NFLPA Collegiate Bowl Thursday Practice Notes

Oladokun, quarterback, 10 yard line. BJ. Baylor, Oregon St. on the carry. Left side of the offense blocking (TE Curtis Hodges of AZ St., LT Andrew Rupcich of Culver-Stockton LG Jarrid Williams of the U., Duke’s Center Jack Wohlabaugh moving the pile there, ending with little disagreement between the OL and Rutgers LB Olakunle Fatukasi and DL Roderick Perry of Illinois on the defensive side. Call it a healthy scrum.   Wohlabaugh got rolled up there a litte but he’s okay.

Sacred Heart’s RB Julius Chestnut in the back field, Oladokun’s pass batted down by down by Cincy’s Curtis Brooks on the DL and Pimpelton was open again in the right side of the ez but ball didn’t get there. The protection was mostly good that time but LDE Zach Van Valkenburg of Iowa with a great rep, getting under the pads of RT Jachai Baker and pushing him all the way back to the QB. 

Brandon Peters in at quarterback. That’s still Chestnut in the backfield with a TE Hendershot lined up as a fullback/H-Back. Peters with good protection and possibly room to run left, instead throws back against his body to an uncovered WR Brandon Johnson of UCF on the opposite hash. It’s overthrown and right to UTSA LB Clarence Hicks for an easy pick. Peters bends to hands-on-knees. Would like to have that back.  Lance McCutcheon on one side, again, split, right, Isolated out here against Tre Swilling, is that defender from Georgia Tech we talked about yesterday. Was going to be a pitch play but there’s a false start. They line it up again and go half speed. Pitch again, this time, no false start, and it’s a halfback pass actually to The back left corner to Corey Sutton… but coaches chastise Taylor for throwing it into a crowd of defenders.

Hern from Arkansas now at TE, standing up next to the right tackle. Pass protection good. Peters escapes left, but into pressure from Curtis Brooks. Has to throw it away. Tre Swilling once again looks like he is unafraid that basically has a third of the field to himself in coverage. Looks good staving off McCutcheon.

Cole Kelly in at quarterback. Looking left presnap, maybe making a hand signal? At the snap has great protection,but coverage is also solid. Kelley moves up in the pocket and is going to run. Probably on a live play he’d get at least 6 or 7 yards.

Change in OL. Jachai Baker back at right tackle, Jarrid Williams flips to right guard. Brandon Johnson split out left and Chestnut at RB. Curtis Hodges TE on the right side. It’s a PA off a left outside zone. Kelley rolls right. Coverage again tight and pressure comes again from Van Valkenburg who is not fooled by the misdirection. Might have been a tough sack to escape, but Kelley is also tough to bring down. Van Valkenburg refusing to be fooled or blocked right now.

Brandon Peters now in at quarterback, 7-on-7 Peters throw to Kern on a drag route was a little high AND Kern never looked for the ball… the result was a leaping should-have-been INT #2 of the day by LB Clarence Hicks. That’s two plays of his in a row where the ball is going straight to defenders. Not good. The defense in general seems way ahead today compared to yesterday.

Peters looks downfield and tries a hole shot on the right sideline but the ball goes through the hands of Montrell Washington of Samford. Looked like Peters had to work hard to deliver that throw–a tough one by NFL standards. He isn’t going to win the effortless velocity contest so he has to be accurate. It’s a good throw and probably a tough catch. It also seemed like the two receivers running a smash concept were too close to each other, so the spacing there was a little bit off. The defense, on the other hand, has all the momentum in practice.

Next snap, all that defensive work is for naught after a beautiful route, throw, and catch on a backshoulder deep ball to Lance McCutcheon (what else is new). UCLA Quantrezz KNight in off-man coverage but McCutcheon just ate up the cushion so quickly that he was on top of Knight before the CB had a chance to even read the route stem. That’s a receiver who is going to make a lot of DBs look bad and make some QB look really good. Funny, the defense looked like they were ahead for a few reps of that 11 on 11. All it takes is one superior play to swing the momentum back.

4th and 15 situational drill, still, Peters at QB. Shermari Jones at RB Good pass protection from RT Jarrid Williams sealing the edge and it’s a dumpoff to Jones. Jones makes nice yardage, but didn’t seem to be thinking, “it’s fourth down and 15 and I got to make a play” while he went out of bounds 2 yards short of the marker.

