GTTerrific
Dodd-Like
- Joined
- Nov 19, 2001
- Messages
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Spring Practice on Wednesday March 19
Thanks for all the input on what to watch in practice gang. I’ll try to give info on what all of you were interested in as the report goes along.
As expected there was a much different feel with today’s practice with this being the first day in pads. Looks different out there, and those who can run, hit, tackle, out muscle, and are tough shine more. You get to see what qb’s , wr , and rbs can do under real pressure.
Right off the bat could tell this practice was all about toughness and hitting after they did some warming up in individual position group and coming together as a team with our S & C coaches before the real fun began.
Some special teams to start out with. They did some punting with Freddie Smith, I Perfection, and Ivory returning. The punter, #1, to me was impressive. Thought the rest were erratic. Maybe one of you can help me out who he is? Thompson? He kicked consistent high tight spiral. All the guys showed good hands catching. This wasn’t a “live” drill. They only caught the ball and starting up field and stopped. Took notice that the snaps were pretty good from long snapper. Was from a distance so couldn’t tell who it was. In numerous reps there was one high snap over the punters head. Would rather them all be perfect, but the snappers were pretty good.
They worked on field goals as well. This was live. Dan Burnett #40 was far better than anyone else. Like how quickly his balls got up and where accurate. While #33, David Jordan showed a strong leg he had trouble with accuracy and consistency.
Ok, on to the fun stuff now. Watched 1 on 1 drills with live tackling between the Rbs and Lbs... Who can hit and who is tough!? They’re were some serious collisions going on. At RB the guy who shined here the most was Jimmy Dixon. He showed not only shiftiness but shear power and hard to bring down. Don’t know if anyone really got a good lick on him that put him down in his tracks. He was the one doing the licking. Couple of times he was forced out of bounds at best by defenders. Sampson was making guys miss with is feet. Not many could get a real clean hit on him. At LB Ather Brown and Wilkerson were showing some good toughness and tackling. Liked the way McNair wrapped up and even when he got slobbernocked he hung in there with the likes of Brian Johnson and the bigger backs. Jimmy got him good one time. This drill was intense. They were taking great pride in winning the battle. Want mention names, but one of the walk-ons was working his tail off, but getting hammered. Oh my! He’ll sleep well tonight.
There were other drills like this going on with WRs, DBs, and such, but it was away from where I was. Didn’t get to see what was going on much.
Thought that was tough and intense. Then they did the Oklahoma Drill! Other than scrimmaging it’s the most fun of any drill I’ve ever watched at any practice I’ve seen. They make a short field maybe 20 yards long and barely wider than a center and two guards or talks. (just three lineman). Qb's behind center and all he does is hand off to RB. The object is to get through without going down. On D side there is two DTs or DEs (2 lineman) and a LB. Coach D’A gives a signal to the QB which side to run it so the D doesn’t know. They had two of these fields set up. As soon as three reps from one group was finished it went quickly to the other field where guys were already set up to go. Moved quickly. Hugh Reilly at center was TOUGH. Of course he’s matched up with a LB, but still dealing with a quicker guy. He was the man. Another OL that looked really good was Wallace in this drill. On D saw some good hitting and tackling from “Tugboat” at LB. That wasn’t with the likes of Hugh Reilly though. Saw Wilkerson make some nice plays as well. At DE Hargrove and Pullen looked very good on this drill. Didn’t catch who was at OL matched up with Pullen in one series, but Master B pointed out this was a mismatch. Sure enough it was. Want to point out this was first time I’ve been able to get a look at Cooper blocking and down in stance like this. Have always taken note of his big body and how well he runs, but he held his own in there. Was glad to see that. Hard to say which group got the better of the other as far as O and D. Would say the first team guys like Reily, Wallace, JP, and Dixon did the best on O. It was mixed up quit a bit with who was in there. On D the group of Hargrove , Henderson, and Ather were pretty good. Really great drill to watch. It’s fast and fierce.
When OK was finished they went to 7 on 7 drills with no lineman ,who were working on other field . New this was a great practice to come see when the refs showed up. They brought out the first down markers and used refs. The 7 on 7 wasn’t “live” , meaning no tackling. This being first thing after OK drill some players were tackling to start.
Coaches fixed that real quick. You want to see the O in these situations dominate. They’ve got the advantage because the QB is not under pressure. Was pretty sloppy at times. Coach Buddy Geis wasn’t happy on one play. He was all over McGuire who was one on one with Davis deep. He never made a break on the ball. Coach Geis told him “it was a gimmy,” as he was upset. McGuire must have listened because he got Davis on his hip later and didn’t allow him to get to the ball on a nice throw and catch. Davis really had great coverage. They both turned and played the ball which was good. McGuire has the size where he should make those plays. Was sweet.
