Afternoon all.
Myself and the rest of the staff, along with other reporters, were able to spend approximately 15 minutes watching practice.
Tons more energy in full pads than last week when we watched the team in shorts.
Here's what I saw:
...The first team offensive line remains the same - LT
Earnest Greene Jr., LG
Micah Morris, C Jared Wilson, RG
Tate Ratledge and RT
Xavier Truss.
Did check out the freshmen; Coach Smart was right. Guys are MUCH leaner than when they first arrived. It's crazy what strength coach Scott Sinclair can do to help those guys.R
...
Trevor Etienne continues to rep as the No. 1 back. No shock there. Who impresses me though is
Roderick Robinson. If he's 240 pounds (which I'm not doubling), it's a chiseled 240. He looks in excellent shape.
...Somebody else who is in great shape is
Jordan Hall. Freshman DE
Joseph Jonah-Ajonye also jumped out.
...As y'all probably saw by the pictures last week, Chaz Chambliss is definitely leaner.
...Redshirt freshman DB
Chris Peal was in a black, non-contact jersey.
...7 on 7 drills saw
Oscar Delp,
Arian Smith,
Dominic Lovett, and
Dillon Bell lineup with the first group of receivers; Second group was
Lawson Luckie,
Anthony Evans III,
RaRa Thomas and
Tyler Williams.
...Saw former Bulldog QB
David Greene at practice.
...OLB
Damon Wilson looks much more confident.
Much more to come...
JED MAY
I spent the media viewing period looking at quarterbacks and running backs.
It wasn't the best day for freshman
Ryan Puglisi. During routes on air, he threw to the wrong guy on one rep and then missed
Sacovie White on the next one. He did bounce back on the next rep by delivering a perfect deep ball to
Cole Speer.
Arian Smith had some good reps during some perimeter blocking work. It could just be my imagination, but he looks bigger to me.
London Humphreys was called on to go again during the same blocking drill. I missed what he did the first time, but on the redo he did a good job.
During the next drill, the receivers dipped around a dummy and ran speed outs.
James Coley told
Tyler Williams to keep his turns tight during that drill.
Dillon Bell, meanwhile, had a drop, although the pass did look to be a bit behind him. Bell did rebound with a nice toe-tap grab in the back of the end zone during red zone routes on air.
Radi said this the other day too, but
Colbie Young is HUGE.
Michael Jackson is a good-sized guy as well.
At one point,
Kirby Smart called out "Ant" (presumably
Anthony Evans) for not hitting the speeds he wants. He told Evans he knows 11-year-olds who can post better speeds than he was.
Overall, the receiver/tight end rotations looked as follows:
A. Smith, Delp, Lovett, Bell
Thomas, Luckie, Evans, T. Williams
Humphreys, Heinrich, S. White, Young
LANCE MCCURLEY
- Today, was the first day for Georgia’s players in pads and they were hitting. The first thing I saw was Troy Browles bring redshirt sophomore and walk-on, Brandon Mathis, to the ground.
- Also, in the first few minutes, Kirby Smart yelled at Mykel Williams several times, but I couldn’t hear the context. I also heard Smart call Julian Humphrey and David Daniel “soft as toilet paper.” I’m assuming he meant to call them “Charmin soft.” Smart was also calling out a few of his assistants, including Travaris Robinson and Stacey Searels for not being intense.
- While focusing on the offensive line, Searels emphasized the importance of “Bloody Tuesdays” to the newcomers, including Nyier Daniels, Marques Easley, and Daniel Calhoun.
- Dash listed the first-team offensive line above, but I got one of the backup rotations: Daniel Calhoun, Malachi Toliver, Drew Bobo, Michael Uini, and Nick Reeves (walk-on). Another group was Bobo, Dylan Fairchild, Monroe Freeling, Nyier Daniels, and **was not Bo Hughley**. (I miswrote the number.). Jamal Merriweather rotated in with each of the groups mentioned above once.
- The tight ends moved over to work with Todd Hartley, Brandon Streeter, and newly hired assistant Mark Johnson, whose dad, David Johnson, was the tight ends coach under Mark Richt. Hartley had the guys running, stopping on a dime, and catching a pass before running through a dummy held by Streeter. He was telling them it was important to catch the ball on a certain side of their body, tuck it tight, and don’t fumble when contact is made with the dummy.
- The order for tight ends was Oscar Delp, Lawson Luckie, Colton Heinrich, Will Taylor, Patrick Hester, and David Lalaian. Freshman Jaden Reddell was absent dealing with an injury.
- Hartley complimented Luckie a few times, and Heinrich caught grief for dropping a pass. I was impressed with the size of Lalaian, who is a walk-on from nearby Monroe Area High School.
PATRICK GARBIN
There was lots of energy today and the coaches seemed much more vocal than when we observed last week.
Observing the inside linebackers,
Troy Bowles made great hits on back-to-back reps during the first drill. Earlier in the day, Coach Smart had mentioned what a good spring Bowles was having. Also, you couldn’t help but to notice early enrollees
Chris Cole (No. 18) and
Justin Williams (No. 19). Williams laid a real thud on a ballcarrier. Cole is listed at 6-foot-3, 220 pounds, but seems bigger to me.
