GENERAL NEWS AND NOTES
VU held its first of two practices starting a bit after 6 and stretching to around 7:30. The second, closed to the public, starts in the 4 o’clock hour today. That will be the last practice of the preseason that’s open to the media and I plan to be there for it.
Coaches were not made available to the media today.
NON-PARTICIPANTS
OL Andrew Jelks (done for the year)
DL Riley Tindol
OLB Caleb Peart (foot in boot)
WR Chandler Dorrell
WR Caleb Scott
WR Darrius Sims
S Ryan White
S Austin Quillen
OLB Andre Mintze
C Cole Hardin
QB Shawn Stankavage (done for the year)
LB Jay Hockaday
ILB Josh Smith
LIMITED PARTICIPANTS
LB Charles Wright
DT Jay Woods
INDIVIDUAL NOTES
Add Hockaday to the list of non-participants; that was a first.
I did see Tindol doing some light jogging today; I’m not saying for sure that he hasn’t for sure, but I hadn’t noticed.
I still didn’t see Hardin on the field anywhere.
Josh Smith was on the field or sidelines today.
WR Latevius Rayford, who hasn’t been much of a factor, caught the first pass in scrimmage conditions today on the scrimmage’s first snap. VU was running a three-receiver set in what was an end-of-half drill.
Someone coughed up a fumble on the first drive; my view was blocked but I’m pretty sure it was RB Ralph Webb because he was the only RB in the game at the time.
PK Tommy Openshaw drilled a 40-yard field goal.
QB Wade Freebeck found a wide-open TE Nathan Marcus for about a 30-yard gain.
DE Dare Odeyingbo had a nice stop for loss, I think it was on RB Josh Crawford.
TE Jared Pinkey found a seam about 20 yards downfield and hauled in a pass from QB Kyle Shurmur. Unfortunately for him, S LaDarius Wiley was right behind him and popped him hard, knocking the ball straight up in the air where ILB Zach Cunningham caught it and ran a good 20 yards.
On the next play, ILB Nigel Bowden made a nice break-up on another ball intended for Pinkney.
TEAM NOTES
The top two tight ends seem to be Nathan Marcus and Jared Pinkney.
S Arnold Tarpley, who’s primarily been the team’s nicely in recent years, was playing some free safety today. I’m sure this has something to do with White being out recently.
I didn’t notice any changes to the starting 22, other than where they’re plugging in for White.
DL Adam Butler was manning the middle of the defensive line when DT Nifae Lealao wasn’t.
Special teams coach Jeff Genyk has talked about an all-hands-on-deck approach on special teams. He appears to mean it; I noticed OLB Oren Burks, S Emmanuel Smith and CB Tre Herndon among others on the punt team today.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
For those of you concerned about contact, I didn’t see a lot of guys go to the ground this morning.
Also, players had summer school finals today and it’s been a rough week for some players with academic demands this week. That may have something to do with Hardin’s absence, but I haven’t confirmed it yet.
I did see Josh Smith wander in after practice. Again, not sure if there was a class conflict or not, but the bad news is that he had some sort of wrap or soft cast that ran from his fingers and well up his arm. That wasn’t exactly encouraging.
After seeing RB Jamauri Wakefield do some really good things last week, I’m not seeing him nearly as much in scrimmage action after those two fumbles over the weekend. Crawford seems the clear No. 2 and RB Khari Blasingame might even be the No. 3. Blasingame continues to be a really pleasant surprise—if you missed it, he had a 99-yard dash yesterday. That said, Wakefield did get in near the end of practice and broke off about a 10-yard run.
Someone asked me to watch P Sam Loy today. I’ve been covering the team since 2003 and while my memory has certainly faded in that time, I can’t remember seeing a freshman punter who made a better fall camp impression than he does. Loy has all the tools: he can kick for height and distance and even execute rugby-style kicks, or shorter kicks where they wobble more than spiral, which makes it more difficult to catch. The job’s going to be his.
I referenced Pinkney earlier a few times. We’ll see how today’s turnover affects things, but it seems to me he’ll be the tight end with the biggest role in the offense, based on reps and touches. That’s certainly how I’d play it. Justin Angel and I talked about him yesterday; between the receiving skills, the speed and the blocking ability, we think he’s an NFL tight end. In preseason, we talked about about how he had the skills but was still very raw, and had to make the leap to making it translate to performance. He’s well on his way to doing that, and that has to be some of the best news of camp.
