Practice Observations - Thursday Practice (Practice #2)

[JasonB]

PonyPride is out of town this week and asked me to fill in. I was able to make practice today and will head out there again on Friday and Saturday.

A little bit of a different structure this year. They aren't allowing fans in at all. For the press, we are allowed to watch the first 6 sessions of practice, then they kick us out, then allow us to come back for interviews at the end. The interviews were recorded and available online. I'll give you just my feel from the interviews at the end of this.

The time to actually watch practice is a bit limited. So I am focusing on one position group at a time and will share some thoughts, but this won't have as much detail as in the past.

Today, I focused on the OL. In any camp, whether it is Spring or Fall, it takes some time for the offense to come together. The Defense always dominates in the beginning and then the OL and timing gel and the offense looks better. Right now, we are at the beginning stage where the OL is getting used to working with each other again and trying different combinations. It looks to me lik they are really going to put some effort on run blocking and driving teams off the ball, more physically than in the past.

Here is a rundown on my thoughts per player. My statements are more based on what I am projecting from them performance wise than an indication of where they played in a full team drill - the only full team session I saw was a tempo drill where they were mixing a lot of things up and only had 3 drives of offense.

Tackles:
PJ - I think he is locked in as starting LT. Big frame, but so athletic and still almost looks skinny, he could probably bulk up more if he wanted to, even though he is listed at 315. On a drive blocking drill, lost his footing and slipped and fell down, so he does have some work to do with keeping his balance He loves to run block though and can lock players in. He will be solid.

Caleb Johnson - I think will be the backup LT. He does look stronger than he did in the spring, and looks to be moving better. I need to see him under a live rush to see if there is really any improvement.

Chamblee - The transfer from Arkansas is as advertised. Tall player. Listed at 303 but he could put more weight on. Dwarfs Byrd. Moves well, very strong. Great pieces to work with. Gave up a sack on a speed rush around the outside in the team session, but that is going to happen with a transfer in their second practice. I would expect him to perform better in team sessions next week after he gets a hang of the system. Individual drills he looks the part. Early observation, but he may be the odds on favorite to win the RT spot.

Byrd - Fighting for the starting spot at RT. He has a good frame and he moves really well. He looks better to me than he did in the spring, so nice to see him continue to improve. It will be interesting to see how the competition goes, but I think Chamblee might be "that guy". With Osborne, Parr, and Clark all moving on after this season, would not be surprised to see him go to guard next year, but that is a long way away. For now, he is fighting for the RT spot.

Large - Another guy where 300 on a 6-5 frame kind of looks small. He won't contribute to anything this year, but certainly a nice piece for the future. Trying to pick up all of the movements in the blocking schemes. A little tight in his backwards shuffle.

Guard:

Parr - Practiced in the push drill and was way ahead of where I thought he would be. I was surprised. They are limiting him still overall, but he is way ahead of where I thought he would be which is awesome. I thought he looked great, but I was a huge fan of his coming out of fall last year. Will be interesting to see if they allow him to fully participate in the next two weeks or if they are going to limit participation until Week 0 and then work him in after that.

Clark - I think he looks really good. A couple of times he got his hands on people and just locked them up, they couldn't do anything. A year with Grizz has paid off.

Anderson - He will be second string LG once Parr comes back. Didn't focus on him much, but in the Spring his mobility surprised me.

Sparks - I think he backs Clark up at RG. He is fully involved after the surgery and I thought he actually looks really good out there. I have a feeling the staff will find a way to rotate him in at both guard positions, because he might be too good to keep off the field. Moves well, even if he is probably a little bit smaller than the staff would want at guard.

Patterson - I think he will be this year's Clark. Let Griz work him into shape in a redshirt season and then see what he can do. Carrying too much weight right now.

Sapp - Probably the other third string guard (along with Patterson). Looks like he has a nice frame and carries weight well, but is well behind the others.

Woods - was out on Thursday's practice, but I heard he has been practicing at guard and the coaches love him there. My guess is that he is ahead of both Patterson and Sapp.

Center:

Osborne - Looks great. Period. Completely different look at center than we have had in a long time.