At QB on 7 on 7 drills Bilbo was pretty sharp. Much more so than the others. The best throw was from Suggs on the deep pattern mention to McGuire. Cooper and JP made nice catches in traffic. Notice Curry getting open a lot. Need to get him the ball. On a few occasions things were completely locked down and QB didn’t have an option but to run. Notice us playing some tight coverage on the line and mixing it up moving off the line. Rueben looked very good on this drill. Pena makes some throws down field very well. With some of the shorter throws he seemed to have difficulty.
After 7 on 7 they all came together for 11 on 11 drills. The intensity rises. Coach G barks out that the Qb's are live. Everyone is free game to get the snot knocked out them in scrimmage. Things were sloppy at times. Coach G had to get the O back in the huddle once. It was obvious he wasn’t please. Am very glad to say the flags from the refs didn’t come out very much. There were a few false starts, and one holding penalty. From that perspective it wasn’t bad at all for the number of plays they ran. The ball did get on the ground a number of times which wasn’t good. One bad center and QB exchange. A couple of fumbles on big hits. While I felt Bilbo really looked good. He meet Hargrove way too many times. That’s good for the D, but bad for the O. Hargrove was really a force running people down behind the line. Had Bilbo running his life a few times. Bilbo did make a very nice throw on run with Hargrove chasing him for his life to Bridges who came back to give him help. Wilkerson had two really great sacks. He leveled Bilbo on one play. Was big time hit. Was another time Wilkerson came free up the middle and sacked the QB before he was able to even set dropping back. Bilbo connected with Bridges on one of the bigger plays of the day. Was over the middle. Bilbo waited for him to clear and put the ball in front of him on a rope. Bridges was able to stay on his feet and grab the ball way out in front of him on the run. Nice effort and he ran more for even a bigger gain. Cooper showed some really good hands holding on to balls while he was getting hit hard on several occasions. It’s a long ways till Fall, but think we’ll see a lot of Cooper!
Saw our Safeties really come up and play the run. That group of Landry, Butler, and Reis can really hit you. Especially Reis on this day. Several big hits. Cox came up and got someone good as well. Really super tackle.
Saw us try to line up and pound the ball some today. While the DTs didn’t get after the Qb's in passing downs they were tough up the middle to run on. The OL did get the best of them on one play thanks to the second effort of JP. He got caught up in traffic on a play up the middle. Two lineman were still fighting while it was stopped dead. They couldn’t get a handle on JP, and he was off the races for long run. He’d probably be near the North GA boarder by now if the whistle handled blown to stop the play to move on to next series.
The most exciting player of the day to me was Sampson. It got to the point where up on the hill watching we couldn’t wait for him to be back in there. Honestly, he was awesome. One play up the middle there was no where to run so he bounced it outside. The guy really ran hard all day. He made a big gain on that play out of nothing. He made a move after hitting the left corner like he was cutting it back inside, and on a dime he turns it outside again leaving Davis on the ground. Next thing you know pursuit catches up with him and he’s working for more yards as he’s going down. Just super run and individual effort. On numerous other plays he showed great vision. Where there was nothing he seemed to always get something. Someone one the hill was impressed he got what looked like a couple of yards. He actually gained 6 on the play. Always going down going forward for extra yards. On a screen play Pena showed great poise. Maybe he held on to it too long, but he made a great throw to Sampson , who caught it and tucked it away nicely running for another about 15 yards.
Saw a lot of guys playing on OL. With Robinson out this spring after his off season surgery a lot of people are getting work at LG. Findley actually played center, guard, and tackle on the line during different times I believe. We’re obviously bigger and stronger than last year. It’s just a matter of them all playing together. Like the way we come to the line like we mean business. Just an attitude. I like Brad Honeycutt at RG. At this point they're rotating so many people in and out it’s hard to keep track. Salih B getting a lot of reps at LT. Hartley in there a lot at Guard. If I’m not mistaken I saw Zeb at both Guard and Tackle at different times. Use to could tell them all apart by size. They’re all very similar is stature now. Looking from the side the numbers aren’t always easy to see. One thing I was very glad to see was player not getting tired. It was a long practice and they worked hard. Even the big dudes weren’t dragging. It’s different seeing Koon at RG. He like everyone else saw action. The first guy out was Honeycutt and others before him at this point.
It’s the first day in pads, but the D looks ahead of the O although some guys like Sampson, McGuire, Curry, Cooper, and Bilbo are making noise. The ball was on the ground too much. There was one interception by Burton, who had to be tackled in end zone by ACE who was on the sidelines not even in on the play.
Saw for the most part good tackling and hard hitting. I give JP credit for his second effort but want the D to knock him down when they had first chance.
