First Summer Football Practice Update

[mat1992 2,242]

First scrimmage tonight in pads. That's right. I said it "tonight". So used to practice in the mornings on Saturday. Unfortunately, they still can't practice in the stadium because of the track renovation. So, on the lower practice fields, which are great aside from the mosquitos. One funny aside. During the drill portion, they are playing country, hip hop and classic rock. So they play Charlie Daniels' Devil Went Down to Georgia. Later in the song, Daniels called the devil a "son of a bitch". The radio edit has "son of a gun". Of course, they have no cursing and that song was immediately switched after the SOB lyric.

Anyhow, I had heard that Nathan Kent and Sean Brown were battling it out at QB. I was a bit surprised because I expected Brown and possibly Scott Smith. The first drive was full of punishing runs with Kent leading the way. Honestly, the defense sucked against the run on that one drive and was fine the rest of the way. But the surprise was that Kent played with the starters the entire way. He did make one huge mistake later in the scrimmage and was picked off by Jakari Patterson, a linebacker from Southern Illinois. There are so many new linebackers and safeties, it's tough to keep up. But Kent also made some strong deep throws, most to DK James. TCU transfer Cee Chosen did not have a long catch, but he did cause a PI or def. holding due to his speed. 

Another slightly perplexing thing was seeing Florian Staehler (6-8, 310) starting at left tackle and sophomore Dan Volpe rotating at left tackle. I assume that this is an experiment, but maybe they just liked the big German tackle from the spring, while Volpe was in the middle of getting back to Towson. Not really sure of the left guard spot. Right tackle looks like they are going back to Jean Germain, who looks good after losing about 30 pounds. He did not play last season, while right guard was  Josh Roberts, who was a transfer from Lafayette. He didn't play much last season. Not really sure about the guard spots or left tackle. Center will be Ralph Paige. I think I'll know more next week. At running back, D'Ago Hunter started the scrimmage, but everyone played. The guy I was interested in seeing the most was Tyrell Greene Jr. (6-0, 210). He might be the biggest back they have in the rotation with Jo Bangda (5-10, 230) gone to Charlotte. I'm so used to seeing a fullback or a full house backfield or even a wildcat down at the goal line. No more of that, but I thought they struggled inside the 10. No dominant receiving tight end or a big target wide receiver. That's a concern. Kent at least has the ability to run.

Brown has the bigger arm, but not sure about the pocket presence. Towson's defense (a nice change). They tee off in passing situations. Brown has to be better in getting rid of the ball. He made most of his short throws and didn't throw a pick (was close), but overall Kent was just better with the 1's. He made more plays. Yes, still wonder why they didn't add another QB.

I think we'll be pretty good up front. They are still adding a guys and about to add a starting nose guard from a Group of Five school. Also, about to add a big receiver that I think will help in the red zone. When you look at Zay Perkins (6-2, 205), DK James (6-1, 190), Cee Chosen (6-0, 180), and Sam Reynolds (5-8, 185), they are all good after the catch, but only Perkins has that size and length. Matthew Akuchie (6-3, 205) should be another tall target, but he's not very physical. At running back, I liked some of the walk-on types like Christopher Watkins and Tommy Nelson, who showed burst. Hunter started, but he's certainly limited due to his size. He's more valuable as a return man. I'd like to see more of Greene because he looks like he has the speed and size to be special. I think we're ok at running back, but I don't see a Shane, a T-West, a Vito or even a Jerry Howard. Not yet anyways and they may run more than expected.

Defensively, Robert Javier is definitely starting and I think the Kentucky transfer Andre Stewart is is the mix, but I'd like to see more practices to figure out where they are going to go in the secondary. I do see more speed and hitting but I'm sure new DC Dulin will not be happy with some of the big plays allowed. Former fullback Dion Crews-Harris (6-0, 270) was on the first unit along with Jesus Gibbs (6-4, 290) and Tylen Wallace (6-3, 300). But they have a bunch of options at nose guard including an experienced newcomer not added to the roster.

There was some sloppiness as expected. But it's hard not like the positivity and energy in each practice and scrimmage. Now to the comments from Coach Pete.

[mat1992 2,242]

Coach Shinnock

"First time we've gone over. I think we did 16 or 17 plays in our last live scrimmage. I think we got in 50-60. Good energy and good life. A lot of things we can do better. Fun night and some big plays on both sides of the ball. Excited to see where it goes."

On Kent and Brown

"Kind of separated themselves. Those guys are battling. Kent has done well with the short game, some of the intermediate stuff. Sean has done a nice job tonight of moving the chains. One of his best performances."

Offensive line

"We've had guys step up and we've moved a lot of guys around. We've played guys at a lot of different positions to figure out what our mix is. "

On Volpe

"He looks good. We have great competition. 8 or 9 guys that have risen. We have bunch of moving parts."

On defense after first drive

"We had some gaps and assignment deals. I feel like they stepped up after that."

On linebackers

"We play a four linebacker spot. We have a Wil, a nickel, a Mike and a Sam. Those guys are flying around and we have really good compeittion. Makai Smith, Jamal Gay and Daniel Raymond. All the returners are doing a good job."

On newcomers

"We have a handful of new guys that I really like their energy. Jakari Patterson got a key interception. A couple of the new guys that we recently added. We've been on. We just waited for Admissions and waiting for somethings to take place."

On next week

"Growth and limited mistakes. You learn about mistakes. Can't keep making the same mistakes over and over."

[mat1992 2,242]

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[Blazer49 186]

Mat1992 great recap as usual.  It seems like in past seasons when you gave these scrimmage recaps it was littered with "Player X, Player Y, Player Z didn't participate due to injury." or "this offensive or defensive group struggled with depth due to injuries."  Didn't see that in your recap have we just been lucky so far or do you think it could be how camp is run so far this season?

[mat1992 2,242]

3 hours ago, Blazer49 said:

Mat1992 great recap as usual.  It seems like in past seasons when you gave these scrimmage recaps it was littered with "Player X, Player Y, Player Z didn't participate due to injury." or "this offensive or defensive group struggled with depth due to injuries."  Didn't see that in your recap have we just been lucky so far or do you think it could be how camp is run so far this season?

There are some injuries that I didn’t report on. Apparently I missed that center Ralph Paige was out, but should be back later this week. That forced Alex Desire to play center but he should end up starting at one of the guard spots. Pete is not very forthcoming with info so guessing I won’t get much from injury questions.