Practice Notes: 8/7

As with my post earlier today about yesterday’s practice, take these points with a grain of salt as they are based on watching all of the free videos between und.com and Irish Illustrated’s free videos.

• Practice was inside the Loftus Center because of overnight rains soaking the fields.
• In an inside linebacker/defensive line drill the order was – Crum, Brockington, Trevor Laws, Dwight Stephenson, Pat Kuntz, Justin Brown, Paddy Mullen, Kallen Wade, Ian Williams, Steve Quinn, Scott Smith. Andrew Nuss, Toryan Smith, and Emeka Nwankwo. Stephenson had a little trouble and tripped up the bag at one point.
• Kallen Wade looks like he’s gotten even bigger since the spring and Toryan Smith looks light on his feet. You can see what Weis was talking about in the spring when he said Wade has the frame to handle more weight – he still looks fairly lean
• Sergio Brown looked to run through one cone drill the smoothest of the defensive backs and John Ryan surprised me with how well he ran through it.
• First group of DB’s in another drill were Zibby, Bruton, Lambert, and Wooden. Lambert came out of his break a little slower than the rest. Second group looked like McNeil, McCarthy, Herring, and Walls. Third group looked like Prince, Brown, Gaines, and Ferrine.
• In 2005 Ferrine was the nickel back. The fact that two years later he is running with the 3rd team defensive backs speaks volumes for the recruiting efforts of Weis. This isn’t a knock on Ferrine just pointing out that in two years the talent has been upgraded so much in the secondary that Ferrine has been passed by a number of under classmen.
• Demetrius Jones who is listed at 6’4” looks to be an inch or two taller than Jimmy Clausen who is listed at 6’5”. Jones also showed his athleticism in some of the
• Ian Williams easily passes the eyeball test at nose tackle – he looks like the biggest defensive lineman on the team.
• At linebacker – both Brian Smith and Kerry Neal pass the eyeball test as well – neither of them looks like a freshman when standing around the other linebackers. Many fell Neal could be a starter from day one.
• Darrin Bragg is back with the team as a quarterback and is wearing Zach Frazer’s old #12.
• Quarterbacks were practicing the play action.