Optional conditioning workout / 7-on-7 notes (7/9/12)
Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 4:58 pm
A couple dozen skill-position players (plus C Taylor Lasecki) are on the field, going through seven-on-seven passing drills.
• QB Garrett Gilbert, if nothing else, is not afraid to make throws that require pinpoint accuracy. Deep out routes, fades in the corner of the end zone (CB J.R. Richardson just made a great play to knock away a pass intended for WR Darius Johnson), crossing routes in the end zone from the red zone ... he'll fire them in. That's not to say they're all being completed, but several of them are finding their intended target. Yes, it's still early, but his pure ability to throw the ball is impressive.
• QB Conner Preston looks like a different player than he did a year ago. Part of that is the fact that he's physically stronger, but he also carries himself differently. He just took a snap, drifted a couple of steps to his left while looking in that direction, and then sold the entire defense on the fact that he was throwing that way ... before whirling around and firing to a wide-open WR Bobby Waid on the other side of the field.
• Another perfect deep ball by Gilbert, intended for WR Darius Johnson. Another great play by J.R. Richardson to climb the ladder and knock it away.
• Ks Chase Hover and Cody Rademacher each just nailed field goals from 49 yards ... with room to spare. Hover said last week that he has been working this offseason on getting his kickers to rise quickly, and it shows - the ball looks different coming off his foot.
• RB K.C. Nlemchi has more shiftiness than he did during the season. Maybe that's because he was trying to mimic more straight-ahead runners when he worked with the scout team, but for a big back (he's listed at 6-1, 215), he has a lot of stop-and-start ability and changes directions quickly.
•The Gilbert-to-DJ combination just worked. Johnson got behind two DBs with a couple of fakes, and Gilbert laid a strike in his hands as he crossed the goal line on the right hash marks.
• Freshmen are not participating today.
• Seven-on-seven time appears to be over, and the players are now going through a series of sprint shuttles. Among those who are regularly near the front of their groups: WR Ryan Walker, LB Randall Joyner, LB Derek Longoria, RB K.C. Nlemchi, WR Bobby Waid, LB John Bordano, S Ryan Smith and WR Der'Rikk Thompson.
• Skill-position guys just went inside - now the big guys and the incoming freshmen are out to run.
• The big guys are split into three groups, which are basically the offensive linemen and the interior defensive linemen in one group, with the linebackers and defensive ends (and three women's soccer players: G Lauryn Bodden, D Courtney Smith and F Kenzie Scovill) in another and the freshman RBs/WRs/DBs in the third. Among the DE/LB/soccer group, freshman LB Lincoln Richard is running away from the pack in several shuttles, while WR Colin Lagasse just did the same among the skill-position guys.
• NT Spike Davis said last week his weight is up to about 285, and said he hopes to enter preseason workouts in August around 290. But he runs like a guy who is trying to shed pounds, not add them, usually leading the big linemen in most sprints and shuttles. Staying with him step-for-step today: freshman NT Nick Reed.
• QB Garrett Gilbert, if nothing else, is not afraid to make throws that require pinpoint accuracy. Deep out routes, fades in the corner of the end zone (CB J.R. Richardson just made a great play to knock away a pass intended for WR Darius Johnson), crossing routes in the end zone from the red zone ... he'll fire them in. That's not to say they're all being completed, but several of them are finding their intended target. Yes, it's still early, but his pure ability to throw the ball is impressive.
• QB Conner Preston looks like a different player than he did a year ago. Part of that is the fact that he's physically stronger, but he also carries himself differently. He just took a snap, drifted a couple of steps to his left while looking in that direction, and then sold the entire defense on the fact that he was throwing that way ... before whirling around and firing to a wide-open WR Bobby Waid on the other side of the field.
• Another perfect deep ball by Gilbert, intended for WR Darius Johnson. Another great play by J.R. Richardson to climb the ladder and knock it away.
• Ks Chase Hover and Cody Rademacher each just nailed field goals from 49 yards ... with room to spare. Hover said last week that he has been working this offseason on getting his kickers to rise quickly, and it shows - the ball looks different coming off his foot.
• RB K.C. Nlemchi has more shiftiness than he did during the season. Maybe that's because he was trying to mimic more straight-ahead runners when he worked with the scout team, but for a big back (he's listed at 6-1, 215), he has a lot of stop-and-start ability and changes directions quickly.
•The Gilbert-to-DJ combination just worked. Johnson got behind two DBs with a couple of fakes, and Gilbert laid a strike in his hands as he crossed the goal line on the right hash marks.
• Freshmen are not participating today.
• Seven-on-seven time appears to be over, and the players are now going through a series of sprint shuttles. Among those who are regularly near the front of their groups: WR Ryan Walker, LB Randall Joyner, LB Derek Longoria, RB K.C. Nlemchi, WR Bobby Waid, LB John Bordano, S Ryan Smith and WR Der'Rikk Thompson.
• Skill-position guys just went inside - now the big guys and the incoming freshmen are out to run.
• The big guys are split into three groups, which are basically the offensive linemen and the interior defensive linemen in one group, with the linebackers and defensive ends (and three women's soccer players: G Lauryn Bodden, D Courtney Smith and F Kenzie Scovill) in another and the freshman RBs/WRs/DBs in the third. Among the DE/LB/soccer group, freshman LB Lincoln Richard is running away from the pack in several shuttles, while WR Colin Lagasse just did the same among the skill-position guys.
• NT Spike Davis said last week his weight is up to about 285, and said he hopes to enter preseason workouts in August around 290. But he runs like a guy who is trying to shed pounds, not add them, usually leading the big linemen in most sprints and shuttles. Staying with him step-for-step today: freshman NT Nick Reed.
