Mini Camp Day 3

[gizmo fan 2]

Personnel:
-Cut: Strait
-Luciani in sweats again, didn't participate
-Schiavone also in sweats, didn't participate
-I THINK I saw Yelk kicking some FG's on the practice field late in the workout (don't know who else it might've been)
-Absentees: Awasom, Bradley Robinson (DB)
-Late: Tucker (though not by very much...makes me think it was med/equipment reasons)

Today's somewhat chilly/breezy morning session was on the FieldTurf at Clarke. Much fewer slips today.

Same ST drill rotation as yesterday to start with. Had a great view of the strip/punch-out drill, which was right in front of myself and SandManFan. Noel Thorpe told Coop "That's how you do it...that's how you get the girls!" after one particularly good punch-out and recovery. Thorpe was also emphasizing to slap the ball out of bounds if it was a tough recovery, as we'd still get the ball.

Another note: Maas, LeFors, and Donovan were all practicing holding with the long-snappers during the rotation. Going to be interesting to see who our holder is - never hurts to have more than one, I guess.

More positional stuff after that...same as yesterday except for the LB's, who ran a sidestep/shuffle drill over three log-blocks, and then did a contact drill where one guy had a ball and the defensive guy was to stick him (not tackle, but hit him). Nothing really notable there, but the sound of hard contact was kinda nice to hear.

The skill offence ran simple pass plays...Kelly Campbell had probably one of the best receiving days, you could tell the effort was there even for the simple plays. Jermaine Jamison wasn't too bad either. Breazell had one bad drop.

Next was full team pass (offence vs. LB's/DB's), today with about half-contact. Campbell burned past Landrom pretty good early. Mason was left open on the short sideline quite a lot. Jamison got into tight coverage and Ray rifled in a good pass, Jamison made a nice catch and then Duane Coleman stuck him. Ryan Moore caught one but then was stripped by Hood on a good defensive play.

Maas had trouble with overthrows, throwing too far a few times in a row...but he also made a nice read to find Clarence Moore in a hole and Moore got some good YAC after that.

LeFors took a while to get rid of the ball and overthrew Clarence Moore twice in a row, and both were about six feet from being picked by Tristan Jackson and Hood respectively. He hit Mason after Mason got some good separation off Jackson, though.
After that particular play, Kepley gave the D a bit of a warning, in the form of "Get your head out of your ass and find your receiver!"

Nesbitt blew one coverage on Breazell (tough matchup for Nesbitt in any case), but recovered decently.

Donovan came in and telegraphed a pass to Gibson (who also blew his pattern and didn't look back), and Coleman jumped in for an INT.

Maciocia had a bit of an outburst..."Practice started over an hour ago and some of you guys still haven't come out yet! If you're not up to it, then get your sorry ass off the f#$%ing field!" Not sure quite what prompted that, but oh well.

Campbell and Jackson had a few battles on deeper patterns...good all around, really. Coleman had a nice breakup on Breazell. Ryan Moore made a nice jumping catch in traffic and Jackson brought him down with a little help from Thud Washington.

Mason ran right by Jackson twice in a short span but Maas overthrew him again.

LeFors hit Jamison in stride nicely, leaving St. Pierre in the dust (again, tough matchup, though).

Landrom ended the drill with a nice breakup.

While that was going on, OL/DL were doing 1-rushes like yesterday at the far end of the field. Wasn't close enough to notice anyone stand out.

1-on-1's...today they included RB's, who were covered by the LB's. Campbell beat Keith Williams once. Jamison and P-L Yao both dropped one. St. Pierre had a nice coverage on Harris. Nesbitt made a nice breakup in front of Yao. Prator beat Pindell once. Coleman had a nice coverage on Ryan Moore. Breazell beat Jackson, had it, then dropped it. Marshall beat Bass on a nice catch. Isaac covered Challenger nicely.

Marshall ran right past one defender, which was surprising until we realized that the defender was #92 Tyler Clutts, who's listed at DL. Almost looks like a Hollis/Dalton-type hybrid, could go at DE or LB.

Pindell and Gibson had one good battle where Pindell stood Gibson up, Gibson fought past him, then Pindell got back and broke it up.

Practice ended with snap-punt-catch again. Elaschuk looked much better than yesterday. I made it a point to look at the snappers...Nesbitt has some good velocity on his snaps, and good placement as well. St. Pierre is fast, too, but his snaps were quite low...fine for FG's, but not punting. Andrew King did not snap today. Campbell and Coleman did not return...otherwise the personnel was the same as to end yesterday.

Overall, noticeably good days: Campbell, Coleman, Jamison, Mason.
Noticeably not-good days: Gibson (who has really underwhelmed), Jackson, Yao.

