Back from practice, a few thoughts

Spent a better part of the afternoon at Kinnick as well. I don't know about 15k but a nice crowd. Suprisingly, there were more fans at the Spring "game".

Overall, I was very impressed with not only the team but the coaching staff. I (we) have been to the last several "___" days and this was by far the most tightly run scrimmage/practice. We sat in the South end zone and really enjoyed the Offensive line trying to stop each one of the D-Line guys individually. As mentioned before, there was a lot of chippyness out there. I think they are ready to hit someone else.

Both sides of the ball look strong and deep. Stanzi looks ready to go. RB's will struggle until the line gets all set. I think that could happen pretty quickly but an area of concern. Punting will be a strength for years to come. Ryan is ready and Mullings looks like the real deal. Worried about the PK position. They kicked well on their own but struggled in live action. Hopefully, we will not have to count on that game too much.

Over all impression.....no big suprises. This just in Iowa will be a good and maybe great team in 2010-11.

Go Hawks!
 
Here's my notes
Clayborn only does about half the warmup exercises :)...but was able to do whatever he wanted. Blocked the field goal attempt, almost intercepted a JV pass and followed JV back to huddle to give him a little...Also in at the QB several times.
Only injury was Prater with hamstring early in warmups, wrapped in ice, appeared minor.
Not a lot of Offense 1 vs Defense 1 until late.

Offense: Hampton looked FAST and pumped. After one run he got a bump from a DL and he turned to go after him, but backed off right after.
De' J also looked impressive and had a long run against the #1 defense-bounced outside and down the sideline. On the way back to the huddle line he walked by Ferenz and coach said something and made the gesture of going outside.
O-line is not bad-same 5 most of the day for the #1. Koeppel has C as of now.
WR as expected. McNutt, DJK look awesome
Brad Rogers played more FB than RB

Defense: #1s had a rotation of Daniel/Daniels in for Clayborn/Ballard and they didn't miss a beat. Also ran a lot of nickel D with Jordan B (interesting with Prater out with hami that Castillo got the nod over Jordan)
LB looked good on coverage.

Special Teams: Punting - no worries
PK-inconsistent, Murry makes 2 misses 1, Moss misses 1, makes 2-you get the picture.
 
All you guys who've posted reports/impressions from today, THANKS. Great stuff and I hope y'all had a blast @ Kinnick. :)
 
Thanks for all the reports.

A lot of positive comments. Besides the kicking, was there anything that didn't look as good as it should be?

Also, Do we have Jonny Mullins (Aussie kicker) on the field or in school yet?
 
I like hearing Daniels was playing well. Looks like we can actually go 6 deep on the DL this year. Since DL is our strength, nice to know fatigue or small injury won't kill the unit.

The publicity on Berstien is good. If he can play nickel back, CB, and Safety that is a great fifth DB. Experienced, physically talented fifth DB is great.

Sounds like Hampton is good to go. He is physically more talented than A-Rob so it will be good to have him rolling during the Big 10 season.

If the O-line keeps making progress, it sounds like were ready to compete for a Big 10 championship. Since this squad is experienced, I hope we don't start the season quite as slow as we traditionally have.
 
Tarp looked good and called the defensive plays, but I actually thought B Davis had the best practice on 2nd team D. It will be hard to keep him off the field. Otherwise, no big mistakes.
 
My thoughts:
The defense is stacked, deep at every position and talented. Hopefully we rotate more to keep fresh bodies. Bernstein is versatile, but for someone that was looking to start last year, he has been passed by both Castillo and Hyde. Derby had the red jersey on, but I still see him as a LB or DE. The WR are deep and all have their own talents, like seeing the end arounds. Deandre Johnson looks to be a steal of a recruit, but time will tell. A little concerned with how Tarp will fair against the downhill runners, seems a little smaller that Angerer.
 
My thoughts:
The defense is stacked, deep at every position and talented. Hopefully we rotate more to keep fresh bodies. Bernstein is versatile, but for someone that was looking to start last year, he has been passed by both Castillo and Hyde. Derby had the red jersey on, but I still see him as a LB or DE. The WR are deep and all have their own talents, like seeing the end arounds. Deandre Johnson looks to be a steal of a recruit, but time will tell. A little concerned with how Tarp will fair against the downhill runners, seems a little smaller that Angerer.

Would not surprise me to see bruce davis get more playing time in those types of games than tarp.
 
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