A great deal of teaching going on after ever single play. Someone called it “instant correction.” See that going on constantly. Staff looks comfortable working together. Coach Gailey has a much more hands on approach to things. Speaking with Coach Modkins after practice, they’re working to toughen this bunch up. From watching, all the coaches show that same kind of attitude. This was a tough practice.
That’s all folks! I’m sure I left out something. Got on this late after the basketball win tonight and talking with my dad who had surgery on his shoulder today. He’s all drugged up and ecstatic about the win and doing well. :-D Questions? Comments?
GO JACKETS!
Thanks for all the input on what to watch in practice gang. I’ll try to give info on what all of you were interested in as the report goes along.
As expected there was a much different feel with today’s practice with this being the first day in pads. Looks different out there, and those who can run, hit, tackle, out muscle, and are tough shine more. You get to see what qb’s , wr , and rbs can do under real pressure.
Right off the bat could tell this practice was all about toughness and hitting after they did some warming up in individual position group and coming together as a team with our S & C coaches before the real fun began.
Some special teams to start out with. They did some punting with Freddie Smith, I Perfection, and Ivory returning. The punter, #1, to me was impressive. Thought the rest were erratic. Maybe one of you can help me out who he is? Thompson? He kicked consistent high tight spiral. All the guys showed good hands catching. This wasn’t a “live” drill. They only caught the ball and starting up field and stopped. Took notice that the snaps were pretty good from long snapper. Was from a distance so couldn’t tell who it was. In numerous reps there was one high snap over the punters head. Would rather them all be perfect, but the snappers were pretty good.
They worked on field goals as well. This was live. Dan Burnett #40 was far better than anyone else. Like how quickly his balls got up and where accurate. While #33, David Jordan showed a strong leg he had trouble with accuracy and consistency.
Ok, on to the fun stuff now. Watched 1 on 1 drills with live tackling between the Rbs and Lbs... Who can hit and who is tough!? They’re were some serious collisions going on. At RB the guy who shined here the most was Jimmy Dixon. He showed not only shiftiness but shear power and hard to bring down. Don’t know if anyone really got a good lick on him that put him down in his tracks. He was the one doing the licking. Couple of times he was forced out of bounds at best by defenders. Sampson was making guys miss with is feet. Not many could get a real clean hit on him. At LB Ather Brown and Wilkerson were showing some good toughness and tackling. Liked the way McNair wrapped up and even when he got slobbernocked he hung in there with the likes of Brian Johnson and the bigger backs. Jimmy got him good one time. This drill was intense. They were taking great pride in winning the battle. Want mention names, but one of the walk-ons was working his tail off, but getting hammered. Oh my! He’ll sleep well tonight.
There were other drills like this going on with WRs, DBs, and such, but it was away from where I was. Didn’t get to see what was going on much.
Thought that was tough and intense. Then they did the Oklahoma Drill! Other than scrimmaging it’s the most fun of any drill I’ve ever watched at any practice I’ve seen. They make a short field maybe 20 yards long and barely wider than a center and two guards or talks. (just three lineman). Qb's behind center and all he does is hand off to RB. The object is to get through without going down. On D side there is two DTs or DEs (2 lineman) and a LB. Coach D’A gives a signal to the QB which side to run it so the D doesn’t know. They had two of these fields set up. As soon as three reps from one group was finished it went quickly to the other field where guys were already set up to go. Moved quickly. Hugh Reilly at center was TOUGH. Of course he’s matched up with a LB, but still dealing with a quicker guy. He was the man. Another OL that looked really good was Wallace in this drill. On D saw some good hitting and tackling from “Tugboat” at LB. That wasn’t with the likes of Hugh Reilly though. Saw Wilkerson make some nice plays as well. At DE Hargrove and Pullen looked very good on this drill. Didn’t catch who was at OL matched up with Pullen in one series, but Master B pointed out this was a mismatch. Sure enough it was. Want to point out this was first time I’ve been able to get a look at Cooper blocking and down in stance like this. Have always taken note of his big body and how well he runs, but he held his own in there. Was glad to see that. Hard to say which group got the better of the other as far as O and D. Would say the first team guys like Reily, Wallace, JP, and Dixon did the best on O. It was mixed up quit a bit with who was in there. On D the group of Hargrove , Henderson, and Ather were pretty good. Really great drill to watch. It’s fast and fierce.
When OK was finished they went to 7 on 7 drills with no lineman ,who were working on other field . New this was a great practice to come see when the refs showed up. They brought out the first down markers and used refs. The 7 on 7 wasn’t “live” , meaning no tackling. This being first thing after OK drill some players were tackling to start.
At QB on 7 on 7 drills Bilbo was pretty sharp. Much more so than the others. The best throw was from Suggs on the deep pattern mention to McGuire. Cooper and JP made nice catches in traffic. Notice Curry getting open a lot. Need to get him the ball. On a few occasions things were completely locked down and QB didn’t have an option but to run. Notice us playing some tight coverage on the line and mixing it up moving off the line. Rueben looked very good on this drill. Pena makes some throws down field very well. With some of the shorter throws he seemed to have difficulty.
