EtOH Practice Report-Tuesday the 10th

ED: EtOHReb, I'm gonna buy you a Chick Fil A sammich the next time I see you. You know the rest of the Cup and I appreciate you help with all of this.

Quote of the day: "Neva! Neva! You won't get it, @*&&%, Neva!"- From the mouth of Rodney Scott after he successfully blocked D.T. Shackleford in 1 on 1 drills.  Immediately following this, Shack got right back in his face and the two slammed helmets before laughing and strutting off in different directions

More after the jump:

-If you expect any of our safeties to make any WIllie Mays style interceptions, you'll be extremely disappointed this year.  I've never seen such high caliber athletes look so lost as when the coaches tried to do the "watch above and catch while you're running" drill(obviously I named this drill myself)

-While Sam Noblin looks the part, he was stiff in agility drills with the rest of the safeties.  He's a good bit taller than Brishen Matthews, but Brishen has looser hips and he seems to be noticably faster.  I'm not gonna go all GWH on you, but I could see him contributing on special teams and maybe actually at safety in a year or two.  His hair is still nasty.

-Interestingly, you'll never guess who stretches with the 2nd team WRs along with Jesse Grandy.  Wait for it.....wait for it.....that's right, it's Richi Contartesi.  Third team: Melvin Harris and Jared Mitchell.  Depth chart etched in sand?  I think it's more like butter on a football field in the August sun.

-Here's the homosexual part of the report:  Our defensive ends have great bodies.  One of the starters is 6'6" 265 and the other is 6'5" 260.  They look like NFL bookends and the backups aren't much worse.  Cameron Whigham  looks like a smaller Marcus Tillman(though I think his frame could handle 15-20 more pounds).  Rivers looks just as good, though he's slimmer and in the mold of Lockett and Dorsey.  Carlos Thompson doesn't look near as skinny up close as he did yesterday.  I think he's probably thicker than Lockett was as a freshman.  He's gonna be a good one, though his fellow 3rd stringers didn't like him much when they ended up doing drop downs because of his alignment confusion.

-There were no number changes today that I noticed.

-It was nice to see the guys in shells today.  My favorite drill of the day saw the linebackers versus the running backs and fullbacks.  The drill was set up with a cone as the QB and the running backs were simply blocking for the QB.  Notably poor blocking came from Jeff Scott(though he was praised for his last attempt), Enrique Davis, and Devin Thomas.  Excelling in the drill: Martez Eastland(Can't believe it, but I think this kid might be worth playing at FB as a true freshman), and Mr. Rodney Scott(see quote above).

-During the drills, the UPS man drove by and shouted across the field "Let's go Rebels!", which brought a few cheers and laughs from the crowd.  This is pointless, but I thought I'd share.

-There was a good bit of work on punting again today.  Campbell hit 3 sufficient to good kicks and 1 absolute boomer(something like 55-60 yards in the air).  Ritter hit 2 nice kicks(around 40 yards) and 1meh kick(30ish).  5 guys returned kicks(Bolden, Jeff Scott, Grandy, Summers, and Herman).  Of the 5, only Jeff Scott had a really poor showing(he muffed 2 punts and let the other two bounce.  The most sure handed options appear to be Grandy, Summers and Herman.  Also, the last gunners drill saw Brishen Matthews get schooled by random ass walk on receiver/defensive back.  The crowd oohed pretty loud at that one.

-It's obvious to me that the athletes we're recruiting on the defensive side of the ball are significantly more physically ready for this level of play than those on offense.

-I think Kim Dameron is my favorite coach to watch during practice.  He's easily heard yelling at the safeties(Dele Junaid got his fair share today for bein a big puss during drills).

-The coaches were working on the option from the shotgun again today with a few new wrinkles.  Specifically, instead of running backs, today Ja-Mes Logan, Jesse Grandy, and Korvic Neat were the outside pitch man.  This worked great as we had a true running back like Enrique or Bolden up the middle, either a speed or shift QB(Mackey or Masoli), and a true speed threat on the outside.

-Crawford picked off another in one on one drills.  He's playin pretty well in my humble opinion.

-Again, skeletons started out with a swing pass to Bolden and again it got around 10 yards.  Expect for him to catch 30 balls this year.

-HR Greer is actually getting time with the ones.  He hasn't done anything special yet, but he's there.  Something tells me we could see up to 5 fullbacks this year: EJ Epperson, HR Greer, Derrick Davis, Martez Eastland, and Brandon Bolden

-I thing Grandy probably had the best day at receiver, though Summers, Logan, and Breaux caught most everything thrown their way as well.

-For all you Spiriters and Rivalers, Whit Haggard had a bad day today.  Really bad.

-He didn't get as many reps, but Mackey looked really good when he did.  I felt like today was his best day.  Stanley and Masoli were throwing beautiful balls one second and then ducks the next(get it....ducks).  Actually, Masoli really just threw balls away a good bit because of the amount of rush.  Stanley was overthrowing guys in skeletons and should have been picked off a few times.  One really good sign: no interceptions for the defense in today's scrimmage.  The ability of all three of these QBs to complete the check down and short passing game makes me feel really good about our ability to have an efficient offense.  I feel good that at worst we'll have a game manager that doesn't turn the ball over.

-Today's Order of RB reps in Scrimmage: 1-Enrique Davis 2-Brandon Bolden 3-Rodney Scott 4-Derrick Herman 5-Jeff Scott 6-Nick Parker 7-Devin Thomas

-Jeff Scott's hands are mediocre at best.  He still rips off 10 to 15 yards every other time he touches the ball, but he dropped passes and muffed multiple punts today.  He sprung for about 20 yards on an end around and the coaches replaced him in the huddle, to which he yelled "Yall act like I'm tired".

-The D-Line dominated again today.  Among the defensive players getting sacks: Lockett, Dorsey, and Jason Jones.  There's really not enough time for any deep passing right now.  The longest pass came from Mackey after rolling out.

-Ferbia Allen probably had the best day of anyone in my eyes.  He's developing a really good chemistry with Masoli and he caught everything thrown his way.  He also made a great block that sprung Neat for a touchdown on an end around.

-At the end of practice, Melvin Harris dropped 2 would be touchdowns.  The second was a jumpball(great play by D-back).  The first, he tried to catch with his chest and it hit the ground.