By my rough count (based on the Esks.com roster) we can take about 24 of these 41 guys into main camp. If I had to pick, they'd be:

QB: Donovan
DB: Hood, Williams, Coleman, Isaac, Landrom
RB: Harris
LB: Pindell, Nesbitt, Hollowell, Washington
OL: Barlowe, Armstrong, Tucker
WR: Campbell, Jamison, Challenger, Mason
K: Yelk, Schiavone
DL: Clutts, Murphy, Davis, Cooper

But that's just MO and I probably won't be right on half of them.

[Diesel]

Re: Mini Camp Day 3

Nice work!

[couchspud]

Re: Mini Camp Day 3

well done. Thank you.
(must spread rep around etc. blah blah blah)

[Opus]

Re: Mini Camp Day 3

Good job Matt.....still going to try and make it out for the late session

[Diesel]

Re: Mini Camp Day 3

Crush will be there

[Opus]

Re: Mini Camp Day 3

so it will be revealed?

[Diesel]

Re: Mini Camp Day 3

It's basking in the sun right now. Bring shades

[esks4life]

Re: Mini Camp Day 3

These reports are really appreciated guys. Especially living in Sask where if a rookie makes a good catch in camp it's plastered all over the news about how he is the next Elgarrd and the rest of the league is in trouble.

[turftoe27]

Re: Mini Camp Day 3

Thanks again g f 2. Greatly appreciated.

[eskimoses]

Re: Mini Camp Day 3

Thanks for the updates guys.... it gives me a little more optimism for us filling some holes. Can't wait for TC to begin in earnest though.... that's when we get a much better indication as to the true depth/talent we may have. Anyone recall when/where the first exhibition game is and can we catch a radio broadcast somewhere?

[Party Time]

Re: Mini Camp Day 3

k...I guess i should provide a little input from the afternoon session..forgive me since i don't go to many of these things so I was a little unsure of what to look for, etc.... Opus and Diez can probably add a bit more...

Anyway, the few guys that stood out to me were:

Offensive:

Challenger: seemed to be able to find holes and get openings, has some really good wheels, one play ( I think it was Maas) was overthrown...looked out of reach and Challenger was able to shift gears and almost made it.

Campbell: seems to be very elusive after catching and again has some good speed.

Moore: his height is quite impressive...also has some good speed and he made some nice catches, one where he basically reached over Landrom and grabbed it out of his hands.

Mason: has a lot of speed to burn and on the deep routes seemed to blow by coverage.

Jamison: dropped a few catchable balls and didn't seem to be having a good day at all.

Harris: right during warm-up he dropped a few simple catches, may have just been cold but they weren't very tough ones

Prator: also dropped some easy ones and wasn't too pleased with himself

Defence:

Hood: looks like he had good coverage most of the time, there were a couple plays were he was playing too deep but he adjusted and had decent coverage.

Coleman: looked solid whenever I watched him, played pretty well despite (perhaps because of) Kep getting on him about trash talking....see below

Bass, Jr: didn't get too many reps during the "scrimmage" (QB/Rec vs LB/DB), found it a bit strange.

Washington: I was mainly watching DBs, but I noticed toward the end, AJ was giving him a few pointers and tips.

Special Teams:

not much happened here, end of practice was receiving with the machine (no punter), I think it was Shiavone who was around in sweats but no kicking. They also had Lefors, Donovan and Maas practising again with holding...didn't notice who was long snapping.

Highlight of the session:....Coleman is trash talking the receivers and proceeds to get an earful from Kep...along the lines of "play the f***ing game" etc... Next play he makes a nice play to break up a pass, going step for step with the receiver along the far side of the field. Two plays later he does the same thing across the middle. He really fired up the defence.

Anyway, that's about all I can remember, hope it's useful

[Beerfish]

Re: Mini Camp Day 3

Thanks for the reports guys.

[Opus]

Re: Mini Camp Day 3

Didn't stick around until the end, but saw some stuff today....

I'm not going to even say anything about the QB's really....it's still early and the only question is if we are going to carry 4. To that end Donovan hasn't looked out of place. He throws a pretty nice ball, but until we see any live fire scrimmaging, we won't know a thing on him. We'll just say he is waiting for the "Khari Jones (Fed-Ex) litmus test".

RBs - again.....nothing to tell, since all they've really been doing is running out in pass catch. Can't wait to actually see how Harris runs with the ball from behind the line of scrimmage. That's when the eval will come.

Rec - There is a reason that Challenger was the leading receiver for Boston College 2 years in a row. While he's not vertically gifted by any means at 5'-8", he seems to run good routes and puts himself in position to make plays on balls going his way. I also like the way he comes back to the QB on under and crossing routes to shield off the defender from making plays over the top.

