Vanderbilt practiced for about two hours tonight, and I was there for basically all of it. Players were in helmets and full pads, and it was physical. Here are some thoughts.
INDIVIDUAL NOTES: OFFENSE
I continue to be really impressed with freshman RB Ja’Veon Marlow. I want to see more before I go all-out effusive with the praise, but man, he’s got all the potential to be very good. He’s tough between the tackles, has some elusiveness and can catch the ball a bit. The running back position just got a lot more competitive.
RB Jamauri Wakefield also had a really good day excepting a fumble, which seemed to come on limited contact. The best run he had was when he was hemmed in going left, reversed field, and sprinted 20 yards down the right hash marks. It’s always hard to tell when they don’t always blow the play dead as they would for real, but I think it would have been a TD in a real game. Wakefield also had some nice runs between the tackles.
I thought TE Jared Pinkney had the best practice he’s had in a year. Pinkney had at least three nice catches and some yards after the catch.
QB Mo Hasan showed pretty good mobility today, taking off and scrambling two or three times for decent yardage. I didn’t know he had it in him. At least today, he looked fairly comparable to Deuce Wallace in that regard.
I thought C Egidio DellaRipa had a really good day when I honed in on him today. He was really moving guys out of the way and I thought I even saw him make a second-level block once.
OL Grant Miller took some meaningful reps at center today. Andy Ludwig said he’d added 20 pounds. I’d heard Saturday that they really liked him and today I thought he was good in the 3-4 scrimmage reps that I watched him.
WR C.J. Bolar made a nice catch on a ball thrown a bit over his head.
WR Chris Pierce continues to be very solid and will be a factor.
Freshman TE Ben Bresnahan had a nice grab today, too.
INDIVIDUAL NOTES: DEFENSE
I thought DL Darion DeBrossard had a nice day. He took on double-teams fairly well and even got some push into the backfield a time or two. Some of it was scout-team work but I think some of it he did against some combo of first- and second-teamers. I think he’s the biggest guy they have in the middle. It’s something to watch, because he’s flipped sides of the ball a couple of times and did get some playing time on defense at the end of last year.
DL Stone Edwards had some reps inside today. I didn’t see anything outstanding but it seemed he did some little things they wanted, because two or three times, I heard the coaches praising him while he was on the field.
S Gil Barksdale had a diving pick of QB Allan Walters on a ball that was thrown way high and possibly tipped. Barksdale nearly had another pick, I think that came against QB Kyle Shurmur.
ILB Andrew Rector took reps with the first team aside ILB Jordan Griffin again today. It seems to be his job until someone takes it from him.
No surprise here, but DB Tae Daley was (I think) their starting nickel, which is how the spring ended IIRC.
CB JoeJuan Williams had a nice pass break-up at one point.
INDIVIDUAL NOTES: SPECIAL TEAMS
They don’t do live kickoff and punt reps, but guys getting return looks in simulations are Marlow, Bolar, WR Cam Johnson, WR Kalija Lipsomb, WR Donaven Tennyson, CB Allan George, and (I think) RB Josh Crawford.
Long snappers were Tommy Schiager and Zach Drevno. Both are listed on the roster exclusively as snappers. Both looked fine and I’m not sure I noticed a difference between the two.
Kick holders, when I watched, were P Pierson Cooke and P Harrison Smith. Smith was an excellent punter at Brentwood Academy. I had meant to mention earlier that he’s on the roster.
NON-PARTICIPANTS AND LIMITED PARTICIPANTS
I did not see starting OL Saige Young, anywhere, again. They don’t seem concerned that they’ll have him back, but it’s something we’ll continue to monitor.
New injury report: DE Dare Odeyingo was out tonight. He was on the field in a red jersey and no pads and was not participating in any way. I should have followed up with a question on that but failed to do so.
WR James Bostic was in a red jersey, again. He did a few drills but no scrimmaging.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The offense did just about whatever it wanted today in both the run and pass games, and (though I wasn’t there) my understanding is that Sunday’s practice was more of the same. I’d heard the passing game was exceptionally good on Sunday.
I’ve now seen about six hours of practices. The offensive line consistently gets push both up the middle and opens lanes on the edges, and does it consistently.
I was an open skeptic of the receiving corps. I’m much, much less concerned than I was. Lipscomb has been tremendous, Johnson has been excellent, Bolar can help them right away, and Pierce, if he’s asked to be a No. 3 or No. 4, instead of a No. 2, should be fine in that role. As I’ve said for a while, Tennyson and WR Alex Stump had better step up soon or they’ll get passed. I’m seeing more and more evidence of that every day.
