Big Ten Media Days

I watched some of the B1G Ten Media Days.  Here are some pieces of information I gleaned from it.

Brady Hoke, Michigan Q&A

Hoke looks like he might collapse at any moment.  His face is red and sweaty and as @FrothyGopher puts it “he looks like his shirt is a sausage casing”.   He should go Barry White style and just bring up a kerchief or towel to wipe down once in a while.  According to Hoke, Devin Gardner “Spins the ball tighter” and is more of a pro-style QB, which is what Brady Hoke teams prefer.

After the Q&A, BTN shows Devin Gardner highlights that appear to all be against the Gophers.  FML.  Minnesota plays at Ann Arbor on October 5^th.

Gary Andersen, Wisconsin Q&A

Maybe you were hoping for former NFL kicker Gary Anderson, but alas this isn’t that Gary Anderson. Are there any former NFL kickers that are now anything but special teams coaches?  Probably not.  Wisconsin Gary Andersen uses the phrase “young men” a lot, which creeps me out.  My favorite part with these Q&As is when the moderator guy tries to get one last question and there’s crickets.  The coach kind of fidgets around for a bit before he’s allowed to scurry off. 

Tanner McEvoy will apparently battle with Stave and Curt Phillips for the starting QB and the Badgers will have an awesome running game again led by James White. 



Joey Chestnut



Bo Pellini, Nebraska Q&A

Pellini is one of these guys that looks really weird without a baseball hat/visor on.  He should probably cover as much of that mug as he can.  Also, let’s face it – he doesn’t look very smart and the way he repeats the same phrases over and over doesn’t help that impression.  Some things he said:

“Footballwise” we’re looking forward to this upcoming season.  Also, lots of crap about challenges ahead and how they’re looking forward to them. 

When questioned about the shocking losses –what are you improving:  “It’s about tackling better, executing better.”  Says better like 9 times.  “Work.”  “Better.” “Execute.” Ad infinitum. Blah Blah Blah.

Targeting Rule concerns: They looked for examples. All for safety but we should “make sure we’re not messin with the integrity of the game”

Thoughts on offense:  4-year starter at QB with “dynamic weapons” around him.  “I wouldn’t trade our offense for anybody.”

About Taylor’s Mechanics Changes – External Coach driven:  “There’s still a lot more room for growth.”

Mark Dantonio, Michigan State Q&A

Dantonio notes they’ve had 6 straight bowl games, winning the last two.  He’s very brief and to the point on his intro. 

Best quote: “Wisconsin is relatively close to Michigan when you look at it on a map.”  This was in response to their recruiting presence in Wisconsin.  He mentions a ferry ride across Lake Michigan to get there.  If I were Dantonio I’d get a team speedboat to more quickly navigate the Great Lakes and get to recruits.  That would kick ass.

Dantonio tries to leave early before the last question “I think we’re good to go, GO GREEN”.  Oops, one more question.  This year’s mantra “chase it” or something that rhymes with that – it was hard to hear.  Last year it was P4RB “Prepare 4 Rose Bowl”.

Urban Meyer, Ohio State Q&A

Urban comes right out and says he isn’t going to talk about the negatives, we’ll see if a journalist tries anyway.  Meyer says they lost entire front 7, but thinks they did well in recruiting. He also mentions Curtis Grant taking over at MLB.  He says they have one of the better secondaries in the B1G.  Meyer drops “esprit de corps” with regard to his linebackers showing he’s into French and probably knows how to treat a lady.

A media member mentions good news regarding Carlos Hyde punching chicks in the face and Urban responds with – “I didn’t receive the news” “I guess I’m not a big social media guy” “once facts are evaluated we’ll make some decisions”

Regarding two freshman making stupid decisions –  Urban was “disappointed” and “furious” that “a couple of knuckleheads make a decision that affects the entire program”  He also stated, “I wanna make sure our punishment is as harder or harder than what’s out there [been done]”

Urban basically got hammered by the media on discipline and his reputation.  There was only one question that wasn’t about off the field issues.

Jerry Kill, MN Q&A

Kill starts off mentioning they had biggest crowd at Spring Game since Lou Holtz was the coach and that his staff is the longest tenured staff in the country.  He also gets 190MM new facilities plug in.  Kill says, “This team is different, getting better this year.”

On the certainty at QB:  “Great growing process” for Phillip Nelson.  “Mitch Leidner is a tremendous athlete.”  “Gonna be a strength down the road here.”

