W
Wes Mitchell
Guest
The media was allowed to watch the first 15 minutes of practice for three days this week. That essentially equals about two drives per practice, some warmups, some special teams and a little bit of Oklahoma. Obviously, not a huge sample size, but here are some thoughts on what we have seen so far.
** Overall, the team looks good physically. There are admittedly still a few guys here or there that need to add or shed, but you can tell the group has had a good offseason as a whole. Obviously, we can't tell from the short time period, but in talking to people who do watch, the practices have been overall more crisp than this time last year, as you would expect. The wind messed with everything Saturday, but I hear Monday in particular was a great practice.
** Zack Bailey is on his way to making a lot of money in the league in my opinion. Bailey has always been a massive dude, and he had a great year last year, but he looks more trim than ever, and poised to step right in at right tackle. I know he's a mauler at guard, but I'm curious to see how he does at tackle this year. His stock only goes up if he can prove he can play there too.
Something else that stood out to me today. Bailey is way more vocal than I'm used to seeing him. He wasn't a very vocal guy in my interactions with him in high school. His personality started to come out some in interviews last season. But he got all over a teammate during Oklahoma for not doing something correctly. It was a positive thing to see. Even more positive, after correcting his teammate, he gave him five and picked him up, so to speak. That's the type of leadership you need.
** Sadarius Hutcherson is worth pointing out for how he looks physically. He holds the 310 pounds he's now at well. He's raw, for sure, but the athleticism is there. He could be a key, because that left tackle spot is the biggest question mark on the line.
** Jake Bentley has looked like Jake Bentley out there. He commands the line of scrimmage and looks calm. He's definitely the leader of the offense.
Can Michael Scarnecchia hold down the No. 2 QB job? He's got some stature to him with a nice high release and he throws a good ball, but past that, he's obviously a huge unknown. He'll get reps all spring to find out. So much of playing quarterback is mental. He was hurt all last year and barely played the year before, so there's going to be a different mindset for him this year going from not being expected to play to being one snap from going in.
** We've talked about it previously, but it's also apparent with one look in person that Bobby Bentley has completely flipped the roster at running back. Ty'Son Williams is as-advertised (he's a smooth runner with good burst) and everyone knows what they have in Rico Dowdle. A.J. Turner is still in yellow, but I'm keeping a close eye on Caleb Kinlaw. He has put on a ton of muscle since his high school days. He's not in the running to be a starter at this point, but he's a great depth provider. He appears to be sort of a one-cut runner who gets vertical.
** With Bryan Edwards, Randrecous Davis and OrTre Smith all out of 11-on-11 -- and Deebo Samuel was held out of 11s on Tuesday too -- the wide receiving corps has not stood out the first three days. There have been multiple drops during the sessions that we've seen. That's to be expected though, with the top players not out there, and two other top freshmen not on campus yet.
** So far, the offensive scheme has looked very similar to last season -- again we're talking about an extremely limited sample size. Who knows what they're doing behind closed doors. That's not too surprising at this point in camp either. As the receivers get healthy and young receivers emerge, I'm curious to see how much of the two-tight end stuff we saw last year they stick with or if they ease back towards the three-receiver looks that it appeared they'd use a lot of when the new staff first took over.
** Overall, the team looks good physically. There are admittedly still a few guys here or there that need to add or shed, but you can tell the group has had a good offseason as a whole. Obviously, we can't tell from the short time period, but in talking to people who do watch, the practices have been overall more crisp than this time last year, as you would expect. The wind messed with everything Saturday, but I hear Monday in particular was a great practice.
** Zack Bailey is on his way to making a lot of money in the league in my opinion. Bailey has always been a massive dude, and he had a great year last year, but he looks more trim than ever, and poised to step right in at right tackle. I know he's a mauler at guard, but I'm curious to see how he does at tackle this year. His stock only goes up if he can prove he can play there too.
Something else that stood out to me today. Bailey is way more vocal than I'm used to seeing him. He wasn't a very vocal guy in my interactions with him in high school. His personality started to come out some in interviews last season. But he got all over a teammate during Oklahoma for not doing something correctly. It was a positive thing to see. Even more positive, after correcting his teammate, he gave him five and picked him up, so to speak. That's the type of leadership you need.
** Sadarius Hutcherson is worth pointing out for how he looks physically. He holds the 310 pounds he's now at well. He's raw, for sure, but the athleticism is there. He could be a key, because that left tackle spot is the biggest question mark on the line.
** Jake Bentley has looked like Jake Bentley out there. He commands the line of scrimmage and looks calm. He's definitely the leader of the offense.
Can Michael Scarnecchia hold down the No. 2 QB job? He's got some stature to him with a nice high release and he throws a good ball, but past that, he's obviously a huge unknown. He'll get reps all spring to find out. So much of playing quarterback is mental. He was hurt all last year and barely played the year before, so there's going to be a different mindset for him this year going from not being expected to play to being one snap from going in.
** We've talked about it previously, but it's also apparent with one look in person that Bobby Bentley has completely flipped the roster at running back. Ty'Son Williams is as-advertised (he's a smooth runner with good burst) and everyone knows what they have in Rico Dowdle. A.J. Turner is still in yellow, but I'm keeping a close eye on Caleb Kinlaw. He has put on a ton of muscle since his high school days. He's not in the running to be a starter at this point, but he's a great depth provider. He appears to be sort of a one-cut runner who gets vertical.
** With Bryan Edwards, Randrecous Davis and OrTre Smith all out of 11-on-11 -- and Deebo Samuel was held out of 11s on Tuesday too -- the wide receiving corps has not stood out the first three days. There have been multiple drops during the sessions that we've seen. That's to be expected though, with the top players not out there, and two other top freshmen not on campus yet.
** So far, the offensive scheme has looked very similar to last season -- again we're talking about an extremely limited sample size. Who knows what they're doing behind closed doors. That's not too surprising at this point in camp either. As the receivers get healthy and young receivers emerge, I'm curious to see how much of the two-tight end stuff we saw last year they stick with or if they ease back towards the three-receiver looks that it appeared they'd use a lot of when the new staff first took over.
