Originally Posted by Spurticus
Spring Practice Number 5: 3/22/13
I was able to catch the end of the one on ones today while Brendon Nosovitch was
finishing his reps with the offense. The defensive backs were shutting everything
down and either not giving the quarterbacks anything open, or they were batting
down the passes in well played coverage. The few passes that I did see completed
were the shorter underneath routes that were quickly shut down after the catches were
made. At the same time this was going on, I finally got to see Nick St Germain get
a few tries at field goals. The Punters were doing some reps on their own to lossen
up before their drills, and Nick had the holding Tee set starting at the 35 (45 yard
field goals). Never saw a miss from that distance while he did kicks from the middle
the right hash and then the left (about three attempts each). Right before the punting
units came onto the field, he moved the ball back to the 40 yard line a hit two out of
three from 50 yards. The only miss being on that bounced off the right upright. This
was done without a line to block or defenders rushing him, but it proved he has plenty
of leg and nice accuracy. Each of the two made 50 yarders cleared with room to spare.
There was a short round of punting team vs Return team work and once again, Nick
Jones, Shaq Roland and Vic Hampton were the designated return guys. And once
again, Shaq dropped his two attemps at receptions. I’m having trouble understanding
how he was the primary Kick / Punt returner for his high school team, yet hasn’t
been able to catch a punt in practice with the Gamecocks now for two days (0 for 7).
HOWEVER, for the second day in a row, Shaq made a grand splash in the team drills
in both skels and full teams being the “go to” receiver and making several more good
plays in the game situation drills. The past two days he has looked much better as a
Wide out and is making most of his catches during the full team drills in the middle
In crowed coverage.
The skels were run on the far end of the field coming back to where the fans usually
stand and they were moving the line of scrimmage up about 5-10 yards when there was
a completion. They were also running some hurry up offense doing this, going with
no huddle. Dylan Thompson was picked off early in the skels by Kelvin Rainey when
Thompson was trying to hit Buster Anderson on a deep curl route. Rainey read it and
basically just slid over in to the passing line and Thompson threw rifle shot right into
Rainey chest, and Kelvin brought it in for the pick. They were moving Rainey from
the middle spot over to the strong / right side switching every couple of plays. Kelvin
looks much better in the middle of the field and so far this spring his picks have all
come when he was lined up at the Mike position. I think with the pick today, he is
somewhere around 5 for the early spring practice ….FROM MIDDLE LINEBACKER !
As was the case yesterday, Thompson’s reps were limited in both the skels and full
team. Other than the pick, he was able to find a couple of open receivers, but for the
most part, he and the other QBs were having a tough time as the Defense was not
allowing much to come open, or they were able to step in and make the deflections.
Vic Hampton, and Brison Williams were having an excellent workout in the secondry
and Chaz Elder who saw limited reps yesterday went deep into the team drills today
with a lot of really nice work from him. One particular play stood out when Brendon
Nosovitch tried to find Buster in a soft seam in the zone coverage. Elder from the
free safety position saw the pass developing and was able to dive in laid out and
deflect the pass that looked like a sure completion. He was a little slow getting up
and had the coaches all yelling out to him “are you alright” ? several times. He finally
got up and walked over to the squad and was back out onto the field a couple of plays
later. Jordon Diggs was sighted today after my missing him for the past two practices.
Diggs was able to get in on the deflection party batting down a couple of passes on
the day as well. He also made several nice plays during the running game part of the
full team drills. Being a guy who loves to watch good defense, I was very impressed
with the backfield play and their quickness the entire practice. A year into it with
coach Grady Brown and the players are looking a lot more “unified” and they seem
to mesh with the rest of the unit that is up. More so than what you saw during practices
when Coach Ward and Coach Beamer were running the platoon style coaching a few
years ago.
Even with the tight coverage for most of the night, there was some nice catches by the
WRs. As mentioned, Shaq Roland had another exceptional performance catching about
5-6 passes through the skels and full team. The only ball thrown toward him that wasn’t
caught was a desperation pass that was thrown wide by Austin Hails with Jadeveon
Clowney hot on his heels forcing him to run. Shamier Jeffery caught his first attempt of
Practice on the second play from skels, but didn’t see a ball thrown his way the remainder
Of practice. Drew Owens caught a couple during Skels and full team, and Buster Anderson
caught one pass that I remember early on in the skels, and the only other attempt I can
recall him involved in was when the ball was deflected by Elder.
Mike Davis has had a very quiet spring so far, getting very few handoffs in any of the
team drills. The majority of the running plays are given to Brandon Wilds and Kendrick Salley.
Mike carried a couple of times tonight during the 11 on 11, but other than that he was not
seen much again this afternoon.
Vic Hampton seems to be rising as the emotional leader of the defense right now. He talks
non stop during the plays, and is the guy laughing a congratulating the ones who make the
plays, and he’s also the guy you see walking over and talking to the ones who get yelled at
by the coaches for not making the plays. So far I haven’t seen that kind of leadership from
any of the offensive players. At least not as visual as Hampton has been the past few
workouts.
Supposed to be a Scrimmage in the morning at 10: am (ish). The coaches seemed to be
Fairly sure the weather will not allow them to do so. Keep checking to see and if anyone
Is able to go, please post something on the board. I’ll be out of town and won’t be able
To make out there in the morning (even if weather permits)
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