Report on April 23, Final Spring Practice
Get Ready for Chris Malleo
Yes, Chris Malleo and I can't believe I'm saying it with him in the Fullback position.
I didn't notice Abernathy playing today so I hope he is ok. At any rate, Malleo was impressive catching the ball and running after the catch. He doesn't appear to be that fast but he gets yardage kinda like Tom Rathman did. In fact, I think this is the year where we have a legit FB that is an offensive weapon and not just a blocker. Having Roberson and Malleo in periodically at the same time gives us another formation in which an opposing team will have to deal with matchup problems. Malleo also looks good when matched up with backers. Shook off today's best Backer in R Johnson and scored a TD today. I assume he also is running good routes because he was a QB. At any rate, I take Malleo's soft hands and upfield turn any day against a backer matchup. Can you tell he impressed Turk? Hey it's early but think the form of Tom Rathman as far as some things he brings.
This is the first time I have been really excited about our FullBack situation and it appears that Rock made a wise choice to move Malleo to Fullback. Mark my words, no matter what I think, Malleo is a football player who knows football and is going to play a great deal this year.
Practice report:
The setting was pretty much heavy on drills/technique with I don't know, 40 plays.
I don't really think it was suppose to be a bigtime intense practice so it was hard to tell who looked good.
No Board that I saw but something like a 1 on 1 with a back. Rees got the best of Shultz today. When those two go against eachother, whoever wins gets the loudest cheers of the day from the particular unit whether offense or defense.
Mansfield best R Johnson. Mansfield looks like he is putting on some hard work this year and IMO the coaches have noticed. Turk has.
Offense:
RB: primary focus of Offense seemed to be passing. Roberson didn't really have opportunity
QB: good to see deep balls [20+], several were thrown. Bacher looks quicker than Baz on the run. Baz looks like the great field general we know he is. Not much to really report on this position for today. It is what we already know.
WR: Horn caught a long TD, Jones caught a nice one. In fact, Horn is so freakn big that he has no worry about getting knocked off his route or off the line. Herbert had the catch of the day against Backes. Mansfield was used as a TE and I believe caught the most passes [3]. Cobb is misplaced at TE I believe. Ross Lane played, Cheatham played. Lane wasn't a factor today as I don't believe he caught a pass. Cheatham had one off his finger tips that he made a dive for.
FB: Where's Abernathy? Malleo looked very good. Abernathy looked good earlier this spring, hope he isn't hurt.
OL: Happy to report that Vince Clarke suited up and played on the second unit. Nothing else to really report here.
Defense:
DL: Good to see Mims and Ngene both playing. Koehn provided decent second team. The DL seemed to hold its own against our OL. They did get baited on a few plays though to come up field.
LB: All our starters are out and some second teamers. Those who played have potential but need work.
DB: I think Battle looked aggressive and good with one batted down ball.
Horn was too wide open on his TD when the strong safety didn't react.