AMERICAN TEAM

American Team went at it a bit more intensely today, thus the notes heavier on their practice.

Always interesting to see who comes out early for practice for the American team. Aside from the specialists, former Florida Atlantic TE Zaire Mitchell-Paden was the first one on the field, warming up and showing off an impressive build. He’s first out here from a group of overacheivers, getting some early work in before anyone showed up. Duly noted. The quarterbacks come out. Zerrick Cooper with a smile for everyone. Teammates & coaches seem to like him. DL Akial Byars Missouri, LB Daniel Hardy from Montana State, WR Michael Young from Cincinnati. Earlybirds. Now, the rest of the crew working its way in.

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Simultaneous drills at opposite ends of the field, so I’ll comment the best I can!

1-on-1s for receivers and coverage guys. This kind of drill doesn’t really favor the defenders very much, but we’ll see.Nebraska’s Austin Allen catch in the flat. Catching everything this week.

Next rep, Garber threw into a tight window and pass defended away by LB Arron Mosby of Fresno state. Very nice pass defense. 

Zerrick Cooper now at QB. Three-Step step drop then dump to the running back in the flat. Once again, QBs here are focused on delivering it on time to what the D gives them.

Cooper again, looks right. This time a 50/50 with the defender Darren Brown of Fresno State making a really nice play to break it up on Dai’Jean Dixon.

Now Garber with a quick out to Deshawn Dixon. Next, Garbers goes back to the left, an underneath route to his college teammate, Tonges.

After a short break, Aqeel glass now in 7-on-7, looks left, then comes back and immediately throws right. His receiver had fallen down. The ball came out anyway and was intercepted. Once again, I think. In Glass’s defense, this is a drill, and he’s encouraged to get the ball out quickly to the read, whether it’s there or not. These QBs have to get used to the idea of where they’re supposed to go with the designed play.

Garbers to a tight window there for Dixon, throw was a little low and inside.

Glass again. This time Malcolm Rodriguez of Oklahoma State accidentally put a big hit on the receiver who’s my earlybird TE Mitchell-Paden. ZMP made a nice grab, even though he absorbed a good hit. Not just a hard worker coming out early, made a nice play there. Nice length, good target radius.

Glass again. It’s a great throw left sideline this time to Dixon and fit in a tight window Pretty good coverage that time from LB who dropped, Mosby That was pretty good coverage, just a better throw and catch.

OL/DL 1-on-1s 
Oh, wow. Gigantic Caleb Jones vs persistent T.D. Moultry Auburn. Moultry tried to speed and dip the outside and 77 just plowed him into the earth.

USC’s Jalen McKenzie with stop on Louisiana’s Chauncey Manac, used long arms to box him out.

Aron Johnson from South Dakota State runs Deandre Johnson (Miami FL) around the arc.

Stalemate Greg Long of Purdue at guard vs. Practice Week All-Star Eric Johnson of Missouri State. Johnson has been a tough matchup for everyone but good rep for Long here.

Uh-oh, it’s Orlando Umana, again. It doesn’t matter who they run against them, this time number the highly touted EDGE Sam Williams of Ole Miss. Umana says nope.

Tanner Owen had a stout pass pro rep before did a nice job of interior, didn;’t see who it was against… maybe Tre Williams of Arkansas.

Mouldry vs Caleb Jones again. Just too much size differential. Mouldry will be coming all day with that same energy, eventually going to get through. Persistent.

Texas A&M’s Jayden Peevy vs Doug Kramer of Illinois. Stalemate/good matchup.

Eric Wilson with a nice job hand-fighting pretty nice job with hand position against Peevy. But he was giving ground a little bit, good power from the TAMU D lineman.

James Houston takes a rep (he’d been in the coverage drill on the other side of the field, I think). Houston, unsurprisingly, with a nice rush against Aaron Johnson. Set up Johnson to the outside and then ripped inside and free.

Manac vs Mackenzie. Mackenzie took away the outside loop but Manac counters quickly to the inside and kind of got McKenzie a little bit. McKenzie recovers and uses his length that’s tough to get around, so isn’t a complete loss. Mackenzie repping at left tackle now after playing a lot at right tackle yesterday

Sam Williams and Greg Long to a stalemate. I think Williams is pretty good, so this is a really good rep for Long.

