NDinL.A.
New member
- Messages
- 8,121
- Reaction score
- 1,734
Made it out to practice this morning. Sat with Mike Frank and Sean Mele, who had some great insights, and then Tim O'Malley and Anna Hickey (yes, THE Anna Hickey) from Scout sat next to me. Talked to Tim pretty much the last hour...great guy. Anna is very sweet, very down to earth.
No tackling, so really, it's hard to tell much about the defense, especially the d-linemen, when they can't hit. With so much going on in a practice, it's impossible to see everything, so I focused mostly on the QB's and the WR's, as well as the DB's. Here are some quick hitters:
* Smythe is WAAAYYYY bigger than he was last year. That dude is going to be a player for us someday, maybe sooner than I thought. The difference in size between he and Huermann is startling.
* I was at these practices last year, and Kelly was much more of an overseer of everything last year. Pretty quiet except for one time when he blew up at Onwualu. It was surprising, actually. Not this year though. He is much more hands-on, much more salty, much more old-school BK. Not purple-face BK, but definitely loud enough to get his point across. Much-needed IMO...the team was passive last year and needed more of this type of BK.
* BVG - Three words: HO.LY.SHIT. I love this dude. First of all, he is LOUD in practice. You hear this a lot in live scrimmaging: "Do your job!!!" "Don't look at the Quarterback!!!" He is loud and obviously in charge.
At his break-out session last night, I am told that BVG answered a question about finding leaders by basically saying, "We are raising a nation of pussies." The crowd loved it/him. Also said that the Auburn situation was so toxic, it was unfixable. Guys simply didn't want to play football anymore. He quickly knew it wasn't going to work.
I actually stood right by him before practice bc Mele played for him and he stopped to say hello when he saw him; the 'stache is thinned out, but the feathered hair is spectacular.
* Golson is throwing BB's all over the field. Holy cow that kid is slinging it! He has more command of the offense now too; he called some audibles, one of them in particular worked really well for a nice gain to Justin Brent. And he can still run. A play broke down once, and he scrambled, waited for a receiver to break open, and then took off. He got one on one with Schmidt and it was over lol.
* Zaire - there is absolutely no way Golson isn't the starting QB in September. However, Zaire looks much improved. He made some great throws that he didn't make last August. I was really impressed. He had a bullet throw to Procise up the seam that was impressive. Still inconsistent though (he had a bad slip for a sack and followed that up with a fumble off the zone-read); he threw a few in the dirt during shell drills mixed with his nice throws. Still, he has great feet and a lively arm...I'm excited for him.
* I said this last year and when he didn't play well, people killed me. But I'll say it again: Amir Carlisle can be a difference-maker for us. There is no doubt in my mind. He has a burst and an ability to get into 5th gear faster than almost anyone on the team. And he has great hands as well. His problem last year was confidence after the Purdue game. But he had some great plays in one-on-ones today...nobody could check him. Unfortunately, at the end of practice, during 11 on 11, he sat the entire time, as did Procise (only saw him once). Walk-on Eric Lee (I think) got a ton of reps during that time. It was weird. On the downside, he got chewed out by 3 different coaches today for mistakes he made. But if they don't get on you when you mess up, you're not important enough to them IMO.
* Speaking of Procise, he also looked good. Big, fast, strong, and his hands are much improved. He and Amir are going to be weapons in the slot.
* Rudolph is huge!!! Might be too huge actually, as I hope he can still be athletic at that size. He did blanket Amir on one play in 7 on 7, which was encouraging to see. But he also got beat on a few plays as well. We'll see...but he certainly looks the part of MLB.
* Jaylon Smith is soooooooooooo good. I miss him already lol. He's lining up all over the field, blitzing, covering RB's and TE's and generally being a menace. On two plays in the same series, he completely blanketed Torean Folston on a wheel route, and then blanketed Ben Koyack up the seams. Incredible. There's nobody like him.
* Koyack is going to ball out this year. I said that after spring last year too lol, but he did do really well the 2nd half of the year. The talent is there, and he'll be the man this year.
* Chris Brown looked fantastic the first hour of practice. He burned Russell on a fly route, and then burned him again on a GREAT fake fly/button hook. And Russell was blanketing guys all day (I was skeptical, but I'm a believer after today and after Cooks gushed about him last night - Russell could be a 2nd rounder after THIS year), so to beat him twice like he did was quite a feat. He was making catches all over the field. Nobody is more excited to have Golson back than Chris Brown lol.
* Robinson had his normal incredible catch on a bomb. I wish he were faster, and he has to beat press coverage better, but he's going to help us this year, as long as we throw him the friggin' ball when he's one on one with no safety help up top (how we didn't lob it to him more last year is beyond me).
* I know this is all rosy so far, but Fuller looked really good as well. Kid can fly and has great hands. It's crazy how our 2nd team group will be Fuller, Robinson, and Procise/Amir.
