From what I saw:

Nick Mitchell looked very bad, but part of that was the supporting cast. He was throwing to #15 (Tanner Sanders?) several times, and one was a drop, and the other an interception by Shawn Wilson on a double coverage, who made a nice ball-hawking play. Mitchell later throws into double coverage again, this time incomplete. Even if you want to blame the cast, and there is truth to that, Mitchell still has the funky delivery where he jump throws, he has a weak arm, made poor decisions, and on run plays, he didn’t look fully committed to selling the fake.

Tanner Sanders looked really bad, too. He does not look like a D1 tight end at this point.

A guy who stood out to me: Darrell Garrettson. He was only 3-6, I believe, but he also threw a 20 yard pass that Brent Vanderveen dropped. The pass was slightly short and BV had to go to the ground for it, so it could have been on Garrettson.  This play was especially troubling because #49 was covering BV, and that turns out to be a LB named David Henry. He is listed at 6’0, but he looks more like 5’2 and chubby/maladroit. Henry looks awful; I’m not sure if he’s a walk-on or what. But Garrettson had moxie and poise. He was very good at selling the run and much quicker with the decision and fake compared to the other QBs. He needs to work on accuracy, though. This seems like his weakness. Garrettson was out there with Sanders and Shane Wallen, so not exacty a lot of weapons. He hit BV for a touchdown. BV looked good at TE, but he needs to add about 15lbs, imo, to be effective as a blocker.

Seth Collins — mostly hands off in the footage. There’s a lot of standing around. For all the talk of getting plays in quickly, I didn’t see that in this footage. In general, a lot of confusion when he is in there. At one point, Ryan Nall says to hold up. They run the play anyway, and Nall gets stuffed. In the red zone drill, Collins throws a pass from the 5 yard line that the awful David Henry tips, and X. Crawford intercepts it. If Seth is getting defended by David Henry and Crawford, that doesn’t bode well for him vs legit defenses. Collins looks best on run plays. He’s got a good ball fake and follows through with the run well even when handing off to the back.

Marcus McMaryion — During that same red zone drill, MM hits Drew Kell for a touchdown. It’s a short pass, and Kell breaks a tackle before rumbling into the end zone. There is not much MM footage on the tape, but the few plays show he’s composed, takes what the D gives, has  good ball fake, and looked poised.

Ryan Nall — a huge disappointment in this footage. He’s running slow and hesitant, and on one play when Collins drops back to pass, he doesn’t even block. The D was swarming him. He should be better than this.

The defense looked pretty good considering there were a lot of scrubs out there. The offense did not look like Pac-12 football, but I didn’t recognize half the guys on the field, so it could be the byproduct of that. Overall, I was not impressed, and based on this footage, they have a long way to go, and 5 wins is optimistic. Now, don’t get too down, because this was only 14 minutes of film and half the starters appear to be out. Hopefully I can get some of the later scrimmages once the starters get more time and compare.

10:30-noon and open to the public. Get out there and report what you see, guys.

This QB battle hopefully ends today, because it is getting tiring, and they need one guy to start getting the majority of reps. Pick a guy, GA, and roll with it.

Go Beavs

This was public on rivals, so I assume it’s fair game that someone captured it then.

The freshman connection

Quarterback Seth Collins and wide receiver Paul Lucas put on quite a show during practice with several big plays in the first day in pads.

The first came game during 7-on-7 when Collins hit Lucas on a quick slant and then took it the distance. The safeties came on a blitz leaving one-on-one coverage on the outside, which Lucas took advantage of.

Later during live team drills on a very similar play, Lucas caught a pass from Collins over the middle then broke a tackle, then made several defenders miss in the open field and then raced down the sideline before being caught at about the five yard line.

That play sent the team into a small brawl at the goal line were several players (including Collins) had to be taken out of the drill for a couple of plays.

Running backs get their chance

With Storm Barr-Woods and Chris Brown not participating in practice on Thursday this gave opportunities for Damien Haskins, Ryan Nall and Jaylynn Bailey to get a heavy dose of reps.

For most of the team session, Nall struggled to find running lanes, which resulted in minimal yardage. On one of the final plays of the practice however, Nall broke through with a 15-yard touchdown through the middle of the defense. What was impressive with Nall that it usually took multiple defenses to take him down, even if was close to the line of scrimmage.

Both Haskins and Bailey had good days running the ball with the extra reps they were getting. Bailey showed that he was a capable pass catcher by catching a wheel route down the sideline for a big gain, while Haskins demonstrated his unique blend of speed and strength bouncing off tackles for a several good gains.

First day in pads brought some big hits.

The team had been itching to get into full pads and two plays in particular really stood out when the team when live.

The first big hit I saw came from corner Kendall Hill on Lucas. Lucas ran a bubble screen from the slot and as soon as he touched the ball, was met by Hill who was unblocked and welcomed Lucas to college football. Think Sheldon Brown’s hit on Reggie Bush in the 2006 NFC playoffs. After that play the energy level spiked drastically.

Shortly after that when the offense was facing a fourth-and-short situation, Marcus McMaryion handed the ball off to Bailey, as soon as he took a step, he was met by blitzing Cyril Noland-Lewis who came in like a missile and was untouched by anyone on the offense to make the play in the backfield and force the turnover.

Other Notes:

• The quarterbacks rotated more than in previous practices, all three freshmen worked with the first unit during team and 7-on-7 drills. Collins had his best day throwing the ball by my opinion. All the quarterbacks made nice plays through the air.

• Coaches are using a quick whistle whenever Collins decides to take off and run, once he crosses the line of scrimmage the coaches blow the play dead.

• Dwayne Williams, Jordan Villiman, Storm Barr-Woods did not practice today. Malik Gilmore was back in full pads after sitting out a couple of practices.

• The offense put the ball on the ground a couple times, whether it was a botched snap, a sloppy handoff or the defense stripping the ball the offense at times did not protect the ball.

• McMaryion took the first snaps when the team when live. The starting defense during the session was Kyle Peko at the nose tackle, Lavonte Barnett and Titus Failauga and the defensive end spots; Jaswha James, Bright Ogwoegbu and Caleb Saulo as the linebackers. With defensive backs, Larry Scott, Treston Decoud, Devin Chappell, Noland-Lewis and Justin Strong to round out the defense.

• When players were still talking after a whistle, there was no “Jiminy Christmas” being yelled at the players, instead a more vulgar phrase that I’ll let you use your imagination on.

• TE Caleb Smith was wearing a different (ineligible) number at practice the past two days. Although he is wearing No. 57, he is still lining up and playing tight end. No switch to the offense or defensive line.

The Oregonian has a pretty good write up.

If I come into any more info I will amend the post.