Mason, great foot speed in and out of his cuts, as well as pull away speed in the open. His routes could need some spit n' polish, but nice potential on another shorter frame (5'-11").

Clarence Moore, One thing he's got that you can't teach. Height. At 6'-6" and a 220 lbs frame, he is a big target in the middle. They seem to have been lining him up at slot, and I really like the idea of this guy playing jump ball against shorter defenders if he's got hops to go with it. His speed doesn't seem overly impressive, but it might just be deceptive as he has a smooth long gait. I'm hoping he makes main camp to see more of him.

Ryan Moore, Hasn't made much of an impression. Too bad, as I was expecting more from a former 'Cane. Blew a post route on an isolation drill that had Kelly yelling at him from across the field.

Campbell, seemed to be solid this afternoon. If he underwhealmed at first, perhaps he's starting to pick up. Runs decent routes, and carries speed throughout.

Prator, really didn't see the ball much today, so he was under my radar even though I wanted to see some more of the stuff I'd heard....Perhaps I'll see better Sunday.

Jamison, had a really tough day and seemed to fight the ball throughout the session. A couple really bad drops.

Luciani was still out and was seen doing some resistance training for the hammy tweak Giz mentioned earlier in the day.

Gibson seems to be going through the motions...Diez thinks that perhaps he's got the idea that his best bet is to pace himself until main camp before making an impression. We'll see if his strategy pays off.....

Breazell, likely had the kind of day that will send him packing.

DL - As far as the imports go, out of the 3 I think Murphy and Davis have the inside track right now. Both look both bigger and faster than Clutts. I think folks could be talking about these guys at main camp and I want to see their size tested against the OLine in full speed. These guys are both interesting, especially Murphy who at 6'-6" 260 looks like a bigger version of Cam Wake (6'-3" 240). Athletic build, thin calves and ankles, and an albatross like wingspan. My only concern is that Olinemen can get leverage underneath on him and keep him upright. Davis is a bit thicker and built (6'-4" 276), but has good speed. Both looked explosive in their iso drills against an offensive front 4.

*As an aside, just got to comment on Coach Wnek....aside from some very interesting and clever teaching tools (props) Diez and I were able to overhear something some folks might find refreshing. At one point during a cool down, he said to his group (and Diez can correct me if I paraphrase this poorly) "My job isn't to stand here and yell at you guys....players want to play, and if you're a player you'll give your best".....

Like I said, I'm paraphrasing, but that was the gist.....I think that he's got a philosophy that is going to serve our Line well this year. I think that guys are going to want to play for him. So don't be surprised if our line play is noticeably improved just on the effort side alone. We'll see.....

Even though I really wanted to spend more time eyeing up the LB corps and DB's, I ran out of time....never really saw Bass take any reps...I like the size of King and he seems to play well with TSP (no surprise as they played side by side at St.Mary's), but the play of the imports was a step up. Hollowell, Washington, and Pindell all have to get a longer look at camp. Pindell looks like a good candidate to study under Garrett for the SAM spot.

DBs- Coleman (Mike McKenzie-esque dreds on this kid) made the biggest impression on me today. I like the swagger, even if Diez thinks he should cut his hair .....Hood had one real nice breakup, and Okpro looks like he could be a work in progress.....I was hoping to see someone else stand out like Williams or Landrom, but then again, I lit out before I could really study them all closer.

[displacedinbc]

Re: Mini Camp Day 3

Guys:

Thanks so much for all this info. Its greatly appreciated!



BTW.... After installing our new HD LCD TV and cleaning up the living room (big changes), the Eskie mini helmet and flashing red (touch down) light have found a great home on one of the speakers. Bring on the 2008 CFL season!

[Diesel]

Re: Mini Camp Day 3

I had to leave before both of you so I don't have a lot to add but here goes:

I'm not going to even say anything about the QB's really....it's still early and the only question is if we are going to carry 4. To that end Donovan hasn't looked out of place. He throws a pretty nice ball, but until we see any live fire scrimmaging, we won't know a thing on him. We'll just say he is waiting for the "Khari Jones (Fed-Ex) litmus test".

Agreed here. Best thing to say is that Ray's arm hasn't shown any signs of velocity or range problems whatsoever.

RBs - again.....nothing to tell, since all they've really been doing is running out in pass catch. Can't wait to actually see how Harris runs with the ball from behind the line of scrimmage. That's when the eval will come.

Yup, I am interested in what AJ Harris will bring to the table.

Rec - There is a reason that Challenger was the leading receiver for Boston College 2 years in a row. While he's not vertically gifted by any means at 5'-8", he seems to run good routes and puts himself in position to make plays on balls going his way. I also like the way he comes back to the QB on under and crossing routes to shield off the defender from making plays over the top.

