CUSU
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Hi everyone,
I am becoming a little more involved here and was a long time lurker. I am going to attempt a recap of the fan fest. I played high school ball and am a die hard fan when it comes to 'cuse sports so I have a littele knowledge not a lot. These are all strictly observations that I saw and did not catch it all because there was a lot going on at once.
The practice started off with the team breaking off into specialized groups like LBs, Rbs, etc. doing some easy going basic drills. Next they went into stretching and other warm up activities. After that the team split up again and followed a strict time schedule of events. There were small time periods of live scrimmaging minus the QB being live.
Here is what I observed at each position...
Coaches
- Coach Shafer was bouncing around to all different locations during the whole practice spending time with offense and defense. One thing I did notice was that during the live scrimmaging he did tend to watch things from the defensive perspective as he stood a good 35 yards behind the defense. Another little tid bit that I specifically remember was during the last portion of practice when the team did sprints. I heard a sharp toned voice hollar across the field. "This one is on you Julian", referring to Julian Whigham as he slacked a little bit on the sprint and a "get yur a$$ goin' Whigam. The team proceeded to repeat the sprint. Chuck Bullough was also very vocal during the live scrimmaging portion and got in a few faces when the offense moved the ball. George Mcdonald seemed pretty come when calling plays except for one time when he got a little heated with Drew Allen. I believe he wanted to Drew to observe the whole field as he missed an open receiver across the middle and instead threw to a double covered check down. I am drawing a blank on the name of the DB coach but he seemed to be doing a few drills that covered brushing off blocks. He also had the DBs doing some hitting which I liked. Rishard Anderson was the first up, a little eager, gave one of the other DBs a nice pop. I don't think that is what coach was looking for though as they were concentrating on getting low with the proper form.
Quarterbacks
- From what I collected and as most of you have already figured out this QB race is definitely between Hunt and Allen. Both sharing the majority if not all first team reps. Don't read into this too much but the first live scrimmaging portion Drew Allen played with the ones. Both quarterbacks made some errors and Drew threw a couple bad balls. One directly to an opposing defender but from what I could tell a receiver was suppose to break off their route and did not. ANother got tipped into Arciniegas hands for a pick 6. Hunt also had his fair share of bad throws luckily none of which ended up being intercepted. To me though Allen looked much for cal, cool, and collected at the helm than Hunt. Drew was very fluid in his drop, read of the defense, and throw. Don't get me wrong Hunt looked decent to but this is just my opinion. Hunt didn't seem to look down field as much which is fine but Allen just seemed to progress his reads faster on limited action for both. Later in the practice Allen found Alvin Cornelius for about a 35 yard pass on the side line. Cornelius then ran for about another 25 cutting it back inside and looked pretty fast. (This was 2nd team O) Allen seemed to have nice touch on screen/short out routes that I wish Nassib had. Later Hunt ran what looked to me as the triple option with Gulley and smith in the backfield. Gulley being the dive back and smith floating out wide on the option. Hunt kept one for an easy 8-10 yard pick up. Hunt also made a few shorter throws. All in all neither QB looked outstanding but I think Allen is just a little more polished than Hunt at this time and will eventually win the job.
Runningbacks
- The first thing I noticed was Smith's shear size. I'm not sure if I am the only one but to me he clearly looked like he got bigger. Specifically his legs. (tree-trunk-ish) He broke off a couple nice runs. One of which was up the middle breaking 2-3 arm tackles. Another he burst into the secondary bulling his way over Wilkes who eventually brought him down. Gulley looked to be his same old shift self. He even was split out wide some which I found interesting. McFarlane was put in this role on 2nd team. George Morris took more of a Smith-type role on 2nd team. The thing that caught my attention was that Gulley and Smith were on the field the same time a lot. (pistol with gulley adjacent to the QB and smith behind) Same goes for Morris and Mcfarlane. I think Morris will see some playing time this year if the two back sets keep up.
Wide Receivers
- The starting wide outs were Flemming, West, and I consider Broyld a receiver now. Broyld strictly worked with the wide outs and I thought looked great. He made an effortless one handed catch off of a deep out route. Seems to me like he will be a difficult match up for defenses this year and looks to ahve a significant role West didn't catch my eye too much but he did make a few grabs. Flemming made a nice catch across the middle. Estime didn't see too much action on even the second team. Cornelius had a nice catch and run described in the QB section.
