Day 1 training camp report

Football was officially back just outside of Fish Field House on Wednesday morning.

Luckily, we had shade under the trees while players ground through their first session preparing for 2025. As always, here’s everything I saw (or as much as possible without breaking reporting rules given by the team)

-8:45 means 8:45. I walked in from the Beacon St. Garage at 8:44 assuming guys would still be getting out there, but position group drills were already well underway, in fact I missed the majority of the first two periods, usually dedicated towards positional work or a light walkthrough for offense and defense.

-Quick traffic complaint because there might be no place worse on earth than Chestnut Hill/Newton in the morning on a week day: Figure it out folks, figure it out. 45 minutes from Waltham is absurd.

-Not a great day for either QB with a lot of over throws and balls to the turf. Fumbles during a throwing motion, interceptions (although, it was a tip, more on that later) and just an overall lethargic feel for the offense most of the day. Receivers didn’t have much opportunity to make plays.

-Having said that, in the first team period James had three completions to Lewis Bond on various routes. That top three of Bond, Reed Harris and Jaedn Skeete is so legitimate assuming health. Lonergan fumbled the first snap he took during his series, hit Broome for one short completion and had another incompletion on a roll out.

-Without getting into specifics for reasons stated in the intro, it was the same O-line that I figured it would be coming out of spring ball and the one I wrote about leading up to camp…

-I thought the running game was fairly even on both sides. Alex Broome continues to look remarkably quick – especially in the passing game – as he did all spring. Turbo Richard is still Turbo and BB&N’s Bo MacCormack popped a bit in his limited reps during his first camp.

-Defensive depth is legitimate. Two very good secondary and defensive line units. Taking things slow with Amari, everyone else plastered receivers for most of the team stuff throughout the morning. Isaiah Farris and Syair Torrence continued to do what they were doing in April. Favor Bate from Merrimack flashed again as he also did in the spring. At least four-deep at safety between Omar Thornton, Carter Davis, KP Price and Cam Martinez. Quintayvious Hutchins and Daveon Crouch are legitimate leaders. Owen Stoudmire can be stout in the run game up front and Michigan transfer Jason Hewlett Jr., Bryce Steele, Bate, Crouch, Owen McGowan and Tim Hays all played a role in the defense quieting the offense Wednesday.

–Andy Quinn and Shamus Florio will battle it out at punter. No punting expert, but being able to see the ball actually travel in the air outside and not hit the roof, just the naked eye test tells me it should be Quinn, but what do I know?

-No live kicking periods.

-Summary of 7-on-7 and two team periods before conditioning to wrap up day one:

James – Incompletion low, completion out wide to Turbo, dart over the middle to Harris, incomplete low to Bond, tip drill INT for senior transfer (Wisconsin-Plattville) Will Straka on a deflection by Max Tucker intended for freshman Ned Boldin Jr. (just good coverage), drop by Kaelan Chduzinski, short completion to freshman Dawson Pough, PBU for Torrence vs. Luke McLaughlin, low snap fumbled, run Bond, sack for Hutchins, strong run by Turbo.

Lonergan – Dart crosser for Chudzinski (best TE of the day by far), short completion to Turbo, high incompletion to Boldin Jr. (although might have gone through his hands), short completion to Chudzinski, two straight overthrows on deep balls to Bond and Harris, PBU Steele vs. Chudzinski, diving catch on the sideline falling out of bounds by Skeete, incomplete deep to Harris (overthrown again), short to Turbo, run Broome, deep-ish out to the sideline caught by McLaughlin.

-Deep balls were a big problem for both guys all day. Not only were they not close, but receivers legitimately had no shot. At least 10-15 yards over their heads a handful of times.

-MacCormack had a big run late with redshirt junior transfer (Marist/Monmouth) Enzo Arjona getting reps with Shaker Reisig currently nursing a ‘little’ injury according to Bill O’Brien in his post practice press conference. O’Brien said he will be back at some point, but no need to rush it as Arjona was actually pretty good.

Only day one, but QBs will certainly need to have a bounce-back performance on Thursday. Defense hopes to keep it rolling, particularly on the back end.