Uter - this is the one rookie who doesn't completely look out of place. Carries his 300 nicely, moves really well. Needs a full season with Grizz to build strength, but can definitely see him contributing next season. This year, he may practice as a second string center in order to give him reps, but in reality, Clark would slide over if anything happened to JO. JO spends a lot of time mentoring him, which is nice to see - you can tell JO sees the talent.

Additional notes:
- I'm hearing great things about Hudson.
- The DL is 4 deep. It is crazy. Maybe at bandit Walton and Flowers aren't ready and so Cam would have to swing back to Bandit if someone got hurt, but the unit looks good.
- Hunte, the Miami transfer, is going to be really good in the middle. He is a big guy and stood out to me.
- I'll spend more time with corner tomorrow, but I think Nettles looks like he might be able to contribute early.
- Harvey blocked a pass on the first play of scrimmage from Stone. Yet another big, long athletic player on the DL.
- The second string DE with Rogers and Cam is going to really be able to put a lot of pressure around the edge.
- Talking with Symons after practice, he seems like a coach who is really confident in his group this season, which makes you feel better about the corner group. Defensive coaches are pretty easy to get grumpy if they don't like what they have. He also seems more and more like a future head coach.
- Tank Booker pointed out JO as the best OL and how he has improved at center since even the spring.
- Crossley is someone everyone should root for. The kid talks trash and has fun, but man he absolutely makes everyone light up when he speaks. Good kid, and in the spring showed that he enjoys mentoring the younger players. He relishes being able to move back outside. Even Symons mentioned that they moved him into nickel out of necessity because there wasn't anyone there when they came in, and that his best year was out at corner. I'm excited to take a closer look tomorrow at the corner group and see how he is doing.

[BUS]

The Dline being deep is really going to help.
Thank you for your time and the write up.
Go Mustangs

[peruna81]

Thanks, JasonB. Always a pleasure to read your observations...

[PNW_Stang]

Tackle seems so thin, with only 2 upper class men on each side. Are you concerned about the depth, or you think they will be fine?

Who else could play tackle besides JO? Could Sapp or Gill move outside? If C Johnson and Byrd both improve from Spring, maybe it will be solid.

Seem pretty deep inside though.

[JasonB]

Tackle seems so thin, with only 2 upper class men on each side. Are you concerned about the depth, or you think they will be fine?

Who else could play tackle besides JO? Could Sapp or Gill move outside? If C Johnson and Byrd both improve from Spring, maybe it will be solid.

Seem pretty deep inside though.

50% of the teams in the country would see a significant drop in production by losing one tackle. 90% would be in trouble if they lost two.

Byrd would be fine as a 3rd tackle. The question is can Caleb improve enough to become the 4th tackle, or is that effectively JO? It is great to have so much depth inside and a player like Clark that we can move pieces around if we have to.

[leopold]

Tackle seems so thin, with only 2 upper class men on each side. Are you concerned about the depth, or you think they will be fine?

Who else could play tackle besides JO? Could Sapp or Gill move outside? If C Johnson and Byrd both improve from Spring, maybe it will be solid.

Seem pretty deep inside though.

Chamblee is an underclassman but he's a 3rd year sophomore who has started in the SEC, so is this an issue?

[PNW_Stang]

Tackle seems so thin, with only 2 upper class men on each side. Are you concerned about the depth, or you think they will be fine?

Who else could play tackle besides JO? Could Sapp or Gill move outside? If C Johnson and Byrd both improve from Spring, maybe it will be solid.

Seem pretty deep inside though.

Chamblee is an underclassman but he's a 3rd year sophomore who has started in the SEC, so is this an issue?

I was more referencing that excluding true freshman King Large, we only have 4 scholarship tackles on the team, which seems like a low number.

[BUS]

What position does Max Yao play?
Walk on guy I have read about. He got some playing time last year.

[malonish]

Read about him but can't put his name and then references him in a "stuck in my ways" kinda way.

Edit: that wild way to reference Yao has been changed administratively I guess.

[Roach]

Yao played guard for a few snaps at the end the spring game.