Best way for me to desribe Challenger's style is that he reminds one of a Wes Welker. Similar stature, similar running style and looks to do everything at full speed. I have a hard time thinking that KC won't be with this team in some roster capacity for 08.

Mason, great foot speed in and out of his cuts, as well as pull away speed in the open. His routes could need some spit n' polish, but nice potential on another shorter frame (5'-11").

He exhibits those subtle atributes that makes one pay attention, that he could be an explosive player. One to keep an eye on in main camp.

Clarence Moore, One thing he's got that you can't teach. Height. At 6'-6" and a 220 lbs frame, he is a big target in the middle. They seem to have been lining him up at slot, and I really like the idea of this guy playing jump ball against shorter defenders if he's got hops to go with it. His speed doesn't seem overly impressive, but it might just be deceptive as he has a smooth long gait. I'm hoping he makes main camp to see more of him.

Ryan Moore, Hasn't made much of an impression. Too bad, as I was expecting more from a former 'Cane. Blew a post route on an isolation drill that had Kelly yelling at him from across the field.

Both Moore's have had their moments but nothing brow raising yet.

Campbell, seemed to be solid this afternoon. If he underwhealmed at first, perhaps he's starting to pick up. Runs decent routes, and carries speed throughout.

He will have to fight the inconsistecies that have been his rep apparently.

Prator, really didn't see the ball much today, so he was under my radar even though I wanted to see some more of the stuff I'd heard....Perhaps I'll see better Sunday.

This guy seems to be the most polished of the rookie receivers. He does a lot of things well and has good leaping ability. I'm keeping an eye on him.

Jamison, had a really tough day and seemed to fight the ball throughout the session. A couple really bad drops.

Luciani was still out and was seen doing some resistance training for the hammy tweak Giz mentioned earlier in the day.

Not much to say here

Gibson seems to be going through the motions...Diez thinks that perhaps he's got the idea that his best bet is to pace himself until main camp before making an impression. We'll see if his strategy pays off.....

Either he's playing possum or he is not as good as his advanced billing. We'll find out soon enough.

Breazell, likely had the kind of day that will send him packing.

DL - As far as the imports go, out of the 3 I think Murphy and Davis have the inside track right now. Both look both bigger and faster than Clutts. I think folks could be talking about these guys at main camp and I want to see their size tested against the OLine in full speed. These guys are both interesting, especially Murphy who at 6'-6" 260 looks like a bigger version of Cam Wake (6'-3" 240). Athletic build, thin calves and ankles, and an albatross like wingspan. My only concern is that Olinemen can get leverage underneath on him and keep him upright. Davis is a bit thicker and built (6'-4" 276), but has good speed. Both looked explosive in their iso drills against an offensive front 4.

Murphy has real good quickness and a massive wingspan but his lack of bulk concerns me. Jim Davis has not been as flashy but solid. DL should have some interesting battles this year.

*As an aside, just got to comment on Coach Wnek....aside from some very interesting and clever teaching tools (props) Diez and I were able to overhear something some folks might find refreshing. At one point during a cool down, he said to his group (and Diez can correct me if I paraphrase this poorly) "My job isn't to stand here and yell at you guys....players want to play, and if you're a player you'll give your best".....

Like I said, I'm paraphrasing, but that was the gist.....I think that he's got a philosophy that is going to serve our Line well this year. I think that guys are going to want to play for him. So don't be surprised if our line play is noticeably improved just on the effort side alone. We'll see.....

IIRC Wnek's second half of that comment was "... my job is to teach you guys how to do things right, because I belive that all players want to do the right things to succeed.." But the sentiment was bang on. I've been impressed by his teaching methods so far. Like to see what he does with a few of the vets.

Even though I really wanted to spend more time eyeing up the LB corps and DB's, I ran out of time....never really saw Bass take any reps...I like the size of King and he seems to play well with TSP (no surprise as they played side by side at St.Mary's), but the play of the imports was a step up. Hollowell, Washington, and Pindell all have to get a longer look at camp. Pindell looks like a good candidate to study under Garrett for the SAM spot.

Never got a long look here as I had to go

DBs- Coleman (Mike McKenzie-esque dreds on this kid) made the biggest impression on me today. I like the swagger, even if Diez thinks he should cut his hair .....Hood had one real nice breakup, and Okpro looks like he could be a work in progress.....I was hoping to see someone else stand out like Williams or Landrom, but then again, I lit out before I could really study them all closer

If Coleman carries on into TC with the same effort and keeps making plays, he will makes everyone forget about Flowers' release. Williams also has looked strong over the past few days.