CHESTNUT HILL - Felt like a big day on Saturday.
It was a unique atmosphere heading into Fish to watch football in March around 10:15. Beautiful day, bunch of people out around The Res, women's lax hosting Notre Dame inside Alumni, a ton of recruits on hand. It felt like an important day and with the guys back in shoulder pads again, it was.
Here's everything from another two-hour session. Four down, 11 to go until we're on to the training camp count down...
-Today's player entrance included high knees over pads literally as soon as everyone walked in the door. LB's were first in around 10:50 with the wide receivers. D-line and specialists followed around 10:54 with the QB's about a minute later.
-98.5 The Sports Hub's Scott Zolak was on hand with his son who attends King Philip. I'm sure he was looking forward to seeing how O'Brien runs his practices.
-Standard procedure from the first three practices early with offense and defense working on some stuff at a walkthrough speed.
-11:26-11:34 stretch. I'm not sure I'll get over how much shorter the time period is than it was under Hafley. It's probably not a big deal whatsoever, but it's just striking how much shorter it is every time. I've got to ask Coach Fitzgerald next week if I remember.
-Team-wide ball security drill right after for the second straight practice. Standard procedure.
-Indy period for like 5-10 minutes, QB's and WR's looked good again, didn't see any drops.
-11:50 first bit of full team 11-on-11. Opening 'possession' with TC under center didn't produce any results. Max Tucker continued to play well with a run stuff. During the second offense's reps with James I thought Broome had his best day yet. He churned through contact every single time he had the ball during 'live' time. Owen McGowan stuck him at the LOS at one point and he wouldn't go down. Jayden McGowan had a sick one-handed grab on the left sideline. Anthony Ferrucci had one of his own on a dump off from Reuve. Nice leaping PBU for Victor Nelson and Kye broke off a big run during this period.
-About 5-8 minutes of walkthrough speed work for O and D before going right back to more 11-on-11. Things really picked up here.
-Neto Okpala and Donovan Ezeiruaku continues to be absolute menaces early on. Okpala flew off the edge on the very first snap, forcing TC to take off. Ezeiruaku followed it with a stuff of Kye. Both of them met in the backfield to flush TC again at one point too.
-Former UCF RB Jordan McDonald had some flashes again on Saturday, getting through holes quickly and showing some burst. I'll keep saying it, it's the second-deepest position group on the team in my opinion behind the WR's.
-Matt Ragan hauled in a great ball from James down the left sideline during one rep. They both continue to be solid at their respective positions so far.
-Once again, Broome just refused to go down at one point, keeping his legs moving through like two different whistles and absolutely refused to go to the ground. That room is going to continue to push each other.
-Kwan Williams blew up a run of Datrrell Jones later in the period. Josiah Griffin had a nice play on another run and Lewis Bond had the second-best catch of spring ball so far. While going fairly deep over the middle, he tipped a pass from TC that was just slightly behind him with one hand, then dove to complete the catch, drawing 'oooh's' and 'ahh's' from the recruits and parents on hand. Skeete hauled in a great ball from TC on another slant on the next snap.
-Special teams blocking for about 10 minutes for everybody before some 7-on-7 at like 12:30. Kam Arnold - who has been all over the place at times all week - had great coverage against Franklin on the sideline on one particular rep. Khari Johnson had a nice PBU down field against the other No. 3 Nate Johnson along the left sideline. Bradley makes things look effortless as he plucked a dart on a slant from TC at one point.
-We got a nice surprise at 12:35 as 25:00 went up on the clock, the down markers came out and we got a little taste of a scrimmage. The first drive went like this:
-Two big runs for Kye.
-Scramble by TC towards the sideline and he actually took a pretty big hit for March, drawing a gasp from everyone. He popped right up and jogged back to the huddle (I couldn't see who had the 'hit')
-Short pass to Ward for a decent gain followed by a short run by Ward
-McGowan batted a ball down at the LOS
-Great ball from TC to Morales down the left sideline to put BC near (possibly in, I was a little too far away) the red zone
-Short run by Kye
-Ward shows some phenomenal patience at the LOS, bounces outside and glides into the end zone for an easy (10ish) yard TD run.
-Second drive from James was quicker and went like this (I might have missed a play?):
-Big catch over the middle from Dino to cross midfield
-Impressive run from Broome, again just churning out yardage after contact
-Comeback to Dino down to the 15
-Two short McDonald runs
-A 'sack' on what O'Brien said would be the last play of the drive. Missed the number on the sack unfortunately (problem when you're 5' covering Monstars)
-We saw the kickers actually kick in a real football situation for the first time. Should be Liam's job again, but Connor will push him. Crazy how I thought Lytton was going to be the next big thing at the position for them. Connor 2/2, Lytton 1/2.
-Didn't catch much of the 3rd team drive, had to hit the can
-My Wes Welker clone McLaughlin looked shifty with some later reps. Would still love to see him find a way into the offense for like 5-10 plays a game even. I have to imagine O'Brien of all people can find use for a slot like him.
-1:05 the guys wrapped up with sideline-to-sideline sprints again.
-Got the change to chat with Will Blackmon for a few minutes after and before O'Brien, Okpala and Robichaux met with the media. He's excited to be back and feels like there's a lot of talent in the room.
BC is back at it Tuesday and Thursday next week before Pro Day on Friday and another practice on Saturday. I'll be there for the first three, TBD on Saturday. Appreciate everyone following along!