Offensive Line
- It was hard to take too much away about the offensive line other than they are pretty darn big. I first team O-line looked to hold their own against the first team d. I thought the second team O-line didnt fair as well as their counterparts against the defensive line. I attribute this to the defensive tackle position having so much depth.
Tight Ends
- I didn't get to much look at the ends other than Beckett who made a nice catch on a check down form Drew Allen for about 8 yards.
Safety
Eskridge and Wilkes were the starters with Mrogan and Desir on the 2nd team. I think we will be fine here.
Cornerback
- This position s you all know will be fine as well. Lyn's foot got stepped on in a drill and he was limping around for a while but nothing serious. Redish and Whigam look ready to step in if need be.
Linebackers
- Linebackers were flying to the ball just like last year and are obviously a strength of not only the defense but the team. Our defense should be real good this year even with the lack of depth at d-end.
Defensive Tackle
Bromley looked like a monster as usual. I am sorry I didn't pay much attention to them but 1st and 2nd team seemed to be getting a decent push in the live scrimmaging.
Defensive End
I saw Sugar Bear out there still sporting the 88 jersey unless that is someone else. I didn't notice to much other than he was getting a decent push on the 2nd team tackle. Micah Robinson looks the part and can hopefully step up.
Special Teams
There seemed to be a real focus on special teams this practice. They started the practice with special team drills. Moore was working with the punt returners, throwing dummies at them while they were ctaching "fly balls". Krautman made all his field goals but man Ryan Norton has a leg. He hit the camera guy behind the uprights on the scizzor lift from like 30 yards. The crowd cheered. Coach lea worked with a group of DBs LBs and Rbs on kick blocking form.
Other Observations
I thought there was a real good turn out and will post a couple pictures I took and found. The most people I have ever seen at fan fest. I was happy with the intensity off practice and it felt like a "great" coach/player atmosphere. Players shook hands with fans as they headed to the autograph session. Drew Allen came through making sure to slap the kids and thanking everyone for coming out. Coach Shafer also was very friendly with the fans slapping hands and talking with people.
If anyone has any questions feel free to ask I tried to remember as much as I could off hand!
GO ORANGE ! 21 days 7 hours 19 minutes
I am becoming a little more involved here and was a long time lurker. I am going to attempt a recap of the fan fest. I played high school ball and am a die hard fan when it comes to 'cuse sports so I have a littele knowledge not a lot. These are all strictly observations that I saw and did not catch it all because there was a lot going on at once.
The practice started off with the team breaking off into specialized groups like LBs, Rbs, etc. doing some easy going basic drills. Next they went into stretching and other warm up activities. After that the team split up again and followed a strict time schedule of events. There were small time periods of live scrimmaging minus the QB being live.
Here is what I observed at each position...
Coaches
- Coach Shafer was bouncing around to all different locations during the whole practice spending time with offense and defense. One thing I did notice was that during the live scrimmaging he did tend to watch things from the defensive perspective as he stood a good 35 yards behind the defense. Another little tid bit that I specifically remember was during the last portion of practice when the team did sprints. I heard a sharp toned voice hollar across the field. "This one is on you Julian", referring to Julian Whigham as he slacked a little bit on the sprint and a "get yur a$$ goin' Whigam. The team proceeded to repeat the sprint. Chuck Bullough was also very vocal during the live scrimmaging portion and got in a few faces when the offense moved the ball. George Mcdonald seemed pretty come when calling plays except for one time when he got a little heated with Drew Allen. I believe he wanted to Drew to observe the whole field as he missed an open receiver across the middle and instead threw to a double covered check down. I am drawing a blank on the name of the DB coach but he seemed to be doing a few drills that covered brushing off blocks. He also had the DBs doing some hitting which I liked. Rishard Anderson was the first up, a little eager, gave one of the other DBs a nice pop. I don't think that is what coach was looking for though as they were concentrating on getting low with the proper form.
