Day 5 Notes from Football Practice
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- Here are a few quick notes from Wednesday's practice, which was the first in full pads. Unfortunately for the media in attendance, the window was quite short and did not feature many physical drills or settings. Furthermore, the periods that were open to us were cut somewhat short by the long walk to the far end of the intramural fields where this practice took place. My sincere hope is that the media relations staff gives us a little more time during more worthwhile periods at least once here in the next few days.
- I only had one big takeaway from practice today (well, maybe two when you consider the OL) and it had to do with the second defensive unit. While the first unit remained unchanged from anything we've seen all camp, the second unit, during defensive team period, was finally showing its dime/lightning personnel and the player occupying the dime/box safety role was true freshman Demarvion Overshown, who, coincidentally, wears the same No.31 as Jason Hall who handled much of those duties last season. Overshown is a big, tall young man and looks every bit of the part of a safety stepping in to play in place of the outside linebacker. It's my hypothesis that Todd Orlando could already have Overshown pegged as the "Cowboy" within this often-used sub-package but is inserting him with the second team currently as he doesn't mind getting second-team OLB Joseph Ossai off the field in order to make room as he would taking Malcolm Roach, who starts at OLB, off the field with the first group. At some point, though, Orlando is going to have to figure out how the personnel with the first group will be handled when the dime safety comes on the field -- be it Overshown or anyone else. I remain absolutely 100% confident that the most positive-EV use of personnel in this scenario would be to shift Malcolm Roach to the inside linebacker spot occupied by Anthony Wheeler, getting Wheeler off the field as he's too stiff and straight-line a player to be dynamic in a dime defense built to counter wide-open, spread attacks.
- Seeing QB Sam Ehlinger up close and in pads during ball security drills was eye-opening as you realize what a truck he is when he gets running. There was a play where he was coming full speed up the sidelines and I thought to myself that he could probably literally kill me by running into me full speed in those pads. Ehlinger is just so much bigger than Buechele.
- We didn't get to see any WR/CB one-on-ones in the passing game, but we did get to see the receivers work on their downfield stalk-blocks and the player who stood out as beastly in these drills was freshman Brennan Eagles. He's not a diva at the WR position. He has some dog in him.
- Speaking of the receivers, we saw freshman Al'Vonte Woodard make a few big drops on long balls down the field today and in direct contrast, Devin Duvernay catch every ball that was thrown his way. You can't overthrow him.
- It was just nice to see Kirk Johnson in pads. We've seen him attempt to return to football at the beginning of fall camp for a few years now, but we've never seen him make it to the first day in full pads. Another milestone for the young man on his journey back.
- Along the offensive line, there truly is a three-man battle brewing for the starting LT spot and it is not a competition in name only. This was my second "main" takeaway from practice today. Calvin Anderson, Samuel Cosmi and Denzel Okafor all take reps in different settings with the first team and are usually having to hold dummies for one another through these periods. All things considered, Cosmi has looked most impressive of all through the first five practices, which is a positive as he's the youngest of the bunch and has the most time at Texas left ahead of him.
- We were made to leave right as the worthwhile drills began taking place so we didn't get to take in much of that action. I did see LT Denzel Okafor doing a nice job on Breckyn Hager for two reps of one-on-one base-block drills. Also, in the skill players vs. DB/LB tackling drills, it was clear to notice Kris Boyd putting down a hell of a hit on Jerrod Heard in space. That got things cranked up among members of the defense. Other glimpses I was able to catch as I made the long walk (backwards, facing the practice) across the intramural fields were Devin Duvernay beating John Bonney to the edge, causing Bonney to whiff and Davante Davis bringing the wood on WR Davion Curtis.
presented by the Dental Offices of Wendy Swantkowski, DDS
The Absolute BEST in family and cosmetic dentistry for the Houston-Memorial Area
Now Accepting New Patients --- 281-293-9140
Support the Short by supporting our sponsor - Give Wendy a call today!
- Here are a few quick notes from Wednesday's practice, which was the first in full pads. Unfortunately for the media in attendance, the window was quite short and did not feature many physical drills or settings. Furthermore, the periods that were open to us were cut somewhat short by the long walk to the far end of the intramural fields where this practice took place. My sincere hope is that the media relations staff gives us a little more time during more worthwhile periods at least once here in the next few days.
- I only had one big takeaway from practice today (well, maybe two when you consider the OL) and it had to do with the second defensive unit. While the first unit remained unchanged from anything we've seen all camp, the second unit, during defensive team period, was finally showing its dime/lightning personnel and the player occupying the dime/box safety role was true freshman Demarvion Overshown, who, coincidentally, wears the same No.31 as Jason Hall who handled much of those duties last season. Overshown is a big, tall young man and looks every bit of the part of a safety stepping in to play in place of the outside linebacker. It's my hypothesis that Todd Orlando could already have Overshown pegged as the "Cowboy" within this often-used sub-package but is inserting him with the second team currently as he doesn't mind getting second-team OLB Joseph Ossai off the field in order to make room as he would taking Malcolm Roach, who starts at OLB, off the field with the first group. At some point, though, Orlando is going to have to figure out how the personnel with the first group will be handled when the dime safety comes on the field -- be it Overshown or anyone else. I remain absolutely 100% confident that the most positive-EV use of personnel in this scenario would be to shift Malcolm Roach to the inside linebacker spot occupied by Anthony Wheeler, getting Wheeler off the field as he's too stiff and straight-line a player to be dynamic in a dime defense built to counter wide-open, spread attacks.
- Seeing QB Sam Ehlinger up close and in pads during ball security drills was eye-opening as you realize what a truck he is when he gets running. There was a play where he was coming full speed up the sidelines and I thought to myself that he could probably literally kill me by running into me full speed in those pads. Ehlinger is just so much bigger than Buechele.
- We didn't get to see any WR/CB one-on-ones in the passing game, but we did get to see the receivers work on their downfield stalk-blocks and the player who stood out as beastly in these drills was freshman Brennan Eagles. He's not a diva at the WR position. He has some dog in him.
- Speaking of the receivers, we saw freshman Al'Vonte Woodard make a few big drops on long balls down the field today and in direct contrast, Devin Duvernay catch every ball that was thrown his way. You can't overthrow him.
- It was just nice to see Kirk Johnson in pads. We've seen him attempt to return to football at the beginning of fall camp for a few years now, but we've never seen him make it to the first day in full pads. Another milestone for the young man on his journey back.
- Along the offensive line, there truly is a three-man battle brewing for the starting LT spot and it is not a competition in name only. This was my second "main" takeaway from practice today. Calvin Anderson, Samuel Cosmi and Denzel Okafor all take reps in different settings with the first team and are usually having to hold dummies for one another through these periods. All things considered, Cosmi has looked most impressive of all through the first five practices, which is a positive as he's the youngest of the bunch and has the most time at Texas left ahead of him.
- We were made to leave right as the worthwhile drills began taking place so we didn't get to take in much of that action. I did see LT Denzel Okafor doing a nice job on Breckyn Hager for two reps of one-on-one base-block drills. Also, in the skill players vs. DB/LB tackling drills, it was clear to notice Kris Boyd putting down a hell of a hit on Jerrod Heard in space. That got things cranked up among members of the defense. Other glimpses I was able to catch as I made the long walk (backwards, facing the practice) across the intramural fields were Devin Duvernay beating John Bonney to the edge, causing Bonney to whiff and Davante Davis bringing the wood on WR Davion Curtis.