Pinkey’s consistency will be huge. Obviously he has ability but just struggles to put it together for extended periods. Today was a positive. TE Ben Bresnahan, I think, can help right away. TE Gavin Schoenwald might, too, although they still have a capable TE Sam Dobbs and so they might be best off to redshirt one of he or Bresnahan. (TE Braden Kopp won’t be a factor in the passing game, and I’m not sure he’ll be much of a factor at all.)
Marlow, to me, is the wild card. I know their depth and talent at RB is as good as any position on the team, but to me he’s looked as good as, maybe better than, anyone else at that spot so far. But it’s a long way from practice to knowing what you’re supposed to do and how to pass-protect, so that’s something to watch.
As for the defense…
Boy, I’d like to say that the offense is just that dominant. And certainly, missing Dare Odeyingbo didn’t help, but they just got gashed consistently against the run and I didn’t see a lot of linebackers shedding blocks and helping out. It wasn’t pretty for most of practice, and wasn’t much better on Saturday that I remember.
I think that adding Jason Tarver is a real plus. I just question if he’s got the players to stop a power run game. Now, he seems optimistic, and kept making the point that they’re barely into practice. I’ve seen better from DT Cameron Tidd and DT Drew Birchmaier than I’ve seen in practice. Edwards might be able to help inside, though I’d think that’s something that develops later in the season. Or maybe DeBrossard takes that leap. As much as people wanted it, I haven’t seen DT Rutger Reitmaier be a difference-maker; in fact, I didn’t notice him at all today and I’m not even sure if he was out there.
The problem is exacerbated by what’s behind them. But it’s just not a big group of inside linebackers. They just don’t have a Nigel Bowden-sized thumper, or a guy like Zach Cunningham who just makes plays. Again, I think you almost have to hope that ILB Alston Orji, who’s their most physically-imposing guy at that spot, or ILB Colin Anderson, who’s probably the next guy behind him besides Griffin, steps up and makes a difference. (And Tarver isn’t giving any of the true freshmen many reps on the first or second teams, that I’ve noticed—I guess it’s an “earn-it” thing.) I’m not saying these guys are bad players, it’s just that, based on what I’ve seen so far, it’s a mix of too many rangy guys behind a mix of guys in the middle who just aren’t big and physical enough to do what guys in the middle of a good 3-4 need to do. (Daevion Davis, can' you skip that last year of high school?)
But there’s time left in camp, so we’ll see what Tarver can do with it. Again, I think that’s where a force-turnover-based approach is a good call.
That’s all I’ve got. I still need to watch the defensive backs more than I have, but my eyes can only see so much at once, and again, I’m not a trained football expert, so that’s the best I’ve got.
INDIVIDUAL NOTES: OFFENSE
I continue to be really impressed with freshman RB Ja’Veon Marlow. I want to see more before I go all-out effusive with the praise, but man, he’s got all the potential to be very good. He’s tough between the tackles, has some elusiveness and can catch the ball a bit. The running back position just got a lot more competitive.
RB Jamauri Wakefield also had a really good day excepting a fumble, which seemed to come on limited contact. The best run he had was when he was hemmed in going left, reversed field, and sprinted 20 yards down the right hash marks. It’s always hard to tell when they don’t always blow the play dead as they would for real, but I think it would have been a TD in a real game. Wakefield also had some nice runs between the tackles.
I thought TE Jared Pinkney had the best practice he’s had in a year. Pinkney had at least three nice catches and some yards after the catch.
QB Mo Hasan showed pretty good mobility today, taking off and scrambling two or three times for decent yardage. I didn’t know he had it in him. At least today, he looked fairly comparable to Deuce Wallace in that regard.
I thought C Egidio DellaRipa had a really good day when I honed in on him today. He was really moving guys out of the way and I thought I even saw him make a second-level block once.
OL Grant Miller took some meaningful reps at center today. Andy Ludwig said he’d added 20 pounds. I’d heard Saturday that they really liked him and today I thought he was good in the 3-4 scrimmage reps that I watched him.
WR C.J. Bolar made a nice catch on a ball thrown a bit over his head.
WR Chris Pierce continues to be very solid and will be a factor.
Freshman TE Ben Bresnahan had a nice grab today, too.
INDIVIDUAL NOTES: DEFENSE
I thought DL Darion DeBrossard had a nice day. He took on double-teams fairly well and even got some push into the backfield a time or two. Some of it was scout-team work but I think some of it he did against some combo of first- and second-teamers. I think he’s the biggest guy they have in the middle. It’s something to watch, because he’s flipped sides of the ball a couple of times and did get some playing time on defense at the end of last year.
DL Stone Edwards had some reps inside today. I didn’t see anything outstanding but it seemed he did some little things they wanted, because two or three times, I heard the coaches praising him while he was on the field.
S Gil Barksdale had a diving pick of QB Allan Walters on a ball that was thrown way high and possibly tipped. Barksdale nearly had another pick, I think that came against QB Kyle Shurmur.