VU held its first of two practices starting a bit after 6 and stretching to around 7:30. The second, closed to the public, starts in the 4 o’clock hour today. That will be the last practice of the preseason that’s open to the media and I plan to be there for it.
Coaches were not made available to the media today.
NON-PARTICIPANTS
OL Andrew Jelks (done for the year)
DL Riley Tindol
OLB Caleb Peart (foot in boot)
WR Chandler Dorrell
WR Caleb Scott
WR Darrius Sims
S Ryan White
S Austin Quillen
OLB Andre Mintze
C Cole Hardin
QB Shawn Stankavage (done for the year)
LB Jay Hockaday
ILB Josh Smith
LIMITED PARTICIPANTS
LB Charles Wright
DT Jay Woods
INDIVIDUAL NOTES
Add Hockaday to the list of non-participants; that was a first.
I did see Tindol doing some light jogging today; I’m not saying for sure that he hasn’t for sure, but I hadn’t noticed.
I still didn’t see Hardin on the field anywhere.
Josh Smith was on the field or sidelines today.
WR Latevius Rayford, who hasn’t been much of a factor, caught the first pass in scrimmage conditions today on the scrimmage’s first snap. VU was running a three-receiver set in what was an end-of-half drill.
Someone coughed up a fumble on the first drive; my view was blocked but I’m pretty sure it was RB Ralph Webb because he was the only RB in the game at the time.
PK Tommy Openshaw drilled a 40-yard field goal.
QB Wade Freebeck found a wide-open TE Nathan Marcus for about a 30-yard gain.
DE Dare Odeyingbo had a nice stop for loss, I think it was on RB Josh Crawford.
TE Jared Pinkey found a seam about 20 yards downfield and hauled in a pass from QB Kyle Shurmur. Unfortunately for him, S LaDarius Wiley was right behind him and popped him hard, knocking the ball straight up in the air where ILB Zach Cunningham caught it and ran a good 20 yards.
On the next play, ILB Nigel Bowden made a nice break-up on another ball intended for Pinkney.
TEAM NOTES
The top two tight ends seem to be Nathan Marcus and Jared Pinkney.
S Arnold Tarpley, who’s primarily been the team’s nicely in recent years, was playing some free safety today. I’m sure this has something to do with White being out recently.
I didn’t notice any changes to the starting 22, other than where they’re plugging in for White.
DL Adam Butler was manning the middle of the defensive line when DT Nifae Lealao wasn’t.
Special teams coach Jeff Genyk has talked about an all-hands-on-deck approach on special teams. He appears to mean it; I noticed OLB Oren Burks, S Emmanuel Smith and CB Tre Herndon among others on the punt team today.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
For those of you concerned about contact, I didn’t see a lot of guys go to the ground this morning.
Also, players had summer school finals today and it’s been a rough week for some players with academic demands this week. That may have something to do with Hardin’s absence, but I haven’t confirmed it yet.
I did see Josh Smith wander in after practice. Again, not sure if there was a class conflict or not, but the bad news is that he had some sort of wrap or soft cast that ran from his fingers and well up his arm. That wasn’t exactly encouraging.
After seeing RB Jamauri Wakefield do some really good things last week, I’m not seeing him nearly as much in scrimmage action after those two fumbles over the weekend. Crawford seems the clear No. 2 and RB Khari Blasingame might even be the No. 3. Blasingame continues to be a really pleasant surprise—if you missed it, he had a 99-yard dash yesterday. That said, Wakefield did get in near the end of practice and broke off about a 10-yard run.
Someone asked me to watch P Sam Loy today. I’ve been covering the team since 2003 and while my memory has certainly faded in that time, I can’t remember seeing a freshman punter who made a better fall camp impression than he does. Loy has all the tools: he can kick for height and distance and even execute rugby-style kicks, or shorter kicks where they wobble more than spiral, which makes it more difficult to catch. The job’s going to be his.
I referenced Pinkney earlier a few times. We’ll see how today’s turnover affects things, but it seems to me he’ll be the tight end with the biggest role in the offense, based on reps and touches. That’s certainly how I’d play it. Justin Angel and I talked about him yesterday; between the receiving skills, the speed and the blocking ability, we think he’s an NFL tight end. In preseason, we talked about about how he had the skills but was still very raw, and had to make the leap to making it translate to performance. He’s well on his way to doing that, and that has to be some of the best news of camp.
