Mr. All-Turk Thursday Practice Award Goes To:
Brandon Roberson. Just flat out hustled all day. I didn't know this kid was so quick in his first 5 steps.
Showed strength on the board, was our quickest back to the hole, looked extremely solid. NU RB situation is in great shape. If I was honest I would say that he appears indecisive at times, and that is the only thing I think this Cat needs to work on..
Scenerio Very few in attendance, very windy and cold. Some High Schoolers from the Oak Park school came, and some kid named Larimore or perhaps it was the High School team he plays for. I heard the word Larimore mentioned. At any rate, one big dude and had a High School jacket with plenty of letters.
Injuries: Orange jerseys: Thompson, Howard, I believe Yarbourough [not sure], I think Vince Clarke, Jordan, Roach, Fields I believe, and a few others that I couldn't make out their numbers. Of those, Howard was the only one who wore some type of device on his leg. He walked straightlegged and didn't bend his knee but I was assured it was tendonitis. Red shirts were worn by Backes and Philmore.
Pleasant Surprises:
Mark Koehn: I thought he did pretty well going against Matthews. When he went up against Strief though it was a different story. But Koehn looks fairly decent even though I believe he is learning this new position [DE].
Robertson [See above]
Ferguson: Great to see him healthy. I think this guy will find a way on the field. Made a nice catch on the 7 on 7's and took an unnecessary hit that I think knocked the wind out of him but he shook it off and was ok. I'd like to see what this kid can do in the open field.
Unit Reports
DB's Backes: redshirted. Tarver: Saw considerable action with first team. Heinz: I beleive I saw him in the 7 on 7's and he looked alot more comfortable with the position switch. McPherson/Cole/Battle nothing to really report other than they played extensively in the full contact scrimmage thing. Dious looked good coming in on the second team. He made the play of the day with a nice INT that I think he could have returned forever. Overall I like the 2 deeps alot with the exception of the Free Safety position which I think is bigtime wide open. Henderson was not in uniform or jersey as far as I could tell.
LB'S I was pleasently surprised with the intensity of Simpson. Kadela looked great and my gut feeling over the winter about him being moved to DE isn't going to happen. He looks great at LB.
DL: With LoHo out, Cofield was by far the best lineman we had. Far ahead of the others. Shultz looked decent, and Koehn looked improved. Didn't really take notice of anyone else. I don't believe I saw Mims playing.
OL: Strief's biggest problem is going to be competition in practice. He really had nobody to compete with today.
I think our Offensive Line starters will be solid but after today I got a bigtime feeling that the 2 deep needs alot of work. If the defensive front can be secure then I wouldn't be surprised if John Gill is given a quick look at OL in Kenosha.
RB: Roberson was flat out solid. Malleo reminded me of a former Notre Dame fullback. It looks like Malleo wants to see the field and I think he is going to get his wish. He has great vision and also was used as a single back. Malleo has some freakn hands bigtime as I saw him in the 7 on 7's. If he starts he will have to beat out Abernathy who surprised me today. I have no idea how much Fullback we are going to use this year but I feel good about both of these guys. Abernathy caught a beautiful catch and ran for what appeared to be a TD. I am unclear on both Malleo and Abernathy's blocking. Shanks practiced. Once he gets going he has a head of steam. But I didn't see him get any action in the scrimmage. Hunter and Hamlett also saw some time, Hunter more.
WR: With injuries to Thompson, Fields, Philmore, the chores were left to others. I kinda stuck with the Lineman so I didn't notice many of the wideouts but I believe TJ Jones, Lane saw some time along with Ferguson, Cheatham, Horn. Cheatham looked great IMO. He is really good in 7's, this guy is going to get some minutes. Joe Ferguson [See above]. I saw alot of 87 Jones so I think the coaches are pretty high on him.
QB The Bazmanien Devil looks really good. You can really see that his overall experience has produced a very confident QB. I think CJ needs some work.
TE: Cobb is huge. I didn't notice him much in the scrimmage part of practice.
Special teams: Some booming kicks but the wind was really moving. Cheatham and Dious were playing some outside on the kickoff team, along with Ferguson.
End of Report