4/16 practice observations

I was able to head over again today (with my little son in tow) for another Saturday practice session.  I got there a little after 1 and stayed for about an hour and 15 minutes before the blustery conditions got the better of my little man and I decided to take off.  They were doing position drills for the first 40 minutes or so, followed by situational 11 on 11 work, and were breaking to go back to more position drills (I think) when I left.  I spent some time watching the OL drills and then the QB/WR drills before the 11 on 11 stuff.  I don't have detailed notes or anything, but here were a few things that I noticed:

Regarding the size of the OL - they are not the tubby blobs they were under Ty.  There really isn't anyone out there that looks sloppy, and some of the newer kids they've recruited showcase a desire for leaner, more athletic kids.  Guys like James Atoe, Colin Porter and Erik Kohler have good size, and are clearly thick in a good way.  Which is not to say they don't have room for improvement in that regard, but they come closest to looking the part.  Senio Kelemete also, though wasn't in pads.  Drew Schaefer and Skylar Fancher have decent size too as you'd expect among upper classmen.  Ben Riva is still on the lean side, as is Micah Hatchie.  Hatchie appears to have good upper body strength, but still looks pretty lean in his lower half.  I'd expect that he's among the quicker OL out there, but as with most young OL, he still needs another year or two in the weight room to really fill out properly for a BCS conference O-lineman.  He showed good "punch" in that drill, but he's not a guy that has the lower body strength yet to bulldoze his opponent; certainly not like Porter is capable of doing.  I'm encouraged that they have the physical potential to develop into upper-level Pac-12 linemen, but the Cascade Front is still quite young, and we should temper our expectations accordingly.

Watching the QBs working out on pass plays near the goal line, I was again feeling like I had spoken too soon earlier about Nick Montana having an edge in arm strength - Keith Price was throwing harder and with tighter spirals, and it seemed like Montana was trying to put too much touch on too many of his passes.

When they moved back to midfield though, I didn't see much difference in the zip on their passes.  Neither one has nearly the arm strength of Locker, so they have to compensate by reading defenses and anticipating the WR breaking away from their defender.  In this regard, it still appears Price has the edge.  Also worth noting Price still appears to have a slight hitch in his delivery; it's not as long as it used to be, but he's still not quite as quick getting rid of the ball as he could be.  Neither QB wowed me, but neither had me scared either.  As would be expected, I think the QBs will rely quite a bit on the running game to open things up for them, and fortunately for them, they have more receiving targets than Jake had.

Kevin Smith is a guy that really passes the "look" test - he's very solidly built and quite athletic.  I think he's a strong candidate to be the 3rd WR, and will make Kasen work for it to beat him out.  James Johnson looked pretty good, but he's going to need to step up even more with Kasen coming in, Smith impressing and DiAndre Campbell also looking pretty good.

Jermaine Kearse and Devin Aguilar look really good - no surprise there.  Kearse in particular - as we all know, if he can get over his issue with drops, he's got 1st team All-Conference and NFL potential.

The young TEs provide nice targets for the QB, but they clearly need time in the weight room to become factors in the run game.  ASJ is the closest to a Pac-12 body in that regard, but I expect him to be significantly bigger and stronger in 2-3 years.  Hartvigson clearly has been limited in his upper-body workouts from his shoulder surgery, and Hudson looks skinnier than his list 250 lbs.  All these kids have big potential, but they are also very young.  I'd guess we will continue to see Kanczugowski playing some "TE" in obvious running situations.

The 11 on 11 drills were fun to watch - it was situational, with the offense lined up around the 5 I believe.  I didn't keep a tally, but it seemed roughly 50/50 between the offense scoring and the defense holding them short or dropping them for a loss.  Fun to see how into it the players and coaches on each side of the ball get, with one side or the other cheering and talking mess to the other side if they "won" that play - especially the coaches giving each other a hard time (I bet there's times Johnny Nansen would like to smack Jimmy Daugherty upside the head ;)

Nothing earth-shattering, and the coaches are still limiting the wear and tear on Chris Polk, so I don't have a great feel for where the run game and run defense are at this point.  I'm looking forward to Fall camp and getting to see Deontae Cooper showing his stuff and seeing the incoming freshmen getting into the mix.