Our personal beat reporter, Bone, is back with a highly detailed report. Enjoy.

Special Teams:

Cooks an Boldin were returning punts, looks like both of them will be back receiving punts and possibly at the same time.  Field goal unit looked good, clean snap to hold to kick.  Romaine is kicking field goals very well.  Kostol looks very good, and snaps look good.

Reynolds and Hatfield sat out practice; Mullaney, Christian and Cummings were back playing.  The first interaction that the quarterbacks and receivers had today was one on ones from about the 5 yard line, so a lot of fades and slants.  I got a real good angle of the Gwatchum and Mullaney but the rest of the receivers were on the opposite side of the field.  Gwatchum  went 1-2 against Nelson, catching a back shoulder fade and then Nelson stepped in front of the pass.  Mullany just abused Naji Patrick.  Kevin Cummings as well as Victor Boldin did well.  After that the team moved into the team session. Vaz and Gwatchum worked with the first team today.  The secondary was mostly in the nickel with Nelson, Scott, and Hunt.  Reynolds was out and I didn’t see Martin taking any snaps maybe he wasn’t there, but I pretty sure he was. Some other notes: Dylan Wynn was doing a lot of work as an interior d-lineman, probably only going to be for passing downs I’d assume, he seemed to fit there.

Because there is both a quarterback battle I tracked what each play that happened in team or 7 on 7.  I had to leave a little early so some of the later stuff I did not see.

Team 11 0n 11

Vaz

• Completed 6 yard hitch to Gwatchum
• Incomplete to Gwatchum on deep crossing route.  Good throw (should have been caught)
• Draw to Ward
• Completed 15 yard corner to Hamlet

Mannion

• Draw to Brown
• Dumped off to Brown for 10+ yards
• Completed corner route to Boldin for 10 yards.  Really nice throw and catch

Vaz

• Dive to storm for 10+ yards
• Drop of f to the other full back who isn’t TA
• Completed 7yrd.  slant route to Cooks
• Dive to Ward for no gain

Mannion

• Dive to Brown for 10+ yards
• Completion to Boldin on 20 yard comebacker.  Really BIG throw, from the far hash.
• Complete on corner route to Mullany.  Nice throw and catch.
• Completed to Clute on 8 yard hitch.  Safety came in untouched so Mannion may have been sacked

7 on 7

Vaz

• Complete 15 yard out route to Gwatchum.  Really Nice throw and catch.
• Same exact play but this time Cooks
• Incomplete pass to cooks on a deep dig route.  Pass was high but should have been caught.
• Completed 6 yard hitch to Hamlet

Mannion

• Completed 5 yard out to C. Smith.
• Completed 5 yard hitch to Boldin
• Dropped swing pass to Haskins.  he looks good running the ball but has had trouble catching the ball.
• Incomplete slant to Boldin.  Little low and behind, could have been caught.

Vaz

• Completed 10 yard hitch to Hamlet
• Incomplete to Cooks on deep out.  Pass was short and behind Cooks.

Mannion

• Completed 20 yard out to Boldin.  Great throw.
• Another dropped pass by Haskins
• Incomplete to Boldin

Vaz

• Incomplete corner route to Gilmore, lead him too much and was short.
• Completed 15 yard out to Cooks, really nice throw and anticipation.
• Sacked, but scrambled for a first down.

Mannion

• Completed deep crossing route to Caleb Smith.  Might have been sacked though, one player broke through.
• To high for Gwatchum on deep crossing route. Incomplete
• Incomplete pass to Boldin on deep comeback route, just a tad high for him.

Vaz

• Perfeclty thrown deep ball to Cooks with Nelson in great coverage.  Greatly placed by Vaz
• Completed wheel route to Storm for a good pick up
• Incomplete pass to Cook on deep hitch.  Really inaccurate throw.

Mannion

• Completed crossing route to Mullany.
• Complete to Brown out of backfield, nice pick up
• Perfectly thrown 10 yard hitch to Boldin but dropped.

After watching 4 practices, with each quarterback getting 2 sessions with the first team, Mannion has been more impressive.  On days when he is with the first team the offense looks better and you can see separation between the first and second team.  When Vaz is with the first team, both teams look almost identical.  Also Vaz has turned the ball over during the 4 practices that I attended.  As for Mullany and Gwatchum, I don’t think the coaches need to rush to make a decision here, both are playing really well and it might be a good idea for them to get equal amount of snaps the first game or two.  I feel we will get a quarterback answer very soon.

Second practice report (8/10), via Bone:

Via Bone:

I was able to make it to practice today, here some things that I saw.
As far as any changes to the offense there was a little read option being ran as well as quarterback shovel pass similar to BYU ran quite a bit on us last season, and a couple new ways to set up screen passes, which looked good and went for some big yards.

