Howdy folks, really good day at TC today. guys really got after it in scrimmages. Cam Curl came off limping, don;t know the extent of his injury, He didn;t return. Forbes looked like he strained a hammy Stafford on sidelines, AJajackson in pads and worked with OL but still no contact. Havenstien only player not at practice. Prolly Vet day off.
Day started with stretching, then some fielding of kickoffs and punts. Several guys doing the fielding. Covey, Smith and Mumpfield looking the best. Players separated into position groups working on various aspects of their position.
WR's going out for short, then medium, then long passes from QB's. Bennett and Garapolo throwing some good deep passes, Nacua dropped his long one from JimmyG, Tutu just missed a deep one from Bennett. Gotta say here Bennett is throwing the ball well and looked pretty good running the 2nd offense. We noticed Xavier Smith not working with the WR's. WR pecking order, Adams, Nacua, Atwell, Whittington, Mumfield Covey then Mario Williams.
A drill I haven't seen before at TC: One on one O lineman vs a D lineman. they face each other hand in the dirt and coach blows whistle and D guys tries to get by O guy. They were getting after it. Ford is a handful. He got by everyone but Avila and Dotson. They had a crowd around them so I couldn't make out most of who was facing who, Humphries and Leviston held their own. The players watching sure thought it was fun.
Scrimmages starting, 1st team O Humphries LT, Avila LG, Shelton C, Dotson RG, McClendon RT. 1st team D, Verse, Fisk, Turner. Young,
Speights, Landman (Green dot) Witherspoon (yeah he was out there) Durant, DWilliams Lake, Kinchens. turner and Ford alternated. (they did a lot of alternating). 2nd teams did a lot of switching around, One noticeable thing was Justin Dedich was the C on the 2nd team almost exculcivly. Limmer played RG on 2nd team OL. Reeder wore green dot for 2nd team D.
They ran a lot of plays, pretty evenly between run and pass. Only a few deep passes, Bennett to Davis Allen was the best, A TD. Adams making it look easy,
Left 20 min early to beat traffic. Im impressed with how this team looks on both sides of the ball. The OL looks good, (even Shelton, though Ford ate him up several times). The D looks stronger up the middle, Speights and Landman are a big improvement over Reeder and Rozeboom. Ford, Turner and Tyler Davis will make us forget Bobby Brown III. Humphries and Quesenberry looked OK. OL will be fine.
Players that stood out: Stetson Bennett looks more in control and decisive. Throwing tight spirals and tight ropes. He's much improved from last year. Furguson looks good, could improve his blocking though. Davis Allen looked good. TE is going to be a plus this season. And then there are the RB's. We have a three headed monster for a RB room. Williams, Corum and Hunter were all outstanding today. Corum looks faster and made some great moves today. JimmyG does a good job running the O. He doesn;t have the touch Stafford has but he gets the ball out and makes completions.
On Defense Ford and Landman are big improvements. The secondary kept tight reigns on the WR's. No one got burned.
All I can think of for now, maybe add some later if something comes to mind. VRF and I will be back at TC tomorrow. I;m guessing it will be a much lighter day cause they went after it pretty hard today.
bubbaranfan