On Kill’s Health:  “Doin’ great.” Has a “great doctor that is a specialist in epilepsy.”  “May not look it - feel like I’m in the best shape of my life.”

On the Ed O’Bannon suit with two current Gophers a part of it:  “Let the process run its course”  “NCAA issue”

End the season playing WI:  “Tremendous game for both schools”  “Great thing about the B1G Ten is all of the rivalry games” I love how when Kill says Wisconsin it comes out “Wessconsin”.

On Donnell Kirkwood:  “We’ve always had great running backs”  “Big, strong physical backs – that’s kind of who we are.” 

Tim Beckman, Illinois Q&A

Beckman is fun because he seems like he’s almost always losing his voice.  Most of his spiel involves whining about injuries and looking forward to people to be happy.  He said the word “excited” about 52 times – just saying it doesn’t make it so, guy.

And wow does he love Nathan Scheelhaase.  This is the guy that threw 4 TDs and 8 INTs last year, right?

BTN says they have what could be one of the best LB trios in the B1G.

Kevin Wilson, Indiana Q&A

Last year was “not a season we wanted.”  Wilson says they’re unsettled at QB with three guys in a dead heat.  THEY HAVE A GREAT KICKER!  You should go see him apparently. 

Indiana was #2 in passing in the conference last season and returns 9 defensive starters per BTN.  4 of 5 OL and 3 receivers, RB Stephen Houston and TRE Roberson all return as well.  Roberson hasn’t been given the QB job yet though as said above.

Darrell Hazell, Purdue Q&A

Former RBs and WRs and Kent State HC coach Hazell takes over at Purdue.  Purdue returns 9 defensive starters but has some questions on the offensive side with RB Akeem Hunt being the exception.  I didn’t listen to his presser, but who cares about Purdue really?

Pat Fitzgerald, Northwestern

If there was a king of the mountain sort of battle royale between B1G coaches, Fitzgerald is the heavy favorite to stand alone at the top.  The guy is a tank.  It would take something like a Pellini/Urban Meyer tag team effort to bring him down.  Which of course would end with Meyer back-stabbing Pellini.  Jerry Kill would need to quickly implant his brain into some kind of giant robot to even compete.  Hoke would be trouble for the first 25 seconds until he tires.

Fitzgerald’s Wildcats are coming off their first ever bowl win.  The Wildcats return Trevor Simien (QB), Kain Colter (QB/RB/WR) and Venric Mark (RB) along with almost all of their WRs.   

Kirk Ferentz, Iowa Q&A

Ferentz is really “enthused” about the team this year.  So “enthused”, in fact that he uses “enthused” twice in his 40 second intro. 

Ferentz is the 3^rd or 4^th coach to be asked about the spearing rule.  He says the same thing everyone else says.  Way to be original, media.

Bill O’Brien, PSU Q&A

O’Brien is in a battle with Kill for least handsome coach in the Big Ten.  His face/head looks like how I imagine Seth McFarlane would age if he wasn’t constantly getting plastic surgery and hair plugs and was coated in a patina of make-up.  Ok, it's stretch, but I already wrote it and I'm too lazy to delete it.

PSU’s QB situation is still up in the air but it could be Tyler Ferguson, but it could be decided about half way through training camp.  O’Brien refers to sanctions as “water under the bridge”.   O’Brien has instilled the phrase “next man up”.  These guys sure love their catch phrases.

Stuff From TRE

Since burning myself out on the NBA preview, I've been kind of absent.  Here's some stuff that's going on:

Gophers End Season 6-6, Look Towards a Bowl

Don't die, buddy.

 
Regular Season #2 of the Jerry Kill regime has come to a bit of a tumultuous ending, but all in all I would say it is a success as they finish with a 6-6 record.  At the beginning of the season I had the Gophers at a floor of 4 wins and a ceiling of 6, so in that respect they finished on the high end.  Of course, most recognize the only in conference wins were against Purdue at home and at Illinois.  Not exactly signature wins.  A win over Iowa, Northwestern or Michigan State would have put a nice cherry on top of this season, but not only did they not come out on top, they pretty much got smoked in each of them. 