Vaz vs. Mannion

Mannion got first reps and worked the first group all day (I think it has been that way all week) and looked awesome, especially passes to the boundaries, really strong well placed throws. He did have one pass that I think slipped out of his hand, trying to hit Obum deep but the ball was a dead duck that landed about 15 yards short of Obum. But other than that he picked apart the defense. Vaz looked really good also he was a little more inaccurate on the wide receiver screens. He has really good anticipation, but his passes to the boundaries had less zip and accuracy than Mannion’s. After watching today I think Sean is winning the position battle, he was really, really sharp. Vanderveen and Kempt still have a ways to go before they reach Mannion and Vaz. Vanderveen did throw a pick 6 in team though.

Wide Receivers

Brandin Cooks is a STUD. I’ll just leave it at that. Besides Cooks, Cummings, was getting a lot of separation even against the top corners/safeties on the team and beat them in a lot of different ways. Micah Hatfield is looking good; he made some really nice catches, especially in tight coverage. During team drills Gilmore was getting the first reps over Gwatcum and Mullaney, but did not perform well. On back to back plays Brennen came running out and yelling at him to do better. Obum looked really good, but he has been that way the last couple years, I did see and dropped passes from him. He did “pants” Larry Scott after an interception, which was pretty funny. Nothing earth shattering from Mullaney, just did what he does. Bolding looks like De’Antothony Thomas and runs similar to him; we need to finds ways to get him the ball. Hunter Jarmon looked good, almost made an incredible diving catch, but just couldn’t hold on.

Tight Ends

This is a nice looking group. All of them are big, athletic, and look comfortable catching the ball. Caleb Smith’s body has changed from last year; he trimmed down quite a bit and looks a lot more athletic. The guy from Dayton Hayden Craig looks to be a blocking tight end, he was the least athletic out of the group. Hamlet was looked fine also.
Running Backs
I didn’t see a ton of this group. Haskins is already built to be a college running back, much bigger than Storm, Ward, and Chris Brown. Woods does look bigger and he was noticeably quicker than last year. All the backs looked good catching the ball except for the 3rd full back #42. Tyler Anderson was playing full speed and did not appear limited by the giant brace he had on. He did however sit out the last part of practice with ice on knee, but I think that was just precautionary. And standing next to Lyle Moevao, you can’t tell the two apart. And the last couple times I have gone to practice they have tried running a running back pass with Terron Ward, but he can’t throw at all, it was embarrassing.

Offensive Line

I am not very good at analyzing or getting a good look on who is in. Didn’t see anything alarming.

Defensive Backs

Reynolds is very good, and fast. He won several 1 on 1’s, he ran stride for stride and broke up a perfectly thrown deep ball intended for Cooks. Sean Martin got beat all day, embarrassed by Cooks and Cummings. It does not help that he has to leave practice to go to class either. Steven Nelson is going to win this job; he had great coverage all day. He had come great battles with Micah Hatfield, he had perfect coverage a majority of plays. After what I saw today I would be shocked if he didn’t over take Martin. I haven’t seen or heard much of Larry Scott (not commissioner) but he was running with the second unit and played well, he is not very big.

Linebackers

I didn’t see a ton of individual drills with this group either, but some interesting stuff. Alexander and Doctor are good to go, nothing stood out to me, positive or negative, with Skotte (He did pick off Vanderveen). The freshman Greer is a very, VERY small linebacker, but he gets to the ball in a hurry and is good in coverage (nearly picked off Vaz). A fight broke out between I believe Kellen Clute and Darrell Songy. I don’t know what started it, but Songy was really fired up about something and was yelling “Let’s goOOooo!) they were doing 1 on 1 drills and then punches started to fly. Then it got defused and everything was fine again.
I didn’t get a good look at the defensive line, they were inside most of practice, but the Devla and Hautau both are big. No sign of Pecko though. During Team there weren’t huge holes for the running backs to run through so I guess they are doing fine now.

Special Teams

First thing I saw was Romaine hit from 45+ with ease. He was really short on a 57 yarder, but I think that was to practice the coverage if a field gets returned. Didn’t see any punters.

Unfortunately I am super busy right now, but you guys can guess on defensive depth chart.
I’ll be free later in the week and post my thoughts.

My depth chart predictions:

QB — Sean Mannion
RB — Storm Woods (I imagine Ward gets change of pace duties, and Chris Brown mop up)
FB — Tyler Anderson
WR — Brandon Cooks
WR — Richard Mullaney (I hope Cummings doesn’t get this gig)
WR — Hunter Jarmon (I think this guy is 2013’s Brandon Cooks and will blow by Gwachum, Cummings, et al). At the very least he’ll be a “secret weapon” and big play threat in certain packages. Watch his film–he looks like Dez Bryant.
TE — Caleb Smith (This guy needs to step up his game). Perry is a nice plan B, or possibly a weak plan A.
LT — Michael Phillipp
LG — Josh Andrews
C – Issac Seumalo
RG – Grant Enger (hate having a natural tackle at guard, but it’s better than having a walk-on)
RT — Gavin Andrews

The offensive line is loaded. I expect 1,500 rushing yards for the starting RB. The first half of the schedule is weak. Beavs should be 6-0 heading to Cal. In my opinion, all the pressure this year is on Mannion. Every other position has a top guy who is performing. He’s the weak link right now, and unfortunately at the most important position (luck o’ the Beavs?)