stinger78
Jacket by the grace of God.
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2008
- Messages
- 12,542
Great day for football today, and the team was ready to hit. Here's what I noticed, FWIW:
First team D is very fast and quick to the ball. I personally think we 're going to be pleasantly surprised by this group. These guys know our offense, and they make it tough on them, especially up the middle (which is good, no?). Still, after a somewhat slow start, the first team O began to move the ball. By the end, they were moving it well. 2nd and 3rd team O's moved well most of the day. Passing is much more diverse this fall. You can tell they're working a good bit of the R&S. There were several fumbles and bad pitches as the morning wore on, but overall, the O looked good.
Here are some particulars I noted:
QB:
Nesbitt is still clearly the best. He is fast and quick and generally makes good decisions. Seems to me he is operating a bit faster this year. Overthrew some passses, but hit some others. Overall, looked good. He's the man. JS moved the team most of his series, but he just still totes the ball way too much. He's going to get hurt. His helmet must have popped off at least 5 times today after getting hit. Several times, the dive man (who didn't get the ball) went 5 yards before getting hit, while JS kept and got minus yards or a big hit on a 2 yard gain. But he does move the team fairly well when he's in there. He tossd a nice middle screen to Lyons for a TD early in the scrimmage. TW is very athletic, and makes some big plays, but still is thinking his way through. But then, he also is playing with some younger guys who don't know the system as well either. Made some good throws, and some not so good. He made some very nice runs, He may well end up the #2 QB. I hope it's not due to JS being banged up. The rest all had their issues, but we've got some good depth at the position. We have 3 servicable QB's this year.
B-back:
Man, we are loaded at RB! I've never seen a team with this much talent at the position. Dwyer, of course is the man. Cox, Watson, Lyons and Drummond (and not necessarily in order) are all able to tote the rock. Honestly... Drummond looked the best to me. Dude runs HARD. Son, the boy is a load! He's not going to drop one 80 yards like JD can at any time, but I don't know if I saw him stopped for less than 4 yards all day, several times with guys draped all over him. Lyons also looked good. I don't know how we can keep these two guys off the field this year. I was fantasizing about Dwyer and Allen at A-back and Cox, Drummond or Lyons at B.
A-back:
Allen and Wright looked very good - some good runs, and Wright some nice blocks. Peeples made some good runs. Cox made a good run or two. The new guy to watch is Orwin Smith, who made several very nice runs. With Roddy back, we'll probably RS Orwin, but he's going to be a good back in a year or two.
OL:
Lots of shuffling, but the 1st team group looked to be Sellers/Claytor, Gilbert, Voss, Howard and Barrick. Barrick and Claytor both suffered what looked to be minor dings. Overall, much improvement with this group.
WR:
Obviously we have Bebe and Melton starting, but the surprise of the practice (other than maybe Drummond) were the two backups - Quentin Sims and Stephen Hill. Both made several NICE plays. We're suddenly deeper at WR than I've seen us in several years, too (and that's not even mentioning Cone and Moore who both got alot of plays in). Sims is just a player. I saw him make some nice catches last fall, but he's developed into quite the WR. I can see now why they moved Earls to D. The future playmaker, though, is Hill. Wow! What a talent. A couple of times he took a reverse toss and just flat outran everyone to the corner. Speed. He also made a nice catch on an out of bounds ball toward the end. This guy may not can be redshirted this year - he's that good.
DL:
Honestly, I think we'll be fine here. Anderson, Peters, Walls and TJ Barnes are all big, stout guys who can play. They may not be the 3 amigos of the last couple of years, but they can be good. Morgan is Morgan: All ACC in the making.
LB:
This is a very fast, mobile group - especially with Taylor and AT Barnes in there. Jefferson made some big hits today, as did Sed. Those two are good. Barnes played a good bit at wolf along with Taylor, and they looked good. Very, very mobile group. Also saw Sylvester, Machen and Munroe making some good plays. This is a very improved group, but it will be interesting to see how they handle the new alignment.
DB:
This group will be good. Burnett is just a beast. We all know this. Reese made some good plays as did Tarrant. Frierson looked good a time or two, but dropped a sure INT. I think we'll be Ok here, but we really won't know until we play a more pass oriented O. This is, IMO, the downside to this O - your DB's get so little practice against a very good passing game (but we benefit from the tradeoff the other way around).