* Hounshell got a lot of time and made 2 nice run-stuffs that I saw. But again, no hitting so the jury is still out. Trumbetti also had 2 great plays against the zone-read, forcing the QB to scramble and get out of the play. Also got chewed out nasty by Elston for running the wrong play.
* The defense is learning mode right now. BVG was not happy. Lots of missed assignments and players not in the right places. There was a lot of correcting and teaching (and yelling). On the positive side, they brought a lot of blitzes, and several of them worked at the end of practice. Golson would have got crushed by Jaylon on one of them. HH was not happy with McGlinchy on that one.
*Luke had an up and down day, but he can play. Last year at this time we saw everyone but Russell get burned all day long (BJax included), but Luke was making plays. Clearly the starter until Riggs comes. Had a beautiful break-up of a slant against Brent, who incidentally also had an up and down day but came alive in 11 on 11.
* Ishaq has some REALLY thick legs and looks the part of a complete d-lineman. Had a great volleyball spike break up of a screen play to Folston.
* It was funny, I looked at Jarron Jones one play and he was huffing and puffing (not a good sign, I was thinking); the very next play he stuffed the run beautifully. He has way better body language this year than last year, and is playing harder. He obviously knows that now is his time.
* Grace - I don't see how he plays this year. He is still limping really badly. Reminds me of when I saw Spond last summer with his cane. You knew he was done. Not saying Grace is done, but I don't see how he comes back healthy enough to play at a high level until 2015.
* Max Huermann looks much improved. He was making plays today, whereas last year he did nothing when I watched 3 practices. But he is still too small to play tight end at a high level in the opinion of everyone I talked to. Poor guy just hasn't been able to bulk up, especially in the lower body. But I like what i saw out of him.
* Greg Bryant and Folston - wow. These guys are more athletic than any pair we've had in a lonnnnnnng time. Bryant looked fantastic. Folston is still Folston. Together, if they can stay healthy, we're going to surprise some people. Of course, this was against air basically, but they still showed burst, speed, jukes and vision that are going to be special IMO.
Bottom line, the offense is way ahead of the defense, which is to be expected. I remember after walking out of practice last August, I was worried about the year (Rees, Tuitt being overweight and looking disinterested, Folston was hurt, team seemed less interested than in the past, etc), but today was much better. The one thing that really concerns me is the d-line quality and quality of depth, but when you can't tackle, it's impossible to tell, so I'm not worried about it. Day, Ishaq and Jones all had their moments, which is encouraging.
Off to take the wife to lunch. Sorry about the typos, I'll edit later. And if I can remember anything else I'll post it later as well...
No tackling, so really, it's hard to tell much about the defense, especially the d-linemen, when they can't hit. With so much going on in a practice, it's impossible to see everything, so I focused mostly on the QB's and the WR's, as well as the DB's. Here are some quick hitters:
* Smythe is WAAAYYYY bigger than he was last year. That dude is going to be a player for us someday, maybe sooner than I thought. The difference in size between he and Huermann is startling.
* I was at these practices last year, and Kelly was much more of an overseer of everything last year. Pretty quiet except for one time when he blew up at Onwualu. It was surprising, actually. Not this year though. He is much more hands-on, much more salty, much more old-school BK. Not purple-face BK, but definitely loud enough to get his point across. Much-needed IMO...the team was passive last year and needed more of this type of BK.
* BVG - Three words: HO.LY.SHIT. I love this dude. First of all, he is LOUD in practice. You hear this a lot in live scrimmaging: "Do your job!!!" "Don't look at the Quarterback!!!" He is loud and obviously in charge.
At his break-out session last night, I am told that BVG answered a question about finding leaders by basically saying, "We are raising a nation of pussies." The crowd loved it/him. Also said that the Auburn situation was so toxic, it was unfixable. Guys simply didn't want to play football anymore. He quickly knew it wasn't going to work.
I actually stood right by him before practice bc Mele played for him and he stopped to say hello when he saw him; the 'stache is thinned out, but the feathered hair is spectacular.
* Golson is throwing BB's all over the field. Holy cow that kid is slinging it! He has more command of the offense now too; he called some audibles, one of them in particular worked really well for a nice gain to Justin Brent. And he can still run. A play broke down once, and he scrambled, waited for a receiver to break open, and then took off. He got one on one with Schmidt and it was over lol.
* Zaire - there is absolutely no way Golson isn't the starting QB in September. However, Zaire looks much improved. He made some great throws that he didn't make last August. I was really impressed. He had a bullet throw to Procise up the seam that was impressive. Still inconsistent though (he had a bad slip for a sack and followed that up with a fumble off the zone-read); he threw a few in the dirt during shell drills mixed with his nice throws. Still, he has great feet and a lively arm...I'm excited for him.
