By Dick Ash
A day after being forced inside, Marshall’s fall practice returned outdoors for the first day in full pads. After practice Head Coach Doc Holliday said he saw what he was looking for. ‘I mentioned when we came out of shorts that I was hoping that the speed of play didn’t slow down once we got in (shells). It should be the same thing when the pads go on. You don’t want to see them change the way they play and I didn’t see that today. I thought they came out and played hard and played fast and played the way that’ve been playing.’
A mostly sunny sky and temperatures in the mid-80’s fueled some good action in the Herd drills where an offensive blocker matches up with a defender while a running back tries to run though a small space and make it past the defender by going around, over or through him.
With full pads removing any constraints on hitting, the Herd drill saw players from the offense and defense have good efforts. All four of the scholarship tight ends seemed to do very well led by redshirt freshman Kaleb Harris and junior Emanuel Byrd. Harris’s wins included decisions over linebackers Shawn Petty and Doyle Grimes, while Byrd had a decisive win over LB Raheim Huskey.
Coach Holliday was pleased with the physical aspect of Harris’ play. ‘He’s a young player that’s starting to hit. He had to get more physical so that’s good to see. With him and Byrd and (Ryan) Yurachek and Joe (Woodrum) in there hopefully that’ll help us. He’s a good young player that’ll be a good player down the road.’
Redshirt senior DT Ricardo Williams won a couple of good matches, as did young DE’s Ryan Bee and Damien Dozier. New linebackers Devontre’a Tyler and Frankie Hernandez also won a few confrontations. Sophomore DT Tomell One lost one of his matchups and was then plunked by Coach J.C. Price’s floppy hat when the Herd’s defensive tackle coach expressed his opinion of One’s effort. Among the offensive linemen, ‘Swede’ Johansson, Sandley Jean-Felix and Ryan Riedel had good efforts in the drill. Senior Davonte Allen and freshman Raylen Elzy did well among the wide receivers.
The most memorable matchup had offensive tackle A.J. Addison taking on defensive end Gary Thompson. Addison didn’t put up much of a block and Thompson looked to be in position for a tackle, but the running back happened to be Devon Johnson who ran over and past Thompson. Thompson later managed to tackle Johnson, but it came almost 10 yards downfield.
Coach Holliday likes the Herd drill, especially for his linemen. ‘The one thing about the Herd drill, that’s how you play ball up front. It’s all about separation, it’s all about pad level, it’s all about getting off blocks. We’ll do that with the linebackers and (defensive backs) early on just as a toughness thing (because) they have to do that too, in space. The O-line and D-line will get that about every day because they do that every day.’
The place kicking competition was inconclusive Tuesday, as neither Nick Smith nor Amareto Curraj impressed in the session of field goals. Curraj hit from 29 yards but missed three in a row. He missed from 47 yards (wide right), 49 yards (wide left) and 42 yards (wide left and ugly). He also missed getting an opportunity from 39 yards on a bad snap by freshman walk-on Kyle Varnell. Smith missed from 39 yards (short after a bad snap by Matt Cincotta) and 47 yards (wide right). Smith hit from 25 yards and 29 yards, although the second one was a low line drive. Smith hit again from 47 yards but finished the drill with a kick that was short and wide right from 49 yards on the left hash marks.
By contrast the punters were getting great distance on several punts and even decent distance on a few punts they didn’t hit very well. With the line of scrimmage at the 35, Tyler Williams had a couple of 55 yard punts, another from 50 and a shank that went for 35 yards in the air and would have rolled for more since it wouldn’t have been caught. Williams finished with a 70 yarder that looked like it was launched by a Howitzer instead of a human foot. It was even more impressive when you take into account that the snap by freshman Zach Wood was a bit to Williams’ right resulting in a rugby style punt.
Kaare Vedvik had booming punts of 60 and 55 yards. A mis-hit punt still went for 45 yards in the air, and Vedvik finished with line drive punts of 45 and 65 yards.
