The first day of full pads, the team was mostly out there with just one exception that I noticed but expected and that was Ellis Henderson who is presumably nursing back a hamstring pull.
I didn't tweet a ton of the play by plays due to the heavy rainfall at times, but I'll spare a lot of that run-down as I did get some updates in once it cleared. An interesting wrinkle was the early fuji (hurry-up) drill had the 1st string team with Shay Smithwick-Hann and the 2nd string with Trent McKinney - Kemp and Montana watched. Shay marched the team down the field, probably about a 60 yard drive, his favorite target was Aaron Roberts. Trent came in and couldn't move the ball much further but then on the last play of the drill Caleb Walden plowed through a would-be tackler and took it to the house for a TD.
At one point the rain began to really fall and that led to a TON of drops with a slippery ball. I'm assuming they were not using wet-weather balls that are usually a little more tacky in the rain and don't slip as much.
So lets look at the positives I saw today:
- Credit where it's due, the best QB throwing out there today that I saw was Shay Smithwick-Hann. He did well in the fuji drills and was agressively attacking downfield. While Montana was floating passes and Kemp was over-throwing shorter routes Shay was on-point today. He had some very nice deep passes (a few were dropped in the rain) and it appears that he is really liking to target Aaron Roberts b/c they connected a bunch today.
- The running backs in the passing game were having great success today, Nguyen, Hagfors, Moore, and Walden I saw all hauling in a few passes and taking them downfield.
- At the very end of the practice today Lider came out and kicked three fieldgoals all of which I think were 37 yards, one from each hash mark and the third in the middle. All three were good, one was pretty low but the other two were high, end over end, and sailed through with plenty of room.
- Many of the WRs caught my attention again today, Sean Haynes had a decent day despite what I would presume was a somewhat embarassing dressing-down from OC Rosenbach who stopped a whole drill to chew him out for running the wrong route (to give credit though Haynes got the route right on the re-set and then in the next series had another nice grab and Rosy was giving him tons of props). Cam Warren is making the most of playing in the slot, he's been making a ton of good catches and even beat Hermy once downfield for a would-be TD. Kevin Berland had some nice deep grabs in 1-on-1 drills, Aaron Roberts had a ton of catches today. Mitch Saylor had a bit of a quieter day, and Brandon Mcguire had a few nice grabs as well.
- I counted two interceptions for Matt Hermanson today. With added confidence this guy is going to piss off the whole Big Sky for years now. He's playing great and picking up right where he left off in the last season. Add in Bo Tully who is playing well in coverage (tackling hasn't been tested much yet). These two are playing really well together.
- Josh Harris and Alex Bienemann are stepping into the primary starting role really well. Multiple sacks and some batted passes by Josh.
- Brock Coyle had a few good stops as well as some nice pass breakups when covering downfield.
- Aschan Richards at TE had a few nice longer plays
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Lets discuss some challenges, and I'll give passes to the drops and miscues when the weather got super crappy.
- Nate Montana and Gerald Kemp both had days I'm going to presume they'd rather forget. Each had at least 1 pick (maybe 2 each). Kemp was floating his shorter passes, especially on the sideline. In quick slant/cut routes he was steadily behind his WRs which lead to either drops or plays that never developed. Nate was floating a lot of his passes and real hesistant to attack downfield.
- Taylor Tuliapupu has had some good success in the last few days but today with the pads on I saw Brauer and Bradshaw pushing his face into the ground a few times today and I don't recall seeing him getting into the backfield much.
- Clay Peirson to TE is a work in progress, he's the 1st string guy right now and while he is showing great athleticism in his route running his blocking tends to be a little suspect and his catching isn't the best, but it's early, this is work in progress.
- Jordan Canada really didn't do a lot in the 11 on 11 drills, he was trying to stretch out some zone-block run plays and was stopped for a loss. This could be a product of him not cutting well on the wet grass or the Oline not opening very good holes for him (or both).
- Our corners outside of Sean Murray are having issues stopping or containing the running backs when they get around the edge.
- Josh Stuberg I didn't really see messing up but I heard about it from his DC and position coach, Ty Gregorak was shouting at him early and often today, "OH MAN STU! It's gonna be a LONG DAY for you!" Mostly it came on passing plays so I'm assuming bad coverage.
---------------
Tomorrow is the first scrimmage, unfortunately I'll be missing it as I'm helping out at the GSA Poker Shootout which starts at the same time roughly. I'll put up a post in the morning on some things I'm expecting to happen tomorrow.
