GENERAL NEWS AND NOTES
Vanderbilt practiced until around 12:30 or so today. We were able to see about 45 minutes of meaningful stuff. That’s probably more than we’ve gotten to see the previous two weeks combined.
It was outdoors, and it was hot, the hottest day they’ve had so far.
My time was spent approximately as follows: 15 percent watching special teams, 45 percent watching who was playing where on the offensive line, 40 percent watching what was actually happening in scrimmage conditions.
I talked to wide receivers coach Cortez Hankton to get a feel on his position group, and I’ll share that in a bit also.
NON-PARTICIPANTS
FB Bailey McElwain (still out with right leg issue)
WR James Bostic
DL Drew Birchmaier
WR Alex Stump (redshirting anyway)
LIMITED PARTICIPANTS (these may have been all non-participants but I didn’t see the individual drills to know for sure)
LB Kenny Hebert
WR Caleb Scott
WR Donaven Tennyson
INDIVIDUAL NOTES
QB Kyle Shurmur was probably the star of the day. He was crisp and threw the ball well when I watched him. When I wasn’t watching him, there was a bit of a buzz around his performance (particularly from Braden Gall) as I was watching the offensive line.
WR C.J. Duncan and WR Kalija Lipscomb had good days.Lipscomb made a really nice contested catch in traffic at one point.
I get the impression that Duncan is having a good camp. He caught a 40-yard score from Shurmur today, most coming in the air.
TE Sam Dobbs caught at TD from Shurmur.
QB Deuce Wallace got all the backup reps that I saw. With apologies to Sean Stankavage, I think that’s a good thing. They need to develop another player who's going to be around a bit. Deuce doesn’t have Shurmur’s arm strength, but I thought his throws were fine and of course he’s a lot more mobile.
Also, I noticed OG Saige Young for the first time today. More on that in a moment.
DB Bryce Lewis and DB Donoavan Sheffield seemed to get a decent number of reps today.
OLB Caleb Peart was on the field a lot, too. I couldn’t tell for sure from my angle, but at times it looked as if he may have been lined up at end.
We got to talk to OLB Charles Wright after practice (video on that coming soon.) We asked him about a number of young players. The most interesting part was the way he talked about RB Jamauri Wakefield. I think it’s safe to say he thinks Wakefield will be a star.
DT Nifae Lealao left practice early today and I didn’t notice him returning. I don’t think this was cause for alarm, I think he was maybe overheated or dehydrated because I didn’t notice a limp or anything that obviously hurt.
TEAM NOTES
Here’s who I saw lining up at various spots on the offensive line during scrimmage conditions:
LT: Justin Skule, Cole Clemens
LG: Saige Young, Bryce Bailey, Egidio DellaRipa
C: Bruno Reagan, Sean Auwae McMoore
RG: Jared Southers, Egidio DellaRipa
RT: Devin Cochran, Braden Kopp
I don’t know that that’s the first and second teams, but that’s more or less the order in which I noticed guys getting the most snaps. (At center, it seemed pretty close between Reagan and Auwae-McMoore in terms of reps.)
Now that I think about it, I didn’t see OL Bailey Granier at all, but I can’t guarantee that they didn’t slip him in for a rep here or there when I wasn't watching.
In the punt return game, Kalija Lipscomb seemed to be getting most (all?) the reps.
Kickoff returns were split between Lipscomb, Jamauri Wakefield and Josh Crawford.
P Reid Nelson and P Sam Loy both had a lot of kicks today. Don’t think that means anything, I don’t have any reason to think Loy’s not the guy.
Coach Derek Mason talked to us after practice for a while. Video wil be up soon. To me, the most interesting thing was when he talked about defensive line depth. He keeps mentioning those three freshmen (Dayo Odeyingbo, Jalen Pinkney, Stone Edwards) without being prompted, which tells me a few or maybe all will play. He said that on the whole, this was the best the defensive line depth has been since he’s been here.
I wouldn’t guarantee it, but I’d be surprised if the projected starters at linebacker (Wright, Oren Burks, Emmanuel Smith and Josh Smith) changed.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
I’ve been doing this since 2003.I think the overall passing game is far better shape than the majority of years I’ve covered VU. I’ve never seen Vandy have a quarterback like Jay Cutler since Cutler left (and probably won’t again), but I think Shurmur is the best they’ve had since Cutler left.