As practice began, in the press box there was discussion of yesterday’s departure of slot receiver Angelo Jean-Louis. One comment that drew almost unanimous agreement was ‘Someone else will step up.’ At the end of practice, the receiver that had the best day was redshirt senior slot receiver DeAndre Reaves. He showed good hands catching passes from QB Gunnar Holcombe on both comeback and downfield routes.
Reaves has been listed as a slot receiver during his first three seasons of play but has only a career total of 8 catches for 68 yards which gives him fewer receiving yards than kickoffs returned (69). Reaves had only two catches last season. Both came in the first game against Miami but after he lost a fumble on the second catch, his opportunities at receiver declined to almost nothing.
Holcombe had another nice completion hitting Byrd in the middle of the field about 20 yards downfield. The backup QB had some bad moments earlier missing a wide open Nick Matthews against a blown coverage and then missing Allen on a slant.
Early in the team drill #1 QB Michael Birdsong hit Allen who cut around CB Corey Tindal for about a 10 yard gain. Birdsong missed Allen deep but then hit him on a slant route. Later in the drive Birdsong hit Josh Knight for about 5 or 6 yards and found Allen again for 5. Knight is also in the running for snaps at slot receiver and had a good day overall.
The running backs had some nice runs now that full pads allow for more physical blocking on the line. Redshirt senior Remi Watson exploded through the line a few times and redshirt sophomore Tony Pittman also had a big run and laid a little punishment on safety Kendall Gant about 15 yards downfield before being tackled.
On defense, redshirt freshman Nyquan Harris appeared to record a sack and a tackle-for-loss. Most of his opportunities came against reserve offensive linemen, but he did look disruptive along the line of scrimmage.
Wednesday’s practice will be the first of three scheduled two-a-day practices for the entire squad. The morning practice will begin at 9:15 AM, with the afternoon practice (likely in shorts) at 4 PM. Two-a-day practices are also scheduled for this Friday and next Tuesday, August 18.
A day after being forced inside, Marshall’s fall practice returned outdoors for the first day in full pads. After practice Head Coach Doc Holliday said he saw what he was looking for. ‘I mentioned when we came out of shorts that I was hoping that the speed of play didn’t slow down once we got in (shells). It should be the same thing when the pads go on. You don’t want to see them change the way they play and I didn’t see that today. I thought they came out and played hard and played fast and played the way that’ve been playing.’
A mostly sunny sky and temperatures in the mid-80’s fueled some good action in the Herd drills where an offensive blocker matches up with a defender while a running back tries to run though a small space and make it past the defender by going around, over or through him.
With full pads removing any constraints on hitting, the Herd drill saw players from the offense and defense have good efforts. All four of the scholarship tight ends seemed to do very well led by redshirt freshman Kaleb Harris and junior Emanuel Byrd. Harris’s wins included decisions over linebackers Shawn Petty and Doyle Grimes, while Byrd had a decisive win over LB Raheim Huskey.
Coach Holliday was pleased with the physical aspect of Harris’ play. ‘He’s a young player that’s starting to hit. He had to get more physical so that’s good to see. With him and Byrd and (Ryan) Yurachek and Joe (Woodrum) in there hopefully that’ll help us. He’s a good young player that’ll be a good player down the road.’
Redshirt senior DT Ricardo Williams won a couple of good matches, as did young DE’s Ryan Bee and Damien Dozier. New linebackers Devontre’a Tyler and Frankie Hernandez also won a few confrontations. Sophomore DT Tomell One lost one of his matchups and was then plunked by Coach J.C. Price’s floppy hat when the Herd’s defensive tackle coach expressed his opinion of One’s effort. Among the offensive linemen, ‘Swede’ Johansson, Sandley Jean-Felix and Ryan Riedel had good efforts in the drill. Senior Davonte Allen and freshman Raylen Elzy did well among the wide receivers.