That being said, Kill has doubled his wins in his second year, even though his QB went to crap early and he's been juggling them ever since.  His team is still very young, and he definitely has a plan for recruiting a certain type of player to fit his system.  Stealing a bowl win is highly doubtful in my opinion, but Kill has surprised before in his career.  Both of ESPN’s dudes have Minnesota in the Meineke Car Care Bowl against either TCU or West Virginia.  Both have matchups look supremely unpleasant for our Fightin’ Goldies.
Sadly, there are other questions beyond just improving the program for Kill.  AJ Barker engaged the kill switch (see what I did there?) and left the program.  After reading through his novella about why he left it appears he doesn't like to ice injuries nor have people yell at him.  He does like scholarships and acupuncture though.  It would have been a tough call to give Barker a scholarship this year based on just his performance at UNLV.  Listen, if Kill lorded the scholarship over Barker and said a lot of mean things to him, that sucks and all, but I can't help but think this is a dick move on Barker's part to take this kind of shot and potentially damage a program's reputation.  I assume if this really is a massive issue we'll see a whole bunch of players step forward, right?  Otherwise I tend to chalk it up to a kid that couldn't take the heat and sort of thinks of himself as an amateur yogi.  I'm looking forward to visiting his holistic healing shop after he graduates.

The other thing is this seizure stuff.  Before the season, Kill portrayed that they had it all under control with medication and diet and what-not but not only did he conk out for the whole second half of the MSU game last week he also suffered one in October after the Northwestern shellacking.  This ongoing situation is worse than the Barker stuff to me as potential recruits are bound to hear about this and it has to factor into your decision.  It seems to happen more (only?) at our home games which makes me wonder if the second biggest scoreboard in the nation is having an effect.  Kind of like those warnings that come with video games.  Can we get the guy some mega-transition lenses or something?  We need a healthy Kill and you know; we want him to live and stuff too.

Timberwolves Scraping

No glove, no Love?

 
Our Timberwolves have had some great news with the return of Kevin Love.  He was a beast in his first game back and it was great to see him get so much love from the crowd.  Unfortunately, the hand still bothers him; or rather the “shooting glove” that he’s wearing.  The Wolves have dropped three straight (I warned you it would get rough for a bit) and are sitting at a 5-7 record. He's supposed to glove up until January, but it sounds like he's toying with taking it off. 

Our guy Brandon Roy just had another knee surgery.  I was super hopeful that top secret overseas surgeries had improved his condition, but it appears that the writing is on the wall.  We’ll have to wait four weeks to see if the latest surgery helps at all.  He had some “loose bodies” removed, so there was actually crap in there and that gives a glimmer of hope.  However, the level III degenerative arthritis is the main issue.  Just watching him get around on the court before the injury makes me think the dream is over.  Chase Budinger also fell victim to the knee monster and had major surgery on his left meniscus.  He’s hoping to return in March.  

This means a whole lot of Alexsey Shved and Malcolm Lee at the shooting guard.  Also, the Wolves made a nice FA pickup by grabbing small forward Josh Howard.  Howard is busting his ass out there when he gets to play, especially on defense, plus he has a headband.  Shved is going to have to grow up fast.  He’s already produced more than expected early on, but he hasn’t been consistent. This feels like one of those seasons where everyone is going hurt all year, but we're looking at Love getting right and Rubio returning and I still feel the excitement of a playoff appearance.

Twins Talking to Literally Everyone

So far, we got this guy.  Don't worry, you don't really need to know who he is.

"Anybody who is a starting pitcher that we've identified as having some ability, you can assume we've touched base with them."

I'm loving the quotes we're hearing from Terry Ryan so far as free agency talks heat up.  The Twins are in dire need of pitching and it appears they'll leave no stone unturned in the search.  Popular thought is that they'll have about $25MM to spend this off-season, putting them at about where they were last year.  As I've stated before they can't be afraid to go over a bit as there are a few pitchers worthy of some cash and there's no guarantee next year's market will be as good.  Names that have been associated with the Twins have been Brett Myers, Greinke, Anibal Sanchez, Edwin Jackson, Brandon McCarthy, Joe Saunders, Ryan Dempster Joe Blanton and even Brandon Webb.

We've also heard some trade rumors surrounding Denard Span for pitching with Atlanta and Tampa Bay as interested parties. 

The Arizona Fall League has ended.  For a list of Twins farm system players that were in it, check out this post by Eric Pleiss at Knuckleballsblog.  Nate Roberts and Kyle Gibson were named to the all AFL team this year.  Roberts, a 23 year old outfielder, led all players in every triple slash category, posting a 446/565/662.  He reached base in each of his 19 games.  I think he's expected to be at High A Fort Myers after a year in Low A where he hit 299/433/427.  Gibson had 6 starts and a 5.40 ERA in 23 and 1/3 innings.  He stuck out 28 and went 3-2. 


