GENERAL NEWS AND NOTES
After a morning practice that went for approximately an hour, VU held its second practice of Friday. It wasn’t as physical as the morning’s, as the players weren’t in pads.
This is the last preseason practice open to the media.
I heard coach Derek Mason on the radio this morning saying that they had about 10 more days of installation before the South Carolina team, for what it’s worth.
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
LB Charles Wright
LIMITED PARTICIPANTS
DT Jay Woods
INDIVIDUAL NOTES
Hardin was back at practice today. Unfortunately he was in a red jersey on crutches with a wrap around one knee.
Lewis is a new addition to the list of those not fully participating in practice.
Josh Smith was back at practice today, his arm (wrist) in some sort of cast, which we’d noted earlier.
I had not noticed this until this afternoon (it may not have been there) but Wright had his right foot in a boot.
WR C.J. Duncan had a terrific diving grab on a throw from QB Wade Freebeck in 7-on-7s.
RB Jamauri Wakefield, who’s seeing more reps again, had a 13-yard catch from Freebeck in 7-on-7s.
WR Kalijah Lipscomb had a very nice catch just inside the back of the end zone in 7-on-7s from QB Kyle Shurmur.
WR Latevius Rayford caught about a 20-yard ball from Shurmur during scrimmage conditions.
Lipscomb beat CB Tre Herndon with a nice 15-yard grab from Shurmur.
Shurmur made a really nice play, weaving through the trash to find WR Trent Sherfield for a short TD toss.
S Emmanuel Smith had a pick of Freebeck today on the last play of practice.
TEAM NOTES
PK Tommy Openshaw was the kickoff man today, with PK Hayden Lekacz getting next reps, and walk-on PK Riley Guay coming next. Openshaw had the best day. I doubt Guay will be a factor with the other two having experience, but he did hit one inside the 5 today and drew praise from special teams coach Jeff Genyk.
Genyk was doing a lot of instructing and seemed fairly pleased with how things were executed.
RB Ralph Webb got the first reps as a return man, with Duncan second. RB Dallas Rivers, WR Donaven Tennyson, WR Trey Ellis were also back deep
Again, the kickoff team has some names on it: ILB Zach Cunningham, CB Torren McGaster, OLB Oren Burks among guys taking reps on what appeared to be the first team.
DE Dare Odeyingbo was getting some first-team reps on the outside today. I wouldn’t read too much into that because they’d moved DE Adam Butler inside and were letting DT Nifae Lealao run with the second-team, and I’m pretty sure Lealo’s not going to be running on the second team.
DB Taurean Ferguson had nice coverage at times today. At the times I’ve watched him, he’s really having a solid camp.
S Arnold Tarpley was playing some nickel today even when Burks was in the game.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The big take-away was that I asked Mason about the injury situation outside of Jelks and Stankavage being done for the year, and he said it’s not a big deal. I pressed him further and essentially most of the guys out now are nicked up and should be okay.
That said, seeing Hardin on crutches is a concern. Yes, they have more bodies who can play than we saw a year ago, but so many of those guys still haven’t had SEC snaps. Jelks was going to be the center, Hardin got a lot of reps in the spring, C Ean Pfeifer has been erratic with snaps at times and isn’t getting a lot of reps, and with C Barrett Gouger now manning that spot consistently, you could sort of argue that he was the fourth option at that position—not necessarily the fourth-best player, because I think they wanted to use him as a sub—but you get the point.
Gouger could have played reps at guard, where they’re a bit thin—yes, G Bruno Reagan is a nice luxury as a second-teamer there—but if Gouger’s out of the mix at guard then it’s basically Reagan and Delando Crooks and and Edidio DellaRippa at guard, and … ?
And maybe that’s enough—I’m guessing most teams aren’t 5-6 deep with quality, experienced guards—but your margin of error has eroded considerably if the Hardin injury is serious.
I’d say they started the fall with considerable margin for error at linebacker, but the body toll is getting heavier there, especially with Smith and Wright’s situations in a cast and boot, respectively. Whether those are two guys “nicked up” or something worse, I don’t know.
Four to five days ago, I thought Freebeck had out-played Shurmur in spring and fall camps so far, though not by a huge margin. The last 3-4 days, the script has completely flipped. Obviously Freebeck is at a disadvantage because he’s playing with reserves a good bit of the time (though going up against them a lot, too) but Shurmur has really stepped up his game and is making big-time throws to go with making very, very few mistakes.
I’m not necessarily saying that Shurmur’s going to lead the league in passing or anything; they haven’t much tried to stretch the field until the last two days and I do think they want a lot of their identity to be as a power running team. And I’ve also seen QBs who look fairly good in camp and fall on their faces later. But from what I’ve seen of Shurmur and what they think of him as a leader, I think that position’s in capable hands, at least.
I was not high on VU’s backup running backs coming into spring. I left spring drills feeling a little better, and leave fall camp feeling a little better still. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a world-beating group, but I think they’ve got some serviceable options behind Webb to rest him more than they did a year ago.