Doesn’t matter who they put up against Umana. Mouldry this time. Forget it. Umana has faced NT types, quick DTs, DEs, & EDGE OLBs. He has taken on and defeated all comers in this drill.

The defensive version of Umana, Greg Johnson, just went by somebody in the drill. That was a immediate win at the snap vs, I think Doug Kramer. Johnson has brought out an array of tools/pass rush moves and I think Kramer might have been waiting to see one and just got jumped off the snap.

Chauncey Manac and Aron Johnson now. Manac tried some lateral moves. It didn’t really work. Aron Johnson pretty much a rock and moves well side to side with good balance. Has done very well in these drills.

Manac runs around Johnson, but coaches didn’t like that. Maybe Manac jumped the gun? Horn sounds before the rematch.

STs:

Illinois punter Blake Hayes punting a series of beautiful balls. Going through his normal punting drill. Man, that’s a lot of spirals. Beautiful footballs. Has a little more issue with what looks like his directional and or less-than-full kick but not the Aussie backspin distance. Just not coming off his foot quite as consistently. Specialist jobs in the NFL are really detail-oriented, so I’m applying a pretty tough standard.

Ezzard back as the PR in punt practice. Amazing how much ground he covers to get the ball in the air––makes it look easy––but perhaps even more amazing is seeing him throw it 50+ yards effortlessly in the air to get it back to the line of scrimmage. When I mentioned being impressed with his arm, I started to say, “I remember you throwing one…” and he finished my sentence, “had that guy wide open and I threw it 15 yards over his head!” Shakes his head like he’s still pissed about it months later.

Looked like the specialists were happy to have some reps in live-action. They finish the session with a long FG attempt simulating an end of game situation. Illinois PK James McCourt has made everything in drills/practice but, after the coaches “freeze” him with a TO, he misses. They go again and end the day on McCourt’s mulligan, a 55-yard make.

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These are one on ones for DB/LB vs WR/TE/RB.

RB Brittain Brown with a nice shake and bake route against Arron Mosby.

Greg Bell with another good choice route vs John Gibbens of Minnesota. Gibbens just couldn’t stay with him. Slippery.

NDSU’s Josh Babicz picks up a low throw while on the run vs Corey Rahman. Got away with a push off, but he’s a TE and they let TE’s do that.

Tioledo’s Bryant Koback vs Do-it-all James Houston. Houston with a physical close but just late on a short route.

Dixon against Fresno’s Darren Bland, Dixon wins cleanly out of the break but Bland takes advantage of a throw that was a little late and to the outside to knock it away.

Zaire Mitchell-Paden vs John Gibbens on a corner route. Gibbens trails out of the break on a corner route but the ball is thrown too far for ZMP. 56 had good coverage on the Big TE.

Young and Kaniho for the third time. You know Young wants this, having had the ball knocked out twice before. Young gives a stutter step in the back of the EZ, breaks out for separatio with Kaniho looking inside, and the WR makes the catch.

11-on-11 action.

McKenzie at RT, Garbers starting the drill at QB with the first team, he’s got Austin Allen on a slant. Allen makes a guy miss––well, maybe not miss for real if there was tackling––but puts a little move on a Safety for extra yardage. It’s been a nice couple of days for Austin Allen. Good burst for Brittain Brown into the hole. Nice job by C Doug Kramer to clear the IDL.

Young split left matched with C.J. Holmes one on one. Zyon Gilbert from Florida Atlantic on other side against Mychal Cooper. Garbers looks right, throws left on an angle route to the TE Tonges. On-target throw and nice catch in traffic.

Darron Bland in at CB travels to right side with Young presnap. That’s his match-up, I guess. Outside zone right to Brown, again, OL does pretty well to slide as a unit. McKenzie on the outside big man moving. Jack Cochrane making defensive playcalls and setting the defense. Run to the middle, IOL makes a hole but Cochrane that time meets the run in the hole and delivers a nice stick on Brown.

The corners matched up and Cory Rahman playing single high in Red Zone D.  A run up the middle meets some strong resistance from Cochrane, Rahman and also DT Akial Byers from Missouri clogging that hole.

