I just got in from the coaching clinic that will end tomorrow with the 2nd scrimmage of the Spring. Here is my take from what I saw at today's practice.
If we were to start the season tomorrow, the O-line would look like this, CK at LT, AK at LG, Ryan Kelly at C, Steen at RG, and Austin Shepherd at RT. Second O-line had Brandon Greene at LT, Kellen Williams at LG, Chad Lindsey at C, Isaac Luatua at RG, and JC transfer Leon Brown running at RT. Malcolme Faciane is the TE, with Harrison Jones and Vogler running the H Back. OJ Howard and Kurt Freitag are running TE with the 2s. TJ is your HB behind AJ at QB. Behind AJ, Blake Sims received most of the 2s work but Alec Morris and Cooper Bateman all received some reps with the 2s as well. The Wr corps looks freakishly awesome!! Cooper, Bell, Chris Black, Christion Jones, DeAndrew White, Raheem Falkins all catch it if it gets within 8 ft of them. Falkins is a nice target (6'4" 203). This group doesn't include Kevin Norwood who is out for the Spring. At one point the offense went 3 Wr to the left and a single Wr to the right. On the left was KB7, CB5, DW2 and AC9 to the right!! Can you say HEADACHE for any DC in the nation? Dee Hart and Jalston Fowler both are progressing nicely from their knee surgeries. I watched them both go thru all of their drills and both looked steady even with the brace on their knee. Derrick Henry is A MAN!! Listed at 6'3" 238, he is a load to bring down. Kenyan Drake is running behind TJ right now.
Defensively, the D line looks to be Pagan and Stinson at the ends, with Ivory at the Nose. Fanning, Orr, Tomlinson, Ball, Lake, Kirven all are pushing for reps and will be on the field at some point in time. With DePriest out, Tana Patrick is lined up inside beside CJ. Denzel Devall and Adrian Hubbard round out the LB corps. Reggie Ragland, Ryan Anderson, Dillon Lee, Xzavier Dickson are behind these guys. The secondary was running Belue and Cyrus Jones at corners, with Vinnie and Ha Ha at safeties. Nickel had Geno Smith. John Fulton is currently out with injury but will be OK for the fall. Of the 3 Spring experiments (Cyrus Jones, Dee Hart, and Christion Jones) Cyrus seems to be at CB for good. He is wearing Crimson #5 instead of his #8 White. Christion did get a little work at CB in 7 on 7. Other DBs include Jabriel Washington, Bradley Sylve, at CBs, and Landon Collins, Jarrick Williams, Nick Perry, and 28 yr old Jai Miller working the Safeties.
Coach Saban looked to be in mid season form when he proceeded to chew the arse of the "white hat" for not stopping the clock on a 2 minute drill on a completed pass that went out of bounds!
We will be young in a few spots but we very easily could be looking at our 4th Natty in 5 years! We all know how Coach prepares for the season. Just looking at the schedule, Va Tech hires the train wreck former OC at the Barn to "improve" their offense. We go to College Station to play Mr. Celebrity himself after taking an off week. We then welcome Ole Piss in the 4th game. Then later in the season, we welcome the grass eater and his Bayou Bengals. These, on paper, are supposed to be the toughest games.