The Walking Dead/Boardwalk Empire

I'm a big fan of both the Walking Dead and Boardwalk Empire but as the BE season ends and the first half of TWD's split season also comes to a close it's clear the HBO has much better writing and acting.  For me, The Walking Dead has essentially become like most bad horror movies with terrific plot holes, but also gore and zombies (of course).   So now I have to laugh at the stupidity and the cut corners and cheer for the zombies to eat people.  I guess I shouldn't be overly surprised since the whole story is straight from a comic book series of graphic novels and they apparently are following pretty closely to the script. (not exact, but close enough)  I'm sure the actor that plays Carl is a good kid, but he's not believable at all as a bright eyed kid that's been hardened by the apocalypse.  And get rid of the stupid sheriff hat already!

Oops, bent rifle.

On the other hand, this season of Boardwalk Empire has been a masterwork of interweaving stories that is coming to an explosive ending.  Anyone could die here except probably Nucky Buscemi (and obviously historical guys like Capone) and I wouldn't be surprised.  Other internet nerd contemporaries argue that the Gyp Rosetti character is a bit over the top and a caricature of your typical gangster.  I would argue that guys like Gyp existed, but not likely for very long, in the gangster business. While building up Gyp's rise to prominence they've also advanced the story of Van Alden, Eli Thompson, Chalky White, Richard Harrow and many others.  Pretty pumped for this, you guys.

Capone going for the fork submission.

 

After these two are over, it's going to be pretty bleak in the TV department.  I'll take show recommendations in the comments section.  TIA  Game of Thrones sounds like it's coming in late March/April.  

Why the Gophers Will Win More Games than the Vikings

  VS.

In 2012, the Minnesota Golden Gopher football team will win more games than the Minnesota Vikings


There, I said it.  Neither of these teams are going to set the world on fire, of course.  This is more like a race between me and a one-legged dog dragging his ass across the ground. (the dog wins by a stump)  This is a matter of looking at two teams and their opponents and their potential to exceed expectations.  Point blank, there is very little chance the Vikings exceed expectations, but there is a chance that the Gophers will. Here are the top 5 reasons the Gophers will win more games than the Vikings this year.

I own TRE

The Schedule 

The Vikings start with a couple of winnable games early, but unfortunately, these are games where Adrian Peterson may not play or at least will have a reduced role.  Luckily, MJD might be holding out as well, so we might see a 6-3 shootout on Sept 9 vs Jacksonville.  The biggest problem with the Vikings' schedule is that the other teams in their division are much better than they are.  They could easily go 0-6 against Detroit, Green Bay and Chicago.  Winnable games include JAC, @IND, @WAS, ARI, @SEA, @STL. Only two of those games are home games though.  On the plus side, two of their three wins last season came on the road.

2012 Golden Gopher Schedule

Date Opponent Aug. 30 at UNLV 10:00pm Sep. 8 New Hampshire 11:00am Sep. 15 Western Michigan 11:00am Sep. 22 Syracuse 7:00pm Sep. 29 at Iowa 11:00am Oct. 13 Northwestern 11:00am Oct. 20 at Wisconsin TBA Oct. 27 Purdue TBA Nov. 3 Michigan TBA Nov. 10 at Illinois TBA Nov. 17 at Nebraska TBA Nov. 24 Michigan State TBA

The Gophers start with four games that they are likely to be the favorite in, with the possible exception of a solid Western Michigan team.  Then they go to Iowa to try to hold the Floyd of Rosedale trophy for a 3rd consecutive year.  Games at Wisconsin, at home versus Michigan (58-0) and at Nebraska are all virtual locks to be losses.  They've played Michigan State well and games like Northwester, Purdue and Illinois are winnable. 


Quarterback

Christian Ponder was a first round pick by the Vikings one year ago and was thrown into the fire in 2011.  He showed flashes and ended up with 13 touchdowns and 13 interceptions, completing 158 of 291 pass attempts.  At times, he showed poor accuracy, but does appear to have an NFL caliber arm.  He has a tendency to roll out to his right side when the pocket breaks down and I wonder if/when defenses will start scheming for this.  I thought he was a reach at the time (Ryan Mallet lover alert) and although he hasn't been a total poopstain, I'm not sure there's a lot of upside there.