Quarterbacks
- From what I collected and as most of you have already figured out this QB race is definitely between Hunt and Allen. Both sharing the majority if not all first team reps. Don't read into this too much but the first live scrimmaging portion Drew Allen played with the ones. Both quarterbacks made some errors and Drew threw a couple bad balls. One directly to an opposing defender but from what I could tell a receiver was suppose to break off their route and did not. ANother got tipped into Arciniegas hands for a pick 6. Hunt also had his fair share of bad throws luckily none of which ended up being intercepted. To me though Allen looked much for cal, cool, and collected at the helm than Hunt. Drew was very fluid in his drop, read of the defense, and throw. Don't get me wrong Hunt looked decent to but this is just my opinion. Hunt didn't seem to look down field as much which is fine but Allen just seemed to progress his reads faster on limited action for both. Later in the practice Allen found Alvin Cornelius for about a 35 yard pass on the side line. Cornelius then ran for about another 25 cutting it back inside and looked pretty fast. (This was 2nd team O) Allen seemed to have nice touch on screen/short out routes that I wish Nassib had. Later Hunt ran what looked to me as the triple option with Gulley and smith in the backfield. Gulley being the dive back and smith floating out wide on the option. Hunt kept one for an easy 8-10 yard pick up. Hunt also made a few shorter throws. All in all neither QB looked outstanding but I think Allen is just a little more polished than Hunt at this time and will eventually win the job.
Runningbacks
- The first thing I noticed was Smith's shear size. I'm not sure if I am the only one but to me he clearly looked like he got bigger. Specifically his legs. (tree-trunk-ish) He broke off a couple nice runs. One of which was up the middle breaking 2-3 arm tackles. Another he burst into the secondary bulling his way over Wilkes who eventually brought him down. Gulley looked to be his same old shift self. He even was split out wide some which I found interesting. McFarlane was put in this role on 2nd team. George Morris took more of a Smith-type role on 2nd team. The thing that caught my attention was that Gulley and Smith were on the field the same time a lot. (pistol with gulley adjacent to the QB and smith behind) Same goes for Morris and Mcfarlane. I think Morris will see some playing time this year if the two back sets keep up.
Wide Receivers
- The starting wide outs were Flemming, West, and I consider Broyld a receiver now. Broyld strictly worked with the wide outs and I thought looked great. He made an effortless one handed catch off of a deep out route. Seems to me like he will be a difficult match up for defenses this year and looks to ahve a significant role West didn't catch my eye too much but he did make a few grabs. Flemming made a nice catch across the middle. Estime didn't see too much action on even the second team. Cornelius had a nice catch and run described in the QB section.
Offensive Line
- It was hard to take too much away about the offensive line other than they are pretty darn big. I first team O-line looked to hold their own against the first team d. I thought the second team O-line didnt fair as well as their counterparts against the defensive line. I attribute this to the defensive tackle position having so much depth.
Tight Ends
- I didn't get to much look at the ends other than Beckett who made a nice catch on a check down form Drew Allen for about 8 yards.
Safety
Eskridge and Wilkes were the starters with Mrogan and Desir on the 2nd team. I think we will be fine here.
Cornerback
- This position s you all know will be fine as well. Lyn's foot got stepped on in a drill and he was limping around for a while but nothing serious. Redish and Whigam look ready to step in if need be.
Linebackers
- Linebackers were flying to the ball just like last year and are obviously a strength of not only the defense but the team. Our defense should be real good this year even with the lack of depth at d-end.
Defensive Tackle
Bromley looked like a monster as usual. I am sorry I didn't pay much attention to them but 1st and 2nd team seemed to be getting a decent push in the live scrimmaging.
Defensive End
I saw Sugar Bear out there still sporting the 88 jersey unless that is someone else. I didn't notice to much other than he was getting a decent push on the 2nd team tackle. Micah Robinson looks the part and can hopefully step up.
Special Teams
There seemed to be a real focus on special teams this practice. They started the practice with special team drills. Moore was working with the punt returners, throwing dummies at them while they were ctaching "fly balls". Krautman made all his field goals but man Ryan Norton has a leg. He hit the camera guy behind the uprights on the scizzor lift from like 30 yards. The crowd cheered. Coach lea worked with a group of DBs LBs and Rbs on kick blocking form.
Other Observations
I thought there was a real good turn out and will post a couple pictures I took and found. The most people I have ever seen at fan fest. I was happy with the intensity off practice and it felt like a "great" coach/player atmosphere. Players shook hands with fans as they headed to the autograph session. Drew Allen came through making sure to slap the kids and thanking everyone for coming out. Coach Shafer also was very friendly with the fans slapping hands and talking with people.
If anyone has any questions feel free to ask I tried to remember as much as I could off hand!
GO ORANGE ! 21 days 7 hours 19 minutes