* I said this last year and when he didn't play well, people killed me. But I'll say it again: Amir Carlisle can be a difference-maker for us. There is no doubt in my mind. He has a burst and an ability to get into 5th gear faster than almost anyone on the team. And he has great hands as well. His problem last year was confidence after the Purdue game. But he had some great plays in one-on-ones today...nobody could check him. Unfortunately, at the end of practice, during 11 on 11, he sat the entire time, as did Procise (only saw him once). Walk-on Eric Lee (I think) got a ton of reps during that time. It was weird. On the downside, he got chewed out by 3 different coaches today for mistakes he made. But if they don't get on you when you mess up, you're not important enough to them IMO.
* Speaking of Procise, he also looked good. Big, fast, strong, and his hands are much improved. He and Amir are going to be weapons in the slot.
* Rudolph is huge!!! Might be too huge actually, as I hope he can still be athletic at that size. He did blanket Amir on one play in 7 on 7, which was encouraging to see. But he also got beat on a few plays as well. We'll see...but he certainly looks the part of MLB.
* Jaylon Smith is soooooooooooo good. I miss him already lol. He's lining up all over the field, blitzing, covering RB's and TE's and generally being a menace. On two plays in the same series, he completely blanketed Torean Folston on a wheel route, and then blanketed Ben Koyack up the seams. Incredible. There's nobody like him.
* Koyack is going to ball out this year. I said that after spring last year too lol, but he did do really well the 2nd half of the year. The talent is there, and he'll be the man this year.
* Chris Brown looked fantastic the first hour of practice. He burned Russell on a fly route, and then burned him again on a GREAT fake fly/button hook. And Russell was blanketing guys all day (I was skeptical, but I'm a believer after today and after Cooks gushed about him last night - Russell could be a 2nd rounder after THIS year), so to beat him twice like he did was quite a feat. He was making catches all over the field. Nobody is more excited to have Golson back than Chris Brown lol.
* Robinson had his normal incredible catch on a bomb. I wish he were faster, and he has to beat press coverage better, but he's going to help us this year, as long as we throw him the friggin' ball when he's one on one with no safety help up top (how we didn't lob it to him more last year is beyond me).
* I know this is all rosy so far, but Fuller looked really good as well. Kid can fly and has great hands. It's crazy how our 2nd team group will be Fuller, Robinson, and Procise/Amir.
* Hounshell got a lot of time and made 2 nice run-stuffs that I saw. But again, no hitting so the jury is still out. Trumbetti also had 2 great plays against the zone-read, forcing the QB to scramble and get out of the play. Also got chewed out nasty by Elston for running the wrong play.
* The defense is learning mode right now. BVG was not happy. Lots of missed assignments and players not in the right places. There was a lot of correcting and teaching (and yelling). On the positive side, they brought a lot of blitzes, and several of them worked at the end of practice. Golson would have got crushed by Jaylon on one of them. HH was not happy with McGlinchy on that one.
*Luke had an up and down day, but he can play. Last year at this time we saw everyone but Russell get burned all day long (BJax included), but Luke was making plays. Clearly the starter until Riggs comes. Had a beautiful break-up of a slant against Brent, who incidentally also had an up and down day but came alive in 11 on 11.
* Ishaq has some REALLY thick legs and looks the part of a complete d-lineman. Had a great volleyball spike break up of a screen play to Folston.
* It was funny, I looked at Jarron Jones one play and he was huffing and puffing (not a good sign, I was thinking); the very next play he stuffed the run beautifully. He has way better body language this year than last year, and is playing harder. He obviously knows that now is his time.
* Grace - I don't see how he plays this year. He is still limping really badly. Reminds me of when I saw Spond last summer with his cane. You knew he was done. Not saying Grace is done, but I don't see how he comes back healthy enough to play at a high level until 2015.
* Max Huermann looks much improved. He was making plays today, whereas last year he did nothing when I watched 3 practices. But he is still too small to play tight end at a high level in the opinion of everyone I talked to. Poor guy just hasn't been able to bulk up, especially in the lower body. But I like what i saw out of him.
* Greg Bryant and Folston - wow. These guys are more athletic than any pair we've had in a lonnnnnnng time. Bryant looked fantastic. Folston is still Folston. Together, if they can stay healthy, we're going to surprise some people. Of course, this was against air basically, but they still showed burst, speed, jukes and vision that are going to be special IMO.
Bottom line, the offense is way ahead of the defense, which is to be expected. I remember after walking out of practice last August, I was worried about the year (Rees, Tuitt being overweight and looking disinterested, Folston was hurt, team seemed less interested than in the past, etc), but today was much better. The one thing that really concerns me is the d-line quality and quality of depth, but when you can't tackle, it's impossible to tell, so I'm not worried about it. Day, Ishaq and Jones all had their moments, which is encouraging.
Off to take the wife to lunch. Sorry about the typos, I'll edit later. And if I can remember anything else I'll post it later as well...