As for the clinic, once again, CNS brought in all of the stars of football to come and speak. Sean Payton spoke before lunch and Dick Vermeil spoke after dinner tonight. Herm Edwards and Chuck Pagano are scheduled to speak tomorrow. Payton went over but he was worth it. He seems to be very humble and down to earth. He has that fire in his belly for this season. He said his forced sabattical consisted of him going to his sons' school and asking to be the OC of the 6th grade football team! He told the story of how a former Dallas Cowboy had a kid on another team that trampled them during the season. The team ran the single wing and he had no idea how to stop it. He said that Parcells and Gruden both kept in touch with him and they asked how he was biding his time and he told them. He then told them about the single wing. They both gave tips and called in the days leading to the rematch for the championship. They still lost. Somehow, Gruden and Parcells found out before Payton could call and they wouldn't call him or talk to him for a week. They didn't want to take any blame! LOL
If we were to start the season tomorrow, the O-line would look like this, CK at LT, AK at LG, Ryan Kelly at C, Steen at RG, and Austin Shepherd at RT. Second O-line had Brandon Greene at LT, Kellen Williams at LG, Chad Lindsey at C, Isaac Luatua at RG, and JC transfer Leon Brown running at RT. Malcolme Faciane is the TE, with Harrison Jones and Vogler running the H Back. OJ Howard and Kurt Freitag are running TE with the 2s. TJ is your HB behind AJ at QB. Behind AJ, Blake Sims received most of the 2s work but Alec Morris and Cooper Bateman all received some reps with the 2s as well. The Wr corps looks freakishly awesome!! Cooper, Bell, Chris Black, Christion Jones, DeAndrew White, Raheem Falkins all catch it if it gets within 8 ft of them. Falkins is a nice target (6'4" 203). This group doesn't include Kevin Norwood who is out for the Spring. At one point the offense went 3 Wr to the left and a single Wr to the right. On the left was KB7, CB5, DW2 and AC9 to the right!! Can you say HEADACHE for any DC in the nation? Dee Hart and Jalston Fowler both are progressing nicely from their knee surgeries. I watched them both go thru all of their drills and both looked steady even with the brace on their knee. Derrick Henry is A MAN!! Listed at 6'3" 238, he is a load to bring down. Kenyan Drake is running behind TJ right now.
Defensively, the D line looks to be Pagan and Stinson at the ends, with Ivory at the Nose. Fanning, Orr, Tomlinson, Ball, Lake, Kirven all are pushing for reps and will be on the field at some point in time. With DePriest out, Tana Patrick is lined up inside beside CJ. Denzel Devall and Adrian Hubbard round out the LB corps. Reggie Ragland, Ryan Anderson, Dillon Lee, Xzavier Dickson are behind these guys. The secondary was running Belue and Cyrus Jones at corners, with Vinnie and Ha Ha at safeties. Nickel had Geno Smith. John Fulton is currently out with injury but will be OK for the fall. Of the 3 Spring experiments (Cyrus Jones, Dee Hart, and Christion Jones) Cyrus seems to be at CB for good. He is wearing Crimson #5 instead of his #8 White. Christion did get a little work at CB in 7 on 7. Other DBs include Jabriel Washington, Bradley Sylve, at CBs, and Landon Collins, Jarrick Williams, Nick Perry, and 28 yr old Jai Miller working the Safeties.
Coach Saban looked to be in mid season form when he proceeded to chew the arse of the "white hat" for not stopping the clock on a 2 minute drill on a completed pass that went out of bounds!
We will be young in a few spots but we very easily could be looking at our 4th Natty in 5 years! We all know how Coach prepares for the season. Just looking at the schedule, Va Tech hires the train wreck former OC at the Barn to "improve" their offense. We go to College Station to play Mr. Celebrity himself after taking an off week. We then welcome Ole Piss in the 4th game. Then later in the season, we welcome the grass eater and his Bayou Bengals. These, on paper, are supposed to be the toughest games.
As for the clinic, once again, CNS brought in all of the stars of football to come and speak. Sean Payton spoke before lunch and Dick Vermeil spoke after dinner tonight. Herm Edwards and Chuck Pagano are scheduled to speak tomorrow. Payton went over but he was worth it. He seems to be very humble and down to earth. He has that fire in his belly for this season. He said his forced sabattical consisted of him going to his sons' school and asking to be the OC of the 6th grade football team! He told the story of how a former Dallas Cowboy had a kid on another team that trampled them during the season. The team ran the single wing and he had no idea how to stop it. He said that Parcells and Gruden both kept in touch with him and they asked how he was biding his time and he told them. He then told them about the single wing. They both gave tips and called in the days leading to the rematch for the championship. They still lost. Somehow, Gruden and Parcells found out before Payton could call and they wouldn't call him or talk to him for a week. They didn't want to take any blame! LOL
