RE: Fall Camp
Good read from fall camp. I like the update(s) on the DL in particular since that is an area of concern for all Owl fans.
Camp Notes: 8/11
Jefferson D. Powell
It's been a week since the Owls started fall camp and the Owls hit the field twice on Saturday, once for an early morning scrimmage and then an abbreviated practice that was cut short due to lightning. Owls Insider brings you an update from the Owls Fall camp.
Monday's scrimmage featured quite a few big plays from some young Owls including a couple of long TD's from receivers Zach Wright and true freshman James Mayden. Bailiff made it a point to get some of the younger guys plenty of work and came away quite pleased with the scrimmage from this morning.
"I was really pleased with the defensive play start to finish," head coach David Baliff said on the Owls scrimmage this morning. "I would like to see us get more turnovers over there, we only had one today but I really like the way they're playing the ball. They ran to the ball really well and I thought we were pretty gap sound for this early in the defense."
Jackson continues to show great leadership at the quarterback position.
"Offensively, Driphus [Jackson] has a lot of confidence, in what he is doing" he added. "Some of the young receivers like James Mayden and Parker Smith are really starting to pick the offense up. I can't say enough, our receivers are looking really good. Talking about the offensive line I'm really amazed at the kind of player Andrew Reue is, he ended up playing four different positions for us. Our running game looked great, I really like our running backs; I think they each offer something different. I was very pleased with our effort today being our first scrimmage. The only thing I didn't like was there too many holding calls on the outside."
With the Owls being a week into fall camp, Bailiff is happy with the effort he's seen and believes the Owls are right where they should be this far into camp which he credits to the play of his quarterback.
"I'm really pleased with where we are," Bailiff said. "I think a lot of it has to do with Driphus, he's very confident in this offense and has just offered spectacular leadership. I thought he's maintained a good flow with the offense, he's been aggressive every practice. We've got a great competition going with the number two spot between Nate German and Tyler Stehling, their really battling it out. I like the competition we're getting at all the positions really."
The battle at defensive end continues to wage on, Derek Brown has yet to report to camp as he's missing time due to personal reasons, but Bailiff says he's expected back and hopefully sooner, rather than later. Zach Patt and Brian Nordstrom have been getting a lot of first team reps thus far in camp.
"I tell you what, those young defensive ends, Graysen Schantz, Brian Womac, the Grant Peterson move has paid dividends for us, we moved him in the spring but you can see he's getting the reps now that he needs," Bailiff said. " [Brian] Nordstrom has picked up right where he left off, I think we're going to have some nice young talent to play defensive end."
Junior defensive tackle Christian Covington has emerged as a real force on the Owls defense the last few seasons and could be poised for a dominant season in 2014, there are some question marks behind him due to the loss of expected starter Stuart Mouchantaf, but Bailiff has been pleased with the development of some of his young defensive tackles.
"In the middle, Christian Covington has been amazing at times, "Bailiff added. "We limited his role some today because we had 21 other guys that needed to get better. He's just been dominating the first part of camp." I'm really proud of [Cody] Henessee battling in the middle there with Ross Winship. We were counting heavily on the return of Stuart Mouchantaf, so that really hurt us losing him. Some of the young guys like Preston Gordon, we weren't counting on some of those young guys and now we're having to, but I like the way they're developing."
James Radcliffe and Alex Lyons have continued to work with the first team defense and it looks like Lyons may have solidified his starting position at linebacker. Redshirt freshman Nick Uretsky has been getting a lot of reps and D.J. Green has had a nice camp as well and looked really well in the scrimmage this morning.
The defensive backfield received a bit of a shakeup again, Malcolm Hill who was moved to cornerback this spring returns to his natural safety position. Bailiff indicated that the move wasn't due to Hill, but more in part to the fact they wanted to get J.T. Blasingame and Michael Warren onto the field more. Blasingame may be the man to beat at this stage opposite of Bryce Callahan with the move of Hill back to safety while Ryan Pollard looks to have the No.2 spot behind Callahan locked down.
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