I also have not seen a receiving corps as good as the Jordan Matthews-Chris Boyd-Jonathan Krause one,but this would easily be the next best one, and from No. 4 down, this group is a lot better. (I don’t know what that observation is worth—how big a factor are the No. 4 and 5 guys unless there’s an injury anyway?—but I thought it was worth a note.)
If you combine the quarterbacks and receivers and tight ends (I like the three they have there, too) I think there are more good players across those three positions groups than I remember.
Now, take that for what it’s worth. The bar at Vanderbilt has been fairly low compared to the rest of the SEC in those regards, but this bunch can respectably compete at that level.
The offensive line piece continues to be the most interesting part of fall camp, and the protection was excellent today.
Interestingly enough, Skule at left tackle seems to be the most stable piece, which I would not have thought.
Again, my gut is that Reagan winds up at center, and when I didn’t notice him at guard today, it got more interesting. Please don’t take this as me saying he’s absolutely going to be the center; I don’t know what they’re doing and perhaps they did that on purpose to throw everyone off. But my gut is he probably winds up there.
I also suspect that Cochran winds up starting at right tackle. Not a given, just a gut feeling without a huge degree of confidence because I know they also like Granier.
I wonder if they don’t wind up moving Granier back inside at right guard and lining up this way, left to right: Skule, Southers, Reagan, Granier, Cochran. That would be a massive offensive line, and a reasonably talented one also.
Seeing Southers at right guard today was also interesting. I think he was playing left guard last week. From what I have seen, he’s been getting most of his reps at guard lately.
Seeing Young getting a ton of reps at left guard was also interesting, because I didn’t know where he’d fit.
I went into camp thinking this was a solid football team. I still am concerned about a pass rush, and I'm not sure they have one. I'm still concerned about if something happens to Shurmur that the drop-off to guys who have never taken college snaps, with no disrespect to any of them, could be daunting, just because about any time you play an inexperienced guy in the SEC, it's not pretty right off.
But every team has concerns like that. Being as honest as I can be, I don't have any reason to downgrade my opinion of this team now that I've seen them a little more, and I think they're probably a little better than I thought, that mostly based on potential shuffles on the offensive line that I think will put more talent on the field, plus what we see in the passing game.
I think it's going to be a fun year.
Vanderbilt practiced until around 12:30 or so today. We were able to see about 45 minutes of meaningful stuff. That’s probably more than we’ve gotten to see the previous two weeks combined.
It was outdoors, and it was hot, the hottest day they’ve had so far.
My time was spent approximately as follows: 15 percent watching special teams, 45 percent watching who was playing where on the offensive line, 40 percent watching what was actually happening in scrimmage conditions.
I talked to wide receivers coach Cortez Hankton to get a feel on his position group, and I’ll share that in a bit also.
NON-PARTICIPANTS
FB Bailey McElwain (still out with right leg issue)
WR James Bostic
DL Drew Birchmaier
WR Alex Stump (redshirting anyway)
LIMITED PARTICIPANTS (these may have been all non-participants but I didn’t see the individual drills to know for sure)
LB Kenny Hebert
WR Caleb Scott
WR Donaven Tennyson
INDIVIDUAL NOTES
QB Kyle Shurmur was probably the star of the day. He was crisp and threw the ball well when I watched him. When I wasn’t watching him, there was a bit of a buzz around his performance (particularly from Braden Gall) as I was watching the offensive line.
WR C.J. Duncan and WR Kalija Lipscomb had good days.Lipscomb made a really nice contested catch in traffic at one point.
I get the impression that Duncan is having a good camp. He caught a 40-yard score from Shurmur today, most coming in the air.
TE Sam Dobbs caught at TD from Shurmur.
QB Deuce Wallace got all the backup reps that I saw. With apologies to Sean Stankavage, I think that’s a good thing. They need to develop another player who's going to be around a bit. Deuce doesn’t have Shurmur’s arm strength, but I thought his throws were fine and of course he’s a lot more mobile.
Also, I noticed OG Saige Young for the first time today. More on that in a moment.
DB Bryce Lewis and DB Donoavan Sheffield seemed to get a decent number of reps today.
OLB Caleb Peart was on the field a lot, too. I couldn’t tell for sure from my angle, but at times it looked as if he may have been lined up at end.
We got to talk to OLB Charles Wright after practice (video on that coming soon.) We asked him about a number of young players. The most interesting part was the way he talked about RB Jamauri Wakefield. I think it’s safe to say he thinks Wakefield will be a star.
