Went to my first practice today (Wednesday)...

[JasonB]

Had the day off, so I was able to make it. Thought I would share some observations. Hopefully some of you guys remember enough of my past posts to know that I am a realist, not just a sunshiner...

First thing I want to say is that I really enjoyed the intensity of the coaches today. Kids are into it, have a great attitude, and the constant teaching really is incredible. The coaches are very involved; this is something that I haven't seen in a long time. From top to bottom, this coaching staff is head and shoulders above anything we have had here for a long time.

I am going to start out by talking about what excites me the most. The defense.

I fully realize that we have a ton of athletes coming in on offense. And that the QBs on the field in the spring may not be among the top two on the depth chart come fall. When I look at players, I watch them for what they are, not how they play against what might not be the best competition.

1) I know that there is probably some concern out there about Justin Smart moving to linebacker. And MLB, no less. I know I was concerned about that. Well, I feel a lot better. That kid is going to be awesome. He is all over the place. He has a great burst to the ball, is taking charge, and just looks fantastic. He really stands out on the field, he is going to be a player.

2) For the past 5 years, we have had at MOST 2 division 1-A quality secondary players on the field at a time. I know there is a lot of flack given to playing off the line and all that stuff, but the fact is that we have been pretty slim in the secondary for a while - we either have athletic players that are slow or fast players who aren't agile for the position, something is always just not right. Well, I now count at least 6 D-1 football players out there right now. Dennis, Bailey (running with the second team right now), McCann, Bell, Jones, and Crosby (nickel corner) can all play, and play well. They are all athletic and fast enough to play college football and do well. We are finally going to have a good secondary. McCann has a lot more size than I remember. The best player of the group I think is Bell. That kid is going to be awesome. He has great transitional speed - he is able to quickly backpedal and then stop and change direction with burst. Great hips, great burst, good instincts, he has the whole package. He really looked great out there. He is the best corner I have seen at SMU post-DP.

3) Let's talk schemes. I was really, really critical of Bennet for sticking with the 4-3 man/zone. In this day, especially in CUSA with so many teams running a spread, that doesn't work. I am sure some of you share my concerns. Well, worry no more. I sure saw an awful lot of 5 back sets, both 4-2-5 and 3-3-5. I don't know what our base is going to be, but I can assure you that we are going to match up with our opponents. We also did a ton of blitzing and scheme adjustments, but I think a lot of that is to try and teach the QBs, WRs, and O-Line how to read the game to make the offense work. But that in itself is better teaching than we have done in the past. Oh, and it is obvious from the various drills that this is going to be a very, very aggressive defense. No more worrying about the other band playing, we are going to go after some folks.

Now the offense...

Obviously, some guys aren't around, but these are some things I saw:

1) QBs were 10 (Turner), 11 (Rhodes), and 15 (walkon)? 15 has the prototype body, but very awkward release results in inconsistancy. Rhodes throws the inside routes well, but really has to step into a throw to make the outside throw. The attempt to get enough power behind the ball results in a significant drop in accuracy. He had shoulder problems before, I believe, so that is not surprising, he might be better in the fall. Turner is the one who has a good enough arm, but I am not sure that he is really ready to run the show yet. We will see what happens in the fall, though.

2) Looked to me like the starting WR were 17 (Sanders), 88(Haynes), 24(Robinson), and 23(I dunno). Sanders looks great, he just has such natural hands. Smooth would be a great descrpition. We all know he is good enough. Robinson is a fantastic athlete - can really move with the ball. He will be a factor in the return game, I am guessing. Great burst of accelleration and can cut/jitter. A fantastic athelete, not just a straight line runner like Henderson. I would say as shifty as Warren, maybe even more so, but with better speed. Better than Cunningham. Not the best route runner though, and the coaches were really working on cutting harder in his routes. If he improves on the routes, he will be a big player. Haynes I know has gotten good reviews, but he had a rough go of it today. I have no idea who 23 is, but he played a lot with that unit and he had a rough day as well. 16 was a player who caught my eye a little bit. Inconsistant, but has nice burst and good cutting ability.

