Wednesday August 04, 2010

First Practice Observations

First Practice Observations
The Tigers went through the first day of fall camp yesterday and the media had a chance to watch the first 45 minutes. While it is difficult to tell a lot of things because it was the first day the team was in shorts, it was still interesting to watch a little of the first day.

The weather was fairly cool and the humidity was low for the first day. Also the practice fields looked unbelievable. I have been going to football practices on these fields for almost 25 years and I have never seen the fields look this good. Grounds supervisor K.C. Bell and his staff deserve a lot of credit.

Dabo’s practices are totally different than any I have ever seen. First, the guys have to have their helmets snapped and ready to go and each player touches a motivational sign before running on the field. The strength and conditioning staff is at the gate and makes sure every player follows those rules.

Another different aspect of Dabo’s practices is that they begin with a installation period. They players go about half speed but this is a period or two where a lot of installing the offense and defense takes place. It is basically like a chalkboard session on the field.

Then the team officially begins practice with a flex (stretching) period but another unique aspect of Dabo’s practice is the team stretches to music blasting over a speaker system. Today was Bruce Springsteen followed by a couple of hip hop songs.

The things I noticed add up to a typical first day. The few of the freshmen looked lost at times. There was some enthusiasm because of the first day but there were also mistakes.

The freshman jersey numbers were:
3-V. Beasley
6-D. Hopkins
6-T. Barnes
8 and 10-J. Parker (He wore both. Started with 10 but changed to 8).
17-B. Breeland
21-D. Robinson
22-DJ Howard
24-D. Buice
27-M. Jenkins
45-D. Brown
67-K. Davis
68-D. Beasley
70-G. Timothy
77-R. Webster
81-J. Craig
86-S. Cooper
91-J. Watson
95-T. Thomas

I tried to get a look at most of the freshmen to see how they looked physically. Vic Beasley is a good looking athlete. He will have to get bigger and stronger but he looks like a tight end that will be able to stretch the field. Sam Cooper is about what I expected physically.

I thought both running backs moved around pretty good. Demont Buice is a taller back. He looks 6-2.

DeAndre Hopkins really catches the ball well. Joe Craig is small but looks like he really can motor.

Of the offensive linemen, Kalon Davis has lost a ton of weight but he is still a huge individual. David Beasley is no small man either. Both Reid Webster and Gifford Timothy looked about like I expected but I did not see any of the offensive line in action.

Tavaris Barnes is a big body that looks like he could grow into a defensive tackle but he is currently playing defensive end. I did not get a good look at Tra Thomas or Josh Watson.

Justin Parker looks like the upperclassmen physically. He looks more like an inside guy to me. He was running with the second team linebackers.

Baushad Breeland is a little than I expected. Desmond Brown is shorter than I expected. Garry Peters is a little thicker than Darius Robinson and Martin Jenkins.

Corey Crawford and Evan McKelvey were not present because they have not made it through the clearinghouse yet.

One former walk-on caught my eye. Tyler Fowler is a huge red-shirt freshman offensive lineman from Cannon, GA. Fowler is now on scholarship. He is an interesting guy that came back to school after working in law enforcement for a while. He is also the only married player on the team to my knowledge now that Thomas Austin has graduated.

DeAndre McDaniel, Jaron Brown, Martin Jenkins, Rod McDowell, Bryce McNeal and DeAndre Hopkins were the punt returners on this day.

Brown and McDowell were the kick-off return guys.

I did not get a chance to see DaQuan Bowers move around but I did notice he was not wearing a knee brace for the first time in a while.

I thought Dawson Zimmerman punted very well but was not consistent.

Most of the offensive linemen looked to be in good shape. Antoine McClain looked trimmer than I remember ever seeing him. The same could be said for Chris Hairston. I did not get a good look at Mason Cloy, Dalton Freeman or David Smith.

I thought DeAndre McDaniel looked like the most athletic player on the field. He looked great fielding punts and moving around the field well.

I saw Quandon Christian at a restaurant in Clemson a few weeks ago and could tell he had been working hard and he showed up to camp in great shape. He has switched numbers again to number 34.

I thought Xavier Dye looked like he was a leader among the wide outs.

The defensive staff is full of energy. Charlie Harbison is constantly teaching. He is always giving each player a little nugget or tip on almost every play.

In the last period we were allowed to watch a friend pointed out that he did not see Landon Walker at practice. I took a quick glance walking by and did not see the starting right tackle either. An offensive assistant said after practice that he had an exam that he could not miss. Brandon Clear also missed for the same reason.

One final thought that I will touch upon more tomorrow is something I got from Woody McCorvey. I had a short conversation with the current associate athletic director for football administration in an attempt to congratulate him on being selected to a hall of fame back in his hometown. I asked him what he thought about his initial impressions of what he was seeing and his answer reminded me of some of the old days around here. I will write more about this observation in tomorrow’s blog but I thought this looked like good looking, big bodied football team.

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Those who need our prayers include:
Finn Brookover, RTG-Pawsitive Tiger, Mary-Louise Pawlowski (John's daughter), Jo Ann Bachman, Kenneth Bryant, Pruitt Martin, Got igers and his family, David Rowland, Leonard, Gillespie and his family, Jim S, Christine Hepfer, Daniel Rosborough, Amy Murphey, The Huffman family, Nancy Winkler, John Reeve, Ethel Southard, Vinnie Brock, Kaitlyn L, Susan Miller, Joyce Harley, Steve Proveaux, Jeffrey Greene, the Hutto family, Sherl Drawdy, Caleb Kennedy, Teresa O'Connor, Matt Jacobs,Perrin Seigler, Carole White Begley, Candee Massee, Lindsey Jordan, Sam Catoe, Tyler Felch, Steve Cato, the Nicolopulos family, Cason Palmer, Scott Jackson, "the Jacksonville, FL guys", Kim Sims, the Coyle familty, Ryleigh Tedder, Steve Lee, Richard Crawford, Kelly Trakas, Jimmy Moore, Steve Williams Jr, Steve Williams III, Kim Thomas, Reid Thomas, Sam Thomas, Linda Wiggs, Emily Claire Young, Dr. Wallace Honeycutt, Stacy Fowler, Kitty Bowers.