Inside the indoor facility, Kirby Smart really took to the mic. After a drill, Smart got onto a few defensive assistants, particularly
Travaris Robinson. Under Robinson’s instruction, the safeties/stars rotated in the following order:
Dan Jackson—
David Daniel-Sisavanh—
Joenel Aguero—
JaCorey Thomas—
KJ Bolden—
Jake Pope—
Kyron Jones—
Justyn Rhett. Robinson kept repeating what sounded like, “I want a hat in hand.”
Jackson and Daniel-Sisavanh were really flying around. Daniel-Sisavanh also made a couple of nice stops during the earlier tackling drill, including one assisted by early enrollees Bolden and
Ellis Robinson.
In a type of pursuit drill, Smart instructed the ball carriers, “If you get the ball, run like Forrest Gump! Run! And do not stop!”
Redshirt freshman cornerback
Chris Peal was wearing a black no-contact jersey. I watched Peal for a couple of reps and he didn’t seem to be slowed down for whatever reason.
RADI NABULSI
Kirby was yelling at the O-line telling them to get their butts in gear and demanding to know, "What is your point of emphasis today?!?" Earlier in the day SMart had sais they work on giving the guys small goals each day for them to work on since the overall picture of needed improvements is too daunting.
The first drill we saw was blocking and tackling on the perimeter.
Roderick Robinson was being chased by CJ Allen, David Daniloe and Daylen Everette. Looked like three dogs finally catching a Buick. They all tried to strip the ball from him.
Cole Speer missed a block on Everette.
Andrew Paul looks like a load at running back. He's listed at 5-11, 218 pounds but seemed bigger.
Wideout London Humphreys faced off against freshman cornerback Ellis Robinson. I'd give that round to London.
Humphreys then had to block defensive back Daniel Harris, Harris couldn't get off the block.
Smart was emploring his backs in these drills to "run the ball." He didn't feel they were going hard enough. Pretty sure that was not during a Robinson or Paul rep.
Linebacker Jalon Walker got the best of freshman tight end Patrick Hester to get top Izayah Reeves.
Smart made Mykell Williams repeat the drill.
Roderick Robinson stiff-armed Ellis Robinson into the grass. Welcome to Georgia, Mr. Five-Star.
In a battle that got a lot of oohs and ahhs, Arians Smith took on Daniel Harris (who looks bigger than last year but was already 6-2). The speedy Smith won that battle through tenacity. Maybe he is rounding out his game? Kirby went crazy.
Speer did a good job on Daylen Everette but the back took to long to get there.
Dominic Lovett faced off against freshman defensive back KJ Bolden and Dom stuck his helmet right in Bolden's chest plate. "Welcome to college, Mr. All-Everything."
The defensive linemen were doing a pursuit drill. It was madness as they go so fast it was tough to see who went each time. Basically, they lined up and then a pass was thrown to the flats. They all, and I mean all, had to chase the receiver down the sideline. Kirby had the GPS speed numbers being monitored in real-time and was calling out "loafs". We talk a lot about how Georgia swarms the ball carrier. This was that drill where even the zero techniques had to get their butts down the field. "I need the GPS numbers. If we don't get 85% we are coming back." That was followed shortly by, "CJ Allen, 89 percent."
- Mykell Williams, Nazir Stackhouse, Damon Wilson, Daylen Everette, and KJ Bolden repped together. Bolden with the ones?
- Jordan Hall, Warren Brinson, Chaz Chambliss, and David Daniel made up another line.
- Hall, Quntavious Johnson, Joenel Aguero, and Kyron Jones repped together.
- Christen Miller, Jamaal Jarrett, 96? and Justin Williams went together.
- Freshmen Jordan Thomas, Nnamdi Ogboko, Quintavious Johnson, Chirs Cole and Ellis Robinson were all in the same rep group. Jake Pope was also a part of that rep. Kirby called Thomas for a loaf. "Aw naw Jordan that is a loaf. JT, that is a loaf. I got GPS over here buddy. Science don't lie. Gravity is real."
- Joseph Jonah-Ajonye, Xavier McLeod, Gabe Harris, Sam Shurtleff, and Ondre Evans went next. Harris received praise from Smart for his rep.
Smart: "What is Bowles doing? What is Bowles doing? Turn around!"
Kirby then addressed his coaches saying "Oh my god. Fifteen coaches. Not one of you full-time coaches are doing $&*!. TRob, Donte, all are doing $&*!."
Also Kirby: "If you get the ball, don't stop. Just run like Forrest Gump. Run like Forrest Gump. DO not turn and stop"
At cornerback, sophomore
Daniel Harris was going first in the rotation, followed by
Daylen Everette and
Julian Humphrey. Peal and Robinson appeared to follow the trio. During the final drill, Everette looked especially good, making impressive back-to-back grabs of balls thrown by staffers.
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