‘We’re somewhat close to being a decent football team’
03/11/13 at 2:38pm by Tom Groeschen

Coach Tommy Tuberville offered some post-practice thoughts today at the indoor bubble (Sheakley Athletics Center), including more perspective from last Saturday’s scrimmage. UC is seven sessions into its 15-practice schedule of spring football.


Tommy Tuberville and UC are about halfway through spring football, which ends April 6. (Enquirer file)

– “We had what we call midterm exams Saturday with the scrimmage. Overall it was a good scrimmage. As I told the guys, they’re practicing hard and trying to get it done, but we’re making a lot of mistakes and we’re not playing with good technique. But that’ll come, as long as they keep focused on what they’re doing.”

–On sophomore RB Tion Green, a potential starter who didn’t burn the house down statistically (10 carrries, 19 yards) in Saturday’s scrimmage but did other things well: “I thought Tion Green probably blocked better than what we thought. I don’t look at running the ball. I look at all the mental things, when you’ve got to block protection or block a blitz or for somebody else running the football. I thought he did a good job.”

–On junior RB Ralph Abernathy, who’s also in the regular rotation: “I thought he also did a good job. He’s a little bit small in terms of blocking blitz, but he’s gonna get caught out there some.”

– “Our offensive line made a ton of mistakes, but we’re probably running four or five times more protections than they’ve ever run in their life.”

– “Receivers caught the ball well, but I look for run blocking from receivers. We’re gonna catch the ball, but can we block? Will we block? That’s the big thing for the receivers.” NOTE: Senior Anthony McClung led the WRs with four catches for 151 yards and three TDs in the scrimmage.

–”Defensively it was a good day, not a great day. I thought the first group stopped the run pretty well. That’s my main concern in the spring, playing good run technique.”

–” The linbebackers are getting better. (Florida State transfer) Jeff Luc is showing up well. (Greg) Blair is a little bit overweight, he knows that, to play this defense which asks you to run a lot. He got tired a little bit early, but when he was able to think and concentrate I thought he played well.”

–”The secondary gave up way too many big plays. We threw a lot at ‘em in six days, and we blew a couple of coverages.”

–”It was a good week of practice, not great. I thought today’s concentration was a little bit lacking, but that usually happens on a Monday with everybody. Not just football players.”

–”We’re somewhat close to being a decent football team, but we’ve got a lot of work to do. But that’s the reason you have spring.”

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