At Saturday's practice
Posted: Sat Aug 05, 2006 8:44 pmI wasn't out there long, because it's inhumanly hot out there. However, I managed to see a few things before I melted.
• The reports that DeMyron Martin is up to 235 appear to be true, or at least very close to it. He looks substantially stronger that last year -- the guy is simply huge.
• It's hard to judge the conditioning of the true freshmen, since all most of us ever saw of them was a group of photos on Signing Day. One guy who looks like he has shed some pounds since February is OL Lee Gonzalez, even though he's still listed at 305.
• The Ponies ran some kickoff coverage drills, in which a couple of players would race down field, fight off a couple of blockers and get to the returner. Three guys who showed very good speed and shed their blockers almost effortlessly were Reggie Carrington, Bam Blackmon and Andrew McKinney.
• In kicking drills, Kellis Cunningham has a very strong leg. But at Satuday afternoon's practice, Thomas Morestead got much better height on his kicks, and got the ball up faster. Cunningham hit some long kicks, but they were of the line-drive variety.
• SMU has not had a group of offensive linemen that look the part like this year's crew since the mid-1980s. Coach V's guys look big and strong (even by OL standards), and not just in the starting five.
• The secondary is going to feature some new faces this year after the graduation of Ro Humphrey and Jamey Harper, not to mention DBs-turned-LBs Alvin Nnabuife and Rico Harris (who stopped by Saturday's practice). One newcomer who looked extremely athletic (but likely won't play this year, if head coach Phil Bennett gets his wish of redshirting nearly all of his freshmen) was safety Tyler Jones. Admittedly, it was just drills, but he runs and jumps very well, and seems to accelerate very quickly after changing direction.
• The team spent quite a while running a drill in which they isolate the running game. The QB either gives the ball to the RB or keeps it himself, and while the ball carrier is never hit very hard -- basically the linemen work on their blocking technique, and as soon as the defense gets to the ball carrier, the play's over. Several RBs looked good, but one who particularly stood out was James Mapps. The reports about this guy's elusiveness are not exagerrated. Very quick, very slippery -- Mapps is a whirling dervish with the ball. His array of cuts and spin moves, even in heavy traffic at the line of scrimmage, is very impressive.
• The reports that DeMyron Martin is up to 235 appear to be true, or at least very close to it. He looks substantially stronger that last year -- the guy is simply huge.
• It's hard to judge the conditioning of the true freshmen, since all most of us ever saw of them was a group of photos on Signing Day. One guy who looks like he has shed some pounds since February is OL Lee Gonzalez, even though he's still listed at 305.
• The Ponies ran some kickoff coverage drills, in which a couple of players would race down field, fight off a couple of blockers and get to the returner. Three guys who showed very good speed and shed their blockers almost effortlessly were Reggie Carrington, Bam Blackmon and Andrew McKinney.
• In kicking drills, Kellis Cunningham has a very strong leg. But at Satuday afternoon's practice, Thomas Morestead got much better height on his kicks, and got the ball up faster. Cunningham hit some long kicks, but they were of the line-drive variety.
• SMU has not had a group of offensive linemen that look the part like this year's crew since the mid-1980s. Coach V's guys look big and strong (even by OL standards), and not just in the starting five.
• The secondary is going to feature some new faces this year after the graduation of Ro Humphrey and Jamey Harper, not to mention DBs-turned-LBs Alvin Nnabuife and Rico Harris (who stopped by Saturday's practice). One newcomer who looked extremely athletic (but likely won't play this year, if head coach Phil Bennett gets his wish of redshirting nearly all of his freshmen) was safety Tyler Jones. Admittedly, it was just drills, but he runs and jumps very well, and seems to accelerate very quickly after changing direction.
• The team spent quite a while running a drill in which they isolate the running game. The QB either gives the ball to the RB or keeps it himself, and while the ball carrier is never hit very hard -- basically the linemen work on their blocking technique, and as soon as the defense gets to the ball carrier, the play's over. Several RBs looked good, but one who particularly stood out was James Mapps. The reports about this guy's elusiveness are not exagerrated. Very quick, very slippery -- Mapps is a whirling dervish with the ball. His array of cuts and spin moves, even in heavy traffic at the line of scrimmage, is very impressive.