Just finished up with the portion of practice open to media, about 30 minutes worth of observations. Here are mine:
All for now.
- Great times to start off practice. Always a big favorite, competition in the 'chutes', narrow lanes made up of pads. One OL and one RB vs one DL. The RB tries to get though untouched.
- Defense seemed to get the better of it today, or at least they cheered more often. I saw Sean Dollars squirt through once, but mostly the defense was able to bottle up the lane. The guys pack in around that drill so tightly you can't see though them to see what is happening exactly, but you sure can feel the excitement
- I'm going to list a few guys who have caught my eye starting with freshman WR JR Waters. It looks like at three stars he was underrated, but the jury is still out. He was running with the third string today along with Mycah Pittman. Yesterday Waters was the first offensive freshman Lamar Winston mentioned when talking about guys he has noticed.
- Freshman safety Jamal Hill, it is only a matter of time until he is a star. Looks almost like an OLB out there at safety...really long. Built nearly like an NFL player.
- I'm going to finish up with three position battles I see shaping up here after five days of fall camp
- Safety: Juniors Brady Breeze vs Nick Pickett - Great battle, looks like Pickett may have the upper hand but Breeze is definitely holding his own
- OLB: Senior Bryson Young vs sophomore DJ Johnson - With Johnson now eligible heading into camp, I have no idea which of these two will be the starter. Right now I would say Young but Johnson is coming on.
- ILB: Soph Isaac Slade Matautia vs junior Sampson Niu - I think ISM will be the starter but Sampson Niu would start for a number of Pac-12 teams.
All for now.
