So, just got back, great day for practice, perfect weather and got me psyched for the season. Some quick observations/opinions. Whitmer is definitely #1. Gets the ball out on time and on target. Has a good arm and the offense is much more crisp with him in. Nebrich, while he looked good in some drills, still holds onto the ball too long and his release is too slow, although better than last year. Johnny Mac is clearly #3 and it just seems as if the game has never slowed down for him. Bennett looked good at LT, but Kevin Friend was out with a slight hammy so Masters jumped in at RT. Bullock in with the1’s at center. Lyle looked good and was impressed by Joe Williams at RB. Is explosive and I can see why there was a lot of talk about him during the spring. WR’s overall looked good. Phillips is a specimen and looked very good. Mike Smith looks like a man looking to make up for a lost year and is more focused than I’ve seen him. They even had him working out of the Wildcat a few plays. Nick Williams looks great. He HAS to get the ball 8-10 times a game this year. He runs the best routes and is by far the best in space. Was very impressed with Kamal Abrams today. Made some very good catches, especially one across the middle in a crowd. Ricky Gutierrez also jumped out at me as a very good athlete; very smooth and seemed to fit in well for a freshman. Overall, although the D was ahead of the O as you would expect at this point in time, the O did some nice things at times.
On D, not having Shamar out there made us very thin at DT, both literally and figuratively. Pruitt ran along with Wirth with the 1’s, but losing Stephens would hurt majorly. At LB, Sio was out today. Talked with him after and he said he was good, just a precaution. Smallwood was in and out, and Ashiru and Donahue ran with Jory Johnson most of the day. At CB, Blidi and Gratz were Blidi and Gratz, but I was impressed with David Stevenson. Although small, he looks much stronger and even stripped a number of balls including one from Shakim during the two minute drill. With him and Taylor Mack, hopefully we’ll not be as thin behind our All Big East starters. He is intense. Tymeer Brown was wearing a yellow injury jersey and Andrew Adams ran with Byron Jones. A couple of other freshman got some time. Jhavon Williams ran with the 3’s at corner and looked good and Omaine Stephens was with the 3’s at LB. Didn’t see the big kid from Denmark out there today. Richard Levy, the OT from N.J. is huge for a freshman. He definitely is an example of the staff’s emphasis on prototypical size in recruits.
Overall a great day, crowd was a bit sparse compared to other years, but it was nice to see some familiar faces. Looking forward to next week.