After a morning practice that went for approximately an hour, VU held its second practice of Friday. It wasn’t as physical as the morning’s, as the players weren’t in pads.
This is the last preseason practice open to the media.
I heard coach Derek Mason on the radio this morning saying that they had about 10 more days of installation before the South Carolina team, for what it’s worth.
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
LB Charles Wright
LIMITED PARTICIPANTS
DT Jay Woods
INDIVIDUAL NOTES
Hardin was back at practice today. Unfortunately he was in a red jersey on crutches with a wrap around one knee.
Lewis is a new addition to the list of those not fully participating in practice.
Josh Smith was back at practice today, his arm (wrist) in some sort of cast, which we’d noted earlier.
I had not noticed this until this afternoon (it may not have been there) but Wright had his right foot in a boot.
WR C.J. Duncan had a terrific diving grab on a throw from QB Wade Freebeck in 7-on-7s.
RB Jamauri Wakefield, who’s seeing more reps again, had a 13-yard catch from Freebeck in 7-on-7s.
WR Kalijah Lipscomb had a very nice catch just inside the back of the end zone in 7-on-7s from QB Kyle Shurmur.
WR Latevius Rayford caught about a 20-yard ball from Shurmur during scrimmage conditions.
Lipscomb beat CB Tre Herndon with a nice 15-yard grab from Shurmur.
Shurmur made a really nice play, weaving through the trash to find WR Trent Sherfield for a short TD toss.
S Emmanuel Smith had a pick of Freebeck today on the last play of practice.
TEAM NOTES
PK Tommy Openshaw was the kickoff man today, with PK Hayden Lekacz getting next reps, and walk-on PK Riley Guay coming next. Openshaw had the best day. I doubt Guay will be a factor with the other two having experience, but he did hit one inside the 5 today and drew praise from special teams coach Jeff Genyk.
Genyk was doing a lot of instructing and seemed fairly pleased with how things were executed.
RB Ralph Webb got the first reps as a return man, with Duncan second. RB Dallas Rivers, WR Donaven Tennyson, WR Trey Ellis were also back deep
Again, the kickoff team has some names on it: ILB Zach Cunningham, CB Torren McGaster, OLB Oren Burks among guys taking reps on what appeared to be the first team.
DE Dare Odeyingbo was getting some first-team reps on the outside today. I wouldn’t read too much into that because they’d moved DE Adam Butler inside and were letting DT Nifae Lealao run with the second-team, and I’m pretty sure Lealo’s not going to be running on the second team.
DB Taurean Ferguson had nice coverage at times today. At the times I’ve watched him, he’s really having a solid camp.
S Arnold Tarpley was playing some nickel today even when Burks was in the game.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The big take-away was that I asked Mason about the injury situation outside of Jelks and Stankavage being done for the year, and he said it’s not a big deal. I pressed him further and essentially most of the guys out now are nicked up and should be okay.
That said, seeing Hardin on crutches is a concern. Yes, they have more bodies who can play than we saw a year ago, but so many of those guys still haven’t had SEC snaps. Jelks was going to be the center, Hardin got a lot of reps in the spring, C Ean Pfeifer has been erratic with snaps at times and isn’t getting a lot of reps, and with C Barrett Gouger now manning that spot consistently, you could sort of argue that he was the fourth option at that position—not necessarily the fourth-best player, because I think they wanted to use him as a sub—but you get the point.
Gouger could have played reps at guard, where they’re a bit thin—yes, G Bruno Reagan is a nice luxury as a second-teamer there—but if Gouger’s out of the mix at guard then it’s basically Reagan and Delando Crooks and and Edidio DellaRippa at guard, and … ?
And maybe that’s enough—I’m guessing most teams aren’t 5-6 deep with quality, experienced guards—but your margin of error has eroded considerably if the Hardin injury is serious.
I’d say they started the fall with considerable margin for error at linebacker, but the body toll is getting heavier there, especially with Smith and Wright’s situations in a cast and boot, respectively. Whether those are two guys “nicked up” or something worse, I don’t know.
Four to five days ago, I thought Freebeck had out-played Shurmur in spring and fall camps so far, though not by a huge margin. The last 3-4 days, the script has completely flipped. Obviously Freebeck is at a disadvantage because he’s playing with reserves a good bit of the time (though going up against them a lot, too) but Shurmur has really stepped up his game and is making big-time throws to go with making very, very few mistakes.
I’m not necessarily saying that Shurmur’s going to lead the league in passing or anything; they haven’t much tried to stretch the field until the last two days and I do think they want a lot of their identity to be as a power running team. And I’ve also seen QBs who look fairly good in camp and fall on their faces later. But from what I’ve seen of Shurmur and what they think of him as a leader, I think that position’s in capable hands, at least.
I was not high on VU’s backup running backs coming into spring. I left spring drills feeling a little better, and leave fall camp feeling a little better still. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a world-beating group, but I think they’ve got some serviceable options behind Webb to rest him more than they did a year ago.
