Various things witnessed/overheard:
- Rucker on a Jason Johnson run for lost yardage (“ JJ when you tip toe in the hole, your gonna get crushed, don’t tip toe into the hole, JJ”)
- BVG was furious at Greg Blue in the second half when the red started all their scoring, shouting over and over “Blue is killing us! Time to start playing one seven.” He is so competitive. Right before McClendon’s TD, BVG was mad at Blue again, walked into the middle of the field and demonstrably called “Timeout”, pointed to the ground and screamed to the defense to “get over here”. Could not hear the ass chew session, but Blue looked to be on the end of all of it.” After they scored, he went over to the entire starting defense (Pollack was standing with them out of uniform), and BVG shouted our safeties are in for an absolute war this fall, and it’s not because of TD (Thomas Davis).
- Some good news on Blue
a) Brock and Miller were hamming it up with Greene after Fred alligator armed one. Brock said “Fred didn’t even think about catching that one when he saw Blue coming.” Greene winced.
b) on a nice run by Lumpkin, he was run out of bounds, I was standing about 10 yards OOB and I look up and 17 is bearing down on me. That guy is a monster. Hope he can get his technique down to make BVG happy.
- Fabris is an absolute riot, but I think he is not trying to be. On one defensive penalty, he chewed out the sideline ref for four of five plays, and stalked him like a baseball manager does an ump. After the flag went out, Fabris is jumping all around the guy and yells “You were completely out of position, you just guessed. That’s horse sh*t. Complete horse sh*t. Your fundamentals are terrible. Get in position to make a call before you make it…don’t guess. Horse Sh*t. “ Then says in a slightly lower volume “You son of a bi**h.” Way to build those relationships with SEC officials in the spring!
- Bobo said after a Blake Barnes completion “not bad for a guy that doesn’t know the play.”
- Robert Edwards was giving Fred a hard time about his early drop.
- George Foster was wearing a Denver Nuggets old school Keke Vandeweigh jersey. Charles Grant, many others were there also.
On coaches:
- Martinez is ALWAYS coaching. He is a less demonstrative version of BVG, but he is always on his DBs about technique. Very effective.
- Garner is also engaged with the play call, and coaching his guys on each play, just not as active as WM or VG.
- Fabris is active, but not as much on technique, more in terms of just rah rah motivational techniques like – “Hey Palmer (a walk on DE), its third down. Know what that means. Your ass better be off this field after this play.”
- Did not even notice Eason yesterday.
- Saw Johnson, but didn’t say much
- Calloway is a hand clapper, not much else.
- CMR likes to 1 on 1 coach
- Bobo’s 1 on 1 style is pretty active like CMR.
- Rucker is impressive. Always pushing his guys, effectively teaching.
Player Impressions
- Optimism for me is going to be hard to contain. In all the years I have been going to GDay, I have never seen a team look as physically impressive as this year’s version. DVH has to be given a lot of credit for getting the whole team on board with “taking their vitamins and saying their prayers.” I could single out several, and would surely leave out many deserving guys. But rest assured, he is developing this talent into premier players.
- never seen such monster OLs in Athens (MJG, Swain, Roland, Inman, Velasco, Shackleford are unbelievably massive.) The only one that does not look like he fits in is Nick Jones, and his performance, despite his size, was not any worse than anyone else in the middle last fall.
- Pollack and Odell were standing next to each other much of the day. Pollack looks great, and is 3 inches taller than Odell.
- Our LBs spent the second half with pads off. Harrison, Odell, and Thomas Davis are just plain scary. No fat, premier athletes. Odell has a pot belly, but thick everywhere.
- Minter looks good in pads, arm size has improved since last fall.
- Our TEs are huge! Milner is really filling out. Pope is on his way as well. Holden is not as impressive, but Watson is an imposing man. Hard to believe we can’t find a place on the field for Watson.
- On the injured OL, all the TEs except for Holden look better than Chandler or McKenzie. Lee looked the most impressive of the green shirted RSF OLs .
- Miller and Brock looked happy not playing.
In the Locker Room Press Q&A
Thurman told a reporter “I am confident we will win a national championship this year.”
“We have the best defense in the nation”. “You have to be a little cocky to be the best”.
Concerns (and they are few):
- Razor thin depth at Safety and Corner. Frosh will have to play. Walk on safties will play, and hopefully not much if Davis and Blue stay healthy.
- I am fully in the “concerned with Calloway” camp. We are getting average at best on the OL. He needs to raise his game like our top assistants, but I still don’t see it yet. He has some premier players to work with this fall. The excuses are over.
- Razor thin DL depth – we need to move some OLs to defense quickly.
- Overconfidence – Odell told a reporter twice yesterday he was “confident” and “expected” to play for the NC. Greene did a better job of framing it, but I did not hear as much of the “one game at a time” talk that makes you feel better about the expectations.
- Kicking - ??? Who knows? We might have a short kicker (Couto) and long kicker (Bailey) deal. Hope Mimbs is a nice surprise in the fall.
It’s gonna be a fun ride. Hope you enjoyed.