The two minute drill offense with Garbers, needs a TD from his own 45, there’s a minute and 10 on the clock. It’ll be interesting to see a two minute drill with a team that’s only practiced together three or four days. Drive starts with run up the middle and it figures––there’s a time-honored tradition of the first play in the two minute drill being a run. Garbers had a shot at intermediate middle receiver but dumped it underneath. Using a lot of time. 15 seconds remaining now. He’s going to have to take a chance if he’s going to make this happen from the 25. Drops it again to the RB outlet but now we’re down to 3 seconds and one last play from the 15. Garbers rolls out and makes some time for himself to the right, but he’s going to throw it up in the back of the end zone towards Ezzard. Ezzard leaps and tries to stay inbounds but the throw is too far. That’s good defense but the offense is going to have to attack more/pick up the pace.

Next 2-min offense scenario: Forty five seconds and need a field goal to win. Zerrick Cooper at quarterback, fakes a handoff and throws right sideline to Dixon. DB expects Dixon to continue out of bounds, but Dixon boldly fakes and head further upfield. The kind of play where the coach goes, “get out of bounds! What are you doing??” but then, after Dixon gets 12 ore yards and then gets out of bounds, coach is all, ” Nice play, 8-5!” Great job.

Jeff Fisher changes the scenario since they’re already in FG range. “No timeouts left. The offense will complete a pass and we’re going run the FG team and FG block team out on the field to see if we can get set in time. I say to the person next to me, “no self-respecting defender is going to let the offense get a completion just because they’re ‘supposed to’ for the drill.  Sure enough, Cooper throws it right to the Joshua Blacwell, standing alone in the middle of the field and the ball is intercepted. FG team and FG block run on the field anyway, got lined up in time, and the FG is drilled by McCourt. Not bad for just about 4 previous reps of FG team in live action this week… but wait––Caleb Jones gets flagged for illegal formation and that negates the play. “My bad, coach––I’m not used to being an eligible receiver!” Good point. Maybe that completes the drill. It’s been a pretty good day, but worth noting that the offense/STs failed on all the 2-min/last-second scenarios today. A portent of things to come?

Jeff Fisher has the practice end with some fun. He has the crew set up a Juggs machine so that it shoots punts a mile high and the length of the field. All the big guys line up to try and catch the “100-yd punts”. It’s a competition between offense and defensive lineman. Every defensive guy alive thinks he can catch it like the skill guys and every OL alive dreams of a big man catch for a TD. But this is a lot harder than it looks. T.D. Moultry (he of the nonstop energy in pass rush drills) is the first volunteer.  He looks good lining up under it, until the ball sails about 10 yards over his head. Tariqious Tisdale from Miss gets a hand on it to no avail.

Like I said, harder than it looks. After a couple more reps each way, I feel bad for his next coach, because you can bet Josh will be begging for a chance at a Tackle-eligible play. Here’s another offensive lineman, Caleb Jones. He starts off okay but then gets afraid and runs out of the way. Like an elephant frightened by a mouse. Finally,  Josh Sills, the Oklahoma State OL catches it perfectly,  to a great round of applause (and disbelief on the part of the Defensive guys). Here’s the irrepressible Sam Williams for the defense. No, siree, bub. Somebody on defense got to catch it right? You know all those guys yap constantly about how they could be offensive superstars if only given the chance to shine. Nope. Another offensive lineman to try––it’s the guy who’s done everything right, Orlando Umana.. and, of course, he comes through in the clutch for the second catch. Big Eric Johnson takes a shot. Moves well tracking the ball but it drifts to the crowd of OL and he backs off. The OL guys finally stopped him in a drill. C Eric Kramer can’t catch it. Now, here’s Sam Williams again, probably trying to prove to those STs coaches that he could catch. Nope, over his head. Well, remember coach told him not to catch it if it goes over his head, so… Oh, the defense has got to be embarrassed right now. Small-school OL Tanner Owen gets both hands on it but can’t complete the catch. One more attempt… the defense’s last chance for pride. James Houston from Jackson State via Florida can do just about everything else on the field but catching a 100-yd punt is not in his toolbox,.I guess. After the ball takes a late flutter, he reaches up and can only bat the ball into the air to cheers from the Offense. I suppose you could say the defender knocked it away–– well, that’s what you’re supposed to do on defense!  Yeah, that’s it. Good drill. OL 2, DL 0. The offensive line wanted it. Impressive, man.