Tuesday's Scrimmage was rescheduled to Wednesday afternoon due to class schedules, so the Cougars conducted their first scrimmage of camp on Wednesday afternoon. Of course the entire scrimmage was during the media blackout period when we weren't allowed on the field.
Majority of what we saw was Warm ups and a "run through" by the offense.
The depth on offense looked pretty much the same though there was a bit of shuffling around at running back and WR.
QB - Ward, Postma and Sells was taking the majority of the reps with the third team from what I saw though I'm sure Kyle Allen and D'Eriq King got their reps as well.
RB - I didn't see a lot of Duke Catalon during my time out there, I'll have to keep an eye out for him tomorrow. I saw Kevrin Justice, Mulbah Car and even Josh Burrell rotating reps. Justice got a lot of reps with both first team and second team during the period of availability.
WR - Steven Dunbar, Chance Allen and Ra'Shaad Samples were the ones that the most of the first team reps. A lot of the second team reps went to Isaiah Johnson, Linnell Boner and Marquez Stevenson who appears to be the name that has emerged as a viable threat in that slot position battle with Ra'Shaad Samples.
TE - McCloskey was the main figure head I saw at tight end. There was a lot of movement on his part. Sometimes he would line up on the line, sometime he lineup as more of a h-back in the backfield. Romello Booker was the guy I saw working with the second team. I was hoping to see some reps with Chris Johnson, but I wasn't able to see any during the period we were allowed to watch.
OL - Joshua Jones, Mason Denley, Will Noble, Kam Eloph and Na'Ty Rodgers continue to get work on the first team reps. Working with what I have to assume was the second team were Marcus Oliver, Keenan Murphy, Alex Fontana, Mack Long and Braylon Jones (left to right).
Didn't get to see much of the defense in the 30 minutes we were out there and we were too far away at the end for the extra we did get to see but I'll be back out tomorrow and I'll try to spend more time watching that side of the ball.
Also want to note these were during the 30 minute period of availability and they didn't actually run any live reps with contact during that period. So they could have been moving a lot of guys around to loosen up.
Scrimmage
Did see a few minutes at the end before we walked back out to the coach and player availability during the last 5 or 10 minutes or so. The little bit I did see was very defensive heavy in terms of who was doing well. I don't think I saw any successful running plays outside of a little scamper by Greg Ward that took it in the would be endzone during redzone situations.
The only three quarterbacks that I saw take reps during that last bit were Greg Ward, Kyle Postma and Bowman Sells. Granted we missed the majority of it. We were a good distance away from the action but it looked like the offense was trying to establish a running game in the red zone, but the defense pretty much kept it bottled up for the most part outside the run by Ward mentioned previously.
I saw a pretty decent play by Sells that went for what looked like a 10-12 yard completion to Romello Booker. That played he showed pretty good composure in the pocket, the line gave him just enough time to scan the defense and reacted quickly hitting the open man.
I saw a pretty good play by Mike Eke where he made a diving break up on a pass intended for Keith Corbin, ball placement by Sells was pretty good, Eke just made a pretty damn good play.
The defense was pretty successful overall in the portion I saw and I think that was pretty much the story of the day because the offense stayed behind for some extra running after practice was over.
NFL Scouts
The Green Bay Packers and New Orleans Saints had scouts on hand to check out the seniors during practice. Tyus Bowser is a guy that is on a lot of NFL teams' radars heading into 2016. From what I've heard he has a third-round grade entering the season so he received a lot of attention.
But they were also watching Greg Ward, Brandon Wilson Steven Taylor and Cameron Malveaux and B.J. Singleton among others.
Coach Darrell Wyatt
Talked with coach Wyatt following practice to get his thoughts on his unit and some of the battles going on at the receiver position.
"Still working to develop depth, we've got some young and talented guys that are coming along and learning the offense, we've got some veteran guys that have been pretty consistent for the most part. I love the work they're doing."
"We've got a heated competition in the slot and we've obviously got a transfer in Ra'Shaad Samples doing some nice things and we have a really talented freshman in Marquez Stevenson with a lot of speed, both those guys are really battling there. We've got Terry Mark that made some nice plays this spring, it'll be interesting to see who emerges as the slot receiver."
It seems as though Dunbar and Allen have nailed down their spots on the outside and the biggest battle left is for the slot receiver which Samples appears to hold a slight edge on at this point judging by the reps and guys trying to nail down spots for depth. It looks like Stevenson may indeed be the top freshman to watch who has the best chance of playing early.
I'll have more from Wyatt on a feature on Ra'Shaad Samples we'll have coming out soon.
