suloyalfan
2nd String
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2011
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At the risk of duplicating the efforts of others who have already posted, I'm posting my observations from Fanfest yesterday evening. I apologize in advance for any information that's already been covered by others in previous threads...
- The beef has arrived on the DL. I know it's been previously discussed, but the size that Syracuse can put out on the front line this season is impressive. It remains to be seen whether or not they can actually play.
- The skill positions are finally coming together. There should be no shortage of offensive weapons this year with the depth and talent that we have a WR, TE, and RB. If the OL can pass block and open some holes the offense should be much improved with a much greater chance for big plays.
- The WR corp has alot of good looking athletes. Lemon and Sales are no surprise and both looked good. However, I thought that Keenan Hale, Jarrod West, Jeremiah Kobena, and Adrian Flemming have improved. I am picking Flemming to have a breakout season. I thought that he looked long, lean, and very smooth running routes and after catching the ball. Add in the newcomers Funderburk, Ashton Broyld, Ben Lewis, and Alvin Cornelius and the group of receivers seems very deep and impressive. That isn't even counting Kyle Foster who's out for the year with an injury.
- TE looks to be a position of strength this year. Thompson and Wales are the biggest threats to make big plays. Thompson will definitely create matchup problems. He caught everything thrown his way that I saw, including a great catch in traffic over the middle with 3 defenders surrounding him. He broke tackles after he caught the ball and runs well. Wales also made some good catches and played well. Max Beaulieu made one of the biggest hits of the day with a vicious open field block. Josh Parris has good size, but looked like he ran with heavy legs. He's a smaller, slower version of Thompson. I'm not saying he won't be a good player, just looks like he's behind
Thompson at this point.
- The group of running backs that we have is starting to look pretty good. Jerome Smith and AAM are the hammers, PTG and Rene are the change of pace backs. Morris and Broyld are both somewhere in between. Morris had the best run of the day, blowing through the line for what would have been a home run. Broyld looked elusive and dangerous each time he had the ball in his hands. He does need to work on catching the ball out of the backfield, as he had a few drops during the scrimmage.
- Punt returners were PTG, Julian Whigham, Ashton Broyld, and Steve Rene. I thought that Rene looked the best. Broyld looked like he was learning the technique, but didn't look smooth out there yet.
- Keon Lyn took his shoulder pads off halfway through practice and walked off the field. Marrone broke away from practice and walked all the way off from mid field to the tunnel with him. Not sure what happened, but he didn't appear to be injured and returned later and finished out the practice.
- Early in the practice Macky got blown up by Crume and was driven into another blocker. He was shaken up and was replaced by Jason Emerich. Emerich appeared to hold his own much better against Crume for the remainder of the series of plays. He did whiff on a block downfield on one of the plays when he was trying to get to a LB.
- Lou Alexander looks to be running well. He got out nicely on a swing pass to PTG and made a nice block on the corner. I was impressed that he got out in front of the play before PTG got there.
- Marcus Coleman was in full pads, but was held out of drills. Ben Barrett and Davon Walls were in shorts and helmets only.
- Ri'Shard Anderson, Jason Bromley, and Ryan Sloan were not practicing. The cause of there absence was unknown, but was later explained by Nolan on Syracuse.com.
- Durell Eskridge was hobbling at the end of practice. Not much else to report here. He was a full participant through the whole practice.
Overall, I thought the team looked good and was encouraged by what I saw. I think that the team is finally turning the corner with size, talent, and numbers. Now they need to put it together on the field on game day and I think we'll have a successful season. It's unfortunate that the schedule is so tough this year, but I still think that the team is capable of winning 7-9 games based on what I saw.
- The beef has arrived on the DL. I know it's been previously discussed, but the size that Syracuse can put out on the front line this season is impressive. It remains to be seen whether or not they can actually play.
- The skill positions are finally coming together. There should be no shortage of offensive weapons this year with the depth and talent that we have a WR, TE, and RB. If the OL can pass block and open some holes the offense should be much improved with a much greater chance for big plays.
- The WR corp has alot of good looking athletes. Lemon and Sales are no surprise and both looked good. However, I thought that Keenan Hale, Jarrod West, Jeremiah Kobena, and Adrian Flemming have improved. I am picking Flemming to have a breakout season. I thought that he looked long, lean, and very smooth running routes and after catching the ball. Add in the newcomers Funderburk, Ashton Broyld, Ben Lewis, and Alvin Cornelius and the group of receivers seems very deep and impressive. That isn't even counting Kyle Foster who's out for the year with an injury.
- TE looks to be a position of strength this year. Thompson and Wales are the biggest threats to make big plays. Thompson will definitely create matchup problems. He caught everything thrown his way that I saw, including a great catch in traffic over the middle with 3 defenders surrounding him. He broke tackles after he caught the ball and runs well. Wales also made some good catches and played well. Max Beaulieu made one of the biggest hits of the day with a vicious open field block. Josh Parris has good size, but looked like he ran with heavy legs. He's a smaller, slower version of Thompson. I'm not saying he won't be a good player, just looks like he's behind
Thompson at this point.
- The group of running backs that we have is starting to look pretty good. Jerome Smith and AAM are the hammers, PTG and Rene are the change of pace backs. Morris and Broyld are both somewhere in between. Morris had the best run of the day, blowing through the line for what would have been a home run. Broyld looked elusive and dangerous each time he had the ball in his hands. He does need to work on catching the ball out of the backfield, as he had a few drops during the scrimmage.
- Punt returners were PTG, Julian Whigham, Ashton Broyld, and Steve Rene. I thought that Rene looked the best. Broyld looked like he was learning the technique, but didn't look smooth out there yet.
- Keon Lyn took his shoulder pads off halfway through practice and walked off the field. Marrone broke away from practice and walked all the way off from mid field to the tunnel with him. Not sure what happened, but he didn't appear to be injured and returned later and finished out the practice.
- Early in the practice Macky got blown up by Crume and was driven into another blocker. He was shaken up and was replaced by Jason Emerich. Emerich appeared to hold his own much better against Crume for the remainder of the series of plays. He did whiff on a block downfield on one of the plays when he was trying to get to a LB.
- Lou Alexander looks to be running well. He got out nicely on a swing pass to PTG and made a nice block on the corner. I was impressed that he got out in front of the play before PTG got there.
- Marcus Coleman was in full pads, but was held out of drills. Ben Barrett and Davon Walls were in shorts and helmets only.
- Ri'Shard Anderson, Jason Bromley, and Ryan Sloan were not practicing. The cause of there absence was unknown, but was later explained by Nolan on Syracuse.com.
- Durell Eskridge was hobbling at the end of practice. Not much else to report here. He was a full participant through the whole practice.
Overall, I thought the team looked good and was encouraged by what I saw. I think that the team is finally turning the corner with size, talent, and numbers. Now they need to put it together on the field on game day and I think we'll have a successful season. It's unfortunate that the schedule is so tough this year, but I still think that the team is capable of winning 7-9 games based on what I saw.