ILB Andrew Rector took reps with the first team aside ILB Jordan Griffin again today. It seems to be his job until someone takes it from him.
No surprise here, but DB Tae Daley was (I think) their starting nickel, which is how the spring ended IIRC.
CB JoeJuan Williams had a nice pass break-up at one point.
INDIVIDUAL NOTES: SPECIAL TEAMS
They don’t do live kickoff and punt reps, but guys getting return looks in simulations are Marlow, Bolar, WR Cam Johnson, WR Kalija Lipsomb, WR Donaven Tennyson, CB Allan George, and (I think) RB Josh Crawford.
Long snappers were Tommy Schiager and Zach Drevno. Both are listed on the roster exclusively as snappers. Both looked fine and I’m not sure I noticed a difference between the two.
Kick holders, when I watched, were P Pierson Cooke and P Harrison Smith. Smith was an excellent punter at Brentwood Academy. I had meant to mention earlier that he’s on the roster.
NON-PARTICIPANTS AND LIMITED PARTICIPANTS
I did not see starting OL Saige Young, anywhere, again. They don’t seem concerned that they’ll have him back, but it’s something we’ll continue to monitor.
New injury report: DE Dare Odeyingo was out tonight. He was on the field in a red jersey and no pads and was not participating in any way. I should have followed up with a question on that but failed to do so.
WR James Bostic was in a red jersey, again. He did a few drills but no scrimmaging.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The offense did just about whatever it wanted today in both the run and pass games, and (though I wasn’t there) my understanding is that Sunday’s practice was more of the same. I’d heard the passing game was exceptionally good on Sunday.
I’ve now seen about six hours of practices. The offensive line consistently gets push both up the middle and opens lanes on the edges, and does it consistently.
I was an open skeptic of the receiving corps. I’m much, much less concerned than I was. Lipscomb has been tremendous, Johnson has been excellent, Bolar can help them right away, and Pierce, if he’s asked to be a No. 3 or No. 4, instead of a No. 2, should be fine in that role. As I’ve said for a while, Tennyson and WR Alex Stump had better step up soon or they’ll get passed. I’m seeing more and more evidence of that every day.
Pinkey’s consistency will be huge. Obviously he has ability but just struggles to put it together for extended periods. Today was a positive. TE Ben Bresnahan, I think, can help right away. TE Gavin Schoenwald might, too, although they still have a capable TE Sam Dobbs and so they might be best off to redshirt one of he or Bresnahan. (TE Braden Kopp won’t be a factor in the passing game, and I’m not sure he’ll be much of a factor at all.)
Marlow, to me, is the wild card. I know their depth and talent at RB is as good as any position on the team, but to me he’s looked as good as, maybe better than, anyone else at that spot so far. But it’s a long way from practice to knowing what you’re supposed to do and how to pass-protect, so that’s something to watch.
As for the defense…
Boy, I’d like to say that the offense is just that dominant. And certainly, missing Dare Odeyingbo didn’t help, but they just got gashed consistently against the run and I didn’t see a lot of linebackers shedding blocks and helping out. It wasn’t pretty for most of practice, and wasn’t much better on Saturday that I remember.
I think that adding Jason Tarver is a real plus. I just question if he’s got the players to stop a power run game. Now, he seems optimistic, and kept making the point that they’re barely into practice. I’ve seen better from DT Cameron Tidd and DT Drew Birchmaier than I’ve seen in practice. Edwards might be able to help inside, though I’d think that’s something that develops later in the season. Or maybe DeBrossard takes that leap. As much as people wanted it, I haven’t seen DT Rutger Reitmaier be a difference-maker; in fact, I didn’t notice him at all today and I’m not even sure if he was out there.
The problem is exacerbated by what’s behind them. But it’s just not a big group of inside linebackers. They just don’t have a Nigel Bowden-sized thumper, or a guy like Zach Cunningham who just makes plays. Again, I think you almost have to hope that ILB Alston Orji, who’s their most physically-imposing guy at that spot, or ILB Colin Anderson, who’s probably the next guy behind him besides Griffin, steps up and makes a difference. (And Tarver isn’t giving any of the true freshmen many reps on the first or second teams, that I’ve noticed—I guess it’s an “earn-it” thing.) I’m not saying these guys are bad players, it’s just that, based on what I’ve seen so far, it’s a mix of too many rangy guys behind a mix of guys in the middle who just aren’t big and physical enough to do what guys in the middle of a good 3-4 need to do. (Daevion Davis, can' you skip that last year of high school?)
But there’s time left in camp, so we’ll see what Tarver can do with it. Again, I think that’s where a force-turnover-based approach is a good call.
That’s all I’ve got. I still need to watch the defensive backs more than I have, but my eyes can only see so much at once, and again, I’m not a trained football expert, so that’s the best I’ve got.
