Alright, sorry about the delay guys and I appreciate the patience.
Quickly before I get into the 3 phases and positions I will say overall I was super impressed with the pace of practice. With about 2 and a half hours of on field work it was incredible how this program operates. It really is a fine tuned machine. There is not one single wasted minute or staff member on the field. MFMF has this operating absolutely flawlessly. Another thing I was giddy about was how hard the players were being coached by veteran staff members and the new members of the staff. They are not getting away with doing things wrong, especially on the defensive side of the ball. Coach Ash is on their ass and I can tell the expectations that the staff has for the program are just as high as outsiders perspective. I'll touch on this more later if anyone wants me to.
Offense:
Overall, offensively I would give a grade of a B/B+ from what I saw.
OL:
The strength of the unit is by far the OL. The first unit looked to be functioning very fluidly and on the same page. It's hard to gauge pass pro with the QB's being in red, but I thought they looked to protect very well. I saw a pretty clean pocket and didn't seem to be confused on the stunts that they were being attacked with. I'd venture to guess with a veteran group that being half way thru spring they've seen the stunts and blitzes a time or two. Before anyone freaks out and thinks that means the DL sucks, keep in mind that the 1's were going up against the 2's most of practice in the team competition. During RZ periods I thought the OL really wore down the defense up front. I thought they did well controlling the point of attack and gave our RB's a chance to be patient and wait for a gap to open up. I was curious to see how Will Black looked and I may have too high of expectations for him physically. I walked away thinking yep, he's still a freshman, just based on how he looked, but then looking at the roster I was shocked seeing that he was listed at 315. He honestly has an incredible frame. Just led me to be more impressed with how large of a human that Joe Alt is after seeing him up close. Overall, it's no surprise, I think we're going to be totally ok up front, especially with the schedule setting us up well the first few weeks.
RB:
The 3 backs I saw getting reps were Ayenus Williams, Nolan James, and Jonaz Walton. Hard to say there's a star among them with Williams being in a red jersey, but they were as a unit good not great. James lower half is incredible and he runs with very good patience and I liked how he ran on the GL. He gets his pad level low and sees a hole and bursts. Williams is still super overall consistent and looks physically better and better, hopefully he can just stay healthy. Walton had the best run of the day during RZ, bursting thru on the 1's for about 15-18 yard gain to the 1 yard line. However, they didn't even score after a penalty and two incomplete passes. Overall, I'll say that I need to just accept we will probably have a committee of 3 guys that will be looked at to fill this position, it's just a matter of who is it going to be? With a few guys missing spring and reps, you have to give the early edge to the guys practicing. I'm not in panic mode we are going to be ok at RB, we were obviously very spoiled the last 4-5 years from Kyren to J-Love/Price.
WR:
I'll be honest I didn't get a great look at this unit. I was taking advantage of my opportunity more to watch the defense and try to learn something for myself to use. What I did see was very consistent with what we've seen. Faison is very good and reliable and CJ has a great rapport with him. I also saw them looking to get Mylan Graham the ball and looked like he was comfortable in the offense. I didn't see him make an eye popping play, but he did bully the shit out of Christian Gray one time blocking in the run game. He also got chippy one time with Tae after a play towards the end of practice. The 1's seemed to be the same group advertised by the media. 2's IIRC ran either Burress (17) or Fitzgerald (11). Fitzgerald made the best catch of the day on the sideline on a go ball. I thought he looked physically acceptable for an incoming freshman. The slot in the 2's group was Frazier (4), who made a catch during the last team session and physically reminded me of how Avery Davis looked his Sr year. Again, not in panic mode, but I will say at best the group was average. However, we'll get to defense, but they are going against possibly a top 5 DB room in the entire country so it is easy to not look flashy.
TE:
Same as WR in regards to getting a good look at the position. Flanagan/Washington looked to be running with the 1's and Larsen with the 2's. Larsen made the best catch of the day for the group on corner route along the sideline. I really would've loved to see Premer with the group to see how he stacks up. I can see them being more involved, however, with the offense looking to do more in under center play action/boot concepts.
QB:
Good to know who our guy is going to be and what we can expect out of him. CJ is night and day in terms of confidence and on-field leadership. Knowing you're the guy has to alleviate his stress and allow him to play even more free. I'm not a QB guru so take it for whatever it's worth, but despite not being a giant physically, I've never seen a football spin the way it does when he throws it. He is probably the most naturally gifted thrower of the football I've ever seen in person. Everyone needs to do me a favor and say prayers every night thought to keep him healthy. Without shitting the bed one thing I will say is I will be very worried should he go down. Compared to last year, with Minchey, even if something happened to CJ I had confidence we had a very good option in Kenny to come in and we can still win games until he got healthy. Only one practice I know, and our defense is very good, especially going against the 1's, but neither backup looked phenomenal to me. Herbert will require a totally different gameplan. Not to scare anybody, but I got Andrew Hendrix vibes with him. He does run effectively, but throwing the ball was scary. Grubbs needs has work to do mechanically. Very long delivery and arm strength suspect. I do think the offense lends itself more to be the same with Grubbs in compared to Herbert. Should Herbert be in they will need to run the ball with QB more, which would fit his skill set. This early I'd give the edge to Herbert based on experience, but Grubbs could be in the lead to based on he his very obviously more of a threat throwing the ball.
Sorry again for the long message, I'll break defense and special teams/misc up into separate messages if you are bored with my word vomit.
