Disclaimer: These Camp Reports are only the opinions of those who write them so realize that not everyone will see things the same. Don't kill the messengers for maybe missing one or two things because trust me it is not easy to catch everything out there.
It was a nice day out there today. A nice warm sunny South Florida day. A hint of rain off in the distance brought a slight breeze in. The crowd was pretty good once again.
To the action.
The Qb's
Ferrotte went on a pretty good stretch of nice passes today. Connecting on a real sweet 50 pus yard pass for a TD. Don't kill me if I'm wrong here but I think it was either Josh Davis, or Kendall Newsone. I was too busy screaming, and when I looked over to see who caught it, there were 4 Wr's bunched together, walking back from the play. The pass was real nice, with a little air under it so the Wr could make whatever adjustment he needed. His next pass was a thread the needle pass in-between two defenders, right into McMikes hands. He sure improved from yesterday's evening practice.
Feeley might not have been as sharp on the longer passes today but he was throwing some nice midrange darts. He still telegraphs where he wants to go too much. Travis Daniel's made a real nicely timed breakup, which could have easily been an Int, on a curl in pattern. One thing I did notice, is that the coaches are working with both these guys after each round of plays.
Brock Berlin completed one nice pass, and almost found the side of the barn on the rest. All of the Qb's were playing catch early on, and Brock did not connect on one long pass. Being a Canes fan, I surely don't want to kill the kid, but he has been terrible to date.
Sage got in some work but not much. He threw up a wobbling duck that was actually completed for about 30 yds.
Rb's
Gordon had a nice couple of runs today. I think someone told him about the stuttering he does, or maybe he took a look at how Ricky does it because on his first run in 11 on 11 drills, he made one nice stutter to his right, while never losing his momentum. He gained about 13 yards against the number one D. However, he did have a couple of runs where went right back to taking too many steps.
Ricky moved up, to working with the second team, at least twice that I saw. He showed some great burst on the outside runs, and made some nice cuts. He's looking pretty darn good, and makes some a nice side step to avoid a first hit in the middle drills, where you know whets coming. Still easily the best of the bunch. David Bowens had two nice stops on Ricky today, but after at least a gain of 4 yards. Bowens was a Lb on one of the plays.
Minor has quietly had three nice practices in a row. He consistently making positive gains, on the inside runs as well.
KJ Harris showed some pretty nice cutting ability on one run to the outside. He made the DE stand up, and slipped easily to the inside of him. Not bad speed either. Plus when he goes into the middle, you can hear the hits. He's a bull.
Wr's
Chamber's was getting open, but only had a couple of balls thrown his way
McMike finally got into the action. He made one real nice catch on a low throw, that he dove for. He was the recipient of the nice thread the needle throw by Ferrotte, I think.
Thompson made one nice, one handed catch, and was wide open for a TD after that.
Gilmore made another nice catch on a long ball today, and he may have been the one who got the TD from Ferrotte. He was walking back with the other 4 I spoke of earlier.
Boston is looking pretty good folks. He was a little frustrated a couple of times today because he was open, and did not get the ball. He made one nice sideline grab too.
Wes Welker is getting some action at Wr as well. He got a couple of the underneath throws, and made some decent YAC using his speed to the sidelines.
Booker dropped one today, but it was a poor throw, and he had two other grabs that I remember after that.
Donald Lee must have dropped 4 passes today, so he gets the goat.
The Oline
Vernon Carey is holding his own folks. He is constantly going up against JT, and coming out way way way ahead of where Wade Smith ever dreamed. JT whopped him in one on ones a few times today but Carey was pissed each time. He seems to have much better arm strength, and when he locks up, he does not give way easily. He does have one glitch that I've seen. When a speed guy can get to his outside, he is slower in that direction that going in. Houck was working with him, telling him all it takes is a simple side step to get your leverage on him.
Seth McKinney got his lunch handed to him by Keith Traylor thruout the whole practice. In one on ones they have this assistant coach playing the part of the Qb. I swear he cannot be taller than 5'3'', and as soon as they said hike, he was looking for where he could get out of the way. Traylor had Mckinney back peddling on contact. In 11 on 11 drills he was doing the same thing. Not at all a good day for McKinney.
James was also beaten a few times during one on ones.
Whitley also had his lunch handed to him by Vickerson, and Shaw. He came back on his last one on one, and had a nice battle with Shaw though.
Wade Smith was again backing up at Center, and slowly he is progressing. You can tell sometimes that he is learning, but what makes the most sense here is that being the Center, he can use the strength of his legs to drive block. His upper body is not nearly strong enough to be a tackle, so this is it. He better improve or my guess is he's gone.
Hadnot was about even in one on ones, going against Holliday, and Romero.
MacDugal is a good match up for Roth. He takes the initial strike from Roth pretty good, and then drives him outside when he can. I would have to say that in one on ones Mac got the better of him today, but Roth never stops.
Ok enough oline for now.
The rest I'll just fly thru and take questions if anyone has them
Travis Daniel's was out there and making plays today, so I take it that his reported injury was nothing serious. He made one Int, and should have had a second. He is really good with his timing the throws so far.
MacDugal was holding it down on his side until they put JT over there, who immediately beat him for a sack. JT looks like he's having fun again.
Reggie Howard make a couple of nice pass defenses.
Seau did not practice.
Wright was more limited, and got a verbal abusing from Saban for some reason.
The defense is showing blitzes all over. On one play they had two Lb's and a Safety at the line. At the snap, both Lb's blitzed, and the Safety and the DE on the same side slipped back into coverage. They flood the left hoping the offense throws to the right which should be the weakside, when in fact it's covered. This is just one example. JT, Bowens, and Flemings are used as the Lb's so far.
I'm trying to find some consistencies from Saban here. So I see that on one day there is two practices, on the next there is only one. Well, today they had full pads on. I'm wondering if maybe on the two a days, he lets them wear only shorts, while on the one practice day, they pad up. We'll see tomorrow because I plan on going to the later session.
It was a nice day out there today. A nice warm sunny South Florida day. A hint of rain off in the distance brought a slight breeze in. The crowd was pretty good once again.
To the action.
The Qb's
Ferrotte went on a pretty good stretch of nice passes today. Connecting on a real sweet 50 pus yard pass for a TD. Don't kill me if I'm wrong here but I think it was either Josh Davis, or Kendall Newsone. I was too busy screaming, and when I looked over to see who caught it, there were 4 Wr's bunched together, walking back from the play. The pass was real nice, with a little air under it so the Wr could make whatever adjustment he needed. His next pass was a thread the needle pass in-between two defenders, right into McMikes hands. He sure improved from yesterday's evening practice.
Feeley might not have been as sharp on the longer passes today but he was throwing some nice midrange darts. He still telegraphs where he wants to go too much. Travis Daniel's made a real nicely timed breakup, which could have easily been an Int, on a curl in pattern. One thing I did notice, is that the coaches are working with both these guys after each round of plays.
Brock Berlin completed one nice pass, and almost found the side of the barn on the rest. All of the Qb's were playing catch early on, and Brock did not connect on one long pass. Being a Canes fan, I surely don't want to kill the kid, but he has been terrible to date.
Sage got in some work but not much. He threw up a wobbling duck that was actually completed for about 30 yds.
Rb's
Gordon had a nice couple of runs today. I think someone told him about the stuttering he does, or maybe he took a look at how Ricky does it because on his first run in 11 on 11 drills, he made one nice stutter to his right, while never losing his momentum. He gained about 13 yards against the number one D. However, he did have a couple of runs where went right back to taking too many steps.
Ricky moved up, to working with the second team, at least twice that I saw. He showed some great burst on the outside runs, and made some nice cuts. He's looking pretty darn good, and makes some a nice side step to avoid a first hit in the middle drills, where you know whets coming. Still easily the best of the bunch. David Bowens had two nice stops on Ricky today, but after at least a gain of 4 yards. Bowens was a Lb on one of the plays.
Minor has quietly had three nice practices in a row. He consistently making positive gains, on the inside runs as well.
KJ Harris showed some pretty nice cutting ability on one run to the outside. He made the DE stand up, and slipped easily to the inside of him. Not bad speed either. Plus when he goes into the middle, you can hear the hits. He's a bull.
Wr's
Chamber's was getting open, but only had a couple of balls thrown his way
McMike finally got into the action. He made one real nice catch on a low throw, that he dove for. He was the recipient of the nice thread the needle throw by Ferrotte, I think.
Thompson made one nice, one handed catch, and was wide open for a TD after that.
Gilmore made another nice catch on a long ball today, and he may have been the one who got the TD from Ferrotte. He was walking back with the other 4 I spoke of earlier.
Boston is looking pretty good folks. He was a little frustrated a couple of times today because he was open, and did not get the ball. He made one nice sideline grab too.
Wes Welker is getting some action at Wr as well. He got a couple of the underneath throws, and made some decent YAC using his speed to the sidelines.
Booker dropped one today, but it was a poor throw, and he had two other grabs that I remember after that.
Donald Lee must have dropped 4 passes today, so he gets the goat.
The Oline
Vernon Carey is holding his own folks. He is constantly going up against JT, and coming out way way way ahead of where Wade Smith ever dreamed. JT whopped him in one on ones a few times today but Carey was pissed each time. He seems to have much better arm strength, and when he locks up, he does not give way easily. He does have one glitch that I've seen. When a speed guy can get to his outside, he is slower in that direction that going in. Houck was working with him, telling him all it takes is a simple side step to get your leverage on him.
Seth McKinney got his lunch handed to him by Keith Traylor thruout the whole practice. In one on ones they have this assistant coach playing the part of the Qb. I swear he cannot be taller than 5'3'', and as soon as they said hike, he was looking for where he could get out of the way. Traylor had Mckinney back peddling on contact. In 11 on 11 drills he was doing the same thing. Not at all a good day for McKinney.
James was also beaten a few times during one on ones.
Whitley also had his lunch handed to him by Vickerson, and Shaw. He came back on his last one on one, and had a nice battle with Shaw though.
Wade Smith was again backing up at Center, and slowly he is progressing. You can tell sometimes that he is learning, but what makes the most sense here is that being the Center, he can use the strength of his legs to drive block. His upper body is not nearly strong enough to be a tackle, so this is it. He better improve or my guess is he's gone.
Hadnot was about even in one on ones, going against Holliday, and Romero.
MacDugal is a good match up for Roth. He takes the initial strike from Roth pretty good, and then drives him outside when he can. I would have to say that in one on ones Mac got the better of him today, but Roth never stops.
Ok enough oline for now.
The rest I'll just fly thru and take questions if anyone has them
Travis Daniel's was out there and making plays today, so I take it that his reported injury was nothing serious. He made one Int, and should have had a second. He is really good with his timing the throws so far.
MacDugal was holding it down on his side until they put JT over there, who immediately beat him for a sack. JT looks like he's having fun again.
Reggie Howard make a couple of nice pass defenses.
Seau did not practice.
Wright was more limited, and got a verbal abusing from Saban for some reason.
The defense is showing blitzes all over. On one play they had two Lb's and a Safety at the line. At the snap, both Lb's blitzed, and the Safety and the DE on the same side slipped back into coverage. They flood the left hoping the offense throws to the right which should be the weakside, when in fact it's covered. This is just one example. JT, Bowens, and Flemings are used as the Lb's so far.
I'm trying to find some consistencies from Saban here. So I see that on one day there is two practices, on the next there is only one. Well, today they had full pads on. I'm wondering if maybe on the two a days, he lets them wear only shorts, while on the one practice day, they pad up. We'll see tomorrow because I plan on going to the later session.
