Our new(ish) writer Patrick Phelan was at the open practice today and wrote up this report to recap practice. Pretty good stuff!
- Practice August 4 from 10:30AM-1:30PM
- Temperature in the mid 80's
- Practice in shells (Helmet and shoulder pads, no leg pads)
- Today's practice began with the first through fourth teams lining up in their base formations. They were practicing where to line up, with different schemes. This drill was a walkthrough of the motions with no passes being thrown.
- Afterwards, the team lined up at the center of the field to do some assorted stretching and dynamic warm up.
- Once the dynamic warm up was completed, the whistle blew and the majority of the team practiced field goal formation. The pass rush also lined up, but did not rush at 100%. Kicker James Stefanou looked sharp with his attempts as well with the other kickers. The backs, receivers, and quarterbacks who were not in on the special teams did positional drills.
- After field goals were completed, the team moved into practicing punting and punt coverage. They worked on two separate fields. On one side, the punters and gunners were working on pinning the ball inside the 5-yard line in the red zone. On the other side, the whole team was lined up in their standard punt formation while running after a single return man.
- When special teams were over, the pace of the practice started to pick up. The team then began practicing getting their units onto the field in a hurry. The offense and defense would sprint onto the field and get into formation, but when another whistle blew, the players on the field would do an up down and then sprint back off of the field. This helps players with mental fatigue late in games so they know where to be in the right spots. After a few rounds and the first team offense and defense were back on the field, they went live for a few plays. On each play, Steven Montez seemed to be looking for Lavishka Shenault Jr., and on the third play, Montez threw a strike to Shenault, who was running a slant and broke it away for a 35+ yard touchdown.
- The teams then broke off into positional drills that were rotating at each side of the field. Offensive players were practicing WR/RB screens with timing and who to block. Meanwhile the defense was practicing coverage, tackling on dummies, and hand moves. The quarterbacks and receivers were also practicing short goal line throws with no defensive backs covering.
- The team then rotated into several different matchups. The offensive and defensive line went against each other, and the offense and defensive backs were practicing together. During the 1v1's with defensive backs, Shenault was again dominant. He had toe-tap catches on the sideline, precise route running, and juked many defensive backs in his option routes. The offense and defense then played each other without a defensive or offensive line. The first team offense's three plays were passes from Montez to Shenault. Shenault caught the first, and Montez missed him on the second throw. On the third throw, Montez tossed a bullet to Shenault and the pass went off of his fingertips.
- Afterwards, the team had a little bit of down time and the specials teams were working on punt block. This was a 1v1 drill where the offender would block for a second and then run-down field, where the defender would try to shed him and get to the punter. The punter had the football on a leash and would drop it out as if he was going to punt.
- The practice ended with plays being ran at full speed. The majority of the plays were screen passes, draw plays, and intermediate passing routes. The defense was tackling, but not necessarily bringing the other player to the ground. Overall the offense had a fairly clean day, which is expected when the team is not practicing in full pads.
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