CHESTNUT HILL - 19 down, one to go.
BC had its penultimate training camp practice out behind Fish on Saturday afternoon as move in day No. 2 on campus created buzz (and wayyy too much traffic) as a few kids played catch on the lawn out in front of Alumni/Conte.
I'll keep this one shorter than usual (since it's midnight), this was more of a fine tuning type of practice with some prep for FSU starting as well. Not a ton of highlights on both sides, but here's what stood out...
-Great news for the RB room as Datrell Jones returned. You could make the argument he was having the best camp on the team until hurting his hand. Kye and Turbo were both back since Thursday. Reed Harris was also a participant for the first time in a few days, but had a yellow non-contact jersey. Still no Taylor or James.
-99.9% sure I saw a Commanders scout in attendance.
-Few donors/alums/fans were out on the hill taking in practice.
-First team period came about 10 minutes of 1:00. TC was 'sacked' by (I think) Opala and had a really nice throw to the sideline to Skeete at the end of his first 'drive.' Lots of work for Turbo and McDonald early. Montague's clearly still learning, but you can see the talent flash at times. Great dart by TC to Bradley on a comeback on his second possession, had Lawing & DiBiaso fired up.
-The first 'real' bit of FSU prep (at least in front of the media) started for a few minutes with the defense working off cards and O walking through some things.
-Got some squib and onside kick work after that. For 'normal' kickoffs Ward, Nate Johnson, Montague and McGowan fielded. I still think it's McGowan as the first guy up against FSU.
-Another team period around 1:15, ball at the O's 20 yard line. Kye looks good, it wasn't full speed or tackling to the ground of course (in fact, Bill O'Brien loses his mind when guys don't stay up, huge point of emphasis), TC also had a nice out to Morales. Good PBU by Jackson (on Skeete) and Isaiah Farris (vs. Dino) on a deep ball from Robinson. Turbo had a sick juke to gain a bunch of yards from Jacobe. A Cole Batson 'sack' negated a deep ball from Montague to Laham. Hala had a run stuff during a 2nd TC 'drive' and Ezeiruaku had a sack, as did Tongrongou (on Montague).
-7-v-7 period...Bond had two catches on TC's first reps, this felt like the first day maybe all of camp where those two were on the same level as last year. TC hit him a bunch on Saturday. Nice PBU over the middle at one point by Cheek on Skeete. Robinson hit a few crossers to Edgehille and McLaughlin.
-7-v-7 red zone followed...first ball from TC was a TD to Bond on the back line. Bond also had a diving TD in the left side of the end zone too. Ashton McShane (I think) picked off Robinson in the end zone.
-Team period working on tempo coming out of their own end. Couple grabs for Bond again from TC and a sick one-handed catch in the flat for Turbo. Tongrongou had a sack on Jacobe after he took off a couple times.
-Kick off work on one end, field goals for Luca Lombardo on the other. I had him at 5/6 from between 35 and 45 yards alternating hashmarks. They're going to need him, perhaps more than we all realize.
-More team work coming out of their own end, but ball at the 30...couple nice runs for Kye, sack for Ezeiruaku and a deep INT for Carter Davis on TC, hovering over the deep middle and out-leaping Bradley with Tucker also in coverage.Quintayvious Hutchins (I think) also had a sack late.
-Late team red zone period towards the end...Bond had a TD run (yes, a run) and Bradley had a sick catch for a TD from TC after the ball deflected off Morales. Turbo had a short TD run with Jacobe in.
-Situational work for the last 10 minutes or so (various scenarios given by O'Brien, particularly trying to hold a lead late this time) before he called them up around 2:10.
One final day of training camp on Sunday morning (9:15-11:15) before we're officially on to FSU. I'll be doing some positional breakdowns and thoughts on camp overall on Monday and leading into the weekend. Busy week locally with three teams kicking off Thursday night.
I absolutely can't wait to finally have real games to talk about. I might celebrate the end of camp more than the team Sunday night.