I know I'm quite late and obviously not trying to out do the EO news, but I mentioned over the weekend that I was able to watch Saturday's practice among other activities that the football staff was kind enough to let coaches participate in this past weekend. Here are a few tidbits off the top of my head. I'll try to be brief.
Offensively:
RB's - quite impressed with the group physically. Estime might have been the most physically impressive player I saw on the whole roster. His arms are literally the size of my quads and I'm not exagerating. I was really happy with how he hit the hole downhill. The other two young backs Diggs and Price are still looking indecisive at times, but showed flashes. I forgot for a second that Price was Flemister with the #20. One thing that is going to be very interesting is pass protection from this position. We were super spoiled with KW and there were times Saturday where that was exposed.
WR's - I mean......it is what it is. I'm not going to continue to bash the position as the guys there are working their tails off, but it is obvious that we're very limited and practice Saturday was no exception. Styles is electric in space, Lenzy is a veteran, but still not go to. Both Thomas and Colzie are going to need to develop faster as well. I came in worried and still am, sorry. I will say I really like Stuckey and think he relates well to the guys.
TE's - Mayer is Mayer and we have him for one more year, so I'll enjoy it. Bauman actually had a few decent plays in the passing game. Gotta feeling we'll see at least two of these guys on the field a lot this year.
QB's - Not good, but not terrible. They all look very small surrounded by the OL, which wasn't shocking. They all looked late in their anticipation, which could be to the inexperience at receiver too. Angeli struggled quite a bit, which he's young. Pyne ran the show the best IMO, but Buchner is the guy based on athletic ability alone to extend plays that Pyne doesn't have.
OL - Love our first five that we're putting out there without Patterson even playing. Alt is a monster. Looks 15 years old in the face, but the only other person I remember seeing in person that was as impressive as him from an OL perspective was JB Shugarts from Ohio St roughly 12 years ago. Our depth, however, at this time scares me. There was a significant drop from the 1's to 2's. Hopefully, HH in the room will help bridge that gap soon.
Defense:
Secondary - Really liked our safety play. I thought DJ Brown looked impressive and you can tell he has some experience, which we'll need. Joseph made a few nice plays as well and is going to be a huge asset. Houston didn't play much if at all in the scrimmage. The young corners got some swag to them, which I like, but physically need some time. Tucker was thrown at quite a bit was up to the challenge most of the time, despite being flagged a few times for some iffy PI's. Barnes actually looks like a WR in terms of length and body type. I was actually happy overall with what I saw from this group. May just take some getting used to not seeing #14 back there.
LB's - Bauer is a general and you can tell he's played a lot of football. Always in the right spot in the passing game and just can tell is a film junkie. Botelho is possibly the most explosive threat we have off the edge and I know he's playing a bunch in space, but looked to be much more comfortable blitzing or rushing the passer. Kollie is so frickin fast. I just don't see how they'll keep him off the field. He made a great play closing on a screen that reminded my of how Devin White was playing in the Super Bowl a few years ago. Was really excited to see Liufau back out there too. I forgot how great he is in the middle and the number change threw me off a second.
DL - A lot of depth there per usual. Inside was what impressed me the most, however, they wore down as the scrimmage went on. Rubio had a pretty good day picking on a walk on Center. Otherwise they were pretty quiet. Ford went down with an injury, which is well known now. He did look very small compared to the rest of the unit. Was good to get him in as an EE.
Specialist - rough day. a lot of missed kicks in FG and EP attempts. I hate kickers and will most likely continue to do so.
Extras:
A few recruits walked past, like you'd expect, but without dragging on too much I'll say the funniest thing was walking past Charles Jagusah and thinking how this kid absolutely dwarfs me....Then Joe Alt walking past Jagusah and absolutely dwarfing him....there's always a bigger fish.
Sorry about the long spiel, if anyone is interested I got a few more stories, nothing too exciting, but I've already dragged this on too much.
Great experience though. Was a blast.
Go Irish!
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