DT Nifae Lealao left practice early today and I didn’t notice him returning. I don’t think this was cause for alarm, I think he was maybe overheated or dehydrated because I didn’t notice a limp or anything that obviously hurt.
TEAM NOTES
Here’s who I saw lining up at various spots on the offensive line during scrimmage conditions:
LT: Justin Skule, Cole Clemens
LG: Saige Young, Bryce Bailey, Egidio DellaRipa
C: Bruno Reagan, Sean Auwae McMoore
RG: Jared Southers, Egidio DellaRipa
RT: Devin Cochran, Braden Kopp
I don’t know that that’s the first and second teams, but that’s more or less the order in which I noticed guys getting the most snaps. (At center, it seemed pretty close between Reagan and Auwae-McMoore in terms of reps.)
Now that I think about it, I didn’t see OL Bailey Granier at all, but I can’t guarantee that they didn’t slip him in for a rep here or there when I wasn't watching.
In the punt return game, Kalija Lipscomb seemed to be getting most (all?) the reps.
Kickoff returns were split between Lipscomb, Jamauri Wakefield and Josh Crawford.
P Reid Nelson and P Sam Loy both had a lot of kicks today. Don’t think that means anything, I don’t have any reason to think Loy’s not the guy.
Coach Derek Mason talked to us after practice for a while. Video wil be up soon. To me, the most interesting thing was when he talked about defensive line depth. He keeps mentioning those three freshmen (Dayo Odeyingbo, Jalen Pinkney, Stone Edwards) without being prompted, which tells me a few or maybe all will play. He said that on the whole, this was the best the defensive line depth has been since he’s been here.
I wouldn’t guarantee it, but I’d be surprised if the projected starters at linebacker (Wright, Oren Burks, Emmanuel Smith and Josh Smith) changed.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
I’ve been doing this since 2003.I think the overall passing game is far better shape than the majority of years I’ve covered VU. I’ve never seen Vandy have a quarterback like Jay Cutler since Cutler left (and probably won’t again), but I think Shurmur is the best they’ve had since Cutler left.
I also have not seen a receiving corps as good as the Jordan Matthews-Chris Boyd-Jonathan Krause one,but this would easily be the next best one, and from No. 4 down, this group is a lot better. (I don’t know what that observation is worth—how big a factor are the No. 4 and 5 guys unless there’s an injury anyway?—but I thought it was worth a note.)
If you combine the quarterbacks and receivers and tight ends (I like the three they have there, too) I think there are more good players across those three positions groups than I remember.
Now, take that for what it’s worth. The bar at Vanderbilt has been fairly low compared to the rest of the SEC in those regards, but this bunch can respectably compete at that level.
The offensive line piece continues to be the most interesting part of fall camp, and the protection was excellent today.
Interestingly enough, Skule at left tackle seems to be the most stable piece, which I would not have thought.
Again, my gut is that Reagan winds up at center, and when I didn’t notice him at guard today, it got more interesting. Please don’t take this as me saying he’s absolutely going to be the center; I don’t know what they’re doing and perhaps they did that on purpose to throw everyone off. But my gut is he probably winds up there.
I also suspect that Cochran winds up starting at right tackle. Not a given, just a gut feeling without a huge degree of confidence because I know they also like Granier.
I wonder if they don’t wind up moving Granier back inside at right guard and lining up this way, left to right: Skule, Southers, Reagan, Granier, Cochran. That would be a massive offensive line, and a reasonably talented one also.
Seeing Southers at right guard today was also interesting. I think he was playing left guard last week. From what I have seen, he’s been getting most of his reps at guard lately.
Seeing Young getting a ton of reps at left guard was also interesting, because I didn’t know where he’d fit.
I went into camp thinking this was a solid football team. I still am concerned about a pass rush, and I'm not sure they have one. I'm still concerned about if something happens to Shurmur that the drop-off to guys who have never taken college snaps, with no disrespect to any of them, could be daunting, just because about any time you play an inexperienced guy in the SEC, it's not pretty right off.
But every team has concerns like that. Being as honest as I can be, I don't have any reason to downgrade my opinion of this team now that I've seen them a little more, and I think they're probably a little better than I thought, that mostly based on potential shuffles on the offensive line that I think will put more talent on the field, plus what we see in the passing game.
I think it's going to be a fun year.
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