On a mild spring day as a light breeze meandered across the windswept prairie of-
I’m just kidding, I wouldn’t do that to y’all.
But what I would and did do was snap a few pictures and some video as the media was allowed to wander around a spring practice for the first time since they cranked it up at the end of February. The offensive line and skill players were the closest, so that’s who I shot Tuesday.
Enjoy – and please keep in mind that “amateur” would be an overly generous descrption of my abilities
with a camera.
- Naturally, a break was called in less than 5 minutes of our being set loose. I’m pretty sure they deserved it.
- My first impression of Offensive Line Coach Geep Wade – passionate and detail-oriented. As they attacked the sled, his concentration was 100% dialed-in on whoever was up. There was shouting, encouragement and, most of all, “Go again.” Followed by a quick breakdown of exactly why they were going again.
- The quarterbacks – Anthony Colandrea (10), T.J. Lateef (14), Danny Kaelin (12) and Bode Soukup (16) worked on footwork and release under the watchful eye of QB Caoch Glenn Thomas.
- With freshman Nalin Scott (24) watching, Jeremiah Jones (80) focuses and hauls one in.
- T.J. Lateef works a little play-action with Kwinten Ives.
- Colandrea, Lateef and Kaelin – who will occupy the top 3 on depth chart – provide more depth of FBS starting experience than all but a very few teams. And fun trivia fact – last year’s Final Four in the CFP all started a transfer quarterback with previous FBS starting experience.
- I’ll stayed with the shot, but I’ll be honest – I pretty much had to have faith the grad assistant in red had some receiver experience. And I did have faith Dana – watching on the right – would’ve had a good chuckle if I got tattooed.
Another burst shot – this time it’s Colandrea working a play-action wide receiver screen with the fake to Mekhi Nelson (35) and the quick shot to his right. Shoot yeah. (Anthony says that a lot.)
- One more shot of your spring QB room (L to R) – Soukup, Lateef, Colandrea and Kaelin.
I put most of the short vids on Twitter – here are a few:
Enjoy and hopefully they cut us loose out there one or two more times before the big game. There’s not a great deal we can pick up over 25 minutes or so, especially for those of us snapping away in hopes to find some good stuff when we sit down to sift through everything we’ve shot.
But one thing going on was the positive energy. An underrated part of coaching is being able to read body language and coach that into the players. In games, opposition body language plays a huge part – players can sense when another team is down and go for the jugular. By that token, being aware of your own and what YOU present to the other team means a great deal – staying “up” in the face of a run can frustrate opponents.
So all that being said and taking into account the short time given to observe them, this team exudes positive vibes. They are supportive of each other and keep their heads up and actively listen to criticism when pulled aside by coaches – no excuses, just receptive.
Again, it was short period of time, likely with full knowledge of “Here comes the press.”
But I like what I saw.