This post was edited on 4/18 9:33 AM
This post was edited on 4/18 9:33 AM
- Rucker on a Jason Johnson run for lost yardage (“ JJ when you tip toe in the hole, your gonna get crushed, don’t tip toe into the hole, JJ”)
- BVG was furious at Greg Blue in the second half when the red started all their scoring, shouting over and over “Blue is killing us! Time to start playing one seven.” He is so competitive. Right before McClendon’s TD, BVG was mad at Blue again, walked into the middle of the field and demonstrably called “Timeout”, pointed to the ground and screamed to the defense to “get over here”. Could not hear the ass chew session, but Blue looked to be on the end of all of it.” After they scored, he went over to the entire starting defense (Pollack was standing with them out of uniform), and BVG shouted our safeties are in for an absolute war this fall, and it’s not because of TD (Thomas Davis).
- Some good news on Blue
a) Brock and Miller were hamming it up with Greene after Fred alligator armed one. Brock said “Fred didn’t even think about catching that one when he saw Blue coming.” Greene winced.
b) on a nice run by Lumpkin, he was run out of bounds, I was standing about 10 yards OOB and I look up and 17 is bearing down on me. That guy is a monster. Hope he can get his technique down to make BVG happy.
- Fabris is an absolute riot, but I think he is not trying to be. On one defensive penalty, he chewed out the sideline ref for four of five plays, and stalked him like a baseball manager does an ump. After the flag went out, Fabris is jumping all around the guy and yells “You were completely out of position, you just guessed. That’s horse sh*t. Complete horse sh*t. Your fundamentals are terrible. Get in position to make a call before you make it…don’t guess. Horse Sh*t. “ Then says in a slightly lower volume “You son of a bi**h.” Way to build those relationships with SEC officials in the spring!
- Bobo said after a Blake Barnes completion “not bad for a guy that doesn’t know the play.”
- Robert Edwards was giving Fred a hard time about his early drop.
- George Foster was wearing a Denver Nuggets old school Keke Vandeweigh jersey. Charles Grant, many others were there also.
On coaches:
- Martinez is ALWAYS coaching. He is a less demonstrative version of BVG, but he is always on his DBs about technique. Very effective.
- Garner is also engaged with the play call, and coaching his guys on each play, just not as active as WM or VG.
- Fabris is active, but not as much on technique, more in terms of just rah rah motivational techniques like – “Hey Palmer (a walk on DE), its third down. Know what that means. Your ass better be off this field after this play.”
- Did not even notice Eason yesterday.
- Saw Johnson, but didn’t say much
- Calloway is a hand clapper, not much else.
- CMR likes to 1 on 1 coach
- Bobo’s 1 on 1 style is pretty active like CMR.
- Rucker is impressive. Always pushing his guys, effectively teaching.
Player Impressions
- Optimism for me is going to be hard to contain. In all the years I have been going to GDay, I have never seen a team look as physically impressive as this year’s version. DVH has to be given a lot of credit for getting the whole team on board with “taking their vitamins and saying their prayers.” I could single out several, and would surely leave out many deserving guys. But rest assured, he is developing this talent into premier players.
- never seen such monster OLs in Athens (MJG, Swain, Roland, Inman, Velasco, Shackleford are unbelievably massive.) The only one that does not look like he fits in is Nick Jones, and his performance, despite his size, was not any worse than anyone else in the middle last fall.
- Pollack and Odell were standing next to each other much of the day. Pollack looks great, and is 3 inches taller than Odell.
- Our LBs spent the second half with pads off. Harrison, Odell, and Thomas Davis are just plain scary. No fat, premier athletes. Odell has a pot belly, but thick everywhere.
- Minter looks good in pads, arm size has improved since last fall.
- Our TEs are huge! Milner is really filling out. Pope is on his way as well. Holden is not as impressive, but Watson is an imposing man. Hard to believe we can’t find a place on the field for Watson.
- On the injured OL, all the TEs except for Holden look better than Chandler or McKenzie. Lee looked the most impressive of the green shirted RSF OLs .
- Miller and Brock looked happy not playing.
In the Locker Room Press Q&A
Thurman told a reporter “I am confident we will win a national championship this year.”
“We have the best defense in the nation”. “You have to be a little cocky to be the best”.
Concerns (and they are few):
- Razor thin depth at Safety and Corner. Frosh will have to play. Walk on safties will play, and hopefully not much if Davis and Blue stay healthy.
- I am fully in the “concerned with Calloway” camp. We are getting average at best on the OL. He needs to raise his game like our top assistants, but I still don’t see it yet. He has some premier players to work with this fall. The excuses are over.
- Razor thin DL depth – we need to move some OLs to defense quickly.
- Overconfidence – Odell told a reporter twice yesterday he was “confident” and “expected” to play for the NC. Greene did a better job of framing it, but I did not hear as much of the “one game at a time” talk that makes you feel better about the expectations.
- Kicking - ??? Who knows? We might have a short kicker (Couto) and long kicker (Bailey) deal. Hope Mimbs is a nice surprise in the fall.
It’s gonna be a fun ride. Hope you enjoyed.
This post was edited on 4/18 9:33 AM
This post was edited on 4/18 9:33 AM
