Practice Report

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.