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The first day of practice is complete. Here's some juice for you to digest:
NEW COMMIT
The Jackets nabbed another athletic O-Line recruit - Ray Beano. He's a right tackle in high school in Newnan, although he's sure to be tabbed as a center or guard at the collegiate level. At 6'2", 280lb, with an athletic build, he fits more of the stereotypical mold of a Paul Johnson O-Lineman. Athletic for his size, moves his feet well, but needs to gain strength. A bit undersized right now, but seems to have a good frame to add some muscle.
MISSING PLAYERS
Embry Peeples and TJ Barnes were noticably late today, but evidently some players had finals today, so hopefully that's the reason for their absense.
POSITION CHANGES
Biggest change is that Jon Lockhart was practicing at A-back and even WR, although he was recruited as a DB. Jon looked pretty good today. Another one to watch out for would be Austin Barrick. I haven't heard or read about any changes, but I just can't see him staying at A-back.
QB BATTLES
Coach Johnson has made it clear that while he wants Josh Nesbitt to win the job, he hasn't yet. He has to earn it. Walk-on Bryce Dykes was getting the 2nd string reps and looked comfortable both passing and running. True freshman Jaybo Shaw looked very comfortable with the option, which is to be expected, since he ran it in high school. True frosh Tevin Washington has a bit of a quirky throwing motion and it remains to be seen if he'll be ready for primetime. Apparently both Nesbitt and Shaw were zipping nice passes all day as well.
UP-AND-DOWNS
The entire offense was doing plenty of up-and-downs, which occur anytime someone fumbles. In fact, the QB's / BB's / AB's were working on a read and pitch drill, during which they apparently stopped approximately 10 times to do up/downs. On one hand, I wonder how much drill / practice time that takes away. On the other hand, if it sinks in for them to get it right, so be it.
DEFENSE BUSY
Lot's of coaching on Defense today. Mario Butler and Kyle Jackson were amongst a handful of guys that got an earful for being out of position at times. The D had their share of up/downs as well.
JERRARD TARRANT
......... watched practice in street clothes.
MISC
- Donnie Davis watched practice
- Roddy Jones looked very good at A-Back and displayed excellent hands catching balls
- Morgan Burnett has the cast off and his wrist wrapped up during practice
- Greg Smith is back all the way - healthy again
- Strong punting today from Scott Blair
- Derrick Morgan looked good at DE - big and fast.
- The "beach" was empty today (no IR's)
- The heat was brutal today
PICTURES OF TODAY'S PRACTICE
Lastly, some new stats on player weights from the Hive:
Burnett 182 198
T. Clark 200 213
D. Thomas 220 229
Nesbitt 204 214
Frierson 200 208
Dwyer 208 227
R. Jones 184 194
Daniels 185 194
Q. Kelly 230 238
Rocker 205 225
Jefferson 215 227
S. Griffin 220 239
K. Jackson 225 236
Tongo 245 252
Krish 275 286
J. Gilbert 280 288
Voss 305 294
Yandell 304 296
M. Johnson 244 260
Richard 285 280
Walker 275 293