I didn't tweet a ton of the play by plays due to the heavy rainfall at times, but I'll spare a lot of that run-down as I did get some updates in once it cleared. An interesting wrinkle was the early fuji (hurry-up) drill had the 1st string team with Shay Smithwick-Hann and the 2nd string with Trent McKinney - Kemp and Montana watched. Shay marched the team down the field, probably about a 60 yard drive, his favorite target was Aaron Roberts. Trent came in and couldn't move the ball much further but then on the last play of the drill Caleb Walden plowed through a would-be tackler and took it to the house for a TD.
At one point the rain began to really fall and that led to a TON of drops with a slippery ball. I'm assuming they were not using wet-weather balls that are usually a little more tacky in the rain and don't slip as much.
So lets look at the positives I saw today:
- Credit where it's due, the best QB throwing out there today that I saw was Shay Smithwick-Hann. He did well in the fuji drills and was agressively attacking downfield. While Montana was floating passes and Kemp was over-throwing shorter routes Shay was on-point today. He had some very nice deep passes (a few were dropped in the rain) and it appears that he is really liking to target Aaron Roberts b/c they connected a bunch today.
- The running backs in the passing game were having great success today, Nguyen, Hagfors, Moore, and Walden I saw all hauling in a few passes and taking them downfield.
- At the very end of the practice today Lider came out and kicked three fieldgoals all of which I think were 37 yards, one from each hash mark and the third in the middle. All three were good, one was pretty low but the other two were high, end over end, and sailed through with plenty of room.
- Many of the WRs caught my attention again today, Sean Haynes had a decent day despite what I would presume was a somewhat embarassing dressing-down from OC Rosenbach who stopped a whole drill to chew him out for running the wrong route (to give credit though Haynes got the route right on the re-set and then in the next series had another nice grab and Rosy was giving him tons of props). Cam Warren is making the most of playing in the slot, he's been making a ton of good catches and even beat Hermy once downfield for a would-be TD. Kevin Berland had some nice deep grabs in 1-on-1 drills, Aaron Roberts had a ton of catches today. Mitch Saylor had a bit of a quieter day, and Brandon Mcguire had a few nice grabs as well.
- I counted two interceptions for Matt Hermanson today. With added confidence this guy is going to piss off the whole Big Sky for years now. He's playing great and picking up right where he left off in the last season. Add in Bo Tully who is playing well in coverage (tackling hasn't been tested much yet). These two are playing really well together.
- Josh Harris and Alex Bienemann are stepping into the primary starting role really well. Multiple sacks and some batted passes by Josh.
- Brock Coyle had a few good stops as well as some nice pass breakups when covering downfield.
- Aschan Richards at TE had a few nice longer plays
------
Lets discuss some challenges, and I'll give passes to the drops and miscues when the weather got super crappy.
- Nate Montana and Gerald Kemp both had days I'm going to presume they'd rather forget. Each had at least 1 pick (maybe 2 each). Kemp was floating his shorter passes, especially on the sideline. In quick slant/cut routes he was steadily behind his WRs which lead to either drops or plays that never developed. Nate was floating a lot of his passes and real hesistant to attack downfield.
- Taylor Tuliapupu has had some good success in the last few days but today with the pads on I saw Brauer and Bradshaw pushing his face into the ground a few times today and I don't recall seeing him getting into the backfield much.
- Clay Peirson to TE is a work in progress, he's the 1st string guy right now and while he is showing great athleticism in his route running his blocking tends to be a little suspect and his catching isn't the best, but it's early, this is work in progress.
- Jordan Canada really didn't do a lot in the 11 on 11 drills, he was trying to stretch out some zone-block run plays and was stopped for a loss. This could be a product of him not cutting well on the wet grass or the Oline not opening very good holes for him (or both).
- Our corners outside of Sean Murray are having issues stopping or containing the running backs when they get around the edge.
- Josh Stuberg I didn't really see messing up but I heard about it from his DC and position coach, Ty Gregorak was shouting at him early and often today, "OH MAN STU! It's gonna be a LONG DAY for you!" Mostly it came on passing plays so I'm assuming bad coverage.
---------------
Tomorrow is the first scrimmage, unfortunately I'll be missing it as I'm helping out at the GSA Poker Shootout which starts at the same time roughly. I'll put up a post in the morning on some things I'm expecting to happen tomorrow.