Overall, for the first week of practice, I was very pleased. Indeed, as we've heard, we are WAY, way ahead of where we were last fall.
First team D is very fast and quick to the ball. I personally think we 're going to be pleasantly surprised by this group. These guys know our offense, and they make it tough on them, especially up the middle (which is good, no?). Still, after a somewhat slow start, the first team O began to move the ball. By the end, they were moving it well. 2nd and 3rd team O's moved well most of the day. Passing is much more diverse this fall. You can tell they're working a good bit of the R&S. There were several fumbles and bad pitches as the morning wore on, but overall, the O looked good.
Here are some particulars I noted:
QB:
Nesbitt is still clearly the best. He is fast and quick and generally makes good decisions. Seems to me he is operating a bit faster this year. Overthrew some passses, but hit some others. Overall, looked good. He's the man. JS moved the team most of his series, but he just still totes the ball way too much. He's going to get hurt. His helmet must have popped off at least 5 times today after getting hit. Several times, the dive man (who didn't get the ball) went 5 yards before getting hit, while JS kept and got minus yards or a big hit on a 2 yard gain. But he does move the team fairly well when he's in there. He tossd a nice middle screen to Lyons for a TD early in the scrimmage. TW is very athletic, and makes some big plays, but still is thinking his way through. But then, he also is playing with some younger guys who don't know the system as well either. Made some good throws, and some not so good. He made some very nice runs, He may well end up the #2 QB. I hope it's not due to JS being banged up. The rest all had their issues, but we've got some good depth at the position. We have 3 servicable QB's this year.
B-back:
Man, we are loaded at RB! I've never seen a team with this much talent at the position. Dwyer, of course is the man. Cox, Watson, Lyons and Drummond (and not necessarily in order) are all able to tote the rock. Honestly... Drummond looked the best to me. Dude runs HARD. Son, the boy is a load! He's not going to drop one 80 yards like JD can at any time, but I don't know if I saw him stopped for less than 4 yards all day, several times with guys draped all over him. Lyons also looked good. I don't know how we can keep these two guys off the field this year. I was fantasizing about Dwyer and Allen at A-back and Cox, Drummond or Lyons at B.
A-back:
Allen and Wright looked very good - some good runs, and Wright some nice blocks. Peeples made some good runs. Cox made a good run or two. The new guy to watch is Orwin Smith, who made several very nice runs. With Roddy back, we'll probably RS Orwin, but he's going to be a good back in a year or two.
OL:
Lots of shuffling, but the 1st team group looked to be Sellers/Claytor, Gilbert, Voss, Howard and Barrick. Barrick and Claytor both suffered what looked to be minor dings. Overall, much improvement with this group.
WR:
Obviously we have Bebe and Melton starting, but the surprise of the practice (other than maybe Drummond) were the two backups - Quentin Sims and Stephen Hill. Both made several NICE plays. We're suddenly deeper at WR than I've seen us in several years, too (and that's not even mentioning Cone and Moore who both got alot of plays in). Sims is just a player. I saw him make some nice catches last fall, but he's developed into quite the WR. I can see now why they moved Earls to D. The future playmaker, though, is Hill. Wow! What a talent. A couple of times he took a reverse toss and just flat outran everyone to the corner. Speed. He also made a nice catch on an out of bounds ball toward the end. This guy may not can be redshirted this year - he's that good.
DL:
Honestly, I think we'll be fine here. Anderson, Peters, Walls and TJ Barnes are all big, stout guys who can play. They may not be the 3 amigos of the last couple of years, but they can be good. Morgan is Morgan: All ACC in the making.
LB:
This is a very fast, mobile group - especially with Taylor and AT Barnes in there. Jefferson made some big hits today, as did Sed. Those two are good. Barnes played a good bit at wolf along with Taylor, and they looked good. Very, very mobile group. Also saw Sylvester, Machen and Munroe making some good plays. This is a very improved group, but it will be interesting to see how they handle the new alignment.
DB:
This group will be good. Burnett is just a beast. We all know this. Reese made some good plays as did Tarrant. Frierson looked good a time or two, but dropped a sure INT. I think we'll be Ok here, but we really won't know until we play a more pass oriented O. This is, IMO, the downside to this O - your DB's get so little practice against a very good passing game (but we benefit from the tradeoff the other way around).
Overall, for the first week of practice, I was very pleased. Indeed, as we've heard, we are WAY, way ahead of where we were last fall.
