Early Impressions from the First Practice
Take most of these with a grain of salt since they are based on just a few minutes of video, but here’s some early observations.
- Mike Ragone looks like a wide receiver – he is going to have bulk up quite a bit before he is ready for playing time at tight end. Ragone also got a crash course on how to carry the football from Mike Haywood during on the drills.
- James Aldridge looked even more comfortable making cuts than he did in spring
- Chris Stewart looks very quick for a guy his size. I keep thinking Weis would have kept him on defense if he didn’t have a good chance to start on offense.
- I thought Thomas Bemenderfer moved really well laterally for an offensive lineman in the one drill.
- Emeka Nwankwo was practicing with the defensive linemen and got told “Emeka watch everbody else. You’re the last one in line. Pay Attention,” pay d-line coach Jappy Oliver.
- Robert Hughes had the ball in the wrong hand during one of the drills, but he looked as big as the tight ends. Hughes is easily the biggest half back on the team already.
- Konrad Reuland looked very agile making lateral cuts in one drill.
- Armando Allen was told “good feet right there” at one point by Haywood.
- Geroge West and Robby Parris look the smoothest of the wide receivers in the one cone drill – their cuts looked effortless.
- Richard Jackson had a great catch in the same cone drill on a pass thrown behind him. Jackspn showed some suspect hands in the spring game, but he looked good Monday.
- The order of the wide receivers in this drill was Grimes, West, Parris, Gallup, then Jackson – take that for whatever its worth.
- Golden Tate looked like someone getting used to wide receiver in the same cone drill – he looked a bit tentative making his cuts. This much is to be expected though considering he played running back in high school and will have a steep learning curve.
- Duval Kamara looked like the biggest wide receiver and physically looked like he could be the veteran of the group and not a freshman.
Frank Vitovitch has been Co-Owner and Editor in Chief of UHND.com since joining forces with Kyle Flavin in 1999. Since that time, he has written over 2,000 articles covering Notre Dame football, recruiting, and basketball. He also works with all staff and external writers on all articles published on UHND.com. Frank's love for Notre Dame football started at a young age watching Rocket Ismail give opposing coaches ulcers in the late 1980's. By day Frank works in marketing and holds a degree in Digital Media from Drexel University. Frank's work has been cited by online/print editions of NBC Sports, ESPN, and Sports Illustrated and has been quoted on air by ESPN's Collin Cowherd. He's conducted interviews with Notre Dame legends Rocket Ismail, Randy Kinder, Lee Becton, Reggie Brooks, Michael Stonebreaker, and Ned Bolcar among others over his 20+ years of covering Notre Dame football. He's also been published in the print edition of USA Today Sports Weekly and the USA Today College Football Preview multiple times. Other Published Works/Citations for Frank Three Reasons Notre Dame Will Beat Alabama - USA Today Notre Dame Suspends WR Kevin Stepherson, RB C.J. Holmes Indefinitely - Bleacher Report Notre Dame / Ohio State Fiesta Bowl Preview - Eleven Warriors Brace Yourself: The Fighting Irish are Relevant Again - Sports on Earth Interviews with the Enemy: A Q&A with Frank Vitovitch of UHND - Yahoo! Sports Five Good Minutes: Notre Dame Football Preview With UHND.com - BC Interruption Vicious Electronic Questioning with UHND - MGO Blog
frank,
1. ragone looks like a wr and has fast wr speed.
2. he may have to bulk up to play te in the future, but he and duvall can play wr this year.
3. nd already has 3 dynamite te’s for this year, carlson, reuland, and yeatman. breaking in a new qb, we may see many 3 te sets, with 1 or 2 to stay back to protect the qb and 1 or 2 to get out to catch passes.
4. ragone is simply too talented and too fast to have him sitting on the bench while he bulks up.
5. true, we have not really seen much of reuland and yeatman on the playing field, unless you followed yeatman’s national freshman of the year lacrosse campaign.
6. however, outside of practice, no one had really seen what carlson could do last year before the gtech game.
7. i just do not think that anyone is going to see very much at the practices that are open to the public, any more than the spring game really showed anything serious.
8. misdirection is the right way to go right now, with no one seeing anything that would conflict with the preseason rankings by the”experts”.
9. i really like what charlie, corwin, and the staff and players are doing.
10. stewart may look like he has switched back to ol. however, he can play both, as his agility demonstrates.
thank you and keep up the great work,
bob gilleran