The most memorable matchup had offensive tackle A.J. Addison taking on defensive end Gary Thompson. Addison didn’t put up much of a block and Thompson looked to be in position for a tackle, but the running back happened to be Devon Johnson who ran over and past Thompson. Thompson later managed to tackle Johnson, but it came almost 10 yards downfield.
Coach Holliday likes the Herd drill, especially for his linemen. ‘The one thing about the Herd drill, that’s how you play ball up front. It’s all about separation, it’s all about pad level, it’s all about getting off blocks. We’ll do that with the linebackers and (defensive backs) early on just as a toughness thing (because) they have to do that too, in space. The O-line and D-line will get that about every day because they do that every day.’
The place kicking competition was inconclusive Tuesday, as neither Nick Smith nor Amareto Curraj impressed in the session of field goals. Curraj hit from 29 yards but missed three in a row. He missed from 47 yards (wide right), 49 yards (wide left) and 42 yards (wide left and ugly). He also missed getting an opportunity from 39 yards on a bad snap by freshman walk-on Kyle Varnell. Smith missed from 39 yards (short after a bad snap by Matt Cincotta) and 47 yards (wide right). Smith hit from 25 yards and 29 yards, although the second one was a low line drive. Smith hit again from 47 yards but finished the drill with a kick that was short and wide right from 49 yards on the left hash marks.
By contrast the punters were getting great distance on several punts and even decent distance on a few punts they didn’t hit very well. With the line of scrimmage at the 35, Tyler Williams had a couple of 55 yard punts, another from 50 and a shank that went for 35 yards in the air and would have rolled for more since it wouldn’t have been caught. Williams finished with a 70 yarder that looked like it was launched by a Howitzer instead of a human foot. It was even more impressive when you take into account that the snap by freshman Zach Wood was a bit to Williams’ right resulting in a rugby style punt.
Kaare Vedvik had booming punts of 60 and 55 yards. A mis-hit punt still went for 45 yards in the air, and Vedvik finished with line drive punts of 45 and 65 yards.
As practice began, in the press box there was discussion of yesterday’s departure of slot receiver Angelo Jean-Louis. One comment that drew almost unanimous agreement was ‘Someone else will step up.’ At the end of practice, the receiver that had the best day was redshirt senior slot receiver DeAndre Reaves. He showed good hands catching passes from QB Gunnar Holcombe on both comeback and downfield routes.
Reaves has been listed as a slot receiver during his first three seasons of play but has only a career total of 8 catches for 68 yards which gives him fewer receiving yards than kickoffs returned (69). Reaves had only two catches last season. Both came in the first game against Miami but after he lost a fumble on the second catch, his opportunities at receiver declined to almost nothing.
Holcombe had another nice completion hitting Byrd in the middle of the field about 20 yards downfield. The backup QB had some bad moments earlier missing a wide open Nick Matthews against a blown coverage and then missing Allen on a slant.
Early in the team drill #1 QB Michael Birdsong hit Allen who cut around CB Corey Tindal for about a 10 yard gain. Birdsong missed Allen deep but then hit him on a slant route. Later in the drive Birdsong hit Josh Knight for about 5 or 6 yards and found Allen again for 5. Knight is also in the running for snaps at slot receiver and had a good day overall.
The running backs had some nice runs now that full pads allow for more physical blocking on the line. Redshirt senior Remi Watson exploded through the line a few times and redshirt sophomore Tony Pittman also had a big run and laid a little punishment on safety Kendall Gant about 15 yards downfield before being tackled.
On defense, redshirt freshman Nyquan Harris appeared to record a sack and a tackle-for-loss. Most of his opportunities came against reserve offensive linemen, but he did look disruptive along the line of scrimmage.
Wednesday’s practice will be the first of three scheduled two-a-day practices for the entire squad. The morning practice will begin at 9:15 AM, with the afternoon practice (likely in shorts) at 4 PM. Two-a-day practices are also scheduled for this Friday and next Tuesday, August 18.
