First spring practice is in the books. Many players were already practicing when I arrived at 3:15 (they didn’t wait for me). They didn’t say goodbye when I left at 6:15, but they seemed to be wrapping things up.
The following players were in street clothes, or on the sidelines, not practicing:
- David Bell – street clothes
- Lorenzo (a friend suggested that you already know what you have with him, why risk injury?)
- Jackson Anthrop (off-season foot injury – played some of last season with a broken toe)
- Jared Sparks – in a walking boot
- Victor Beach – street clothes
- J.D. Dellinger – street clothes
- Probably others that I didn’t recognize
Practice was helmets and shorts, but no pads. I noticed quite a few linemen (OL and DL) wearing the knee braces. We’ve seen that on the OL for several years now, but to see it on DL and LB’s was new to me.
Next to the other receivers, Maliq looks huge! Looks to be running with the 3’s, and he had several drops. In general, with Maliq, Milton, Mershawn and Kory, we’re getting some height at WR. All the receivers hung on to the ball pretty well, all except the TE’s. The TE’s had a stretch where no one could make a catch, mostly because they couldn’t get separation. Rondale went through the drills, but was noticeably absent when there were teams lined up against each other. Milton looks fast as does Mershawn. Rondale is Rondale!
There was one passing drill where a coach was rifling a pass at a closed door. The door was opened in time to allow the ball to pass, and the receiver was 6-8 yards on the other side of the door. They caught the ball about 25 times out of 26, I only remember one drop. I didn’t want to be the ball-boy opening the door, because as he opened the door, he had to duck and . . .
Offensive line running with the 1’s were Bramel, Jornigan, Garvin, Stickford and Hermanns. Hermanns is huge and still has the long hair, which I think he’s committed to cut off during a fund raiser honoring Tyler Trent. Hartwig was running with the 1’s a couple times and he doesn’t look out of place as far as size!
Running the ball in no particular order were Zander, Hewitt, King and Armor. If I were to guess, I think King will get the majority of work in the spring.
QB’s you ask? Well it looks like Jack and Aiden will be competing for the top spot, with Paul (who, to me, REALLY looks the part) coming in third. Albers looks really inexperienced compared to the other 3.
Defensive 1’s seemed to be this:
George Watts Deen Mitchell (can that be correct?)
Alexander Barnes Graham
Mackey Major
Thieneman Allen
Defensive 2’s
Lane Johnson Faucheux Triplett
Saunders Wahlberg Randall
Rucker Trice
Ball Smiley (hasn’t he been here forever?)
Alexander had 3 int’s, a couple were tipped by the receiver and he got the deflection (kinda lucky). On one of his int’s the QB, Albers, shouldn’t have thrown it, or it was horribly underthrown. Sanoussi Kane had a great pass break-up in one of the 11 on 11 drills.
We want Yanni!
Diaco will need to spread out his enthusiasm because this is only February. To say he is energetic is quite the understatement. And he gets in the players’ faces when they make a mistake. (He’ll be like Jim Colletto, hoarse by the end of each practice!)
Mary Biagi seems to be a good hire, also. They were working on some special teams techniques that I’ve never seen before. JaMarcus has lost a step or two since last season, or his players are faster. He really needs another year of two of eligibility, because he wants to be in there mixing it up with the receivers. I can see why a receiver would want to come to Purdue if he was their position coach.
Finally, there were 8 guys along the sidelines that were waiting for the end of practice. They went to the far northwest corner of the field and worked out for the last 15 minutes or so of practice. I think they were being considered for walk-ons. There weren’t any BIG guys, but some who were probably pretty good HS players. I met a couple of them, one a RB and the other a WR. Oh yeah, one was a friend from FCA, who I’ve gotten to know a little bit, but had no idea that he even was a FB player.
I was told that we’ll only be allowed in to the first 3 practices, so this reporting may be short and you may have to go over to GBI and get the professional run down on each practice by subscribing (hint – hint).