Overall, I would say that our secondary is more athletic than our receivers, for what that is worth. That said, I think we have a lot of guys coming in that are going to compete from day 1 at the skill positions which could balance that out. And I'd rather have frosh starting at WR than in the secondary.

[PonyPride]

10 is Daniel Miller, 11 is Logan Turner, 15 is Ross Hill

23 is Josh Bryant (Emmanuel Sanders' cousin)

Good to see you out there today, JasonB.

[Stallion]

Let me get something straight. Are we playing "tackle" football yet this spring and if not how can anyone make any conclusions about any player.

[SMU_is_bowling]

<thunder clap> <lighting crash> (storm cloud is coming)

[LA_Mustang]

Thanks, JasonB. Good stuff.

[Alaric]

Let me get something straight. Are we playing "tackle" football yet this spring and if not how can anyone make any conclusions about any player.

You're right, playing with contact and tackling is absolutely the ultimate litmus test so we can't know for sure where these guys stand. I don't think you're criticizing the coaching as much as you're criticizing people who think they can evaluate progress w/o hitting & tackling.

That being said, if you're criticizing the coaching staff, I think the main reason they're avoiding contact is to cram as much teaching into these guys this first spring as possible. The team will have to start hitting to prepare for games but I take a lot of solace in the fact that a ton of practice time is being devoted to tackling fundamentals (wrapping up, angles, etc) so I'm not worried about the lack of contact hurting our chances this fall...

[Stallion]

I'm not criticizing Coaching-June's been successful with his methods. I seriously wasn't sure if we have been playing "tackle" football which is really the only way to judge a player.

[Alaric]

I'm not criticizing Coaching-June's been successful with his methods. I seriously wasn't sure if we have been playing "tackle" football which is really the only way to judge a player.

No tackling yet

[PonyPride]

It's been moderate hitting. No wrapping up and burying guys (although a few guys have inadvertently drilled teammates a few times), but more a case of throwing and catching passes, followed by defenders wrapping up a guy and bringing them to a stop. There's been some serious hitting among linemen at times, but even that appears to be "controlled."

[RGV Pony]

See perennial D3 powerhouse St John's of Minnesota. All practices=no contact.

[JasonB]

Let me get something straight. Are we playing "tackle" football yet this spring and if not how can anyone make any conclusions about any player.

You are correct, none of the assessments I made include the ability to tackle. But there is a portion of the practice where the receivers and corners go at each other full pseed, and the linemen are making contact with each other. It is not a tackle-based practice, but there is contact and they do go full speed (some would say "all out" ) in some portions.

And yes, I can judge the athletic ability of a receiver or a corner without seeing them wrap someone up or be wrapped up. Absolutely. But not having tackling is exactly why I focused on receivers and corners, and only a little bit on QBs, and not at all on RBs or linemen.

The only player that maybe I stepped over the line with is Smart. But I was just really surprised with how fluid he moved in coverage, not the stiff stuff that we have seen from our MLBs the past few years, as well as the natural burst he has when he was asked to blitz. And he took on the blocks really well when he rushed in. I fully realize that McCray probably looked like a wunderkind in these type of drills. But Smart to me had a nice feel in the secondary, just moved around really well, and had better burst than any linebacker I have seen around here in a long while.

[anurep]

No offense Stallion - you always have good and realistic insight but sometimes I think you just need to get laid.

[RoyBell]

As I understand it Coach really don't like doing a lot of really hard tackling because of the fear of losing players. I think they ran these same type practices in Hawaii. I think with all the drills he runs showing them how to tackle and wrap up makes a difference.

[smu diamond m]

Hard hits in practice don't make sense to me. Remember that killer shoulder injury last season?

(the name slipped my mind)

[Alaric]

Hard hits in practice don't make sense to me. Remember that killer shoulder injury last season?

(the name slipped my mind)

Rock Dennis