I drove up to Gainesville to watch Saturday's practice, and it couldn't have been a better day to watch some football.
I noticed our class of 2010 QB recruit Trey Burton was in attendance; already I like this kid's enthusiasm about the Gators. Something tells me this kid has leadership potential.
One thing did bother me: a couple of fans with UGA gear and two fans wearing "Illinoise" sweatshirts were in the crowd, and I really didn't fancy their lurking around.
The Pounceys were also on the field, but weren't in pads due to injuries.
After warmups and the "Circle of Life", Coach Meyer then got the guys started scrimmaging. Overall, the defense outplayed our offense, and the injury-depleted O-line wasn't blokcing effectively. One could easily hear Steve Addazio coaching up his players, and even Meyer yelled at them "You've got to BLOCK!". Still, it's a good way for our coaches to find out their strengths and weaknesses; after all, that's one of the purposes of spring practice. With freshmen being thrown into the lineup it's easy to notice the inexperience and only fair to cut them some slack.
Tim Tebow didn't have a perfect day either; on his first drive he wound up being picked off by Brandon Spikes. Because of the gaps in the O-line, he and Johnny Brantley were getting blitzed and "touched" (which in real-time would be sacks, but they were both wearing no-contact jerseys). Still, they did get some plays made; Tebow hit Carl Moore on a nice pass, Deonte Thompson had a couple of nice ones, Aaron Hernandez broke out on a couple of underneath catches later on and Frankie Hammond had some nice catches as well. Emmanuel Moody had a couple of decent rushes, but because of the weakness in the O-line wasn't getting the blocking he needed.
Chris Rainey had a nice kickoff return to start things out; as far as rushing he wasn't as productive.
David Nelson went down with a twisted ankle and wound up being carted off the field by the trainers; I hope it's not serious. Deonte Thompson was also grabbing his left hammy towards the end of practice, but I'm hoping he'll still be able to go this week.
Tempers were also getting a little heated and there were a couple of times that players were mixing it up after the play was over; these kids need to remember that they're teammates, and this is intra-squad practice.
Defense was clearly the winner on Saturday, and I was especially impressed by our play on the corners as well as from our line and our secondary. Earl Okine and Jon Bostic are two freshmen who look good already, and I'm glad to see Wondy Pierre-Louis stepping it up a bit; after all, he's a senior and it's his last chance to be a playmaker for the Gators.
As far as I could see, some of our younger players are still unsure of their assignments and were reminded of that at one time by the coaches. The QB's had to motion players where to line up, and this will only improve with added experience on the field.
Brandon James is healing; I asked him if he was getting better to which he replied "yes ma'am" when I passed him by as he was heading onto the practice field with some of the other injured players.
I sat with the father of one of our offensive linemen (Bill Steinmann) at practice and talked about our Gators; two older gentlemen up from Ocala were also good company in the bleachers.
We still have a lot of work to do, and I'm anxious to see what they can pull together by the 18th when I go back up for the O&B game.
GO GATORS!!!!!!! :gator::gator::gator:
