Updates and observations after early session:
With this being the first day in pads, they got things started right with Oklahoma drills, and there was some pretty good popping going on.
The two biggest highlights were Jacques Patrick getting the best of Janarius Robinson and a pancake block by Keith Gavin. We'll have a story on the first day in full pads coming shortly.
Watching the linebackers, it looked like the first group was Dontavious Jackson in the middle with Josh Brown and DeCalon Brooks on the outside. Then the second group was Leonard Warner in the middle, with Amari Gainer and Adonis Thomas on the outside.
In the WR drills, thought it was interesting that Ontaria Wilson was at the front of the line for some of the drills. Taggart said before practice that Wilson looks like a natural WR. They're very happy with his move from CB.
Coach Kelly singled out walk-on Tyrell Moorer during one of the drills. Moorer is from Jacksonville and started his career at Georgia Southern. "Moorer, you have made SO MUCH improvement in the last week. I like what you're doing." It was cool that he kinda stopped the drill to offer that positive reinforcement.
One of the things Kelly spent some time on early was showing the WRs proper technique for taking handoffs on jet sweeps and also how to properly sell the fake when they don't get it.
The quarterbacks are not wearing green non-contact jerseys, even though they're in full pads. Francois was taking part in the early drills we saw, along with Blackman and Hockman. One of the things they were doing was taking shotgun snaps while a manager would throw a big bouncing ball near them to try to simulate a diving pass-rusher. Think Aslan got some video of that.
The group of injured players included: Adam Torres, Alec Eberle, Emmett Rice, Josh Kaindoh, George Campbell and Baveon Johnson. They were all dressed out and doing their rehab work.
That's it for now. Will have more coverage coming shortly.
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We just had interviews with DJ Matthews, Wally Aime, Jacques Patrick and Coach Taggart.
Today is the first day in full pads. Patrick said he’s excited for it because it separates the pretenders from the contenders. He also said he likes what he’s seen from the offense so far.
Matthews talked a lot about how he fits in this offense and said he didn’t have a good explanation for why he couldn’t get on the field sooner.
Aime talked about his transition to defensive end and why he’s liked it. He said he’s been watching a lot of JJ Watt video to learn more about the position.
Taggart talked about Matthews and how his speed is special. He also discussed being in full pads but said they won’t do a lot of full tackling except in scrimmages.
Said they will have a situational scrimmage this Saturday, a full scrimmage the following Saturday and then the spring game.
We’ll have videos of the interviews up soon.
One injury note was we saw Cole Minshew with his left foot in a boot.
We also will have our observation period beginning shortly. So stay tuned.
With this being the first day in pads, they got things started right with Oklahoma drills, and there was some pretty good popping going on.
The two biggest highlights were Jacques Patrick getting the best of Janarius Robinson and a pancake block by Keith Gavin. We'll have a story on the first day in full pads coming shortly.
Watching the linebackers, it looked like the first group was Dontavious Jackson in the middle with Josh Brown and DeCalon Brooks on the outside. Then the second group was Leonard Warner in the middle, with Amari Gainer and Adonis Thomas on the outside.
In the WR drills, thought it was interesting that Ontaria Wilson was at the front of the line for some of the drills. Taggart said before practice that Wilson looks like a natural WR. They're very happy with his move from CB.
Coach Kelly singled out walk-on Tyrell Moorer during one of the drills. Moorer is from Jacksonville and started his career at Georgia Southern. "Moorer, you have made SO MUCH improvement in the last week. I like what you're doing." It was cool that he kinda stopped the drill to offer that positive reinforcement.
One of the things Kelly spent some time on early was showing the WRs proper technique for taking handoffs on jet sweeps and also how to properly sell the fake when they don't get it.
The quarterbacks are not wearing green non-contact jerseys, even though they're in full pads. Francois was taking part in the early drills we saw, along with Blackman and Hockman. One of the things they were doing was taking shotgun snaps while a manager would throw a big bouncing ball near them to try to simulate a diving pass-rusher. Think Aslan got some video of that.
The group of injured players included: Adam Torres, Alec Eberle, Emmett Rice, Josh Kaindoh, George Campbell and Baveon Johnson. They were all dressed out and doing their rehab work.
That's it for now. Will have more coverage coming shortly.
----------------
We just had interviews with DJ Matthews, Wally Aime, Jacques Patrick and Coach Taggart.
Today is the first day in full pads. Patrick said he’s excited for it because it separates the pretenders from the contenders. He also said he likes what he’s seen from the offense so far.
Matthews talked a lot about how he fits in this offense and said he didn’t have a good explanation for why he couldn’t get on the field sooner.
Aime talked about his transition to defensive end and why he’s liked it. He said he’s been watching a lot of JJ Watt video to learn more about the position.
Taggart talked about Matthews and how his speed is special. He also discussed being in full pads but said they won’t do a lot of full tackling except in scrimmages.
Said they will have a situational scrimmage this Saturday, a full scrimmage the following Saturday and then the spring game.
We’ll have videos of the interviews up soon.
One injury note was we saw Cole Minshew with his left foot in a boot.
We also will have our observation period beginning shortly. So stay tuned.
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