A few early notes:
Robertson and Byrd were running together, about 1/2 speed, but they had good movement forwards and backwards- Byrd was “Favoring” his injured knee a lot more noticeably than Robertson for whatever that is worth. they did a few jumps and looked solid on their feet, both should be fine for the Fall I hope. One thing is for sure- being injured has NOT hurt Travian’s physique!! I don’t want to go all Tommy Bowden on ya’ll and talk about how “good he looked in uniform”, but that boy is RIPPED! You could just see muscles popping out everywhere through an undershirt and baggy practice yellow jersey. WOW
Paulk looked real solid on his feet, doing most the movement drills with the LBs… Obviously he doesn’t participate in the 11 on 11 stuff though
Alshon was there tonight, and was “noticeable” immediately though they seem to be giving new guys like Scruggs and DL more reps right now…
Hillary was at practice, participating… Just as though “NOTHING” had happened… wink I was kind of surprised as last I heard he was still suspended…
There was some kicking going on with wooten and Lanning doing most the Fg kicking. Wooten showed a strong (if not terribly accurate) leg…. couldn’t tell much, but I will be shocked if Lanning is not still our FG kicker this year…
They did some early passing drills and there were a few note worthy plays:
Saunders caught a DEEP route, burned a defender and took it to the house very early- showed he has more speed than you’d expect from a man that size. He got some howls from team mates on that one- there was a lot of energy in this practice, guys congratulating each other a lot- hoots of approval for big plays… saw the coaches doing the same thing, A LOT. must have been pleased with some of the players…
Scruggs was AGAIN, ALL OVER THE FIELD tonight. catching balls as he slid to the ground, reaching behind him, catching passes on well run routes full in stride- he is a player folks. He WILL challenge for a starting spot soon, mark it down. He was our go to guy again tonight for more than one QB.
Lecorn had some good plays early- he looks to be 100% again.
Jarvis Giles continued his brilliant first practice performance with another great night tonight. I can recall multiple long runs and a few really nice catches! One in the early drills was a swing route where he out ran the entire team up the side line and as he ran past us in the crowd he said something like “Outta HERE” as he streaked by us…
“Scrimmage”:
Garcia had a tough night tonight overall IMO (I saw 3 picks, but his hand was hit on one and it looked like possibly a bad route by the WR on another- AND he was throwing more deep balls than anybody early on), and Connor Shaw started slow. Clifford looked pretty decent on some throws, but it is clear they are giving more work to Shaw, Gilmore and Garcia at QB when it matters. I mentioned before Hillary was AT practice and participated, but I did not see him throw a SINGLE pass that would not have been an INT in a real game. Every pass he threw was just off target or behind the receiver on a crossing route… BAD BAD DAY. He would have made more ground in the QB competition if he had stayed suspended!!
Pat Dimarco caught a pretty good pass late in the 7 on 7 portion and looked decent at TE, though he did have a false start on one play…
In the 11 on 11, now I don’t do “play by play” usually, but I want to give a list of some of the plays we got to see because this was when stuff got really good!
I said before Giles had another good day, and this was when he earned his money!! We ran a lot of 2 back sets, normally with #3 and #31 at RB, #10 subbed for Giles from time to time…
Giles had an early really nice burst off the RT, would have been a good gainer. he was really talking trash after it I think.. then came back on the next play and made a great catch on a ball thrown kind of high that he had to catch with just his hands and it was a bullet from a short distance from Garcia, but he snatched it like his name was Alshon…. Those two plays showed they are trying to give him the ball and he was doing all this while Kenny (who had a kind of quiet night) was in there…
Garcia hit a GREAT post route to Demmario Bennet and you could hear Garcia SCREAM afterward… He did a Rick Flair “WOOOO”!! Good looking play…
OL: 1st string looked like (From LT- RT) Jarriel King, Garret Chisolm, TJ, Rock Watkins, Hutch Eckerson
2nd string: Nunn, Allison, Broadhead, Campbell, Singleton
Hard to tell much about their performance tonight as we are still not in pads, but Elliott puts on some lively drills, and they are dramatically different from some stuff we’ve done in the past. He seems to focus more on driving FORWARD off the ball instead of good footwork coming back or lining up with wider splits… He had them working on arm strength for pass blocking and timing when getting off the snap. One guy that really stood out in drills to me was Rock- that boy can MOVE for a 320 Beast!! He was much faster and more athletic than I expected or remembered from last year…
We could have a much improved line potentially, we really do have some new faces making an impact. Chisolm played a little last year, but he seems to have jumped firmly into the lead for a guard spot and add Watkins on the other side with TJ in the middle and we have a completely new look on the inside. Eckerson and King are just two of our best and were last year too. King showed a lot of leadership out there tonight, congratulating Conner Shaw after some big plays, which brings me to the BEST PART!!!
