The Houston Cougars opened up fall camp at 7:20 in the morning. The first few days of practice are going to be pad free with just pants, jersey and helmet which is limited by NCAA. With that said the practice was about as intense and demanding from the staff as it could be for a practice without full pads.
I consistently heard the staff yelling at players demanding them to run drills properly, not allowing for any mistakes when it came to running drills and demanding 100% effort from each and every player.
The portion of practice media was able to see was fairly light in terms of drills, we saw the offense running some air drills out of some basic formations.
Take this for what it's worth as it's just day one but these are the players running with the ones.
QB - Greg Ward (Big Shocker Right)
RB- Duke Catalon took the majority of first team reps
WR - Steven Dunbar, Isaiah Johnson and Ra'Shaad Samples I wanna say Chance Allen flip flopped between both one and twos.
TE- Tyler McCloskey
OL- (Left to Right) Joshua Jones, Mason Denley, Will Noble, Kam Eloph and Na'Ty Rodgers
The players running with the twos during the media period were
QB- Kyle Postma
RB- Kevring Justice and Mulbah Car took a lot of reps here. I don't know if I just missed him as I was moving around quite a bit, but I didn't see Kokuma out there today, though I suspect I just missed him.
WR- Linell Bonner, Terry Mark and Chance Allen (Again the part I saw had Allen taking reps with both 1's and 2's)
TE- I missed who the second team TE was during the initial warm up period but I know that Baylor transfer Chris Johnson came here specifically to learn how to play tight end to help prepare him for the NFL, so I suspect if he wasn't already getting a good number of reps he will likely be in the mix soon.
OL- (Left to Right) Marcus Oliver, Josh Thomas, Alex Fontana, Mac Long, Jarrid Williams.
Dane Roy
Aussie newcomer Dane Roy worked a lot with the first team punt team. This was one of the drills the coaching staff were hammering the players to run correctly and Roy already got a taste of his first rear end chewing from the staff. Roy was supposed to punt the ball and then the coverage team was supposed to run 15 yards full speed, but they kept having to start over because Roy was letting up short of the 15 yards. The first time he let up at seven yards, the second time it was 9 yards. Herman grilled him and made them run it over and over until he was happy with the effort his players were putting forth.
The interesting thing I saw was senior tight end Tyler McCloskey coming over firmly explaining to Roy he's gotta run it right, I think Roy responded with something along the lines of he wasn't sure how long 15 yards was and McCloskey said when in doubt run 40. He was being a tough and firm leader but came back two minutes later and gave the new guy a fist bump.
in terms of actually punting the ball, it was hard to calculate exactly how far the punts were going from where we were at but he appeared to be getting a great deal of hang time on his punts and I think with some more practice if he truly buys in and gives 100% effort I think he's got the talent to develop into a pretty solid punter for Houston. He just has some adjusting to do, adjusting not only to moving to the United States from Australia but getting familiar with the college life and the American way of college football. He's not available to media given he's a first year player until coach Herman identifies him as making a significant contribution to the team.
New Locker Room
After the media portion of the practice ended, we were all taken over to the new football locker rooms and given a tour. More on that coming later today.
Tom Herman
Tom Herman talks about opening fall camp, the three new additions to the team and more.
[Please excuse my audio as there was a lot of equipment being moved around in close proximity to where we were]
Ed Oliver
I know many of you are curious to see and hear about Ed Oliver. He looks about as good physically as any true freshman could look without pads on. This kid is in great shape and came to camp ready get to work.
I could tell during workouts that he really loves this, all of it. Even the practices. During warmups I saw him on more than one occasion bobbing his head and moving with the music.
I talked with defensive line coach Oscar Giles after practice to get his thoughts on Oliver's first day.
Giles on Oliver During Day One
"I saw a guy that's a little nervous but came out there and did the best he could, worked his tail off, but the best thing about that is the guys surrounding him. Nick Thurman, B.J. Singleton, Jerard Carter and Cameron Malveaux welcoming him to the brotherhood but telling him he's gotta work. Once you're in this room it's a blue collar, lunch pail type of attitude. Get into the meetings and get on the field and you got one to play and that's hard. He's kind of soaking in that attitude and you can see it on the field now."
"He's a tremendous athlete, he works hard, he was coached hard by Corby Meekins who's now on our staff, and AJ Blum at Westfield, those guys did a great job with him. If he continues to work and develop more work habits the attitude of being a pro this could really help him five or six years from now and it's the same things he's seeing from the guys right in front of him."
