After falling asleep during the Rockies game (ya baseball is boring), I hit up practice. Nothing really too different then the other practices.
Notes:
Hawk was working a lot with the special teams. It was definitely a focus during practice... Riddle was no where to be found during these drills. It seems like Riddle is 99% TE's, and 1% ST's. I can also see why the specialists struggled last year (P's, K's). For most of the practice they stare and watch and occasionally kick into a net. No one is watching/guiding them at all. At one point the specialists even left the bubble.
QB's: It looks like Cody is running with the 1st team. Hansen looked pretty impressive today. He has a really nice touch on his fade routes, and just overall. Ballenger appears to be an afterthought at this point IMO. I saw him fumble and he forgot the same play twice in a row............
RB's: Darrell Scott really towers over all of the other RB's. He is by far the biggest RB, you can almost compare his size to Jimmy Smith (but thicker). Speedy's head goes to about the top of Scott's shoulder pads. Scott was a pretty tenacious blocker surprisingly...he more then held his own blocking DT Lagrone Shields on one play. Lockridge left to practice with the WR's for a couple plays, it looks like he'll play quite a bit in the Slot. To me, Lockridge has a faster 2nd gear then Speedy, but Speedy's quickness is just incredible.
WR's: Markques Simas=stud. Him and McKnight are far and away the best WR's IMO. On one play Simas leaped up and snagged the ball right from the defenders facemask...it was a very impressive play. It looks like Espinoza will get some solid PT this year.
OL: Johnson has them all practicing snapping. Even Miller was snapping with Cody under the center. He even did some practice snaps for FG's. Interesting IMO.
DL: Although this looks like a weakness (to me atleast), they played really well in the Offense vs Defense drills. Most of the run plays ended up with the RB being stopped in the backfield or right at the line. It looked like they had Speedy stopped behind the line when he ran into the OL, but he bounced around the RT and burst forward for a TD
LB: Rippy will be something special before he leaves IMO. Sipili took a leadership role on the 2nd team defense. He was telling other guys where to line up and was a vocal leader. Major was no where to be found.
DB's: Burney doesn't look like he lost a step at all. He is definitely one of the quickest players on the team. Vince Ewing looks pretty impressive IMO. Jonathan Hawkins, Paul Vigo, and Chap (for a little while) sat out the drills. Perkins and Mahnke look really good. I find it interesting that Polk has been at all practices and other injured guys like MTM and Major have been missing... Stephen Hicks is rockin a Buffalo tattoo, pretty cool. It's always nice to see players taking ownership of a program
Overall it was a pretty up-tempo practice. No injuries and no scuffles that I saw:thumbsup: Jay Luewenberg (sp), Charles Johnson, and Zach Grossnickle were there. There was a recruit there that I recognized but I can't remember the name. Valdez any idea (I looked for you but there were a couple guys with Rockies hats). I'd say around 20 fans attended. One thing that bothers me tho is it seems like the people around the team regard the fans as a nuisance really to practice. Maybe that's just me... I'll post more if I remember. GO Buffs!!!
Notes:
Hawk was working a lot with the special teams. It was definitely a focus during practice... Riddle was no where to be found during these drills. It seems like Riddle is 99% TE's, and 1% ST's. I can also see why the specialists struggled last year (P's, K's). For most of the practice they stare and watch and occasionally kick into a net. No one is watching/guiding them at all. At one point the specialists even left the bubble.
QB's: It looks like Cody is running with the 1st team. Hansen looked pretty impressive today. He has a really nice touch on his fade routes, and just overall. Ballenger appears to be an afterthought at this point IMO. I saw him fumble and he forgot the same play twice in a row............
RB's: Darrell Scott really towers over all of the other RB's. He is by far the biggest RB, you can almost compare his size to Jimmy Smith (but thicker). Speedy's head goes to about the top of Scott's shoulder pads. Scott was a pretty tenacious blocker surprisingly...he more then held his own blocking DT Lagrone Shields on one play. Lockridge left to practice with the WR's for a couple plays, it looks like he'll play quite a bit in the Slot. To me, Lockridge has a faster 2nd gear then Speedy, but Speedy's quickness is just incredible.
WR's: Markques Simas=stud. Him and McKnight are far and away the best WR's IMO. On one play Simas leaped up and snagged the ball right from the defenders facemask...it was a very impressive play. It looks like Espinoza will get some solid PT this year.
OL: Johnson has them all practicing snapping. Even Miller was snapping with Cody under the center. He even did some practice snaps for FG's. Interesting IMO.
DL: Although this looks like a weakness (to me atleast), they played really well in the Offense vs Defense drills. Most of the run plays ended up with the RB being stopped in the backfield or right at the line. It looked like they had Speedy stopped behind the line when he ran into the OL, but he bounced around the RT and burst forward for a TD
LB: Rippy will be something special before he leaves IMO. Sipili took a leadership role on the 2nd team defense. He was telling other guys where to line up and was a vocal leader. Major was no where to be found.
DB's: Burney doesn't look like he lost a step at all. He is definitely one of the quickest players on the team. Vince Ewing looks pretty impressive IMO. Jonathan Hawkins, Paul Vigo, and Chap (for a little while) sat out the drills. Perkins and Mahnke look really good. I find it interesting that Polk has been at all practices and other injured guys like MTM and Major have been missing... Stephen Hicks is rockin a Buffalo tattoo, pretty cool. It's always nice to see players taking ownership of a program
Overall it was a pretty up-tempo practice. No injuries and no scuffles that I saw:thumbsup: Jay Luewenberg (sp), Charles Johnson, and Zach Grossnickle were there. There was a recruit there that I recognized but I can't remember the name. Valdez any idea (I looked for you but there were a couple guys with Rockies hats). I'd say around 20 fans attended. One thing that bothers me tho is it seems like the people around the team regard the fans as a nuisance really to practice. Maybe that's just me... I'll post more if I remember. GO Buffs!!!
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