williams was in attendance, and Dexter Foreman was not. Transfer?
Marcus Jones wore a green jersey and did not participate in contact drills, but- looks just as quick as a year ago. Another WR not wearing his proper jersey was Malcolm Moulton- he wore brown.
The first drill of the year for the QBs and WRs was practicing bubble screens. We saw it a lot in practice a year ago, but- never in the game. Hopefully we see more of it in 2012.
Jimmy Gjere and Foster Bush both wore orange jerseys and had partial participation. Gjere looks a lot bigger in the lower body. Another player to appears to have added lower body weight is Zac Epping. On the other end of the spectrum- Ernie Heifort (wearing #75) could use a few pounds.
Epping played with the first team at RG, but did do some snapping. Mottla, Epping an Christianson were the only players that practiced snaps.
The depth chart at OL appears to be-
LT- Eddie Olson -- Marek Lenkiewicz -- Ernie Heifort
LG- Tommy Olson -- Caleb Bak -- Joe Bjorklund
C- Zach Mottla -- Jon Christianson
RG- Zac Epping -- Sean Ferguson-- Kyle McAvoy
RT- Josh Campion -- Luke McAvoy
I fully expect Gjere and Bush to crack the 2 deeps when they’re healthy.
David Cobb is clearly bigger than a year ago and James Gillum is definitely not as big as advertised. Cobb and Kirkwood took most of the first team reps. Gillum played a lot. Devon Wright wore a brown shirt and looked even skinnier than a year ago. Cole Banham is tiny, but- did get a little work.
None of the WRs stood out in the drills. Making me wonder out loud if McDonald will be ready to start from day 1. Derrick Engel is skinny, but- flashed some nice hands in the pass shell. The best WR performance of the day was turned in by Isaac Fruechte. He’s not as big as I thought he would be, but- he had a nice day in the pass shell. On 3 consecutive reps he caught passes from MarQueis Gray. The first was a deep post that he caught in traffic that would’ve gone for a score, on the second he got in behind the defense (blown coverage) and caught a wide open bomb and the 3rd was a curl route completion.
MarQueis Gray took all of the first team reps, but- Max Shortell also got a ton of playing time. Max looked great throwing the ball. He appears a little smoother running the ball, but- his arm strength and accuracy are light years ahead of the other QBs. Philip Nelson took the 3rd team reps. Accuracy was a problem from both Gray and Nelson, but- Shortell looked great.
Don’t expect much right away from Alipate and Gregory- McGhee, they both were having trouble lining up, catching the ball, and- most importantly- with footwork.
Tracy Claeys did a lot of work with the DTs. He preached about playing through double teams, saying- it’s part of the position- I don’t want to hear any complaining about it. Scott Ekpe is a physical specimine. He is long and lean and moves really well. He looks like a bigger version of Cockran. Speaking of Cockran- he’s still really skinny, but- appears to have added some good weight.
The defensive line units that I saw were?
Cockran, Hageman, Botticelli and Wilhite
Perry, Hahn, Delaney, Amaefula
Garin, Legania, Ekpe, Simpson
The linebacker units appeared to be?
Reeves, Rallis, Dominic Schultz (a walk on RSFR??)
Hill, Matilus, Manuel
Grant, Westerhaus, Edwards
A walk-on on the first team? Edwards on the third? Matilus, Westerhaus and Rallis at MLB? A lot of curiosities at LB. I’ll keep an on eye on this unit in the future.
Briean Boddy was in attendance wearing number 29, but- I didn’t see him play in the pass shell. The other JUCO corners were active in drills.
Defensive back doesn’t appear to have the depth as the other defensive units. While the other units rotated 3 teams- the DBs mostly played 2…
Stoudermire and Carter (a welcome surprise) played with the first team at corner, backed up by newcomers Martez Shabazz and Jeremy Baltazaar. Both JUCOs have nice quickness and speed. Both performed well on their first day of practice.
With Brock Vereen not participating fully due to injury- Derrick Wells and Cedric Thompson got the majority of the reps at safety. They looked very good in the pass shell coverage. Their relief, Levine and Watkins- didn’t fare as well.
The pace of practice was good. There was a lot of teaching going on. A lot of time was spent on special teams, which is much different from a year ago- when the entire spring was spent learning the basics.
This post was edited on 3/22 7:47 PM by Zach Johnson