I consistently heard the staff yelling at players demanding them to run drills properly, not allowing for any mistakes when it came to running drills and demanding 100% effort from each and every player.
The portion of practice media was able to see was fairly light in terms of drills, we saw the offense running some air drills out of some basic formations.
Take this for what it's worth as it's just day one but these are the players running with the ones.
QB - Greg Ward (Big Shocker Right)
RB- Duke Catalon took the majority of first team reps
WR - Steven Dunbar, Isaiah Johnson and Ra'Shaad Samples I wanna say Chance Allen flip flopped between both one and twos.
TE- Tyler McCloskey
OL- (Left to Right) Joshua Jones, Mason Denley, Will Noble, Kam Eloph and Na'Ty Rodgers
The players running with the twos during the media period were
QB- Kyle Postma
RB- Kevring Justice and Mulbah Car took a lot of reps here. I don't know if I just missed him as I was moving around quite a bit, but I didn't see Kokuma out there today, though I suspect I just missed him.
WR- Linell Bonner, Terry Mark and Chance Allen (Again the part I saw had Allen taking reps with both 1's and 2's)
TE- I missed who the second team TE was during the initial warm up period but I know that Baylor transfer Chris Johnson came here specifically to learn how to play tight end to help prepare him for the NFL, so I suspect if he wasn't already getting a good number of reps he will likely be in the mix soon.
OL- (Left to Right) Marcus Oliver, Josh Thomas, Alex Fontana, Mac Long, Jarrid Williams.
Dane Roy
Aussie newcomer Dane Roy worked a lot with the first team punt team. This was one of the drills the coaching staff were hammering the players to run correctly and Roy already got a taste of his first rear end chewing from the staff. Roy was supposed to punt the ball and then the coverage team was supposed to run 15 yards full speed, but they kept having to start over because Roy was letting up short of the 15 yards. The first time he let up at seven yards, the second time it was 9 yards. Herman grilled him and made them run it over and over until he was happy with the effort his players were putting forth.
The interesting thing I saw was senior tight end Tyler McCloskey coming over firmly explaining to Roy he's gotta run it right, I think Roy responded with something along the lines of he wasn't sure how long 15 yards was and McCloskey said when in doubt run 40. He was being a tough and firm leader but came back two minutes later and gave the new guy a fist bump.
in terms of actually punting the ball, it was hard to calculate exactly how far the punts were going from where we were at but he appeared to be getting a great deal of hang time on his punts and I think with some more practice if he truly buys in and gives 100% effort I think he's got the talent to develop into a pretty solid punter for Houston. He just has some adjusting to do, adjusting not only to moving to the United States from Australia but getting familiar with the college life and the American way of college football. He's not available to media given he's a first year player until coach Herman identifies him as making a significant contribution to the team.
New Locker Room
After the media portion of the practice ended, we were all taken over to the new football locker rooms and given a tour. More on that coming later today.
Tom Herman
Tom Herman talks about opening fall camp, the three new additions to the team and more.
[Please excuse my audio as there was a lot of equipment being moved around in close proximity to where we were]
Ed Oliver
I know many of you are curious to see and hear about Ed Oliver. He looks about as good physically as any true freshman could look without pads on. This kid is in great shape and came to camp ready get to work.
I could tell during workouts that he really loves this, all of it. Even the practices. During warmups I saw him on more than one occasion bobbing his head and moving with the music.
I talked with defensive line coach Oscar Giles after practice to get his thoughts on Oliver's first day.
Giles on Oliver During Day One
"I saw a guy that's a little nervous but came out there and did the best he could, worked his tail off, but the best thing about that is the guys surrounding him. Nick Thurman, B.J. Singleton, Jerard Carter and Cameron Malveaux welcoming him to the brotherhood but telling him he's gotta work. Once you're in this room it's a blue collar, lunch pail type of attitude. Get into the meetings and get on the field and you got one to play and that's hard. He's kind of soaking in that attitude and you can see it on the field now."
"He's a tremendous athlete, he works hard, he was coached hard by Corby Meekins who's now on our staff, and AJ Blum at Westfield, those guys did a great job with him. If he continues to work and develop more work habits the attitude of being a pro this could really help him five or six years from now and it's the same things he's seeing from the guys right in front of him."
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