MarQueis Gray finally got his first full year at QB for the Gophers last year.  He only passed at a 50.7% clip and threw 8 TDs against 8 INTs, but whoa nelly can he run!  Gray ran for 966 yards and 6 TDs and had 3 games where he ran for 160+.  Not bad for your first year under center.  Think about this: he had 23 pass attempts total in the two years prior.  He's entering his senior year at the same position with the same coaches, which hasn't happened the Carter administration.  (FACT)  The Gophers' success this year will be directly attributed to how big of a leap that Quis can make in 2012.  I think it will be significant.

 

 

Young Players with Tremendous Upside

Anyone know who the Vikings drafted?  A tackle and a white defensive back from Notre Dame, right?  Anyone else?  Me either.  Actually, superfast corner Josh Robinson looks intriguing and Greg Childs out of Hawaii had some potential (RIP, Greg),  but I won't let that get in the way of a good story.  How about second year guys?  Something called Mistral is starting in the secondary I think.  One second year guy I do like is Kyle Rudolph.  That dude is a stud. Let's hope while Ponder (also a 2nd year guy) is running for his life he lobs it to Kyle from time to time. 

Virtually the entire Gopher team is young.  Many played as freshmen and more freshmen and sophomores (duh) will get time this year.  Gray and linebackers Keanon Cooper and Mike Rallis are some of the elder statesmen and hopefully they can provide leadership.  Many Gopher recruits were not super-highly rated by various publications, but we've seen Kill find diamonds in the rough at both Northern Illinois and Southern Illinois.  He poops on your publications.  Skill positions players like Harbison, McDonald, Maye and Nelson are all exciting.  There are some massive o-lineman that are underclassmen and well get opportunity.  The DEs other than Wilhite are young.  Even some of the old guys are new guys since they're Juco transfers.  This is the gift and the curse of the Brewster regime.  The slate has been virtually wiped clean there's plenty of opportunity for players to surge up the ranks like DWG climbing the Class E softball batting leaders.

Depth

I think the Vikings suffer greatly from a lack of depth.  If you look at the chart, we're an ACL away from Larry Dean and Tyrone McKenzie.  Former Minnesota Timberwolve Chris Carr is also on the two-deep.  God forbid we get into Quentin Saulsberry territory. 

On the flip side, the Gophers, while young seem to have depth at QB, offensive line and even at wide receiver (WHAT?).  My friend and honored scrub @FrothyGopher thinks the secondary is as deep as it's been since the Wacker era.  There are competitions and possible rotations all over the place, and this time I think it may not necessarily be because everyone sucks!

The Head Coaches

Leslie Frazier is just kind of a drip.  He knows football, but he kind of mopes around and bores the pants off of everyone.  My guess is there's a constant loop of the superbowl shuffle running through his head and it's driving him crazy. 

Jerry Kill gets so damned fired up that he seizes on the sidelines (please don't do that this year).  He's passionate and has a little twang in his voice that we all enjoy.  Also, he looks like a Gopher, how awesome is that?  I think that if you spend time around Kill you can see that players respect him and are buying what he is selling.  Of course, that's much easier to have happen in the college game.

Anything Can Happen in College Football

With a few big players stepping forward, teams can make titanic leaps in college football.  I'm not projecting tintanic, but I am expecting improvement.  Also, in college, big players can carry a whole team.  See Denard Robinson or Robert Griffin III or maybe a Montee Ball/Russell Wilson combo.  In the NFL, you need a great all around team to be succussful.  Adrian Peterson and Jared Allen are possibly the best players at their respective positions, and the team stunk like my dog's breath last year.  The point is, a leap by a few players can make a significant impact this year.

Prediction

Both of these teams are not going to be great.  In fact, they are probably both 4-6 win teams.  However, the beauty of a 6 win Gopher football team is they're back in a bowl!  "Postseason!" If you put a gun to my head (you wouldn't be the first, you jerk).  My months of calculations say the Gophers win 5 games this year and the Vikings win just 4.  So, watch the Vikings, hope for them to improve or for Joe Webb to take over or for the Metrodome to cave in again.  But also, watch the Gophers...who knows, they just might play an extra game at the ALAMO BOWL or something.

BOWLING

ARE YOU READY TO ENTER THE KILL ZONE?

