Has anyone been and practice and would care offer any observations? Seems that is lacking this year.
Anyone been at football practice?
- Thread starter shotgunDawg
- Start date
Some quick observations.<div>
- Much more fun to watch offense now. Lots of new route combinations.
- Almost no option work. About 2 quarterback runs in two days.
- Josh Robinson is gonna be a beast. Really, really fast.
- Malcolm Johnson gets open constantly.
- Darius Slay has some of the best closing speed from a DB we've ever had.
- Bumphis, Smith, Heavens, and Clark all look very solid, very focused.
- Joe Morrow is looking good on the deep ball, little skittish over the middle.
- Jameon Lewis is feast or famine: he'll burn the brakes off the DB and then drop a sure TD one play then make a nice catch the next chance.
- Benardrick McKinney is huge. Interested to see if he can handle the opportunities so early.
- Quay Evans does not look like a freshman.
- Russell is taking more of a vocal leadership role. Really took command of the first group today in team drills.
- Dak has all the physical gifts you could want in a quarterback, just needs to clean up his release a little (some ducks every once in a while) and continue to learn defenses. He's gotten fooled by zone for 5 or 6 picks so far. Doesn't throw them against man.
- Coaches hyperventilate when anyone gets near the first two quarterbacks. Definitely working to keep them safe this spring.
Sounds great! Thanks for the info. I really like Russell taking a vocal leadership. This team hasn't had that from the QB position in a while. While I loved what Relf could do for us, he was a shy guy, and just didn't have the personality to lead men. If you don't already, I recommend following Russell on Twitter. Over the past few weeks he has really been tweeting more and tweeting very positive and motivational comments about the team. I hope I am right, but we may have a quarterback taking his by the balls and leading them. Let us just hope that his performance is at a level that allows him to continue to do this.
Especially since I had heard that he was showing out in practice last year too. He just has that size that we are lacking at LB right now. It would help us out a lot to be able to run him and Skinner out there in our short yardage situations instead of having to rely on our hybrids on every down. With Hughes progressing as well, we are looking very strong at LB right now. <div>
</div><div>If Nickoe gets back to 100%, this could be the best MSU defense we have seen in a while. We just have so much experience at corner, good LBs and that added dimension of a pass rushing DE in Autry. Should be fun to watch. I would be worried if Nickoe suffers a setback though - I think you have to move Banks in that situation (especially with the depth we have at cb) - it would be just too much inexperience at safety.</div>
</div><div>If Nickoe gets back to 100%, this could be the best MSU defense we have seen in a while. We just have so much experience at corner, good LBs and that added dimension of a pass rushing DE in Autry. Should be fun to watch. I would be worried if Nickoe suffers a setback though - I think you have to move Banks in that situation (especially with the depth we have at cb) - it would be just too much inexperience at safety.</div>
my observation from today. Being in the injury pit looks 1000x harder than practicing. Rufus Warren looked like he was about to puke on multiple occasions, and Balis had Warren, Muniz and Smith sweating more than anybody on the practice field.
Russell is phenomenal when he is confident and can throw the ball on his terms. I still want to see how he responds under pressure. He is an incredible passer, but he just does not react well under pressure... To me, the jury is still out on him. I want to be able to get out there and see Dak play, as well. I saw him during bowl practice and was so much fun to watch. I hope he continues to develop, but I think it's Russell's offense right now.
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">
</span></div><div><font face="Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 12px;">that makes me wonder if a) having ralph at qb we didn't run too many complex routes because of his football iq b) the receivers have finally gotten "it" c) new offense that's more passing oriented d) all of the above</span></font></div>
</span><div><span style="font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">
</span></div><div><font face="Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 12px;">that makes me wonder if a) having ralph at qb we didn't run too many complex routes because of his football iq b) the receivers have finally gotten "it" c) new offense that's more passing oriented d) all of the above</span></font></div>
Chris couldn't have pulled these reads off at all and we've realized we need to evolve as an offense to continue to progress.
He doesn't get sent to the pit. He is dressed but just kinda hangs with the DBs and does these like throw the balls necessary for their drills. Personally, I think that shows just how much respect he's garnered from the coaches and his teammates that he's been able to avoid the pit.
Does he look like he is running strong or anything extraordinary? Or is he just good enough to get by for us at this point?
Even the so called MSU recruiting experts didn't understand why we'd offer him. I'd love for him to turn into the next KJ Wright just to prove the fact that we should trust the coaches more than anything you'll read on a scout/rivals/247 website.<div>
</div><div>If McKinney & Calhoun can live up to the early hype they've gotten, I'll never question a player Mullen offers again (unless his name is Joey Trapp).</div>
</div><div>If McKinney & Calhoun can live up to the early hype they've gotten, I'll never question a player Mullen offers again (unless his name is Joey Trapp).</div>
this is where we have struggled. I don't know if it's a strength or speed issue but in order to get open, they must be able to get off of a jam at the line of scrimmage. Also, they must be able to hold their blocks when we run the football. We did a good job of this in 2010' but seemed to regress last year.<div>
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