Tom Herman
Here is Tom Herman during his post practice media availability talking about some of the position battles which has been posted already as well as Greg Ward on the cover of SI and more.
Majority of what we saw was Warm ups and a "run through" by the offense.
The depth on offense looked pretty much the same though there was a bit of shuffling around at running back and WR.
QB - Ward, Postma and Sells was taking the majority of the reps with the third team from what I saw though I'm sure Kyle Allen and D'Eriq King got their reps as well.
RB - I didn't see a lot of Duke Catalon during my time out there, I'll have to keep an eye out for him tomorrow. I saw Kevrin Justice, Mulbah Car and even Josh Burrell rotating reps. Justice got a lot of reps with both first team and second team during the period of availability.
WR - Steven Dunbar, Chance Allen and Ra'Shaad Samples were the ones that the most of the first team reps. A lot of the second team reps went to Isaiah Johnson, Linnell Boner and Marquez Stevenson who appears to be the name that has emerged as a viable threat in that slot position battle with Ra'Shaad Samples.
TE - McCloskey was the main figure head I saw at tight end. There was a lot of movement on his part. Sometimes he would line up on the line, sometime he lineup as more of a h-back in the backfield. Romello Booker was the guy I saw working with the second team. I was hoping to see some reps with Chris Johnson, but I wasn't able to see any during the period we were allowed to watch.
OL - Joshua Jones, Mason Denley, Will Noble, Kam Eloph and Na'Ty Rodgers continue to get work on the first team reps. Working with what I have to assume was the second team were Marcus Oliver, Keenan Murphy, Alex Fontana, Mack Long and Braylon Jones (left to right).
Didn't get to see much of the defense in the 30 minutes we were out there and we were too far away at the end for the extra we did get to see but I'll be back out tomorrow and I'll try to spend more time watching that side of the ball.
Also want to note these were during the 30 minute period of availability and they didn't actually run any live reps with contact during that period. So they could have been moving a lot of guys around to loosen up.
Scrimmage
Did see a few minutes at the end before we walked back out to the coach and player availability during the last 5 or 10 minutes or so. The little bit I did see was very defensive heavy in terms of who was doing well. I don't think I saw any successful running plays outside of a little scamper by Greg Ward that took it in the would be endzone during redzone situations.
The only three quarterbacks that I saw take reps during that last bit were Greg Ward, Kyle Postma and Bowman Sells. Granted we missed the majority of it. We were a good distance away from the action but it looked like the offense was trying to establish a running game in the red zone, but the defense pretty much kept it bottled up for the most part outside the run by Ward mentioned previously.
I saw a pretty decent play by Sells that went for what looked like a 10-12 yard completion to Romello Booker. That played he showed pretty good composure in the pocket, the line gave him just enough time to scan the defense and reacted quickly hitting the open man.
I saw a pretty good play by Mike Eke where he made a diving break up on a pass intended for Keith Corbin, ball placement by Sells was pretty good, Eke just made a pretty damn good play.
The defense was pretty successful overall in the portion I saw and I think that was pretty much the story of the day because the offense stayed behind for some extra running after practice was over.
NFL Scouts
The Green Bay Packers and New Orleans Saints had scouts on hand to check out the seniors during practice. Tyus Bowser is a guy that is on a lot of NFL teams' radars heading into 2016. From what I've heard he has a third-round grade entering the season so he received a lot of attention.
But they were also watching Greg Ward, Brandon Wilson Steven Taylor and Cameron Malveaux and B.J. Singleton among others.
Coach Darrell Wyatt
Talked with coach Wyatt following practice to get his thoughts on his unit and some of the battles going on at the receiver position.
"Still working to develop depth, we've got some young and talented guys that are coming along and learning the offense, we've got some veteran guys that have been pretty consistent for the most part. I love the work they're doing."
"We've got a heated competition in the slot and we've obviously got a transfer in Ra'Shaad Samples doing some nice things and we have a really talented freshman in Marquez Stevenson with a lot of speed, both those guys are really battling there. We've got Terry Mark that made some nice plays this spring, it'll be interesting to see who emerges as the slot receiver."
It seems as though Dunbar and Allen have nailed down their spots on the outside and the biggest battle left is for the slot receiver which Samples appears to hold a slight edge on at this point judging by the reps and guys trying to nail down spots for depth. It looks like Stevenson may indeed be the top freshman to watch who has the best chance of playing early.
I'll have more from Wyatt on a feature on Ra'Shaad Samples we'll have coming out soon.
Tom Herman
Here is Tom Herman during his post practice media availability talking about some of the position battles which has been posted already as well as Greg Ward on the cover of SI and more.
