Was able to go to practice yesterday afternoon. When I get to my actual computer I'll give an amateur summary of my thoughts.
Sorry for the delay. I left my laptop at school.
Offense:
Overall, some of the other pay sites pretty much hit the nail on the head in regards to the offense. To say that the offense had a bad day is an understatement. It was VERY apparent that this staff is still trying to learn how to operate with each other. I thought they looked very confused at times and unorganized, especially when they were going live. What worries me the most in this is that the frustration of the coaches was very visible. I get it, a new system per say will take time to implement, but to see so much confusion, especially from the main guy in charge, really was disheartening to me. Not that my opinion matters, but I went into it skeptical about the OC hire and I left convinced my skepticism was spot on unfortunately. I'll get into that a bit more later, but I'd rather dig into the position group breakdowns.
QB's:
On air Hartman is outstanding. The ball explodes out of his hand and is quite confident with his delivery. He did look very shaky undercenter, which will definitely be something to keep an eye on. Buchner looked much more comfortable than the spring before, there's no denying that. With that said he was still a bit shaky throwing the ball intermediate and downfield. Angeli had some nice zip on his ball as well and you can tell he's a year older physically and just confidence wise when he's running the offense. I will say, I'm not upset with them as a unit. They had a bad day, but I think a lot was due to the success the defense was having.
RB's:
Estime is as advertised. One of the few guys I think that looking at him he can play for anybody in the country. He seems to be trying to take on more of a leadership role, which was good to see. He tried to bring some energy throughout practice despite the struggles that the offense was having overall. Gi'bran Payne was a nice change of pace for the offense during practice. He had a pretty solid Inside Run session. He ran the ball quite well out of the Pistol formation and had the only legit explosive play during the whole practice for the offense, busting a long run in the team session. I'm not sure where they can get him touches with the depth we have at RB, but it'll be alright with me if he has to go in to spell or even throw to out of the backfield. Those were the only two scholarship RB's dressed for practice.
WR's:
No other way to put it except this group had a pretty bad day overall. From not getting lined up, to ball security, and the many drops it was just rough overall. I wish I was lying, but I don't have enough fingers to count the number of drops the unit had in drills to 7on and team. I'll admit I came into practice expecting to be happy with this group. However, you can see the group as a whole is still young and inexperienced. Jayden Thomas got tangled up during 7 on and was looked at by the trainer and never really participated after that. Colzie and Merriweather were pretty invisible the whole practice and Tyree is still legit very much in football 101 mode with the position switch. The freshman all showed flashes of brilliance from time to time. I really like Rico Flores. If you asked, which freshman will see the field this year, I'd put my money on him, which I didn't expect going in. He looks to be the most confident pre and post snap. Greathouse physically looks as developed and maybe more than some of the receivers currently in their 2nd/3rd year. However, he got his ass chewed a few times for ball security and even got it punched out after a catch in 7 on. Coach Stuckey was very frustrated most of the practice. I did enjoy some of the drills he had for the unit. I'm hoping I can chalk this up as a bad day, but this group definitely left a lot to be desired, especially considering the lack of production in recent seasons.
TE:
Average at best day, but to be fair there's going to be a drop off there's no doubt about that. Evans is very solid in the run game and they have him as the #1. To be expecting much out of him vertically in the pass game would be setting up for disappointment. Hayden Staes was one player I was impressed with offensively. Physically he's a DUDE. I thought he was quite impressive in vertically stressing the defense as well. He did not get many opportunities Saturday, but IMO if the TE is going to be a threat we need him to win the job and be on the field the most.
OL:
Both tackles are fine. I don't need to go into too much there. I was a little concerned about the middle. Run game wise when blocking duo and gap, they seemed fine. They really struggled on perimeter blocking and pass protection. Defense was blitzing and wreaking havoc, which didn't help, but the QB was under pressure the entire practice. Red jerseys were definitely needed because, they did not have much time throughout. Inside run was relatively even on both sides, which again, could be a precursor to seeing an offense plan similar to last year's. On a side note if there is a thinner offensive linemen in the country than Aamir Wagner, I have never seen him. If he's 280 pounds he holds it phenomenally well. He can't have a body fat % greater than 8. He moves well on the perimeter, but man does he get bullied when he is fit.
