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Message: [QUOTE="sutomcat, post: 1455618, member: 27"] Defense It has already been noted that Raymon and Sugar Bear (Thompson) did not play. Thompson was without crutches and participated in stretching exercises. Looks like he is improving some. Raymon drank a vast amount of water. Clark looks like a man among boys out there. Impressive on the field too, more than held his own and played a big role in shutting down attempts to run into the tackles. Rony Charles again showed an ability to get past his man to get TFLs. Has to lose some weight but has some ability. Samuels looks like he added some bad weight, is probably the fattest scholarship athlete on the team and didn't appear to be a big factor. I was kind of disappointed, was expecting more from him. Slayton occupied space well but I didn't notice him getting pressure or making tackles. Guidice looked okay out there, pretty mature for a frosh. Cross looked physically ready but neither is quite as advanced as Clark. The incoming frosh are going to be a force in another year or two. Simmons has really jacked arms and looks like our best pass rushing threat with Sugar Bear out. He played quite well but isn't at Sugar Bear's level. Arciniega is a little banged up but has a nice blend of speed and power. Should be a lock to be part of the two deep. Sheppard and Ealey are ahead of Pickard and Carter right now, with Ealey a little ahead of Sheppard and Pickard ahead of Carter (based on playing time with the North and South units). Really like the frosh DEs too. It looks like we are well positioned for the future at these positions. I thought Sheppard played a little better than Ealey. Looks a little bigger and stronger. Ealey is probably a little quicker now. At LB, Zaire was kind of quiet at the MILE but flashed ability on some plays. Didn't dominate like I was hoping he would. Hodge looks solid, he is finally over 220 pounds and holds up at the point of attack better now. Bennett played with the North unit at the SAM position all practice and looks to have that position battle won. Really good blitzing on passing downs. Vigille is working at the MIKE with the South unit and looks good. Cullen is working at the WILL unit and looks really good, very quick, strong and showed good instincts. Some guys just get it. He is one of them, I think. Thomas continues to show signs of being excellent but is really inconsistent. Looks like Taylor is overtaking him for the backup role at the SAM. He is quick and just seems to make a lot of plays. Troy Henderson is working with the third team at MIKE right now. Looks good but he has some experience in front of him. At safety, we have 3 guys fighting for PT: Williams, Cordy and Scissum. I think all are going to play a lot, looks like Williams is going to be the Okie this season and we will probably play that more than the base 3-4. Williams continues to make good plays, has a knack for being in the right place at the right time. Probably our quickest safety. Cordy is a big hitter, good against the run, not so good against the pass. Scissum is a little less decisive but is a big dude who hits hard. Looks like he has the ability to cover TEs too. There is PT to be had for a fourth safety. The three frosh, Ellison, Whitner and Frederick are in a big battle here. It looks really close to me. All can run and hit. I thought Frederick probably had the best practice but I liked all of them. At corner, Morgan and Whigham played with the North unit all practice. They look okay but I am not expecting All ACC honors for either of them. Hudson and Dowels worked with the South unit. I thought Dowels had a really good practice at FanFest and IMHO he was the best CB on the field yesterday too. Had a great break on a ball to get a pick 6. Is just more aggressive and physical than the other CBs. I think Whigham is probably better than Morgan right now. Ellison played some CB at FanFest but I only saw him at safety yesterday. I think our secondary is okay and will get better as the season progresses but for our defense to be solid, we have to get pressure on the ball without blitzing. Thompson has to get better soon and Simmons needs to be able to help him out. The LBs are talented. have quickness but are a little undersized. I think if the DTs stay healthy, they are big enough to provide enough problems that the LBs can be successful stopping the run. Am more worried about stopping playing passes. Hope we can stay healthy. There is enough talent here to be a serviceable defense but if we get hit with a lot of injuries, it could be a long season. The offense should be improved both running the ball and passing it. We are even thinner on offense and have to stay healthy here. But I like the young skilled players. Should get better here as the season progresses. Our special teams feature experience at punter and placekicker and the skilled players rounding out the units should be much better athletically than in recent years. Should be much better with our coverage and return units and I think Gregory is going to really help us here. Worried about our KO unit, which I didn't see yet. Hope we have found someone who can consistently get the ball into the endzone on KOs. Thanks again to Mark for getting me on the base. It was fun. I won't talk about the plays that were run but it was less vanilla than we saw at FanFest and some interesting things were shown... [/QUOTE]

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