Hello, hello, hello, UteNation! Once again I was flying solo up at practice so I'm going to condense all of offense, defense, and special teams into one post. Here are your five points:
- The offense had another good day, I was particularly impressed with Troy Williams' performance. He only had one incomplete pass that we saw, which came on a dropped pass from Dakota Baker. He also threw a touchdown. Tyler Huntley and Cooper Bateman both did some good things as well, Huntley threw a TD in red zone drills and Bateman found Raelon Singleton on a post route for about a 30 yard touchdown. However, both Huntley and Bateman threw an interception as well. Jason Shelley also got some reps and we got to see a connection between former high school teammates as he found Jaylen Dixon for a ~30 yard TD.
- Marquise Blair and Julian Blackmon both had very good days in the secondary. Both had an interception on the day, Blackmon's came when he jumped a route and snagged a ball thrown by Huntley. Blair's came when Bateman just didn't see him in coverage and threw it right to him. Kenric Young also had a highlight pass breakup on a slant pass intended for Bronson Boyd.
- We saw more of the mystery "jumbo" package I talked about earlier this week. Again, I can't mention specific names, but it appeared to be very effective in goal line sets, as it resulted in 3 touchdowns. I really hope we get to see this package in games, as I think it could really help increase red zone efficiency.
- The kickers struggled in the session we saw today, however, Coach Whittingham said they did much better in their first session of the day. In the session that we saw, they were a combined 3 of 8, with Johnston connecting on two tries and Gay hitting on one.
- The lines were allowed to face off against each other today, and I was pleased with how well the offensive line held up against the D, in general. Although they did allow a couple of pressures, I thought for the most part they did a good job of protecting the QB. The D line did a very good job in run defense. The RBs had a hard time getting anything going on the ground.
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