Practice Report 8/14/00 afternoon

[Guest]

Ponyfans.com was at this afternoons practice to see the Mustangs in their last practice before they put on full pads. Today they were practicing in shoulder pads, helmets and shorts.

This afternoon I spent some time watching the quarterbacks. Josh McCown has really done well. He threw the ball with accuracy, precision and strength. You can see that the time he spent working out this summer certainly has paid off. He appears to be a much more mature quarterback as well. I saw very few underthrown balls. Kelan Luker's arm strength is fine, but he still needs to work on the mental aspect of the game. Kelan too seemed to complete the majority of his passes, although he did miss his target a little more than Josh. I have been very impressed with junior college transfer QB David Page. He seems to have what is takes to play at this level, and seemed to be learning this offense very well. It will be interesting to see how he is thrown in the mix after the first couple of scrimmages.

WR's Bryan McDearman, Chris Cunningham, Johnnie Freeman, Cody Cardwell ans Peek (walk-on), as well as tight end John Hampton, all had good days catching the ball. Cunningham looked fast and made some good catches, and McDearman lived up to his reputation as having some of, if not the best hands on the team. Hampton looked really good today making some very tough catches. One was a one-handed grab in the end zone about two feet from where I stood.

Billy Ford, formerly a safety and then a linebacker, now has been moved to U-back/tight end. He looked good in his new position. I will be interested to see how he does at this position.

Kickers Adam Walterscheid and Jacob Crowley both had good days kicking the ball — they seemed to have found their groove. Hopefully this will carry over into the season, since the kicking game has been a place of concern the last few seasons.

On the offensive line, Thorton Chandler has done an outstanding since switching over from the defensive line. He now is practicing with the first-team offensive line. He has really been a solid pass blocker, and done well with the deep snaps, as well.

[This message has been edited by PonyPride (edited 08-14-2000).]

[D]

Nice report. Keep them coming. Without being able to go see many practices, it is cool to read how things are going.
Are they putting any pressure on the kickers or are they just kicking on their own? Any new kickers come in with the freshman that appear to have some talent? Hopefully, we can get past last years problems in that category. This isn't Sega...you aren't supposed to go for 2 every time.

[ClassOf81]

Tyler Parr is a freshman walk-on from Highland Park. He's primarily trying to play as a wide receiver, but also is supposed to be getting a look at kicker.