Connor Shaw came to play once we got to the “Game simulation” tonight. We ran some first team and Garcia had the long pass I mentioned, and later his arm was hit as he threw it and Shaq picked him off, but in between the Garcia shows, we got a glimpse of why everybody loved Conner so much in HS! He was forced out of the pocket on one of his first plays and had to run to avoid the D. He rolled left, and found Lecorn streaking down the sideline, well covered, but a step behind his man. Without even stopping to plan, Connor lofted a 30 yard STRIKE to Dion who snatched it out the air as it fell right in front of him and he ran out of bounds with it! BEAUTIFUL PLAY!! the VERY NEXT PLAY was a LONG (longer than the previous) bomb down the right side, this time I think it was Gurley or Moore who got it, but he again, found a guy who was about “Even” with his DB, and as my Buddy reminded me out there, when it comes to a WR vs a DB: “If he’s even he’s LEAVIN”!! Connor dropped another BEAUTIFUL pass into a Wr’s hands in the perfect spot where only he could get it. Connor was 100% better than in his first practice. Still showed great athleticism when he had to, ran a lot of option early on the far side of the field… but they let him throw the damn ball tonight and he looked real good on some deep routes. He still misses some passes he shouldn’t, still gets maybe a bit “jumpy” and checks down when he should not have given up on a play… but he is way better than any other option I have seen after Garcia. If he keeps playing this well, I don’t see how we could RS him honestly. I have changed my tune on him for real- this boy is a player.
Gilmroe got a lot more work at QB than I recall him getting most of last year. He did not throw a pass that I saw, but had one really pretty shake and bake to an end around that would have picked up some yards against anybody… He also fumbled a snap though…
Other than That, B-madd got a lot fo work early on when it was hard to see while the O was practicing on the far side of the field… He got a few nice runs in the “scrimmage” part of the practice, but like I keep saying, GILES was our “star” at Rb tonight. It was like they didn’t even want to give Kenny the ball- reminded me of how they were playing Alshon so sparingly. I think they KNOW what Kenny Miles and Alshon Jeffrey (our two leaders from last year at their positions) can do and so they just want to work the other guys more… It COULD mean more than that at RB I suppose, but until I see Kenny with a reduced load more than one practice, and quote from a coach saying Giles has passed him, I will assume they are just giving Giles the lions share of the touches because he needs the most work.
Umm… Gurley did have a few nice catches, one good one from Garcia on a crossing route late in the 11 on 11…
Can’t tell much about DL and LBs without pads on, but one thing stands out: our secondary is GOOD. and they seem to have figured out how to CATCH the ball. I never saw so many INTs off of tipped passes. Happened to Garcia once or twice and Clifford a few times also…
That is about all I have for you tonight. I will post some more if I remember more..
]]>In the spirit of March Madness, the men’s magazine Esquire is doing an NCAA basketball-style bracket to determine the Sexiest Woman Alive.
For reasons unbeknownst to me, Southern Cal head coach Lane Kiffin is included in the pool of 64. Not his drop-dead-gorgeous wife Layla; the head coach himself is the only male in the field.
here’s the story:
http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2010/03/15/kiffin-is-sexy-for-a-chick/
here’s the link to vote
http://www.esquire.com/women/the-sexiest-woman-alive/bracket-tournament/natalie-gulbis-vs-lane-kiffin
With the hiring of Dawn Staley, I am once again very interested in USC women’s basketball. Of the school’s big 3 sports programs, I have more confidence in Staley building us into a national powerhouse than any other coach on campus. She had a top notch recruiting class last year headed by Kelcy Bone who has already shown how good she is and she has already landed very good players for next season’s class including another Top 10 player.
Most people probably have never heard the name Marah Strickland before. If not, I am sure you will quickly learn that name if you follow Staley’s program. She is a transfer from Maryland, having played two years there and did very well. Maryland has had very good basketball teams in recent years. This lady was a high school Parade and McDonald’s All American and started in 59 of 70 games for Maryland in her 2 years there. She will be a 4th year jr. for USC. She is a very good 3 point shooter and will make a quick splash on USC’s program. She along with the other top notch players Staley has broungt in and is bringing in is going to make us a national power in women’s basketball.
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Sums it up fairly well.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/cover/featured/8210/index.htm
]]>This is the official “Who’s Hot…Who’s Not” thread. Just pick a person and let the next person(s) respond with “Hot” or “Not”. We can pick on the subject until it gets old, including offering more than a one word response. Preferably, I would like to see some reason offered behind the observations.
Just one thing: please omit politicians from this thread. As far as I am concerned, they all have warts and are ugly as sin. However, politically active actors and celebs are fair game.
Here goes:
Sarah Jessica Parker - Hot or Not?
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