Jerry Kill puns are still all the rage, so get ready for a boatload of them this season as our Gophers get ready to KILL the Big Ten.  Ok, maybe not, but there's some stuff going on in here that you might not know about.  Luckily, your good ol' buddy TRE is here to fill you in.

I've never seen Jerry so happy, thanks google images!

Like most Gopher football fans I have learned to deal with disappointment.  I self medicate. I cry. I shake my fist at the sky. I cry.  However, each year before the season begins there is a little bit of hope in my heart for the Maroon and Gold.  I know, realistically speaking, that there shouldn't be, but nevertheless there is.

This year, I'm showing what an ultimate fan I am by heading to Las Vegas, a place no one would normally ever bother to go to, in order to watch the Gophers take on the Running Rebels.  In preparation for this game and the upcoming season I stopped by one of the open practices at Gibson-Nagurski on Tuesday to KILL some time and get early impressions of the team.




Gray thinks about throwing me a pass.

 The quarterbacks appear to be as deep as I've seen them in a long time.  I'm pretty pumped our 3rd string quarterback doesn't also double as the towel guy.  "Here's your towel and Gatorade, Mr. Gray.  Nice throw!" 

Watching Marqueis Gray throw the ball was pretty impressive.  His delivery seems to be smoother and it seems to me he stood a little taller on his release.  Now this could be because he's doing 7-7 drills and isn't under pressure, but in the past I got the impression that he sort of crouched a bit more on his throws during games.  He's a big dude and standing tall is going to help him see the field.  The backups are sophomore Max Shortell and freshmen Philip Nelson and Mitch Leidner.  They're young, they have size and they all can throw the ball well.  Leidner was all-time-quarterback with the freshman/leftovers and Gray, Shortell and Nelson where slangin' rocks with the ones and twos.

In fact, overall this team feels like it has more depth.  Sure they're young, but there's size and/or speed at a number of positions.  The young WRs really had some stand-out plays.  There are a number of battles on the offensive and defensive line that show players are working hard to make themselves better.  Our senior LBs of Rallis and Cooper are probably set as starters, but the other outside linebacker looks to be a battle and may be shuffled depending on the situation.  I really liked how James Manuel looked out there.  Manuel has transformed his body and looks like a legit linebacker out there.

In fact, a lot of these guys must have really worked hard this off-season.  Ra'Shede Hageman is absolutely massive. Coach Kill said that all of the o-linemen have put on 10-15 pounds in the off-season and it shows.  Coach Klein and Assistant Coach Thompson (Gracie Jiu Jitsu blue belt!) must have really had these guys working this past year. 


New Weight RoomHas New Weights


The running backs appear to be in a battle for carries that might carry into the season.  However, in doesn't feel as much like it has to mean in the past where everyone had a shot because no one was very impressive.  I saw some nice plays from a number of backs during the drills.  Redshirt sophomore Donnell Kirkwood is a bowling ball, and if healthy could be a player that carries the load.  He had a number of nice runs where he waiting for his hole and quickly hit it or made a nice cut to daylight.  Juco transfer James Gillum is thought to be either the favorite or co-favorite for the starting job by many.  I didn't see as many big runs by him, but I saw one catch on a swing pass that was very impressive.  Sophomores David Cobb and Devon Wright also had a bunch of good runs and I really thought Wright showed a bit of breakaway speed at times.
 
The defensive line is a big key for the Gophers this year.  As mentioned, Hageman is huge and he was like a bull in a china shop out there on the field.  I have the impression that he's really good at blasting lineman around, but at times that opened up big holes for the running backs.  I thought Jacques and Legania played well together and I could see either of them pushing for starting time over Botticelli at defensive tackle.  The drills I saw probably aren't the best to get impressions of the pass rush, but it was fun to watch Ben Perry and Ed Olson battle.

Who Made Some Plays? Obviously, this is just one practice, but a number of players made nice plays in the drills.  I saw interceptions by Cooper, Shabazz, Carter, Rallis and Boddy.  6'4" freshman Lincoln Plsek made a great catch on flag route from Mitch Leidner where he had to go up for full extension.  Jamel Harbison is very good at shaking loose from coverage and made a number of catches.  Isaac Freuchte caught a nice pass down the sideline.  Fellow freshman KJ Maye looks pretty electric with the ball.  I also saw some big hits in the rushing drills by Beal, Wells, Cooper and Cockran. 

Killzone: Engaged.