Saturday morning football
Having hung out at practice today I can safely say that we would be lucky to have such beautiful weather come September 6th. 77 degrees with a few clouds around is nearly perfect for football.
On the field, the Deacs once again practiced in shells for about two hours. That's two days in a row without full pads; I'm curious to see if they'll wear them again before Thursday's game - possibly on Monday, but I don't know. I don't think it makes a big difference at this point, just sort of interesting to see how they manage that type of thing.
Based solely on the coaches' attitudes on the field today I'm confident they were more pleased with today's practice than yesterday's. Just about everyone was doing his job and I only saw the coaches get animated once. I think that's a good indication that the problems yesterday were just a concentration lapse. The guys just need to make sure not to have another one of those next Thursday.
Practice followed a pretty typical schedule, including individual and special teams periods to start, some first string vs. second string time, and then plenty of work running scout offense and defense of Baylor. They're also working on some situational stuff - 3rd and short situations in 11 on 11, or quarterbacks and receivers practicing what they need to do in scramble situations.
The coaches are constantly warning guys to avoid contact, but sometimes it's unavoidable. Junior Petit-Jean gave TE Ben Wooster a pretty good pop, meeting him at the exact second Wooster caught the ball. Stanley Arnoux also put a pretty good hit on a scout offense player (missed who it was). Everyone got up just fine, so it was nice to see a couple of good hits.
Several plays and players stood out today. Marshall Williams had a handful of really good catches along the sidelines. On one screen pass to D.J. Boldin it looked like there was nowhere to go, but Boldin made one quick juke to get past and managed to get a decent chunk of yards.
Brandon Pendergrass had a particularly good day, bouncing one run outside and beating the defense (I don't think he was ever touched) for what would have been a long touchdown run. A short while later Riley Skinner hit Pendergrass with a 50 yard touchdown pass on a beautiful throw and a great catch.
Defensively I was impressed by CB Michael Willliams' effort against the first team. He broke up a couple of passes and did a good job staying with receivers. On the defensive line I saw Michael Carter make a good move to get past a linemen for what would have been a sack.
The offense spent one period working on third and short situations and I was impressed by the offensive line's ability to pick up blitzes; I'm getting more and more confident about the first string. The second string still struggled however, including a couple of issues with snap counts that had the coaches pretty unhappy. That was really the only time I saw coaches upset today, a pretty good indication of a good practice.
Tomorrow is a day off for the team so there won't be any practice report. I have had the chance to talk to Jim Grobe and Riley Skinner and I'll post those interviews tomorrow.
