I probably shouldn't have waited till after the second practice to write my complete practice report. This could get quite lengthy, so I will just try and sum up the practices today separately. I will not be out there tomorrow because I'm heading to my Grandma's for the day. I will probably be back in time for Wednesday's practice.
Part I:
There was plenty of shade today and it was actually pretty nice. The players looked tired, but they still fought hard out there. Josh looked poised and accurate during passing drills today. He quickly checked the coverages to see where the ball needed to go and then he put it there. He really didn't overthrow. He was calm and collected. I really haven't seen passing of this kind since I have been at Tech. Josh really took charge out there in the passing game. The only incompletions I saw were the receivers dropping his passes.
Stephen Hill had several great catches in one on one passing drills. He always seemed to be heavily covered and still managed to grab hold of the ball. He looked like he had been out there for years. The other receivers did fairly well but just seemed to drop way too many passes.
Tevin looked consistent and Sims continued to struggle.
After the passing drill, the team went into scrimmage mode. It started off slow because the first string offensive line had trouble moving things up front, but they quickly got into rhythm. Nesbitt took charge of the offense and only had about one bad read the entire scrimmage. He looked relaxed and delivered the ball well to the receivers and A-backs when he did decide to pass. The pass blocking looked great and gave Nesbitt plenty of time to make his reads and throws. Dwyer only played a couple of snaps and then had to sit out for the rest of the practice. He looked good while he was in though.
Preston Lyons took over and appeared not to lose a beat. Tevin commanded the second string offense and they looked smooth. Tevin had several very nice runs out there. He won't out run you, but he is just so slippery and smooth when he gets into the open field.
Godhigh gave a devastating block on the edge on one play to give Tevin a huge gap to run through. The kid basically took out half of the defense with that one block because several defenders were right behind the man Godhigh cut blocked. It was a thing of beauty.
After the first scrimmage, the offense later did a 7-on-7 passing drill. Nesibitt once again shined and showed why he is the clear starter. Again, the only incompletions I saw were dropped balls on the receivers. Tevin also had another nice couple of passes and did a great job.
Sims really should be redshirted and if you watch him in the passing game, you would see why. He just shows no confidence out there. He either pulls down the ball and runs with it too early or throws a ball to an area of the field where there is absolutely no receiver. He has all the tools, but you can just see he doesn't really know how to react to the speed of the game yet. Tevin was much the same last year.
The second and last scrimmage of the day saw the emergence of the defense. Josh didn't quite look so good as he did earlier in the day, and a lot of that had to do with the offensive line. The pass protection just broke down at times and he was running for his life. I think a major reason for this was the coaches constantly switching up the lineup on the offensive line. I think they were just trying to see what combinations worked and the ones that didn't. Apparently some combinations were better than others. The coaches were really frustrated with the offensive line. I don't blame them.
Tevin had a relatively good scrimmage. His highlight came on a pass play when Dieke came rushing toward him but Richard Watson came out of nowhere and cut blocked Dieke to the ground. Tevin quickly ran to his right and let loose a bomb to Stephen Hill streaking down the right sideline. Hill was covered really well too. It was a sight to behold.
The practice ended on 4 straight field goals by Scott Blair that all looked on the money. You could tell CPJ was unhappy with the attitude out there and made the entire team do a set of up-downs.
Part II:
What to say. This practice was really something to see. It looked like crap. The players looked exhausted and the effort level was basically non existent. They mostly worked on red zone passing and nobody really looked anything close to good and consistent (well, they were consistent; consistently bad that is). Josh had two picks, overthrew guys, and did not look like anything like he was earlier in the day. The defense maybe looked okay and were the only ones that showed any kind of passion out there.
Overall, it looked like a useless practice. They maybe learned some new plays or wrinkles, but besides that, there didn't seem to be anything redeeming. I hope the effort is up tomorrow and the players realize they only have about 20 something more days till they go to work for real. I know these boys go through a lot out there, but I agree with CPJ in that there needs to be more effort given and they need to stop going through the motions. I'm sure this half-ass stuff won't be put up with much longer. Their hard work will pay dividends down the line, but they have to stay with it.