More Texas Practice Reports from Thursday and Friday.
They put on pads on Friday, so they started hitting a little more but not much. The defense is coming together. Okam is still running first team at nose tackle ahead of Dibbles, and looks great, as does Wright. The starting DEs are also looking good. The first team lines going against each other is pretty much a stalemate so far as they are equally matched. A couple true freshman Miller (DT) and Lewis (DE) continue to be impressive and should add depth on the DL.
At linebacker they had Killebrew at WLB and they rotated Bobino and Kelson at SLB. Bobino was lightly regarded coming out of high school because he is only about 5-9 1/2, but he has had little trouble beating out 4 star guys. He plays with a lot of energy and is a very good tackler. He was also practicing returning kickoffs, so as you can imagine he is pretty fast for a LB. Kelson is a converted safety who is a big run stopper, who gives us a base nickel look when he is in. Kill (as he is called) is a very talented linebacker who struggled with consistency in the past, but looks better now. It looks like these three will be our OLB rotation, with Bobino working both sides.
At DB Aaron Ross and Tarel Brown, both JRs, are still in hot competition for Brown's old corner spot. They both look excellent in press coverage, and have made numerous breakups and a few pics. I think Brown looks better, but some other think Ross. I actually think they have both surpassed Cedric Griffin who is supposed to be our lockdown corner. Cedric always has tight coverage, but is often not close enough to break up a perfectly located pass. Huff (SS) and Michael Griffin (FS) have both looked good, controlling their areas in zone coverage and man. Michael has been beaten deep a couple times for TDs, but is generally OK in coverage. Just as a bit of backgraound we play four CBs in the defensive backfield, a neccessity brought on by having to face Tech every year. The backup safeties Bobby Tatum and Marcus Griffin, both Sophs, have not looked as sharp, but should be OK backups. Marcus had an INT Thursday, but also got beat badly on a couple medium crossing patterns. Tatum has been a little more consistent.
The OL is already in early season form, since they arrived in great condition and have a full years experience working together. Their adjustments to stunts and chosing double teams is virtually automatic. While the center Sendlein didn't start last year he played about 50% of the time, including the most critical parts of games like the 4th quarter of the Rose Bowl, so he isn't really new. With three backups back from last year, the backup line is also solid and playing well as a unit. Don't be surprised to see the entire line substituted at times.
RB is still a big question mark for us. Selvin Young would sometimes look like a fullback speedwise. He seems to have lost a step from gaining so much weight the past two years. He is effective running and receiving, but I don't know how productive he will be against a good defense. They keep trying to use Ramonce in plays that aren't in our base offense in order to get him outside more and our defense generally shuts them down. He looks OK when he gets a regular handoff and has made a couple big plays up the middle. The biggest surprise has been the true Freshman Wilkerson. He is like a jittterbug weaving his way through the line of schimmage, usually untouched. He is only 175, so he won't be a feature back, but may be a change of pace guy who might play. Another true Freshman Henry Melton is a 270 pounder playing tailback who is a big bruiser and much quicker than you would expect. He has had a couple big runs, but I don't know if the coaches will us him at RB this year, or move him someplace else. The other Freshman back Charles finally got the OK from the clearinghouse, but had not done anything yet.
Vince has looked very sharp passing. His passes are on target about 80% of the time during 7 on 7 and 11 on 11 drills. He still side or 3/4 arms most of the short and medium routs, but the short passes are accurate and get there quickly. He uses a better motion on is longer passes, 30+ yards out, and they are very accurate and well thrown. The team is still working on a lot of 20+ yard routes in an attempt to stretch the field more. The primary backup Nordgren has been sharp at times and shaky at times. He doesn't have as strong an arm as Vince, but he has a better delivery. He has also been intercepted about 3 times as much a Vince.
At wide receiver you probably heard that Shipley went down with a hamstring injury. He walked of the field without limpng too badly, so I expect he will be back at practice in a week or so. A lot of the other receivers are looking very good. On a couple plays Sweed (who wears #4) gave me flashbacks of Roy Williams. He is running good routes, getting open and making catches. His backups at SE Hardy and Gatewood have also been playing exceptionally well. At flanker Billy Pittman continues to get behind CBs pretty much at will, and Jones and Carter have looked solid. We certainly have good quality depth at WR now, The questions will be if any of the guys emerge as real stars.
They ran kickoff drills on Thursday. McGee who is are kickoff guy and was playing hurt the last 4 or 5 games of last season is healthy and his distance has improved. He was kicking with good hang time to within +/- 2 yards of the goal line. Gerland (FR) kicks it 3-5 yards deep but with less hang time. Our coaches tend to favor hang time, so I expect they will go with McGee. They were also running a series of drills to sort out which players perform better in kick coverage situations. The kick coverage team will no doubt continue to get special attention.
They also ran similar drills with the Punt unit on Friday with the starting DBs getting the most action at gunner. Younger guys like Quan Cosby and Wilkerson are getting serious looks at returner, along with Ramonce and Selvin. Shipley looked real good at PR catching everything even the real short kicks, but with his injury situation, you probably won't see him there.
You probably also heard that our practices are closed now, so I won't have another report until after our Fan Appreciation Day next Saturday.
