-Final 2-a-day practice of the pre-season
-Hope liked the energy and speed of the team
-McBurse participated in most drills...but was not taking full-contact. Johnson, Evans, Quinn and Harris also returned in similar fashion.
Hope said Dierking would start at RB if the UND game was today.
-Trevor Foy continues to breathe down Nick Mondek's neck for a starting job. Hope said Foy is actually better at tackle right now because his technique's so good...but Hope loves Mondek's strength, athleticism and experience.
-Edison, K. Smith, Short, Werner, Kerrigan and Eargle were all mentioned by name as guys who had good days.
-Gabe Holmes is now just off of the two-deeps, according to Hope at TE behind Adams & Panfil...Lindsay is still out due to injury.
-Hope looks to name the starters next week...but thinks the defensive backfield has a ton of guys who will be ready to play.
-Siller is getting more precise and is catching the ball better with contact than last week.
-Hope said he won't be moving any of the LBs to DE any time soon...but might regularly move LBs toward the line to put pressure on opposing QBs.
-Nord thinks Marve looks ready right now...not showing rust at all at this point nor is he having problems with his timing in spite of not playing in a while.
-Keith Smith talked about the possibility of being double-teamed this season, "if they double one of us...the rest of us will eat all night long." He's got a ton of confidence in the rest of the receiving corps.
5 comments:
"Hope said Dierking would start at RB if the UND game was today."
Thank God its not today.
The RB position doesn't worry me as much against ND, as we have situational runs that can utilize Marve, Smith, Henry, Siller, etc. Converting on the short yardage situations, I trust Crank and Dierking can get the job done. Heck, Pegram may surprise.
Is it me, or does Hope play the role of no-nonsense optimist? The whole team dynamic is waaaaaay more cohesive than I've seen under Tiller. Look at Keith Smith's nature and how each guy on the team, regardless of position, seems to be in step with the next guy and propping him up. That's a sign of good things to come when your team is unified and not in-fighting.
The sad thing about Tiller's last few seasons is that they tainted his entire career in God's country. Those 4-5 years were marred by the in-fighting and problems that made the players tougher to relate with and even more difficult to like.
Remember, things were pretty good and everyone got along for 5 years or so...very well, actually.
But I'm with you, I love the camaraderie that's coming out of camp. If nothing else, the team is unified; always a good thing.
Matt, I'm not down on Dierking as a starter...he's serviceable. Sure, he won't set the world on fire, but he'll do what he's told and might gain 4 yds/pop. The underneath stuff will be the key this season as it will frustrate DBs...they'll creep up...and bang, OJ Ross toasts 'em to a golden brown.
As long as Dierking blocks well which I think he does if I remember correctly, then we should be good with screen passes to Siller and Edison to replace running plays.
I don't know about everyone else but I can't even begin to explain how excited I am for this season. Sure we could end up 6-6 (I think that is absolutely the worst we would finish) but I could see us only losing 2 or 3 games if some of this talent pans out. Recruiting all this Florida speed could pay off.
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