Palmetto Proving Grounds

Had a rare weekday off of work, so I got to catch the entire practice this afternoon. Here's some of the things that stood out to me:

-I mainly watched the LB's going through drills at the beginning of practice. The spurs seem to both go through all the drills smoothly, whereas when you watch the guys at WLB and MLB you can see the youth, especially when you compare to the crispness of 4 seniors running the same drills last year. The athleticism, size, and talent is very encouraging at those positions though. There was one drill I had never seen before where a single player pushes a single sled for a couple of seconds then tackles the pad and the sled to the ground and then repeats. It looked absolutely exhausting.

-Jimmy Legree and Victor Hampton both looked great all day long, there's absolutely no question they looked like a great pair of SEC starting CB's today. I was thinking during practice that one of the most interesting battles of the fall is going to be for the 3rd CB/nickelback position between Ronnie Martin, Rico McWilliams, and Ahmad Christian.

-Clowney never ceases to impress, on one of the first plays of the 11-on-11's he exploded around the tackle and was closing in on the QB as he let the ball go, if it had been full contact I think the QB would have taken a pretty good lick after he let the ball go. He also later blew up a zone read and caused the exchange to be fumbled and recovered by the defense.

-Jordan Diggs kept catching my eyed today. He really looked like he's been waiting for the pads to come on, he was very physical during drills and definitely looked hungry for some contact when they started running plays. He looks pretty good blitzing off the edge as well.

-I thought Jody Fuller had a breakout practice, I'm not very good at keeping stats in my head during practice, but I swear between 7-on-7's and 11-on-11's he had 10 catches today. He was just always open and can catch the ball in traffic. I left practice really impressed with him today.

-Today was the first time I got much of a look at Connor Mitch. He's a big kid and looks like he's got pretty good arm. He made a couple of really pretty throws today and showed some athleticism on a good run up the middle.

-Shaq Roland just looks so smooth out there at times and showed some serious speed on a play during the 1-on-1's were he just ran past the guy covering him for a 40+ yd catch. He also made a nice move on a screen pass to pick up a good chunk of yds to end practice. When things really started clicking for him mentally he's going to be a great one.

-There's not much more you can say about how impressive Wilds and Davis are, but Kenrick Salley had what was probably the longest run of the day with limited carries. I thought he looked pretty good moving around 2 weeks ago and now I can't wait to see him in the scrimmage this Saturday.

-Ace at PR is going to be one of the biggest holes to fill this offseason, but I like the candidates in Hampton, Nick Jones, Shaq Roland, and Damiere Byrd. Lots of potential in that group of guys.