Today's practice featured an extended scrimmage; it was really like having a full blown spring game. Team stretched and did individual drills for maybe 20 minutes and then it was all scrimmage until the final whistle.
Graham was very pleased with today's performance on both sides of the ball. Here is my take on what I saw on defense (Ralph will chime in with the offensive report).
If you recall Thursday's report Adam said that Ami Latu wasn't able to finish practice that day due to a knee injury and today was wearing a green jersey and was held out of the scrimmage. Antonio Longino, Armand Perry, Ezekiel Bishop and Mo Latu were still out of contact as well.
So here is how the depth chart looked in light of those injuries and other personnel movements:
1st team:
DL: Edmond Boateng (DE), Demetrius Cherry (NOSE), Emanuel Dayries (TIGER), A.J. Latu (DEVIL)
LB: Carlos Mendoza (WILL), Salamo Fiso (SAM), Marcus Ball (SPUR)
DB: Lloyd Carrington (Field CB), Solomon Means (Boundary CB), Jordan Simone (Bandit Safety), James Johnson (Free Safety) and he was a new addition to wearing the PT 42 Camouflage jersey
2nd Team:
DL: Renell Wren (DE), Connor Humphreys (NOSE), Tashon Smallwood (TIGER), Ismael Murphy-Richardson (DEVIL)
LB: D.J. Calhoun (WILL), Christian Sam (SAM), Luke Williams (SPUR)
DB: Ronald Lewis (Field CB), Jayme Otomewo (Boundary CB), Dasmond Tautalatasi (Bandit S), Chad Adams (Free S)
While the offense did have a fine day today, most of their big plays and scores came on the ground. At times I thought that players such as Mendoza, Sam did well run stopping, but notice I'm not mentioning any interior linemen. This is because the offensive line really had its way run blocking so in that sense not a good day for the defense.
On the other hand, pass defense was a whole different story and frankly I thought the offense despite good pass protection for the most part, really had a rough day. Carrington blanketed D.J. Foster, who only towards the end was able to shake off the coverage for a few plays. The other receivers had a very hard time with their coverage they were facing.
DeAndre Scott had a pick six on Brady White. Chad Adams, who overall had one of his best practices intercepted a downfield pass by Bercovici and one that probably the quarterback would want to have back as that pass was thrown across his body and perhaps was overly ambitious.
The best interception of the day was by Marcus Ball (I believe it was a Wilkins pass) who was able to catch a tipped ball right before it hit the ground. Depth at safety seemed like a concern when spring practice started, but that really wasn't the case today.
Means had a pass breakup in the end zone, for the most part Lewis and Otomewo played well. Luke Williams at Spur is taking advantage of Mendoza being a Swiss army knife and seemingly playing at a different linebacker spot every day, and was really flashing out there today, as was Mendoza himself. Mendoza is proving that when healthy he is a true asset in an already very deep linebacker group.
Other players that stood out were Renell Wrenn who had a couple of sacks, and finally looked like someone who could possibly challenge Boateng for a starting role. Murphy-Richardson batted a pass down and a tackle for loss. Ballage looked good again in pass rush situations, had a sack on Wilkins. Walk-on Tramel Topps had a sack. George Lea looked better today and a sack as well.
On special teams it was a strong day for Matt Haack and his directional punting that is really challenging the punt return team. D.Scott and Means were the gunners on the punt team, and we even saw Foster take some reps there which was interesting. "Gump" Hayes and Brimhall were returning punts and kickoffs; Ballage was on kickoff returns as well. Gump actually took one kickoff return to the house, which atoned for the one he fumbled.
Overall, a pretty good day for the defense on some levels and certainly encouraging to see younger/seldom used players standout this morning and help the overall depth.
Graham was very pleased with today's performance on both sides of the ball. Here is my take on what I saw on defense (Ralph will chime in with the offensive report).
If you recall Thursday's report Adam said that Ami Latu wasn't able to finish practice that day due to a knee injury and today was wearing a green jersey and was held out of the scrimmage. Antonio Longino, Armand Perry, Ezekiel Bishop and Mo Latu were still out of contact as well.
So here is how the depth chart looked in light of those injuries and other personnel movements:
1st team:
DL: Edmond Boateng (DE), Demetrius Cherry (NOSE), Emanuel Dayries (TIGER), A.J. Latu (DEVIL)
LB: Carlos Mendoza (WILL), Salamo Fiso (SAM), Marcus Ball (SPUR)
DB: Lloyd Carrington (Field CB), Solomon Means (Boundary CB), Jordan Simone (Bandit Safety), James Johnson (Free Safety) and he was a new addition to wearing the PT 42 Camouflage jersey
2nd Team:
DL: Renell Wren (DE), Connor Humphreys (NOSE), Tashon Smallwood (TIGER), Ismael Murphy-Richardson (DEVIL)
LB: D.J. Calhoun (WILL), Christian Sam (SAM), Luke Williams (SPUR)
DB: Ronald Lewis (Field CB), Jayme Otomewo (Boundary CB), Dasmond Tautalatasi (Bandit S), Chad Adams (Free S)
While the offense did have a fine day today, most of their big plays and scores came on the ground. At times I thought that players such as Mendoza, Sam did well run stopping, but notice I'm not mentioning any interior linemen. This is because the offensive line really had its way run blocking so in that sense not a good day for the defense.
On the other hand, pass defense was a whole different story and frankly I thought the offense despite good pass protection for the most part, really had a rough day. Carrington blanketed D.J. Foster, who only towards the end was able to shake off the coverage for a few plays. The other receivers had a very hard time with their coverage they were facing.
DeAndre Scott had a pick six on Brady White. Chad Adams, who overall had one of his best practices intercepted a downfield pass by Bercovici and one that probably the quarterback would want to have back as that pass was thrown across his body and perhaps was overly ambitious.
The best interception of the day was by Marcus Ball (I believe it was a Wilkins pass) who was able to catch a tipped ball right before it hit the ground. Depth at safety seemed like a concern when spring practice started, but that really wasn't the case today.
Means had a pass breakup in the end zone, for the most part Lewis and Otomewo played well. Luke Williams at Spur is taking advantage of Mendoza being a Swiss army knife and seemingly playing at a different linebacker spot every day, and was really flashing out there today, as was Mendoza himself. Mendoza is proving that when healthy he is a true asset in an already very deep linebacker group.
Other players that stood out were Renell Wrenn who had a couple of sacks, and finally looked like someone who could possibly challenge Boateng for a starting role. Murphy-Richardson batted a pass down and a tackle for loss. Ballage looked good again in pass rush situations, had a sack on Wilkins. Walk-on Tramel Topps had a sack. George Lea looked better today and a sack as well.
On special teams it was a strong day for Matt Haack and his directional punting that is really challenging the punt return team. D.Scott and Means were the gunners on the punt team, and we even saw Foster take some reps there which was interesting. "Gump" Hayes and Brimhall were returning punts and kickoffs; Ballage was on kickoff returns as well. Gump actually took one kickoff return to the house, which atoned for the one he fumbled.
Overall, a pretty good day for the defense on some levels and certainly encouraging to see younger/seldom used players standout this morning and help the overall depth.