After 7 on 7 they all came together for 11 on 11 drills. The intensity rises. Coach G barks out that the Qb's are live. Everyone is free game to get the snot knocked out them in scrimmage. Things were sloppy at times. Coach G had to get the O back in the huddle once. It was obvious he wasn’t please. Am very glad to say the flags from the refs didn’t come out very much. There were a few false starts, and one holding penalty. From that perspective it wasn’t bad at all for the number of plays they ran. The ball did get on the ground a number of times which wasn’t good. One bad center and QB exchange. A couple of fumbles on big hits. While I felt Bilbo really looked good. He meet Hargrove way too many times. That’s good for the D, but bad for the O. Hargrove was really a force running people down behind the line. Had Bilbo running his life a few times. Bilbo did make a very nice throw on run with Hargrove chasing him for his life to Bridges who came back to give him help. Wilkerson had two really great sacks. He leveled Bilbo on one play. Was big time hit. Was another time Wilkerson came free up the middle and sacked the QB before he was able to even set dropping back. Bilbo connected with Bridges on one of the bigger plays of the day. Was over the middle. Bilbo waited for him to clear and put the ball in front of him on a rope. Bridges was able to stay on his feet and grab the ball way out in front of him on the run. Nice effort and he ran more for even a bigger gain. Cooper showed some really good hands holding on to balls while he was getting hit hard on several occasions. It’s a long ways till Fall, but think we’ll see a lot of Cooper!
Saw our Safeties really come up and play the run. That group of Landry, Butler, and Reis can really hit you. Especially Reis on this day. Several big hits. Cox came up and got someone good as well. Really super tackle.
Saw us try to line up and pound the ball some today. While the DTs didn’t get after the Qb's in passing downs they were tough up the middle to run on. The OL did get the best of them on one play thanks to the second effort of JP. He got caught up in traffic on a play up the middle. Two lineman were still fighting while it was stopped dead. They couldn’t get a handle on JP, and he was off the races for long run. He’d probably be near the North GA boarder by now if the whistle handled blown to stop the play to move on to next series.
The most exciting player of the day to me was Sampson. It got to the point where up on the hill watching we couldn’t wait for him to be back in there. Honestly, he was awesome. One play up the middle there was no where to run so he bounced it outside. The guy really ran hard all day. He made a big gain on that play out of nothing. He made a move after hitting the left corner like he was cutting it back inside, and on a dime he turns it outside again leaving Davis on the ground. Next thing you know pursuit catches up with him and he’s working for more yards as he’s going down. Just super run and individual effort. On numerous other plays he showed great vision. Where there was nothing he seemed to always get something. Someone one the hill was impressed he got what looked like a couple of yards. He actually gained 6 on the play. Always going down going forward for extra yards. On a screen play Pena showed great poise. Maybe he held on to it too long, but he made a great throw to Sampson , who caught it and tucked it away nicely running for another about 15 yards.
Saw a lot of guys playing on OL. With Robinson out this spring after his off season surgery a lot of people are getting work at LG. Findley actually played center, guard, and tackle on the line during different times I believe. We’re obviously bigger and stronger than last year. It’s just a matter of them all playing together. Like the way we come to the line like we mean business. Just an attitude. I like Brad Honeycutt at RG. At this point they're rotating so many people in and out it’s hard to keep track. Salih B getting a lot of reps at LT. Hartley in there a lot at Guard. If I’m not mistaken I saw Zeb at both Guard and Tackle at different times. Use to could tell them all apart by size. They’re all very similar is stature now. Looking from the side the numbers aren’t always easy to see. One thing I was very glad to see was player not getting tired. It was a long practice and they worked hard. Even the big dudes weren’t dragging. It’s different seeing Koon at RG. He like everyone else saw action. The first guy out was Honeycutt and others before him at this point.
It’s the first day in pads, but the D looks ahead of the O although some guys like Sampson, McGuire, Curry, Cooper, and Bilbo are making noise. The ball was on the ground too much. There was one interception by Burton, who had to be tackled in end zone by ACE who was on the sidelines not even in on the play.
A great deal of teaching going on after ever single play. Someone called it “instant correction.” See that going on constantly. Staff looks comfortable working together. Coach Gailey has a much more hands on approach to things. Speaking with Coach Modkins after practice, they’re working to toughen this bunch up. From watching, all the coaches show that same kind of attitude. This was a tough practice.
That’s all folks! I’m sure I left out something. Got on this late after the basketball win tonight and talking with my dad who had surgery on his shoulder today. He’s all drugged up and ecstatic about the win and doing well. :-D Questions? Comments?
GO JACKETS!
