I saw most of Saturday's practice. Unfortunately I had to leave before some of the late scrimmage fireworks noted in the writeup Josh Tolentino posted on Huskiewire (long TD run by Harbison, etc) but was able to see quite a bit. A few quick notes:

-Graham was not dressed today so Childers, Thompson and Hall took all the reps, in that order.

-I thought Childers looked solid and the first team reps appear to be doing him a world of good. He looked confident, had nice pocket presence, threw a pretty tight spiral and was accurate. He didn't complete every ball but no one does. How it translates to games we shall see but he looked the part of a number one QB today.

-Thompson and Hall did some nice things too but it's clear that Childers is the guy.

-I was really impressed with Nettles' quicks. His burst is unreal, reminiscent of Jaz Hopkins if that helps. It's great that they're working him at both receiver and tailback because they need to find ways to get him on the field.

-The number one O-line today was Scharping, Patton, Shively, Dale Brown, Steckler left to right. Hawn and Roberts were both nicked up so its unclear how that affected the right tackle situation. The number two O-line was Steckler, Olson, CJ Perez, Veloz, Dassow left to right. With so many guys competing it wouldn't surprise me to see the competition continue into the nonconference schedule this fall.

-I was pleasantly surprised with the wide receivers. It appears we may be in better shape there than I would have thought. We already know the upperclassmen can play, the question is how the freshmen will do. I thought Cole Tucker, Dennis Robinson, Juwan Denton and Leon Payne looked really good and all have a chance to contribute. Robinson and Denton can also provide some matchup problems, Robinson due to his size and Denton because he's built a lot sturdier than many wideouts. Really excited about this group, and maybe an incoming freshman or two can push for playing time this fall as well.

-I didn't pay a ton of attention to the defense today but it is easy to see why the coaches are excited about the young linebackers Jordan Cole, Rayshawn Gay and Danny Walker. Those guys have a chance to be really good.

-The overall team speed is pretty impressive. Guys at every position can really get after it.

-There were quite a few high school visitors today and some of those kids were gigantic. Come on down!