Defense:
As worried as I left in regards to the offense Saturday, the defense has much less concerns. You can really see the confidence the unit has overall. Pre and post snap communication and movement was awesome all day. They constantly were in the backfield and left very few holes in the secondary. I imagine this has a lot to do with the continuity of the unit with Golden and the simplicity of when you're blitzing it's pretty much man coverage so no need to be too confused. All 3 levels looked quite solid. The one concern I would leave with is that when there was a bust, like last year, it resulted in an explosive.
DE/Vyper:
We are in a very good spot in this position group. I did not see much if any of a dropoff between the ones and twos. Baptiste is a STUD. I was quite impressed by him in the run game especially. He has a burst off the ball and is not afraid to play in the box at all. He looked great coming around on twist stunts. Botello continues to improve. He holds the edge strong and looks the most confident I've seen him since he's arrived. JT.....great position switch. I thought he already looked comfortable and definitely isn't a concern at all physically. DE showed consistency as well. I'm pretty sure I saw Ford play a bit there and didn't recognize him at first due to the fact he's so much bigger physically. Mills looks the part still and I'm hoping he'll be a breakout at the position.
DT:
Thought the whole group got off the ball pretty well all day. Obviously, the position in general doesn't get much clout and if they're doing their jobs I guess that's how it should be. Onye is exactly what everyone is saying. He is huge. He looks bigger than 6'4" on the field to me honestly. Overall, not much to say here.
LB's:
We lack size at this spot that is very obvious. The experience can be seen with Kiser and Bertrand. Great communicators and for the most part seem to be a step ahead of the offense post snap. I'm not certain if it was Kiser's fault or not, but there was a bad bust during an inside run that resulted in a huge play. Kollie looks more thick in the upper body and when he is demonstrative with his decisions he explodes through the hole when he's filling. Idk how he's not on the field often this year. His speed alone makes him a problem, especially when stunting. I would be interested to see how this group looks on a day where there is less blitzing and stunts. I think that helped slow down the OL climbing to the second level and kept the backers free most of the day.
CB's:
Finally some depth here. We had 4 CB's on the field at one point during team, in 3rd and long, without Cam Hart even on the field. Morrison was invisible most of the day. That's a good thing. Lewis was lining up at nickel again and was outstanding. I know there were talks of him moving to safety, but I think Nickel in today's game is just as important and I have no issue keeping experience at that spot. I was actually impressed with Barnes (#15). I think he was targeted often, but seemed to always be around the ball and made some pretty solid plays throughout the day, even a forced fumble and recovery. I hope I'm not the kiss of death, but I was quite happy with where we are with this unit.
Safeties:
There's no super star in this group, I'll be honest, but I was not disappointed with the group at all. One thing of note is that they actually had Brown playing in the box LB in their dime package, which I thought was a good use of his size and skill set. Watts looks great on the field and I would say physically the best looking safety on the roster currently. Another thing of note is the move of Tucker to the safety position. He's listed a hair under 6', but I didn't think he was even that tall. However, you talk about a heat seeking missile in the run game. He looks great closing alleys and tackling in the open field. He had the best hit of the day torpedo tackling a RB in space saving a TD. Depth alone will force him to see the field imo, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him get a lot of snaps in week 1 since we're seeing the triple option.
ST:
Was surprised to see that there wasn't really much work on the Punt and PR units. Field goal kickers saw #32 Salerno and #92 Yoakam (both walk-ons) split reps evenly. Of the two, Yoakam was much better and I don't believe missed a single kick out of approximately 10, all be it most were 40 yards or closer.
Sorry for the long spleel again guys. I had fun being there and was treated first class as always. I saw a handful of recruits and could share a few things, but I've talked plenty already.
