Physically Demanding
April 9th, 2008 12:37pm HogBlogger
A continuation of our intial post on spring football practice.
One noticeable change from practice in previous years is that there are drill periods followed by scrimmage periods…followed by drill periods followed by scrimmage periods. No resting…no group water breaks…no sympathy if you tweak something.
If you’re an injured player, you were on an exercise bike over in a corner of the field. No one was just ‘hanging around’ on the sidelines.
The first day in pads on Saturday looked better than any spring practice I’ve seen in a long time. The offensive line looked strong and, overall, the offense dominated the defense.
The move of Chip Gregory to running back is a serious one. He’s a bit tall and lanky, but runs ‘big’ and is hard to bring down.
Michael Smith is still fast, but Brandon Barnett is just as fast, three inches taller and almost 30 pounds heavier. I think we will see a lot of him this fall.
On defense, we are going to have to find our way. Size and experience are both issues at the moment. I expect to see this group improve quickly, though. There are some good players out there.
People asked us to look at the corners. But it was easier to notice the safeties, as they were making a lot of tackles. The corners did a pretty nice job…but nothing amazing. Linebackers are small and lacking experience. I liked the scheme and the coaching of the defensive units.
The punt teams featured serious attention to the spacing on the line. Punts were practiced with a full contact rush of 10 men. There was a committee trying out at punt returner…all being coached by Tim Horton.
Alex Tejada still has a big leg. He hit the goal post about five feet from the top from 47 yards out. Distance will not be an issue. And interestingly, it seems like he’s grown a couple of inches and filled out as well.
The crowds over the weekend were pretty good. I heard someone yell, “We are passing the ball! I love it!” Well, we are passing the ball…but we are running the ball, too. There’s a lot of very physical, hard-nosed football going on out there.
I would strongly encourage fans to get out and watch these guys practice at least once during the spring. This is real football…it’s good stuff.
Tags: spring practice
Entry Filed under: Football, Razorbacks
2 Comments
1. GonzoHog | April 10th, 2008 at 7:52 am
Unfortunately, I havent got to see them practice yet. With the weather issue, combined with taking my boys fishing a couple of times, it hasn’t worked out for me so far, but hopefully, soon, I’ll be able to get up there. Defensively, I hope our D-line come’s together this year. They seem to be talented enough. If this group can improve, then it might be possible to hide some of our weaknesses at LB, with all of the inexsperience. Rebuilding our LB corp, and building some depth at the CB positions will be crucial. I think we have some talent at Safety, but inexsperience will be an issue there as well. Hopefully we can build an honest defense by the time Sept. rolls around. I have high hopes for the offense, and hopefully we won’t have to rely on out scoring our opponents this fall to win games.
2. Sunday Hodge Podge | Razorback… | April 13th, 2008 at 9:18 am
[...] Hogs have opened their first spring practices under Bobby Petrino, and there have already been some changes from the old regime. Nobody covers this sort of thing better than the RazorBloggers, so be sure to check out their [...]